Just a few pictures of ducklings today. Evacuation update coming up soon.
Month: September 2020
More ducklings day 33
Another smoky day, not quite as bad as yesterday. The ducklings are feathering out nicely, and starting to make proto-quacks. They grow so fast!
Look at all those feathers:
Two in the bigger pool:
Three in the bigger pool, with some nice water droplets:
Splashes:
Treat time:
More ducklings day 32
Another day of ducklings. It’s smoky out, but hopefully the ducklings aren’t too bothered by it.
Good morning ducklings:
Treat time:
Treat and pool time:
The Blue Swedish duckling with her tongue out while eating, and straw sticking to their bills:
Cat update for week ending September 12 (plus evacuation update)
The latest news from our evacuation from the wildfires (or more accurately climate fires): last night the power was restored to our homestead, having been off since Tuesday afternoon. Since it was without electricity for over three days, it’s safe to assume the contents of our three freezers and two fridges will have to be thrown out. But having power means that the well is working again, and the waterers in the chicken runs will refill, which will help them survive. The stream to the small pond will also be running again, providing water for the outdoor cats and wild birds.
We remain safe at Mom’s place, though the smoke from the fires is affecting the air quality up and down the west coast, as can be seen in this map (or check the current conditions):
The fire boundary and evacuation map hasn’t really changed since yesterday (website):
The Clackamas county map (website):
I talked about the chickens and ducks yesterday; today is Caturday, so I’ll talk about the cats.
We care for nine cats: two indoor-only pet cats (Pippin and Paladin), two indoor-only feral shop cats (Pepper and Pansy), and five outdoor-only feral cats (Poppy and her offspring Porcini, Portabella aka Bella, Pomegranate aka Pommie, and Potato aka Spud).
Pippin and Paladin are safe with us. Pepper and Pansy are still in the workshop, and should have enough food and water to last them about a week. Poppy and the others can feed themselves on rodents etc, but now that the power is back, they will get some meals from the cat house. That food should last about a week too. And they can drink from the stream and small pond, plus a waterer near the cat house.
So I’m not as concerned about the cats as I am about the chickens, though the shop cats would be my next concern after the chickens. I do worry that the outdoor ferals might have abandoned us when they weren’t getting food while the power was off. The feeder has a battery backup, but according to the feeder log, apparently it didn’t work while there was no power, so the batteries must be flat. D’oh! They’ll probably stick around, though.
Unfortunately although the power and internet are back on, my Camect camera server is connected to a UPS that is off, so I can’t view the cameras remotely. I won’t know what’s happening until we go home.
Enough text, let’s have some photos. Here are Paladin and Rory snuggling in our room at Mom’s place:
Some pictures of the feral cats from before we evacuated. Here’s Poppy:
Porcini having a bath on the kitchen lawn:
And relaxing in the kitchen garden:
Poppy emerging from the feeder:
Porcini:
Porcini again:
Poppy again:
Poppy and Porcini:
A tail:
Finally, Pansy in the back of the shop:
I hope the cats will be okay!
More ducklings day 31
See today’s Flock Friday post for info on our evacuation state, and the rest of the flock. For the six rapidly-growing ducklings we have with us, they’ve settled into their new reality, and are enjoying their more spacious digs in the trailer pen. When we can go home again, it’ll be a downgrade for them!
Breakfast for ducklings:
Pool time:
Leafy treats:
More pool time:
Dinner time:
Flock Friday for September 11 (plus evacuation update)
As you may have seen, we had to evacuate our homestead due to some nearby wildfires. We are safe at Mom’s place, three hours north, along with our dog Rory and pet cats Pippin and Paladin, and the six ducklings.
The rest of the animals are still back at the homestead. The older ducks have their pond, so plenty of water of course, and can root around for bugs, though they may get a bit hungry. I’m more worried about the chickens.
I’m kicking myself that in our rush to evacuate, I didn’t take a few minutes to top up their food dispensers, or at least toss a bag of food in the coop. So they will likely run out of food from the dispensers sometime around now or the next day or two. They also have a couple of partial flock blocks (compressed blocks of supplemental food), which should keep them going another day or two. After that, hopefully they’ll subsist on the eggs they’re laying. If we’re away too long, they’ll probably start eating each other — chickens are vicious little dinosaurs.
They should have enough water for a while. The power is still off; if it comes on, the outdoor waterers would refill, but the water supply requires power, as it’s a well. I suspect the power will remain off until after the evacuation order is lifted.
Depending on how long that takes, we may go home to dead chickens, which would be unfortunate. But not as unfortunate as if the fire reaches our homestead. So far, it’s a couple of miles away, so hopefully won’t get closer. Here’s a map of the fires in the county. And a state-wide one; the “Riverside” fire is the main threat for our homestead. (I don’t publicly post exactly where our homestead is for privacy reasons.)
