Four Feet

Despite the fact that we've decided that we have enough chickens (and ducks for that matter),

we got two more.

Yes, that's a little crazy.

But, these two birds are some of the coolest looking chickens around.

(Well, if you're into chickens.)

This is a Silver Laced Wyandotte.

Connor's been wanting one and wouldn't you know it that a local farm was getting rid of some.

So we had to get some.

OK, "had to" is a little strong.

We didn't want to pass up the opportunity.

There, I justified another chicken purchase.

LIKE WE NEEDED MORE CHICKENS.

Apparently the trip home was exhausting.

We got one silver (on the right) and one gold Wyandotte.

It will be fun watching them feather out.

That brings our flock to 8 chickens and 12 ducks.

I think we're done now.

Crazy

I finally got a couple of pictures of the roses.

They bloom every spring...

and every spring the wind blows the tar out of them.

It's funny how it's always windy when they're in full bloom.

It makes the ground look like it snowed flower petals.

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I finally finished this quilt top.

I think it's a little on the crazy side but it's growing on me.

I found some super cute fabric with little Woodstocks all over it for the backing.

I'm sure I'll make a post when it's quilted and bound.

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Sorry for the fuzzy pic.

It was a sneaky photo ;)

I love the look on his face.

He joked that there weren't any pictures of him on the blog lately.

I told him to quit hiding from the camera.

:)

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Sunday we were putting supper in the oven when my phone alerted us.

Then Dwayne's phone did the same.

It was a tornado warning.

We knew it might storm but didn't think it would be severe.

Not to mention that I didn't know my phone was set up to alert us for weather.

Usually we can't even hear the siren. It's too far away.

It was so eerily quiet we could actually hear it this time.

So after taking our usual tornado-warning-stuff to the basement, we ate down there too.

This is a chicken looking in our basement window.

We decided to lock up all of our ducks in the coops but left the chickens out.

We didn't want the little runners to get blown away!

The chickens like to hang out by our rose bushes which happen to be by a basement window.

And the storm?

It went south of us.

All we got was a brief downpour.

Not even a little wind.

However, there was a tornado by Remington.

There was footage and photos on Facebook.

Pepper got to spend the storm warning with us in the basement.

This is her beside me while I watched it pour rain.

She decided she wasn't ready to back outside yet.

I didn't blame her.

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Tank and Daisy.

We moved the little Runners outside!

For a couple of days I thought they had wet bellies.

Turns out it's their new feathers coming in.

I love the dark brown on the Chocolate Runners.

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This duck no longer belongs to us, but my in-laws.

His name is Ducky and he lives on the other end of the farm.

We had been told that he roosts with the chickens.

I finally got a picture of the roosting duck.

It's quite the sight to watch him jump up there.

Crazy duck!

Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day.

It was more like a weekend than just one day.

On Saturday the boys treated me to lunch at the park.

Then we went to a farm store for a little shopping.

Connor got me some new garden tools.

On Sunday, Nolan and Dwayne mowed while Connor weeded my north flower bed.

I attempted to work on a quilt top but it was too nice outside to be inside.

I'll finish it eventually.

Dwayne and I got ice cream later in the afternoon and

sat by the fountain at the college (or former college).

It was a very nice Mother's Day with a beautiful blue sky.

If I'm honest, however, I'll tell you that a chunk of my day was in tears.

As I got ready for church that morning the loss of my dad hit me.

It seemed like I spent the rest of the morning mourning.

Not how I planned to spend Mother's Day.

I remembered the times when I had talked with my dad on Mother's Day.

Oh how I miss that.

 Eventually I came around and the tears were no more.

I get frustrated sometimes when the mourning hits.

Dwayne always reminds me that this is just part of it.

I'm thankful they're are fewer days like that.

Quack!

These two, which have now been named Tank and Daisy, are officially outside.

This picture is several days old but it's the last picture of them before they were evicted relocated.

We are fairly certain we have one drake and one hen.

The hen started quacking this week.

She's pretty funny because she yells one big quack if you try to pick her up.

So now we do it on purpose to make her quack.

Just placing your hands around her middle makes it happen.

We call it the quack button.

Never a dull moment around here.

So with the big ducks out of the way, the little runners are in the horse tank in the evening.

During the day we have them outside in a little fenced in area.

They should be outside permanently in less than a couple of weeks.

I can't wait!

We put their fence around our crab apple tree.

They seem to like it there (not that they have a choice). 

Almost every time we go outside to do anything, this is what happens.

Pepper shows up next to us with her ball.

She has a new one but she prefers this old ragged one.

More often than not, Pepper is lounging on the porch like this.

I have wanted to get a picture for the longest time but she moves when she sees me coming.

Not this time. :)

We even got her looking at us from the corner of her eye.

She has done this since she was a pup.

She looks at us without moving her head.

We've never had a dog do this as much as she does.

Creepy, cute, and snarky all wrapped up in one.

Maybe it's a lazy lab not wanting to move her head.

Goofy dog.

Duck Overload

Over the weekend we put up a fence around the duck coop. 

It's just to the west of the parking area.

We don't plan on keeping the ducks locked up all of the time.

We'll lock them up on an as need basis.

Right now it would be to protect the younger ones from the older ones.

The chicken coop was moved into the yard a couple of weeks ago.

They are outside of the duck pen.

During the day we let everyone roam the yard.

Success!

After spending the first night in separate coops again, the ducks all laid their eggs by the morning.

They're much easier to find.

It can be like an Easter egg hunt sometimes!

We played with the ducks when we weren't putting up the fence.

We had the baby Runners outside for a while.

They enjoyed bath time.

Splish-splash!

The Pekins had fun outside too!

They were very interested in my phone.

The only picture with all twelve ducks.

The 6 baby Runners are by Connor, the Pekins and two adult ducks by Dwayne,

1 by the tree, and 1 in the pool!

 

All the little Runners.

The Pekins waiting for some peas.

Cute little chocolate Runner.

The adult Runners are curious about the younger ducklings,

however they will try to boss them around.

And they're not always nice about it!

Because the Pekins are quite large compared to the little Runners,

they try to boss around the little Runners too.

Joys of the pecking order.

One of the Pekins tickling Connor's ear.

Everybody wants peas!

We're still fascinated by all the dark Runners.

Spending some quality time with the critters.

Another Duck Post

This is the current arrangement for all of the ducks inside the house.

We needed them in separate containers.

These guys (or gals or one of each) are three weeks old.

They have reached what we call the ugly duckling stage.

Their feathers are starting to come in.

They're not quite as soft as they used to be.

We're learning that they are somewhat friendlier than the Indian Runners.

We can pet them and they don't complain much.

We're really hoping to get these two outside as soon as possible.

As quickly as the weather cooperates and we put up a fence.

Proof that all of our ducks can get in a row.

These gals are one week old.

Standing like a typical Indian Runner.

We'll move them to the big tank when the Pekins go outside.