One person's trash is MY TREASURE!

First off I want to say that Pa Fuller used THE last paper towel yesterday :D The paper towel dispenser/holder thing has been taken out to the garage and we will begin using only cloth towels now...carbon footprint just got a bit smaller! WOO HOO!
So yesterday I mentioned that I found a treasure...here it is...isn't it beautiful? What is it you ask?
Abracadabra...presto chango....it is an instant raised bed for the garden!!!!!! It was at work and they were going to dismantle it and trash it. Hell no...not on my watch! The minute I saw it I knew I had to have it. So here it is and it will be moving into a corner of the farm and will soon be growing lettuces, herbs and chard...YUMMY!

Speaking of the farm...how adorable are baby Fuji apples? They are this adorable...

All growed up...

I know it has been a while since I have posted, sorry, been busy :)
So the boys are now 5 days shy of 3 months and they are very handsome I must say!
Here is Pierce, my big boy who has become much calmer than he used to be. Of course these pictures were taken right after we clipped their wings which they did not like very much!
And here is Mr. Handsome Harvey, I wish photos would do that coloring on his wings justice! Depending on how the light hits it, it is green and blue and purple...so gorgeous!

Well I will be posting more on the farm real soon because I acquired a fun piece of "trash" that I will be recycling into a lettuce, herb and chard bed...YUM!

Baby it is cold outside...

Man it got cold outside last night so I brought the boys in to spend the night in the house. They wandered the dining room for a bit and said hi to their sister, Terra... ...and then went into their crate for the night...

...such handsome boys!

Bath before the vet...

Both the boys taking a bath before Pierce's vet visit.

Pierce...

So all went well at the ducky doctor yesterday. Dr. Nemetz is very cool, obviously very knowledgeable and very thorough. He gave Pierce a once over and said he looks very healthy and is a good weight for his age...he is around 3.5 pounds. The whole wing thing he thinks could be attributed to too much protein so the boys have now been put on the adult duck food which has the lowest crude protein level to basically slow their growth rate so his "wrist" can build strength to hold up the heavy blood feathers. So it is Harvey's turn on Thursday to get checked out and I am sure that Dr. Nemetz will love Harvey as he is the calm one :)

Pics as promised...

I snapped a few shots of the kids last night as promised. First up is Mr. Harvey, so handsome and such a sweetheart! Look at those colors and patterns. He can't make up his mind what color his head wants to be...it should be dark but who knows right now! And here we have Mr. Pierce, the wild one, but also just as handsome. His head is slowly becoming solid black and he will obviously have black splotches on his white chest. It is funny how both boys ended up with black middle toes though :)

Here is a pic of Pierce's right wing which I suspect is angel wing but will know more after today's vet visit. Those blue stick looking things are his wing feathers that are coming in and they are heavy with blood which could also be why they stick out too. They could be too heavy for him to keep against his body, but enough of me speculating, I will let the expert tell me :)

And here is a pic of Terra thrown in because I can :D Such a good girl!

First trip to the vet...

Well we are off to the vet tomorrow to get Pierce's wing looked at. His right wing seems to be either developing angel wing or the blood in the new feathers are just making it too heavy for him. Either way, better to be safe than sorry. We have an awesome facility right down the street from the house called The BIRD Clinic and the vet there ONLY sees birds, which is awesome...only about 8 such places in the United States! Gonna try to get Harvey an appointment next week as well to just get checked out and make sure everything is good with him too. Good to get a relationship started with your vet before things go wrong. Have not posted pics in a while and I promise to do so in the next couple days :) The boys are turning out to be just gorgeous, and I am NOT biased...ok, well maybe just a little bit!

It seems like they were just born yesterday

...but no, it has been 32 days since they were born and today they are spending their very first day outside in the Ducky Duplex. No more ducks in the dining room...well until night time :) The boys will now be outside during the day (unless it is very cold and stormy) and then come inside at night. I hope they did ok today, can't wait to go home and check on them.

hmmm...remember these little guys at 8 days old, getting their first bath?
...we put them back in that same pink bowl last night at 28 days old. They don't seem to fit quite as nice now...no room for water! :)

On another note, check out this little guy...he (or she) is a California Slender Salamander and I found 5 of them under a pot in the backyard!

A nice little surprise...