As of now, that fire has burned over 130,000 acres (of mostly trees), destroyed 33 houses and 20 other structures, and is 0% contained. Not great. But at least there haven’t been any fatalities from it so far.
So, that’s where things are at currently. The main thing is that we’re safe; much appreciation to Mom and her partner for providing a refuge for us, our pets, and the ducklings. Read the duckling posts for more on them.
Let’s enjoy some pictures from before all this went down. Here are the chickens:
I feel like they’re looking at me in an accusing way, as if they could foretell the future… but that’s just how they normally look:
Two ducks on an upturned pot island:
Ducks in the shallow end of the pond:
Sleeping in the shade under a shrub:
Ducks and ducklings:
We were visited by some quail recently:
Yes, the bird feeders will run out too… but they can fend for themselves.
A scrub jay getting some of the last peanuts:
GIF of scrub jay getting peanuts:
Bert flapping his wings:
Ducks on the pond:
Two ducks on the island again:
Betty in the grasses, others at the edge of the pond:
Betty on the rock:
I hope the ducks and chickens all survive this trying time.
More ducklings day 30
The ducklings all survived their night in the trailer pen (see yesterday’s post for info on evacuating with the ducklings).
Pool time this morning, after I refilled the tray:
They were excited for leafy treats:
Looking at me:
Visiting later, they woke up and came over to see me:
Eating after I topped up their food:
More ducklings day 29 (start of week 5)
As mentioned earlier, we had to evacuate the homestead due to a nearby wildfire. While the older ducks can fend for themselves, the newer ducklings are too young, so we decided to take them to Mom’s place, along with our dog Rory and two pet cats Pippin and Paladin.
Here are the ducklings in a container in the truck, along with their food. This container has a rough hole and mesh in the lid, made previously as a chick brooder:
I kept the ducklings in the containers in the garage overnight, three in each, along with water and food:
They were rather messy in the morning:
Mom set up a trailer as an enclosure for the ducklings, even with the same kind of paint tray pool as they have at home:
They were eager to bathe:
Looking damp but more clean:
Scratching in the food dish:
Flapping little wings:
Jenn and Mom went out to get groceries plus some chicken wire for a cover to protect the ducklings, and straw bedding:
We added a bigger pool for the ducklings:
This evening I fully covered the trailer with tarps, and will leave them there overnight. It’ll get a little cooler overnight than they’re used to, but they should be fine if they snuggle together. I hope.
Wildfire evacuation!
(I posted this as three posts on my personal blog, but decided it’d make sense to collect them into a single post here.)
Jenn and I are taking a vacation this week, taking a break from social media and big screens, relaxing and playing board games and such:
Or at least that’s how the week started… then the entire west coast caught on fire.
We (and most of the county) lost power in the afternoon, due to high winds toppling trees onto hundreds of power lines. Including one of our trees, with a plume of smoke in the background:
We continued to play games by lantern:
But as we were about to head to bed, we got level 2 alerts on our phones, warning us to prepare to evacuate, as wildfires spread closer to us:
We packed our bags and prepared to evacuate, but agonized about whether to leave immediately, or wait and see, since our plan was to drive to Mom’s place, three hours north. Meanwhile, a glow of fire a few miles away:
Ultimately we decided that better safe than sorry was a sensible policy, and loaded up both the car and truck, with our dog Rory and the two pet cats Pippin and Paladin in the car, and the six ducklings in the truck, since they couldn’t fend for themselves for more than a day:
The older ducks and feral cats can fend for themselves for as long as needed. The chickens will be fine for a few days, assuming the homestead doesn’t burn.
We hit the road, and arrived at Mom’s place around 03:00, tired but safe.
This morning, we watched the evacuation zones expanding to include our homestead, so we would have had to leave this morning if we hadn’t around midnight:
I’ll follow up later with my usual daily duckling post… a bit less usual this time.
More ducklings day 28
We (and most of the Portland region) are currently experiencing a power cut due to heavy winds. Fortunately, the ducklings are old enough that they should be fine overnight if the power doesn’t come back on by then.
Another issue is that I’ve noticed that the Blue Swedish duckling has a gimpy leg; she seems to be limping a bit, and not wanting to put weight on it. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do about that, other than hope it gets better, though I should try to grab her and see if there’s an obvious cause. Could be an injury, bumblefoot (abscess), or niacin deficiency, though the latter is unlikely since I add some to their food.
On with the usual pictures of treat time:
Rouen feathers growing fast:
The gimpy leg of the Blue Swedish duckling on her left, our right:
