The Quack Shack

[shawluvsbirds]

It seems i am following too many forums, i am swamped with alerts like »New User 4711 has started a thread called "Help Please!"«
Guess i need to turn that off or drop some forums from the "watch"-list.

Uh. Yeah. .. I can see why your alerts are blowing up if you have entire forums watched.
I'd change that. Lol!

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Evening all. Jan 5th here. Missy mouses 6th birthday. The maremma dogs 2nd birthday tomorrow and people asure me a switch will flick and he will be fully mature and capable of supervising anything I give him. Somehow I doubt it's that simple

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

I need to vent or I will pop. Sydney ended up with another covid out break (cleaner from hotel quarantine) and, as citiers around here do, they have all fled bush haven't they? Whhhyyyy if they have been to an area LISTED as a hotspot do they feel the need to travel the lands?!? I am talking literal one side of state to the other. The contaminated mob that just came through here on weekend stopped at every pub on the way. They got a test when they reached the border and came back positive. I am very sure they'd have been planning to sneak across states (NSW is contained by border closures because of outbreak) and thought they could sneak through "because it's the outback and no one lives there". Fools! All of them!!!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I need to vent or I will pop. Sydney ended up with another covid out break (cleaner from hotel quarantine) and, as citiers around here do, they have all fled bush haven't they? Whhhyyyy if they have been to an area LISTED as a hotspot do they feel the need to travel the lands?!? I am talking literal one side of state to the other. The contaminated mob that just came through here on weekend stopped at every pub on the way. They got a test when they reached the border and came back positive. I am very sure they'd have been planning to sneak across states (NSW is contained by border closures because of outbreak) and thought they could sneak through "because it's the outback and no one lives there". Fools! All of them!!!

How long have you been on Lock-Up down-under? (You can't be on lock-down as you are already upside down! )
I understand people starting to show weird behavioral patterns after being locked-up for extensive periods of time.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

How long have you been on Lock-Up down-under? (You can't be on lock-down as you are already upside down! )
I understand people starting to show weird behavioral patterns after being locked-up for extensive periods of time.

So we haven't had local cases nation wide for 55 days so we really just had social distancing and no more then 100 visitors outside and 2square metres per person for hospitality places etc. There was an outbreak in Melbourne that lasted 3 months with hundreds aday (I know we are very lucky) and they had the tight lock up no body leaves home. Sydney did that to the suburb where first cases were confirmed. BUT for christmas they split it in 2, half were allowed visitors from their half of suburb (so neighbours could visit each other and no one was alone for christmas) and the other half had to stay home but could have 10 visitors from anywhere else come and visit for outside gatherings. But they give notice on these lock ups so naturally people leave their area and long story short, a bottle shop ended up with a contaminated worker who infected many people on christmas eve, including the ones who went bush. Sydney only made face masks mandatory yesterday. So no one here is going crazy, they just think they are invincible because we go so long between cases.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Today was interesting and i have two stories to tell:

1. Duck do really care!
2. I had to do the walk of shame!

Ducks do really care!
I let the ducks loose this morning, gave them their cat-food morning treats, then went back inside to make and eat my breakfast.
About 1½ hours later i went back outside to collect the duck-eggs, clean up the duck's house and hose down their supper bowl, when right after stepping down from the patio into the mud-flats i heart Katharina Duck quacking the alarm. She came running down the hill loudly quacking, stopped and looked at me - another QUACK and she turned around, walked up a few steps uphill, stopped again turned around, looked at me QUACK!, turned around, walked up a few steps uphill, stopped, turned around, looked and another QUACK!!, more urgent. A bit worried i started to follow her up the hill in the direction of the pond. She turning around, looking at me, loudly quacking more and more urgent, like »Hurry up you clumsy giant, something bad has happened!«
QUACK!!! - She had reached the rim of the pond, stared at the water and started her "I don't like what i see" quacking. I finally caught up to her, which wasn't easy as i literally had to climb that hill twice - two steps forward then sliding one back - out of breath and there in the water he was:

Limpy Drake!
​

A bit ruffled up but happily bobbing and paddling around in the pond, enthusiastically rasping in my direction when he saw me. I felt somewhat relieved seeing him in the water and can only assume what has happened: He might got into a fight with another drake and fell into the pond or just tripped and fell in and Katharina, concerned about him ran down to the house to call for help, while her sisters Nona and Curiosity were standing at the rim of the pond quacking instructions to Limpy how to get out of the water.
In the end all went well: Weeks ago i had dropped a 1½ wide pallet into the water, so that even a limping drake would be able to climb out easily and once Limpy found his way to that pallet he just walked out onto dry land wet and slippery mud where he was joined by Katharina, Nona and Curiosity duck, all three bickering at him and escorting him back downhill to the house.
Poor Limpy had to deal with three angry women!
The thirteen young Fall ducks looked at the scene in awe, shaking their heads, decided to take another bath in the pond and jumped all in.
My "old" Team Runner Duck got some extra cat-food treats at the house and Katharina received some extra, extra treats for being so quick-witted! Such a good duck!
And i got some extra exercise today before being trapped in a non ending video-conference with my current customer…

I just post this and write up the next story of my day...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I had to do the walk of shame!

No my ducks have not stopped to lay eggs, on the contrary! They have already laid 46 eggs this month. It was my cruel wife's decision that i had to drive to the store to buy eggs!!!

Da missus wanted to bake crêpes and the French recipe says »chicken eggs«!
It actually just says "eggs" and not explicitly »chicken« and the French are well known for their use of Duck and Duck-products in their kitchens but that argumentation did not convince her, so i was brutally forced out of my own house and told not to come back without one dozen chicken eggs from happy hens being held cage free and fed an organic and gluten free chicken diet.

So there i was at the entrance of the only supermarket in the area that carries such precious eggs from such mollycoddled chickens. It is bad enough to have to buy eggs in a store but it is a true insult for any proud duck-owner to have to buy xicken eggs!!

I pull up my hoodie and try to sneak into the shop.
Unfortunately the owner knows me: »Hi Mr. Frank, how are you doing this afternoon? How are the ducks?!«


Grabbed one of the smaller shopping carts and lingered through the store, bought some large bags of cereals, pretending to be interested in some milk, yuckgurt, some cheese, slowly sneaking up the the egg cooler…
Looking back and forth, nobody there, grabbed one carton of alien eggs, carefully hid them under the cereal bags when

BAM!​

All the lights in the store went dark, except for that one spotlight, as bright as the flash of the Russian tsar-bomba, pointing at me and the damn egg carton, which had sneaked out into the open from under those cereal bags!
Everybody in the store was suddenly staring at me and i could here the whisper "shame. shame! SHAME!" getting louder with every step i walked to the register.

Oh No! Please not HER!

Today's cashier knows that i have ducks! She smiled at me while i, covered in the cold sweat of humiliation, pack everything from the cart on to the belt. Please be discrete! - But no: I put the egg carton down, she looks at it and asks »Everything ok with the Duckies?« - And there is no hole in the floor where i could hide now!

Paid and rushed out of the store, loaded everything into the car as quickly as i could and drove back home. I felt soo humiliated!

Back home, i showed those "Jumbo" xicken eggs to Blanca Duck and she started laughing hysterically: »¿qué? - JUMBO eggs!« she giggled! »My morning poop is larger than those eggs!« That cheered me up somewhat.

True story! - I guess! - Had problems with my blood-sugar level all day long…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

So we haven't had local cases nation wide for 55 days so we really just had social distancing and no more then 100 visitors outside and 2square metres per person for hospitality places etc. There was an outbreak in Melbourne that lasted 3 months with hundreds aday (I know we are very lucky) and they had the tight lock up no body leaves home. Sydney did that to the suburb where first cases were confirmed. BUT for christmas they split it in 2, half were allowed visitors from their half of suburb (so neighbours could visit each other and no one was alone for christmas) and the other half had to stay home but could have 10 visitors from anywhere else come and visit for outside gatherings. But they give notice on these lock ups so naturally people leave their area and long story short, a bottle shop ended up with a contaminated worker who infected many people on christmas eve, including the ones who went bush. Sydney only made face masks mandatory yesterday. So no one here is going crazy, they just think they are invincible because we go so long between cases.

Define »cases«! ::= In Europe every politician is panicking about the infection rate, which is (imho) just the wrong factor to measure. What they have not realized is that the fatality rate is actually going down, meaning: More people are becoming infected, but most of them don't even have symptoms and a few fall ill and very few die.
More and more folks are realizing that and start to rebel against the lock-down conditions, imposed by the governments. But instead of talking to their people the governments are imposing force and harsh penalties…

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Ok this will probably get censored. And I'm ok with that. But as an over 60 cancer survivor, you do not have the "right" to kill me. I can manage my own lock down And i don't need yours. But for gods sake wear a mask. Would you visit a restaurant without a shirt or shoes? Do you drive your car without a seat belt? If you are willing to take these steps to protect yourself, why do you want to kill me?

 

[rjohns39]

Good morning folks Good evening Wunda & Kiwi

Good morning Lisa, have a great day