It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd start with a summary view of some of the things we've been up to during the last days of summer.
All of our youngest poultry are now outside and fully adjusted to their new habitats. (Well, except for our juvenile ducks who still love to invite themselves in whenever the downstairs door is ajar!)
Dog food? We thought you said DUCK food!
Hi, it's us again! We'd like the orange bag please.
Knock knock! We know you're in there!
Now on to chickens. We love all the beautiful and interesting colors our pullets and roos are developing as they feather out and continue to grow. Fully grown chickens look so different from what they looked like as baby chicks, so it's like watching a mystery unfold! And their personalities are all totally unique.
Exploring their new digs. Safety in numbers until they know it's safe!
Couldn't resist getting a shot of this chicken butt lineup!
Romanoff always likes to stand IN the food plate.
This is our German Bielefelder couple, Mr. & Mrs. Beasley. He also goes by Mister Mister.
The Motley Chicken Crew
Our three roos: Lewis, Angel, and Mister Mister.
Also, finally just the other day, for the first time, I witnessed Lewis practicing his crow. Previously I had only heard crows while they were all in the coop, so I didn't know for sure who it was. (Funny, just as I am typing now, I hear him practicing again outside!)
We also have another new addition to our farm! We recently watched Peter Rabbit on Netflix, and then by the end of that same week I came home to this new bunny.
Look at that adorable face!
Sunshine AKA Sunny Bunny
Sunny Chillin'
This, of course is only a small tidbit of all the happenings that have taken place over the past few weeks, so I will label it "Part 1" of a series. Stay tuned to the next episode for Denali's visit to the Lowe's Halloween display, Jax in high places, and perhaps an update on my gardening adventures.
Last night we were trying to get through the rest of a TV show episode we were streaming on Hulu before bedtime when I heard our ducks quacking outside. I paused the TV for a better listen. Sure enough, Aslan, who was inside (downstairs), also heard them and let out one of his barks alerting us that he knew something was up outside that should probably be investigated.
Usually, it's a clear sign there is a potential predator in the vicinity when all your ducks stand up like bowling pins!
Sam let Aslan outside while looking around the surrounding area with the spot light, but she couldn't see any other signs of unwelcome visitors. Lately, we've had coyotes making an appearance on our property, so that is currently our usual first guess.
The air also had a particular eeriness about it. Earlier in the day the skies had finally cleared up from the smokey wildfire apocalyptic haze we had been experiencing for the last week or more. Now suddenly, this evening, thick smoke had rolled back in again with the winds. I considered the ducks could just be feeling a bit edgy by the strange weather patterns.
After Sam came back in and I heard the ducks still announcing their general unsettlement, I grabbed the light and tried to peer out the window myself. I spotted something perched on the fence down below, several feet from the ducks' enclosure. "It's an owl!" I exclaimed, with a hint of excitement in my voice. I grabbed my phone and hurried down to the front porch, hoping I could get close enough to capture it on (digital) film before my presence might scare it off.
For the most part owls likely aren't a real predatory threat for most of our animals. They are probably more interested in mice, rats, moles, etc. Our youngest (i.e. smallest) birds aren't yet free ranging unattended outside their enclosure. Currently everyone was locked up securely for the night, anyway. I didn't envision an owl taking the time to try its hand at breaking and entering. However, this doesn't mean the ducks themselves didn't have a right to feel a bit agitated and uncertain about this silent nighttime visitor.
Here are a few photos I was able to snap. It looks like it was a Barred Owl (determined after I later Googled it). I was so enamored by the absolute and exquisite beauty of this creature. I believe some of that perceived beauty is likely enhanced by the certain mystique that comesfrom often remaining hidden from human sight under cover of night.
I am so pleased the photos turned out in spite of being taken at night, in the dark! (Taken with the Google Pixel 2 for anyone who may be wondering...) I was also able to capture some video so that you'll be able to witness some of the owl's actual movement. Be sure to watch for the part where it flies over to land on another portion of the fence if you'd like to see it in flight. Otherwise, just watching the head turns and bobs and tilts is both adorable and awesome.
Finally, here are a couple of shots I captured of the moon above our woods on this smokey, windy night:
Just another night here at Pure Amusement Farm -- where there is always something going on!
We can usually find one of our buff orpington chickens, Daffodil, running loose all around our property. We try to keep the chickens contained to a certain portion of the yard so they don't destroy all of our plants up by the house. However, Daffy is a little on the small side in comparison to our other hens, so she is still light enough to fly out over the fence and roam freely whenever she wants--in the backyard, the front yard, the horse pen, the side pasture....pretty much everywhere. No wonder she stays so trim!