So Pa Fuller came over last night to work on some electrical stuff in the house but he thought we were also working on the fence and I did not object. I am so glad that I took the time on Wednesday to do the waterproofing and then the panels got to dry in the sun all day on Thursday because when I got up this morning and took this pic it was drizzling! :) So we have the 2 small panels to install on the ends and then to build the gate and we are all set.

Back to work...

So I took the day off today so I could finish waterproofing the fence panels and after some power sprayer problems I finally had success and here are all the panels (6 panels, 13 pickets each panel) drying in the sun. Good thing it was a nice day :) I also discovered that the rains last week brought me the groundcover I wanted on the side of the house...too bad I forgot to relocate the kayaks :( Oh well, I will move them and hope for another shower or 2!

(notice that there is a little pathway that Terra has created)

3 weeks old...

I think a picture (or collage) says a thousand words...

For your viewing enjoyment...

The boys at 20 days old, swimming in the "big" pool...

17 days and counting...

Had to post a pic of Terra and her new collar that Nic got her...it has duckies :D So the boys are now 17 days old and they are almost as big as hippo now!

Harvey is starting to get a darker color in his under feathers and some markings on his head...can't wait to see what color pattern he will turn out with!

The boys are 2 weeks old!

Ok so here is another comparison on Pierce...I think you get the idea...DUCKS GROW FAST!

We let them swim in their big pool this weekend and they really liked it...

...more to come later. It was a busy weekend...I am very tired :)

To quack or not to quack...

...that is a question that has been coming up a lot lately and a pretty easy one to answer. Females (hens) have the loud quack that everyone associates with a duck, males (drakes) have a softer, more raspy voice.
Click on the links below to hear the difference:
Female: http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/girlquack.wav
Male: http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/boyquack.wav
(after listening, hit the back button to return to this page)

What will they look like when they are all grown up?

I get that question from just about everyone who sees the boys or a picture of them so I thought I would talk about that today. Let's start with Pierce, who is the darker one...
Pierce is a Blue Swedish duck which is considered a medium sized duck that will weigh between 6.5 and 8 pounds and are supposed to be very calm birds. Below is a picture of a typical adult male Blue Swedish so Pierce should look something along the lines of this...

Harvey is a Welsh Harlequin duck which is considered a lightweight duck with adult males being about 6 pounds and also a very calm duck and compared to Pierce, Harvey is way more calm :) below is a picture of a typical pair of Welsh Harlequins with the male (or drake) on the right. Harvey could look something like that...
...or closer to a large mallard like this...Harvey will be somewhat of a surprise, but however he turns out, I know he will be a very handsome drake, he already has the most gorgeous gray eyes, almost like Peeps :)

In the blink of an eye...

I wanted to show just how fast ducks grow so we took these 2 pictures and put them together. This is Pierce in my hands the day we got him on the left and last night on the right...quite a difference huh? FACT: Ducks will DOUBLE their size every week until they are full grown and Pierce and Harvey seem to be living up to that fact...in fact, they are progressing quite nicely. They are very good eaters :) Here they are eating some spinach from Nicole's hand.

Like a duck to water...

The boys had their first swim/bath adventure last night. I think they liked it don't you? :)

One week old...

The boys hatched one week ago today...man how time flies :) Last night they got to hang out with their big sister Terra for some bonding time. Terra is still not too sure of these little fuzzy things that run around and "peep" but she was much calmer last night when they were all laying down together...she even let little Harvey preen her back for a bit.

One step closer...

Pa Fuller and I cemented the fence posts in on Friday...woo hoo. I learned a lot about cement and how to use a post driver :) Now I just need to spray the fence with a water sealer and we will be good to go for installation. UPDATE ON THE BOYS: Today they are 6 days old and they had a big day yesterday. We spent the day at the park and the boys had their first experience with grass and dirt. They were so cute and good little boys.

Breakfast of champions...

I snapped this quick picture this morning while the boys ate their breakfast.I thought this would give me the perfect opportunity to answer the question I get a lot...what do you feed them? The answer right now is non-medicated chicken starter feed. For the first 3 weeks of their life they will eat this chicken starter feed and the non-medicated part is very important. Baby chickens are usually fed a medicated chick starter to ward off diseases but baby chicks eat a lot less than baby ducks and if given the medicated food, the ducks would over medicate and it would be very detrimental to their health. The other important factor in their feed is the level of protein. Ducklings to 3 weeks of age need a diet that is 20-22% protein. Too much protein can cause a condition called Angel Wing where the feathers on the wings will protrude upwards. Too little protein can cause nutritional deficiencies and serious health problems. Also, it is very important that ducks have water nearby when eating. Ducks do not have saliva in their mouths so they need to drink to wash down their food.

