There Here!

It's the day we've all been waiting for.

The ducklings are here!

This morning we drove to town to pick them up at the post office.

That little cardboard box was their home for two days.

They shipped from California.

There are six cute little peeping ducklings in there.

They all looked healthy.

We were guaranteed at least two different colors.

To our surprise we had chocolate, black, and blue ducks!

We received two of each color.

We're so tickled to get something besides fawn, which is what we have.

We couldn't wait to get home and open up the box.

These two were going to be sharing their tank.

They are almost three weeks older and quite a bit larger.

They didn't like the ducklings so we had to separate them.

The Pekin side.

And the Runner side.

Thankfully the Pekins don't need the heat lamp any more.

I love the instructions that came with them.

They say not to let the ducklings swim in water for 2 - 3 weeks because they were hatched in an incubator. A mother duck shares her oil to help waterproof the ducklings until their feathers grow in.

It's impossible to keep a duck out of water.

At one point I stacked one crock on the other to elevate the water dish.

They still went for a swim.

I gave up and put each one back on the floor of the tank.

We'll have to pick up another little waterer... one they can't stand in.

Ducklings don't cooperate very well for photos.

The one on the right is a blue runner and the left is a black runner.

I think this is another black one.

All three different types together: chocolate, black, blue.

I'm not sure why it's called blue, it looks gray to me.

Maybe when she's older her feathers will have a blue tint. 

I couldn't have a blog post without a picture of the older ducks doing this.

We see them do this often.

It's even funnier when they have their neck stretched out as well.

I also had to post this picture.

That's an egg in the pool.

Indian Runners are notorious for laying their eggs "on the run".

Apparently, we had a hen that couldn't wait for bath time to be over.

I'm not sure where the idea for the Easter bunny came from.

It should have been the Easter duck instead.

That's what it's like sometimes when we're looking for eggs.

Silly ducks.

Duckling Fun

Since it was super nice out, we took the ducklings outside.

They're so much fun to watch. 

The littler one in the back is Click and the other one is Lavender.

Of course these names will probably change after we figure out their gender.

They can't stand to be separated.

We took them for a swim in the duck pond.

Believe it or not it's cleaned daily.

It stays clean for about five minutes.

Thankfully the ducklings didn't care.

In a few minutes one of the ducklings was swimming under the water.

It was pretty funny.

It looked like a drowned rat afterward.

The other duckling eventually did the same.

Updates

This isn't really an update but more like "we finally got around to it".

Dwayne worked on his Associates Degree from

Tyndale Theological Seminary for what seemed like forever.

He actually finished it around the time my dad was killed.

(The date on the diploma says 9/2/2015, just one week after.)

Because of the timing, we opted to get the diploma later.

Well life went on and we kind of forgot.

In February I decided to secretly get it for him.

Although I got worried with a few close calls, he didn't suspect a thing.

It was an awesome surprise.

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Since we can use duck eggs, I have been making homemade noodles.

For my birthday I ordered a ravioli maker.

I was a little hesitant to try one but it turned out to be super easy!

This was my first batch of 12.

I overfilled the pockets and had to help them out... thus the dimples.

The second batch turned out much better.

Now I just need to work on the flavor of the filling.

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I have good news and bad news.

First the bad news.

In case you haven't seen our Facebook posts, all of our ducklings died before they hatched.

We were so saddened and frustrated.

We do want to try to hatch some out but we decided to wait until next year.

Now for the good news.

We've ordered six female Indian Runners.

The ducklings should be here by the 26th.

And we should get some colored ones!

We also picked up a couple Pekins.
They are supposed to be a relatively tame breed (and good layers).
Connor's hoping to make pets out of these.
He's named them Click and Lavender.
It will be several weeks before we know their gender.

So cute to hear little peeping again!

Twelve

This young man had a birthday last week.

I'm a little late with the post.

Twelve candles produce a lot of smoke when they're blown out!

It's hard to believe he's twelve!

I'm not sure who's more ornery...

All Done!

This is the post that's dedicated to the bragging, sharing of a finished quilt. I have to say, the more I quilt, the more I love it. I enjoyed every step of this project. My goal all along was to finish by Connor's birthday. After getting side-lined by the back injury in February, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I told Connor that I probably would not get done in time. He was a little disappointed. However, after doing some quilting marathons, I managed to finish with a few days to spare! I'm not sure who was more thrilled, me or Connor! So without further ado, let the photo overload begin!

Quilt stats: quilt #9, finished 69" x 89 1/2"

I have no idea when I started this quilt. Lets just say it was more than several years ago!

(The story behind the Overall Sam and dog blocks can be found here.)

I pieced this together in October and started hand quilting in January.

It took me about 106 hours to quilt this (yes, I need to work on my speed... or lack of).

We recently moved the chickens inside the yard. They were curious about what I was doing.

I went with simple quilting for this using all straight lines.

This was also my first time using a striped border.

I love it.

It wasn't until I added the label that I realized that the egg fabric is upside down.

It doesn't bother me at all!

It made me laugh.

We joked that that is how you're supposed to put eggs in a carton, point down.

Speaking of the label.

I learned how to print on fabric!

I may do all my labels this way from now on.

Close up of the sashing intersection.

Diamond work on the dog blocks.

Close up of the binding and a rooster.

Connor loves the chickens.

One last detail from this quilt.

I put a heart like this in Nolan's quilt.

It's a tribute to our old labrador Rosie.