Daffodil by the cedars
Daffodil helping with yard work
Daffy and Jax by the wood pile
Daffy trying to blend in with the ducklings
Daffy checking out the new chicks, with Aslan supervising
For the most part, Daffodil finds enough to keep herself occupied without wreaking havoc in our gardens, so we enjoy letting her run free. She is a friendly but independent spirit. While she's out and about she often tries to dine with our ducks. We couldn't figure out why they always seem to back away and run off whenever our sweet Daffy unassumingly strolls up and invites herself to breakfast.
Hey guys, wait for me!
Now, here's a short (10 seconds) video I captured this past week of Daffy trying to pal around with her duck mates. Be sure to turn up the volume and you'll hear my surprise when I discover our sweet little Daffy may not be as innocent as we thought!
Because we have a pond and several seasonal bogs on our property, we end up with a lot of wild water fowl visitors. Mallards, herons, wood ducks, and several other varieties will pop in from time to time. Sometimes they will stay awhile before moving on. Some just pop in for a day or two.
Over time, however, our poultry feed bill has gone up as some of the ducks have learned where to find the "free food." They come up from the pond and line up outside the chicken pen and wait for us to put out the chicken feed. (Our own domestic ducks will chase them away if they try to compete for their feed.)
So, the horse pen often has a line-up of wild ducks patiently waiting to race up to the feed pans as soon as we put the food out for our chickens.
Sometimes I try to chase them away so our chickens can enjoy their meal in peace, but it's a bit of a lost cause. Even Aslan now considers them not-a-threat. At least he does still try to ward off the larger birds like herons, eagles, hawks, etc.
Sometimes we'll get a young duck that gets trapped somewhere or separated from the rest of its family. Just this week I rescued one that Jax was cornering back in our cedars. I walked her back over to the pond on the opposite side of our yard where she quickly rejoined one of her companions.
This week our two llamas, Lomi and Paisley, were sheared. Since it's late in the season, we discussed with the shearer what kind of cut they should get in order to not leave them too cold as we begin to approach fall/winter. She suggested leaving some of the fiber on their legs, so that it will add some extra warmth when they are laying down.
Camelids typically fold their legs up underneath their body when they lie down (called cushing). Here's an example:
Look Ma, no legs!
So, essentially, leaving the fiber on their legs provides a nice wool blanket of sorts to curl up with.
Lomi and Paisley are suri llamas, which means they have a type of fiber that hangs down in free-flowing locks from their body. So, after being sheared, Lomi looked like he was sporting some super-cool bell bottoms.
Look at that flair when he walks:
In fact, we found it a bit reminiscent of John Travolta, circa 1977. Check out this video clip -- and don't forget to turn your volume up!
Tonight as I was arriving home from work, I stopped to unlock the gate at the end of our driveway. I glanced up in astonishment to see a deer grazing freely in our yard, about 15 or 20 yards inside our gate. Not surprised to see a deer--we see them practically everyday around here. But with Aslan around, we usually see them OUTSIDE the fence of our main yard. It took me a split second for my eyes to adjust to the sight before I realized, "Oh! That's Mole'!" With his recent haircut (shearing) he looks so much like a deer!
I can never fully anticipate what I might encounter in my driveway when I get home. Sometimes it's like my own drive-through animal park--and I don't even have to pay admission!
Here's a little glimpse at some of today's welcome wagon:
This past Sunday was a little bittersweet as we sent four of our ducklings off to their new home. On the plus side, we know the couple who adopted them, so we'll still get to say hi to them every now and then.
These are the three we kept to eventually incorporate in with our existing magpie flock.
Left to Right: Yellowfoot, Clothespin, and Seven
Yellowfoot got her name because her feet had the most orange on them. Seven got her name because I think she was hatched last. And Clothespin got her name because she is very exploratory with her bill and likes to clamp down on everything.
Here she is trying to nibble on my fingers:
My Google Assistant made this cool "color pop" version of my original photo.
Of course, at this point we are still just hoping they are all girls, as their gender isn't clear to us yet. Eventually males will get a curlicue feather in their tale. Females will develop the distinctive QUACK sound we all tend to associate with ducks; whereas, males actually have a more muffled sound. I'm not sure if this is absolutely uniform across all duck breeds. This is just what I've learned since owning magpies and I know it's not just limited to their breed.
Ducklings are A LOT of work (at least for us it was, as we raised them indoors in a brooder), but the adorableness factor helps make it worthwhile! This past weekend I tried to capture as much of the cuteness as possible before four of them went off to their newly crafted duck habitat down the road.
Hope you enjoy the video. You can view this and other videos on our YouTube channel.
This past weekend our alpaca, Mole', received his annual haircut. Our shearer had a cancellation which allotted enough time for at least one of our camelids to get sheared. We opted for Mole' since he is dark brown and also has a different type of hair than our llamas. We thought he would benefit the most by getting sheared first.
Here are some "before" shots of Mole' with his original Chia pet hairdo.
