August

This month has been a heck of a whirlwind. It started with me coming home to find this little sweetheart of a pup stealing the show at home. He's a doll, but has some serious issues with mouthing and nipping at us. All puppies do and I know it's just a phase, but it is a painful one. He's learning and growing and I'm glad he's part of our family. So far he's more than doubled in size and I think the ears may have even tripled in size. ;-)

We also had a weekend trip to Alabama to see the progress on the basement. That went well. It was the pups first road trip, of many more to come I am sure. This is how we found out that he doesn't actually NEED to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, he just wants to. We only had to stop 3 times so roughly every 2 hours. We also introduced him to the ATV, UTV and tractor. He may make a farm dog yet.

Mid month was a massive rush of getting ready for the first day of school. Hundreds of dollars worth of school supplies and clothes and shoes. I'm still feeling quite poor because of it. It also meant meeting this teacher, that teacher and oh- the AP courses have their own orientation. BUSY BUSY time.

But now the kids are back to school and things are settling back into the pattern of getting the kids up at 7, dressed by 7:30 downstairs by 8 - eating breakfast, walking the dog and catching the bus. Typically during the first few weeks of back to school we also manage to get in a swim or some gymnastics after dinner and before it gets dark. That will only continue until the time change, but for now I am taking full advantage.

This weeks project was to reinstall a barricade to help hide our pool pump... When we painted the house over the summer the original lattice was pulled down and even though we intended to save it to reinstall, the painters chucked it into their trash. So when a home that went into foreclosure finally sold down the road we spied a white vinyl picket the new owners were replacing with privacy fence. We stopped by to talk to them and they let us know that one of the workers wanted to take it. Oh well. They did say though that if the fence was still there the next day we could pick it up. Well - low and behold the next day it was still in the driveway.  Since i had already gotten permission from the owner I stopped and filled up my truck with all that it would hold. Purloined with permission. :-D Oh I was happy. Did I mention it was the day before our Alabama trip? No - well that did make things a bit difficult and we worked well into the night to get the truck unloaded and the fencing stacked into the back yard.

Guess who helped dig? (Can you see the dirt on his nose?)

The kiwi plants were already beginning to topple over without the support even though I had cut them back to the ground when I had to remove the lattice.

 

GROSS. This fence was just disgusting. I  don't know what in the world they did to it, but yuck!

So I put in the posts, checked to make sure they were level, installed the bottom board....and quickly realized this is nothing at all like dealing with a wooden fence. Ho, Hum. I did manage to finagle it in, but I had to had cut a few of the pickets in order to get the top rail on. It works, and you can't see the cuts now that it's all together but the second panel went in SO much smoother once I figured out NOT to install the posts first. LOL

Eh- as these things go it went pretty well. A little time consuming until I knew better what to do. but all in all I would call it a success. 

The kiwi are much happier and I am too because now I don't have to look at this!

It's definitely been an eye sore for the last few weeks but the kiwi will take over the fence before winter and then I won't have to worry about it any more. I'm also hoping that the fresh start for the kiwi will help it to produce some flowers next year because if it doesn't at least attempt to produce fruit soon it will be replaced.

I still have a few small things to do to wrap this project up. A sprinkler head needs moved, and the brick to protect he base of the vines needs redone. But for the most part it is done. I've washed the fence once (See last pic isn't as bad? But it needs at least one more attempt. It's still fairly grungy. I can't even tell you how bad it was.

So this project got put ahead of the wall for the blueberry planter and the wall for the main garden but those are still on the radar. We've just dealt with a ton of rain recently and when we've been able to dedicate any time to it we haven't been able to due to the standing water. This I knew wouldn't take as long and was quite a bit easier to do by myself. Thank goodness because it's starting to seem like the projects are piling up faster than we can do them.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Well now.

That's interesting. Turns out the duck that was starting to quack? Is still quacking... but it is most definitely a boy.  It's head is now starting to turn green as well. None of the others quack or anything close to quack. He's an oddball in more than one way.

Well, the green shows up well on my phone. Guess I'll have to try to get a different picture of my fine fellow this week to show you better. He is well into his adult molt now and in about 2 weeks will not be recognizable

from this bird. His chest is a deep dark burgundy already, and there are a few of the darker colored feathers coming in on his back as well. It's odd that his first set of feathers was so light and now his adult feathers are filling in so dark. Then again this one has been nothing but odd.

 I've truly enjoyed watching them mature and now that I know they are all drakes I have begun the elimination process as to which birds are in the running to stay, and which three will be making a long trip to Alabama. The drake pictured, while beautiful - is a trip maker. The lightly marked juvenile feathers are an issue for me. (See the other in the background, much darker)

It's remarkable how alike they are and yet how different. I can tell them apart by their feathering to some extent, and the sounds they make are truly different as well. Unique and the alike at the same time...well except the one who thinks it's a girl.
 While I'd like to breed to the standard of perfection, that standard doesn't specify the darkness of the bird. I prefer the darkest coloration available to help them hide and blend in to their surroundings. They will be on a large pond and the darker they are the fewer predators will take notice. (See the one with almost no brown in the middle? His lighter coloration makes him stand out.)

OK, yes I chopped the ducks head off - metaphorically, but better this way, than physically - no? ;-)

I just love the patterning on these guys. Look at that purple/blue wing speculum.  Beautiful.

I'm excited to be adding to the flock next weekend and I can't wait to show you pictures of the new little ones. But meanwhile the drakes are starting to change so rapidly I'm afraid I won't be able to pick out the one I've decided to keep for breeding when I introduce more into the flock. 

SO. As a solution I've decided to mark the one that I feel will suit my needs best. Of course once they have completed their adult feathering this could change, but as long as there is nothing glaringly wrong with him as far as breeding standard and coloration goes I am going to be keeping the one that tries to rasp or honk, but can't seem to make a sound. He's by far the best bet for a pet in my neighborhood. Nearly silent and non-flying are great attributes to have around here!

Once I started looking around at ways to mark my birds I realized that there were not a lot of easy and painless options out there. So, I found these...

They are almost like keyrings in that they are looped over themselves, but they are fairly flexible plastic and should be easy to get on or off the bird(s). I want to mark the one that I am keeping now, but when I release them on the pond in Alabama I don't want it mistaken that they are just some random birds. So the ones we take up there will be marked before they are let out of their enclosure. By marking their legs any person (poacher, trespasser) will know that the birds are not wild game. Not that it would stop everyone but the area we are in up there? It's got a pretty good honor system going. If a neighbor was to see someone with my duck it would be questioned and reported. Livestock is super important to life up there and the vast majority  of people farm for their way of living/feeding their families. I realize that if the birds do manage to settle into a nice lifestyle and keep away form the predators that they might some day have ducklings and I would have no way to mark them and that's OK. I figure that if they are able to produce a new flock then that's awesome and more than I ever expected. I'm just hoping that they  live the first year or two out without any major incidence. It's be so nice to see the family group all together up there when we go fishing and such. <3

Off to fill up the waterers...again.

See you soon!

Barbie~