Tevye's Dad: Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

[Tevyes Dad]

Hi all, I have been "gone" since early spring due to several things, so I am going to try to use this thread to ease back in, otherwise I will never have the time to get it all in.

First and most important, all the duckies are fine and healthy. There have been no changes in the line up and we still have a good supply of treats.

Second and of somewhat lesser importance, Yvonne and I are also fine and healthy (well as healthy as we are, we don't take nearly as good care of ourselves as we do the ducks). There have been no changes in our line up and we also have a good supply of treats (which explains why we aren't as healthy as our ducks

).

I was kept very busy this summer on several projects:

1. Duck secure area. - Complete with removable "jail" accommodation.
2. Ducky Dome v2.0 - MUCH stronger and hasn't blown apart so far.
3. Revamping our entire camera system. We now have all digital high resolution security cameras to better monitor our charges and the rest of the property. This now includes a rover cam which we had in a semi-permanent spot over the pool for the summer.
4. Completely rebuilt our front porch using pressure treated lumber and composite decking so I wouldn't have to paint it. (Back gets done next year).

In addition to this, my "Honey Do" list has been very time consuming because my work has kept me on the road quite a bit lately which means that I get NOTHING done in the evenings when I'm gone and since Yvonne gets stuck with all ducky chores I would have been doing, she doesn't get much done either. So on the weekends we have been extra busy, or sleeping in recovering from being extra busy.

Finally when we did have a little free time, the summer was so beautiful that we spent it with the duckies enjoying their company. We have several people around town that bring their kids out to socialize with the duckies, feed them worms, and witness the goldfish feeds every weekend through the summer. (No the ducks are not spoiled.)

My final block to being on here is that my computer situation hasn't been great and I tend to be long winded on the forum so smart phoning it just doesn't appeal. Well, I am half way through putting together a new shiny computer (some of the parts won't get here until next week) so that problem will be over.... The week after next, I will be on the road most of next week.

So I will be honest, I just marked all my subscriptions "read" and am starting anew. I really care about all of my regulars, but to be honest, I took 6 months for all those posts to go up, it would take me 6 months to read them and then I would be behind on the current 6 months. Sooooo, if anyone out there had any big changes I need to enjoy/be warned/mourn about, please feel free to PM me and you can just point to the thread and date range and I can go from there. I had times I fell behind a week before and it took me several hours to catch up, so I honestly don't know of any other way to "catch up".

Since this is a stand alone thread, it is my intention to get some events updated from the introduction of Casey/Latte/Allie into the flock up to the first snow fall (around now) in this thread. Current events I will put where ever they belong. You may also feel free to point me to must sees from the last 6 months and give me synopses of the same period in your/your flock's lives.

So with this first post, I will leave you with the image of a bumper sticker we had made for this last election (I was going to make it available here on BYC, but I didn't get on here fast enough...) It isn't meant to be a strong statement of any kind, just some humor. With people burning down cities and such please don't take this too seriously.

I know it is no longer timely, but I still have several so if you would like one, feel free to PM me and I will give you our address so you can send me a SASE and I will send you one - absolutely free (while supplies last).

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am excited to see @Tevyes Dad and the gang back with us.. Yep I finally did it added Runners and Buffs to my flock and love them to pieces. They add comedy to our lives.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

No, unfortunately Casey grew out of her tomduck phase and discovered Kaine was a boy. Now she has sparkles in her eyes and lets him do what he will.

Here is a picture of Latte (Buff Duck). She is molting for the winter, and competing with Tevye for how much down she can carry on her bill...



Latte: "Are you fluff enough?"

 

[Julie Birb]

Hello Julie, I have a dirty picture I saved just for you!

Mr. Precious is my phone's background now. I loves hims.

 

[Ravynscroft]

I will eagerly be waiting for those vids and pics! I know how those can take over devices... my phone may or may not be having issues now due to memory overload...

I think Allie needs the @Julie Bird hug and squeeze treatment!

Is Casey still riding poor Kaine around like a jet ski?

 

[Julie Birb]

No, unfortunately Casey grew out of her tomduck phase and discovered Kaine was a boy. Now she has sparkles in her eyes and lets him do what he will. Here is a picture of Latte (Buff Duck). She is molting for the winter, and competing with Tevye for how much down she can carry on her bill... Latte: "Are you fluff enough?"

Look at her web. She don't care about a snoot full of Fedders. She a burd.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Here is one of my summer projects. It is "Ducky Dome v2.0" (DD2). The thicker PVC proved too rigid for me to bend all the way into an arc like DD1, so I had to put some angle pieces in so it actually is not a dome any more, but the name stuck. It is built on the same 15' x 30' base DD1 was.

There are several improvements over DD1.

*4 supports instead of 3.
*10 Steel wires run the entire length on the top pieces so that the tarp can not fall into the dome if it should tear free (that is what took out the first one).
*Put 2x4s along 30' side to try to battle warping in lumber (partially successful).
*Tarp Anchor strips are now structural 2x4's instead of just being held on the pvc.
*Because of the above, dome is now supported internally from front to back so it no longer needs external guy ropes.
*Clamps were fitted to the tops of the supports where they meet the PVC so there are no edges to wear on the tarp.
*Little yellow crocodile holds the entire structure in place.

Note the tarp anchor strip you see is crooked because the street side one is perfectly straight. The side away from the street was positioned to get a constant tension on the tarp and reflects all the imperfections in the pvc and the base support structure, so this is actually by design.

Ducks' favorite place in the world is lying under the bottom beams.


Edit:
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By the way, all of you out there who have a little ramp going into a house that your ducks are balking at. Look at the ramp going into this pool. 15 out of 15 ducks can navigate that ramp and none of them has fallen off of it more than once (when they were first learning). Your ducks are lying to you and trying to make you believe that going into the house is too hard because they want to stay out and play with the predators (no one ever accused ducks of having good survival instincts). The difference is my ducks WANT to go into the pool, then after a while they WANT to come out and eat. Oh and guess where their favorite preening spot is...

 

[Amiga]

Thanks! What a delight to see photo's of Tevye and the gang

 

[Julie Birb]

Here is a pic of my far backyard/swamp. What kind of idiot would spend thousands of dollars to purchase house and protect ducks when his yard looks like this anyway?

Of course that little boy doesn't have a name and won't eat worms out of my hand.

-----
Edit: Here's a better pic.

Ha!! you're not an idiot. Yer providing a very natural environ fer yer berds.

 

[Bills vs Beaks]

I know it is no longer timely, but I still have several so if you would like one, feel free to PM me and I will give you our address so you can send me a SASE and I will send you one - absolutely free (while supplies last).

Oh that's great man :rofl sad that it's a lil late We had a thread like that a couple month ago, it got shut down though. Fun while it lasted Anyway, hi I'm kinda new but I read some of your post a while back Nice to meet you finally