Unfortunately, our camelids are not halter trained. Mole' came to us as a rescue and had already been passed around a bit in his short life. He is the most skiddish of the three. Though, he will eat pellets from your hand, so that is sweet.
Sam and I got our workout in as we chased Mole' around the pen for a while trying to corner and capture him. He is fast! (And I was not wearing the correct shoes for being able to reverse directions as quickly as I needed to.) The llama halter was too big for him, so we ended up needing to use the goat halter. We were worried about stressing him out too much since we usually don't push him when he's feeling skiddish.
We had selected a nice soft grassy area in the shade for the location for the shearing. (We also had to find a place close to a power source, since we don't have power in our barn.) However, now that we had the halter on Mole', we were going to have to somehow get him from Point A to Point B.
It took the three of us to get Mole' from the pen to the shearing station in our front yard. He is deceptively strong! And of course one of our llamas also got out while we were trying to get Mole' out of the pen. Here's a little video snippet of us leading Mole' across the driveway, with Lomi the Lookie-Loo close at hand.
To shear Mole' safely without risk of injuring him with the blades, he was properly restrained while lying on the ground on his side. He quickly calmed down and did very well throughout the entire process. Good boy! One person also holds his neck down just so he does not try to struggle to get up. Even after the whole process was done and we were able to let him back up, he did not immediately rush off, so I like to think that means it wasn't a terrible ordeal for him.
We relished in the opportunity to actually be able to pet Mole' and feel how soft he is, since usually he does not allow us that close to him. He likes control of his personal space. (Doesn't everyone?)
Ohmygosh he is so soft! And the fiber that came off of him is so lush and luxurious! Well, minus the dust, dirt, bits of hay and straw, and other organic particles... It looks like a giant bear rug.
It also looks like a band of ewoks met a grave ending during an epic and fateful battle on our front lawn.
Wicket, is that you?
We couldn't believe the volume of fiber that he shed. He easily had to have lost at least a few pounds with his shearing. He definitely must feel a lot cooler, too. Lomi and Paisley, our two llamas, also have their shearing coming up soon, but they seem to tolerate the heat a bit better. Mole' is the one always standing in the pool! Or a bucket.
I thought it would be fun to learn about the process of preparing raw fiber for use and actually make something with it. Ideally, it would be cool to watch someone first hand who knows what they are doing as they go through their normal process, but I've been watching a few YouTube videos in the meantime and picked up a few of the basics on how you can work with it manually to clean the fiber and start preparing it for spinning. There are more steps than you might think!
There are tools and equipment that make the process a whole lot easier and less labor intensive, but since I don't have any of those I can at least start with baby steps and use my own two hands to get familiar with the process. There is also something called a drop spindle that is much more affordable than an actual spinning wheel--as in $10 - $20 vs hundreds of dollars. I also think needle felting would be cool and I'm not sure if that requires any actual spinning. I will have to stay tuned, as I haven't advanced that far in my YouTube search yet to know!
Of course, if I end up making yarn, then I'm also going to have to learn how to make something WITH the yarn. I'll need a little crocheting or knitting 101. I have crocheted before, but probably not since I was a kid. A refresher is definitely in order!
Anyway, back to Mole'. Here he is sporting his new haircut. He always looks a bit like an alien deer when he first gets sheared.
He also looks tiny, now that he lost about 7"-10" in extra height from his hair. He looks like one person could scoop him up in their arms and carry him across the yard. It's hard to believe it took three of us to manage moving him. Looks can be deceiving in so many ways!
Jax loves to play in the bathroom. It seems to be "the" social place to be, if you are a cat--even Casper tends to forget she is shy whenever she hangs out in the bathroom.
A couple of months ago, I was working in my office and heard a loud crash coming from the bathroom.
No doubt, the door had been left open and Jax was--apparently--having a field day.
If I stroll away nonchalantly, I can pretend that wasn't kinda scary...
True confession time: I've taken way too many photos of my cat in the bathroom. But, really, the color scheme blends awesomely with Jax's blue eyes and the hues of his coat. I'll spare you by sticking with just the shower curtain shots today. We can save the "Jax in the sink" collection for another day... 😄
This is one of my favorites of young Jax playing hide and seek in the curtain.
Ready or not, here I come!
Here is Jax outside the tub:
And here is Jax inside the tub:
Here is Jax inside the tub DURING a shower!
And here is Jax fighting with the curtain.
Take that, you silly paisley drapery.
Previously, I had assumed the shower curtain must have fallen down when Jax tried to CLIMB it. But then: last night we saw THIS!
Jax!
This is totally normal; and, I can't hear you...
It never occurred to me that Jax might have been walking ON TOP OF the shower curtain!
Hey, [looking in the mirror] who is that fine looking cat over there?
