Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[chickisoup]

You could ask at the local feed and/or pet stores.
I hope you find eggs for your broody! =)

Hehehehe!!!! I'm sorry Teachick but that just struck my giggle bone when I realized the closest I've been to a pet store in at least 20 years is the fish tank in the new Walmart in "big" city to our north!!! I can ask at our feedmill. The 4-H here really isn't active with livestock, the whole county only has two or three animal type farms, just potato growers in the southern corner of the county. Our county fair can be taken in entirely in less than an hour and most of that is dedicated to the 4-H displays of sewing, crafts and logging displays. Sometimes the northwoods can be really depressing. I really do miss the family farms country I grew up in .

 

[Alaskan]

Wow! That is kinda depressing... :/

I like variety


So... I went out on the town.... Don't worry... I actually showered AND brushed my teeth AND put on totally newly clean clothes (but the dog might have slept on them a time or too )

Anyway... I came back... The youngest two had been babysat by the neighbor..... And I was greeted to squirrel!

Which is awesome... Except they were killed, and ONLY killed... Not gutted, not skinned... JUST killed. I looked at them with eyebrow raised... Really? I asked......

You know my skinning and gutting boys are at camp, right?


He said yep...I might want to put them in the freezer to kill the critters living on them.

I shrugged and said OK...

So yep... Two bloody squirrels with NOTHING done to them, are in my freezer. Dude! My neighbor is a great hunter... He should have taught my little kids how to gut and skin... But nope... I have two gut filled squirrels in my freezer.

 

[Alaskan]

Ok, OK... I am not actually complaining.... I think iT is a hoot!

 

[Alaskan]

By the way... My little kids are only 6 and 9.... Which is why they don't yet gut and skin...

However, the 9 year old has gutted chicken.... But that isn't quite the same.



Also.. I am SUPER excited and happy... Because my ducklings just hatched!!!

Bunched of fluffy cuteness that I get to sell for ten bucks each... Or have spouse turn into pastrami!


Wow!!! I am so super happy and excited!!!!!


-insert loud happy noise-


My duck FINALLY hatched out her ducklings!!!!!! However they are all HER ducklings, so they are ALL the same color!!!

Sniff (remember, I lost TWO of my breeder ducks this year)

Ah well... It looks like she did a good job.... No pictures though... I went to peek before I went "out" tonight... And I saw a duckling WAY far away from the nest.. Sorta crawling (too newly hatched to walk) over toward the water bowl.


The drake was just looking at him.. GLORY TO GOD I HAVE A NICE DRAKE!!! He just looked at it! With older ducklings he will snap at them to tell them to go back to mom... This one he just looked at... He was actually smart enough to know that it was too little to be fussed at!

So, I then grabbed up the duckling, and then HOW to give it back to the duck? My ducks will peel off your face if you get close to them when they are brooding, and even more so when they have ducklings... I kid not! They have a pointy end on their bill, and pointy claws on their webbed feet, and they launch themselves at you with all of those claws trying to peel off skin!

Anyway, when she launched herself at me to skin me (I had sturdy pants on... So I remain unscathed), I managed to put the baby in the nest box (half of a dog crate) close to but not in the nest (she was too fast). I also managed to roll one egg that had rolled out of the nest, back towards the nest.

She tucked the egg back under her, and peeped, and the duckling, though it first got turned around and looked like it would crawl BACK out of the nest box, in the moment before it leaned so far out over the edge as to tumble out... It actually decided to turn around and crawl toward mom! And yes, it made it!

Whew!

I probably won't know how many ducklings there are until..... My kids call me and tell me!

She probably won't lave the nest until Monday... And I am leaving town Sunday night. Ah well. sounds super typical for me... Doesn't it?

 

[chickisoup]

Morning everyone!
Yep, I agree Alaskan, some times it does get a bit depressing. I've always been a country girl at heart even when I spent most of my working life in the city even as a computer professional at a college (must admit I only managed that for a little over 5 years before I ran screaming back for the dirt roads). Otherwise most of my life I managed to work in one world and live in the other. That is until I met my present DH. Next thing I know I am living in the burbs of a very large city (and going just a bit crazy until I discovered places like the botanical gardens and Barns and Noble and then when a coffee shop moved INTO Barnes and Noble, heaven!) and I did enjoy the learning opportunities, some of the great festivals in summer and only a short distance from the state fair where I spent almost the full time in the animal barns, but not being able to go for a walk in the evening, the stinky air, the constant noise.the crazy people, yuck!. Next thing I know we are living in the middle of NOWHERE starting to make our home in the middle of 65 acres that has never had anything on it but a small pasture and a long ago disappeared homestead that once stood on a small corner. I love our solitude and privacy but I also miss the "variety". I truly hated the few times I had to actually live in the city but always enjoyed the occasional visit to "civilization" when I didn't. When I worked in the city I would get all girled up and take myself out for a good lobster dinner in a proper restaurant once or twice a year. Haven't done that in more than 20 years now because there literally isn't a restaurant within several hours drive that folks can't walk into in their logging boots. I swear if it weren't for our satellite (which I had to talk DH into but now wouldn't do without it) and my computer, and you folks, I would probably be certifiably insane by now! My biggest adjustment, which honestly I have never completely made, is to northwoods itself. I can handle the winters, (tho a bit shorter would be nice) the changing seasons are amazing but the trees, nothing but trees, always trees is something I didn't grow up with. When we go to town, it sits at the southern end of what is referred to as the potato flats. It's actually a large ancient lake bed full of potato farms. When we hit the top of the ridge and start to drop down into the flats it's like a breath of fresh air being able to actually see further than a short way. This is what I grew up with. Tho these farms mostly aren't the animal based ones that I miss, there is still an old red barn or two visible off in the distance.

