Month: June 2020

Ducklings day 10

Today at the duck house, let’s all take a peek at the ducklings… including Bert.

Site note: I have tagged this year’s duckling posts as ducklings 2020, making it easier to see just the duckling posts (without the flock posts and such) for this year.

And you can even see them in chronological order (i.e. oldest to newest) via this link.

On with the show.

Let’s peek at the ducklings through a nesting box (look at that tiny wing nub on the Buff!):

Ducklings

Some fresh straw:

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Wading in the dish; you can see droplets of water on their backs, as the fling the water everywhere. It’ll get even more damp in there once they have the paint tray pool:

Ducklings

Ducklings

Did you see the video of Bert trying to peek at the ducklings? When I did my afternoon rounds, I grabbed some spare bricks and added some below the maintenance door, so Bert could more successfully peek at the ducklings, which he did:

Bert peeking at ducklings

Bert peeking at ducklings

Bert peeking at ducklings

Cam view:

Bert peeking at ducklings

I think it’ll be good for all of them to see each other, so things go more smoothly when they can interact in the pond in a month or so.

Cat update for week ending June 13

For Caturday this week, 5.25 cabin pictures, 3.25 cat house pictures, 2 shop pictures, 1.25 outside and feeder pictures, 1 breezeway picture, 1 GIF and 1 still from that, and 1 picture out a window. Just some totally irrelevant numbers.

Three cats at the cabins:

Cabin cats

Poppa and Pommie in the breezeway:

Breezeway cats

Cat snuggles:

Cat snuggles

Three cats in the feeder; the SD card in the feeder has stopped working (like the cat house one did recently); I don’t know if I’ll bother trying to fix it, so this might be the last picture from the feeder (though it is recorded by the Camect server, so probably not):

Feeder cats

Porcini closeup with the cabin cats:

Cabin cats

More cat snuggles:

Cat snuggles

Cat stalking a bird on the driveway, as it got away:

Cat chasing bird

A GIF of that:

GIF of cat chasing bird

One of the twins in the lavender plants by our front steps, as seen from a window:

Cat by front steps

Pepper watching me closely in the shop; she wanted to get past, but that would have meant getting within six feet of me; she’s an expert at social distancing:

Cat in shop

So she retreated and waited for me to depart:

Cat in shop

Super-relaxed cabin cat:

Cabin cat

Two cats snuggling, one looking out the door:

Cat snuggles

Four cats:

Four cats

Screenshot of four cats (two in cabins, two in the house):

Four cats

A startled greeting at the cabins:

Cabin cats

Some symmetry, both in this picture, and with the first picture in today’s post:

Cabin cats

Ducklings day 9

Today in the duck house, I added a small dish of water, which was very exciting for the ducklings.

Good morning ducklings!

Ducklings

I added the ceramic water dish (a bit foamy initially from the hose nozzle):

Ducklings

The Buff was first to hop into it:

Ducklings

But most of the others wanted to try it, too:

Ducklings

A duckling on top of the EcoGlow:

Ducklings

And the Buff eating from the tube, barely able to reach it:

Ducklings

Everyone wanted to hop in the water dish:

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Buff eating from the tube again:

Ducklings

Flock Friday for June 12

This past week has been exciting with the baby ducklings, but I also got a bunch of pictures of the adult duck, Bert, and the chickens.

This post is about the adults, but let’s start with a check in on the ducklings; here’s them a week ago:

Ducklings

And yesterday; look how much they’ve grown already:

Ducklings

A picture of the ducklings and Bert:

Ducklings and duck

I feed him his breakfast in this spot, as the food sinks to the bottom, and there’s a shallow ledge there, as more visible in the previous picture, when the water level was lower; it’s easer for him to eat from the water than on land:

Duck

Some pictures of the chickens while I was installing the compost bins:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens and duck:

Chickens and duck

While I was refilling the feeder, Bert joined me:

Duck

Duck and chickens

Duck and chickens

Following me down the path to the duck house:

Duck

Duck

Breakfast next to the duck house:

Duck

An animated GIF of a heron taking off, when I went out there to chase it:

GIF of heron

Bert drinking water accumulated in the paint tray that will be used by the ducklings next week:

Duck

He went up the ramp and tapped on the pop door. Sorry, that’ll stay closed for several more weeks, until the ducklings are old enough to go into the pond (at about 8 weeks old):

Duck

Ducklings and duck

Duck

Eating again:

Duck

A bunch of pictures of the chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

I moved the log, and they enjoyed some tasty worms underneath:

Chickens

A favorite dust bath spot under the pop door ramp:

Chickens

Another day, I offered fun apple peel treats:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Bert was watching with interest outside the chicken run (I did offer some apple peel to him, but he didn’t want it):

Duck

Ducklings day 7

Happy birthday ducklings! They hatched one week ago today.

Here’s a capture from the duck house cam of the ducklings drinking and eating in the dark (visible with night vision):

Ducklings cam

Another fun fact: chickens roost and sleep at night, hardly moving, because they can’t see in the dark. I believe the night vision of ducks is better, though still not as good as humans, so they can be active at night.

Good morning ducklings:

Ducklings

Ducklings drinking

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Ducklings

Building a three-bin turning compost system

Over the weekend I built a three-bin composting system.

Unlike my usual projects, this time I (mostly) followed someone else’s design, specifically one I found from the University of Missouri Extension.

The idea of the three-bin system is that you add compostable materials to one bin, then when that’s full you transfer the material to the next bin, then later to the third bin. Each time it is transferred, it gets turned over, and each successive bin has hotter microbial activity, breaking down the material more and more.

We already had a three-bin system with plastic bins, but they were overflowing, and not used properly, being harder to access:

Old compost bins

So I wanted to build new larger bins, using a design that is easier to access.

To start, I made four frames out of treated wood (check out the design above for dimensions and such if you want to build this yourself):

Frames

Then added hardware cloth on the frames:

Hardware cloth on frames

The frames were arranged and connected by a couple of 9’ treated boards; these will be on the bottom:

Connected

A similar connector on the top:

Connected

Hardware cloth on the back:

Hardware cloth on back

Runners on the front:

Front runners

Creating a pair of slots for each bin:

Front runners

Which are filled with slats; these can be easily removed to access the compost:

Slats

Lid frame (different than their design):

Lid frame

Hardware cloth on the lids:

Hardware cloth on lids

Once complete, I transported it from the workshop on a hand cart:

Transporting

Roughly placed near the old bins:

In area

In position; I decided to keep the old compost bins for extra capacity, since there’s plenty of space:

In place

I shoveled the overflow from in front of the old bins into the center bin (since it is already partially composted). I’ll add new material in the right-hand new bin (being closer to the chicken coop):

Slats

New and old:

New and old

Compost:

Compost

Bert enjoyed investigating where the overflow pile was:

Duck

I added hinges (I didn’t add them in the shop to leave the lids off to reduce the transport weight):

Hinges

Done:

Done

Again, I can’t take any credit for this design, but I think these will work very well, and give us plenty of room for composting.

Ducklings day 6

Today, Bert and the ducklings saw each other.

But first, some cam shots; last night, a duckling went on the EcoGlow again (probably the same one, showing an adventurous personality):

Duckling on EcoGlow

Ducklings sleeping:

Ducklings sleeping

Ducklings drinking:

Ducklings drinking

The usual opening shot of the ducklings; time to add more bedding tomorrow, I think:

Ducklings

A closer look:

Ducklings

I opened the bottom portion of the door, so Bert and the ducklings could see each other:

Bert and ducklings

They retreated at first, then came back out. Bert was good, just standing in the doorway; I was ready to stop him from going inside, but he didn’t try:

Bert and ducklings

He turned his head to look at them from his other eye:

Bert and ducklings

(Fun fact for today: ducks can be literally half-asleep: one eye closed and that side of the brain asleep, the other eye open and that side awake.)

A wide-angle shot of Bert and the ducklings after I closed the bottom of the door:

Bert and ducklings

The ducklings settled down again:

Ducklings

I also recorded a video of Bert quacking and the ducklings peeping, which I’ll probably upload tomorrow. Something to look forward to!