Show me sand the fence...

...ok that wasn't really the line from The Karate Kid but it made me laugh :D
I spent a portion of my day yesterday, sanding the fence panels for the farm. As you can see it is a pretty simple fence and we don't plan on painting it at all, just going to weatherproof it. The fence is mainly to look cute and keep the dog out of the garden and I will be soooooo happy once the damn fence posts are in so we can get this fence up!!!!

The Boys are here!!!!!

So the boys came on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, good thing we were mostly prepared...here are some of the first pictures taken of them on day one...Pierce is at the top of the picture, Harvey to the bottom...

I snapped this picture as soon as I opened the box.

Napping with Hippo which was Peeps' hippo :)

Look at their fuzzy heads...they look like 2 little old men.

This is Pierce resting in my hands, he is named after my grandpa, Howard Pierce Chewning, my mom's dad...

...and this little guy is Harvey, named after my dad and his father, David Harvey McCormick.

MANY more pics to come! By the way this blog will be my only blog and it will be about the whole farm, including the boys so bookmark it and check back frequently to see them grow up because it is going to happen quickly. Ducks double their size every week until they are full grown so they will not stay this size for long :)

Duck update...

Just a quick update on the boys...little Pierce & Harvey are hatching sometime today at Metzer Farms (www.metzerfarms.com) in Gonzales, CA which is up by Monterey and we will have them sometime on Wednesday...I (we) are VERY EXCITED and I am sure tons of pictures will be posted.

Holes for poles...

Another work weekend on the farm...this weekend's project? THE FENCE!
So this is how I envisioned it - dig the holes and set the poles on Saturday and then put the fence up on Sunday. Simple right? WRONG!!!! Saturday I go out back to start diggin holes and after about an hour of digging I had not gotten farther than about 6 inches...can you say hard soil?!? Thus the reason we are not using that soil for the actual planting! So we go to Home Depot to get the fencing and all the supplies and the associate suggests a hole auger...A WHAT? It is basically an engine with 2 sets of handlebars and it is attached to a large drill bit...COOL! And we can rent one!!! Sign us up!
Here is Nicole and her dad having some serious father-daughter bonding time :)

After a couple minor setbacks and some user error we are off and running and digging holes like gophers...actually this experience has lead us to believe that there is no way we will have gopher problems UNLESS the gophers have hole augers too. Seriously the dirt in the yard is so hard I think if we were to set the poles in there and add the dirt back and some water it would make its own cement!

So we now have 6 nice size holes in the backyard ready for the fence posts whenever we can get Pa Fuller back over to help :)

Busy worker bees...

Yesterday was our first official work day on the farm where someone besides yours truly was out there hacking away :) It was me, Nic, my sister Amy, niece Lauren, my aunt Shirley and friend Erin. We had tunes playing, food & drink and were able to get in some beetle baseball too! Here is a picture of Nic and I with our new pitch forks...just noticed that they match our outfits, how very stylish!!! :)

Since Erin was feeling a bit aggressive after making some bad choices the night before, she ended up breaking one of my hoes. It was an old hoe anyway (insert one of MANY bad ho jokes here) and needed to retire and since both Nic and my aunt were itching to go to Home Depot this gave them an excuse to go buy a new hoe plus some other tools they decided I (we) needed. Here is my collection of garden tools now:

While clearing out the old vegetation in the yard we came across many "treasures" but none were as fascinating as the zig-zagging of old irrigation pipes. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason for them and we took great joy in snapping off any we could. I am envisioning using them to build a scarecrow :)

I am still constantly amazed by the praying mantis population in the back yard. Found this guy (biggest one yet) crawling up my leg!

On Saturday when I was out int he yard working I realized that my hybrid Kandy Korn has started its first ear of corn...how exciting. See the little silks coming off it near the bottom?

So at the end of our work day yesterday we pretty much have the blank canvas that I need to start building what will soon be known as Dragonfly Farms :)

BIG THANKS to everyone who helped!!!!!!!!!!!

What a difference a day makes....

Ok so it only took a few hours but here are the before and after pictures of the south side of the house...

...and here are all the pavers/border pieces I found back there...

...and here is one thing I am recycling them into, a dragonfly for the walkway of the garden...

...need the second set of wings and then she will be ready to go when the garden layout is complete :)