 

[chickisoup]

So happy for the baby duckies!!!

Probably shoving some real eggs under my crazy broody today. She's sitting on the wooden nest egg right now.

She hadn't been off the nest for since Thursday afternoon so this morning I opened the lid on our nest boxes and shoved her out, and ,,,,,,PLOP! instead of running off flat on the straw on the floor of the coop and there she laid!!! WHAT???? I walked around to the "people" door and went into the coop. She was fine, she just wasn't going to move. I just stood there staring at her, silent, flat, fine, just not going to move. Finally I walked up and pushed her on the butt and out the pophole she went puffed up like a dragon,running, flapping and screaming like I had just plucked her!!!

She did as I hoped. emptying her ceca, getting several drinks and eating. She didn't immediately return to the nest, stretching and grazing, until I put them all back into the run because of a large rainstorm coming. I am having second thoughts about giving this crazy girl real eggs. I would hate if she would give up and not finish the job and me without an incubator.

 

[perchie.girl]

Morning everyone!
Yep, I agree Alaskan, some times it does get a bit depressing. I've always been a country girl at heart even when I spent most of my working life in the city even as a computer professional at a college (must admit I only managed that for a little over 5 years before I ran screaming back for the dirt roads). Otherwise most of my life I managed to work in one world and live in the other. That is until I met my present DH. Next thing I know I am living in the burbs of a very large city (and going just a bit crazy until I discovered places like the botanical gardens and Barns and Noble and then when a coffee shop moved INTO Barnes and Noble, heaven!) and I did enjoy the learning opportunities, some of the great festivals in summer and only a short distance from the state fair where I spent almost the full time in the animal barns, but not being able to go for a walk in the evening, the stinky air, the constant noise.the crazy people, yuck!. Next thing I know we are living in the middle of NOWHERE starting to make our home in the middle of 65 acres that has never had anything on it but a small pasture and a long ago disappeared homestead that once stood on a small corner. I love our solitude and privacy but I also miss the "variety". I truly hated the few times I had to actually live in the city but always enjoyed the occasional visit to "civilization" when I didn't. When I worked in the city I would get all girled up and take myself out for a good lobster dinner in a proper restaurant once or twice a year. Haven't done that in more than 20 years now because there literally isn't a restaurant within several hours drive that folks can't walk into in their logging boots. I swear if it weren't for our satellite (which I had to talk DH into but now wouldn't do without it) and my computer, and you folks, I would probably be certifiably insane by now! My biggest adjustment, which honestly I have never completely made, is to northwoods itself. I can handle the winters, (tho a bit shorter would be nice) the changing seasons are amazing but the trees, nothing but trees, always trees is something I didn't grow up with. When we go to town, it sits at the southern end of what is referred to as the potato flats. It's actually a large ancient lake bed full of potato farms. When we hit the top of the ridge and start to drop down into the flats it's like a breath of fresh air being able to actually see further than a short way. This is what I grew up with. Tho these farms mostly aren't the animal based ones that I miss, there is still an old red barn or two visible off in the distance.

your story reminded me of my Aunt Frankie she is or was my Grandmas sister so i really should say Great Aunt Frankie. Like my Grandma she was raised on a pinto bean farm in Colorado... Great Plains area. No wood to be had they used cow chips in the pot belly stove in the winter. The house was dug out into the ground with what little wood to be had to support the roof which was made of tin.

Mom and dad and I went to visit her in the little town of Maricopa its in the desert between Edwards airforce base and the main highway heading into the central valley. She owned half the town at the time... Mostly a ghost town. I suspect there were a hundred residents at most... but when you came to town there would be NO one around. the industry there was dry farming cotton and wheat.

she owned the corner lot where her mobile home was ... There was not a tree in the whole town. I asked her why she didnt plant a tree to give the place a little shade... Her answer surprised me... "because I dont like trees" then she proceeded to tell me the reason.

Frankie fell in love and married a man named Herb... (sadly I dont remember their last name) But Herb had a good job working for the WPA... making around 20 dollars a week. That job ment they had to move. I believe he was clearing forest to put in roads. But he found them a cabin in the woods and left her there when he went to work. He would be gone two weeks at a time.

So here she was newly wed newly removed from her family and plopped down in the middle of a forest in a cabin... no phone well they never had a phone... She went stir crazy... She said the trees blocked the light even in the day and she felt suffocated... When they moved to California she opened an Antique store in Redlands I believe... O there were a few trees there but I realized now they were living in an old gas station all the outside square footage was concrete. The antique store was in the front and their house was in the back.

Herb never worked again they depended on her skill with antiques to provide them a living. She was in her eighties when she met a man who collected Winchester Rifles. He was older than her by about five years. they fell in love and moved to Maricopa where she set up her shop in one of the old buildings. I thought it was an awesome place...

Gosh... now I want to head up there to see the old town now.

deb

 

[Alaskan]

Wow! Those were lovely stories!

 

[steve horner]

How's this for a mug of joe

 

[saltandpepper2]

How's this for a mug of joe

I have a whole set of rooster coffee mugs. Biggest ones in the house, so they get used a lot!