It’s Flock Friday. Did you see the announcement about us selling our homestead? These updates will be continuing for a little while longer, so enjoy them while they last!
An aerial view of the pond:
Sonja and her ducklings on an upturned pot island:
Chickens:
Sonja and her ducklings, with other ducks in the background:
Betty and her ducklings wading in the waterfall stream:
Finally, a GIF of some of Sonja’s ducklings eating from the duckling feeder:
This morning we woke up to some surprise snow. It wasn’t in the forecast (other than for a much higher elevation), but we got about an inch of snow overnight. Which is melting quickly on a sunny day.
So, of course I felt an urge to fly my drone to capture the winter wonderland in the early morning.
Here are the pond, snowy trees, back lawn, chicken runs, and veggie garden:
Looking down a bit to see the whole veggie garden:
From above the veggie garden, looking towards the pond:
Looking straight down to the chicken runs, veggie garden, and berry cage:
A bit lower down:
Snowy covered chicken run:
Above the back lawn, looking back to the grove, and chicken coop:
Some pics of the pond:
Part of the field, flowerbeds, back lawn, and pond:
Higher up to include veggie garden etc:
From the opposite direction:
Looking up a bit at the trees:
Lots of snowy trees:
This one might make a nice background:
Mount Hood and snowy trees:
Lower down, with the fountain garden in the foreground:
Back on the ground (via my iPhone), the path to the chicken coop:
Inside the chicken run; the new(ish) roof netting is holding up well:
The back lawn:
The pond and ducks:
Pond island and ducks:
Sunrise through the grove, with the brown gazebo and the chicken coop:
Finally, the cat house:
It’s been an interesting week, with an ice storm, snow, and days of power cuts. The ice and snow is all gone now, and we have power again (albeit with an hour outage yesterday evening). But things still feel unstable, and I know other parts of the country aren’t faring so well.
If you missed them, check out the previous two posts on the ice storm, including pictures of the chickens and ducks.
Here’s an aerial drone shot of the pond and snowy environs; you can see the new island in the center, and the ducks nearby:
Duck prints in the snow:
Despite the days of freezing weather, the pond didn’t fully freeze at all; the closest it came was a slushy crust:
The hummingbirds were very hungry with no other food sources:
Ducks on pond bank, with melting snow:
Ducks on the island:
A cam shot of sleepy ducks on the edge of the pond, and on the island. It’s got a bit of a tilt due to water pooling on it, but the edge is still above the water line, so that’s okay:
Hungry hummingbirds again:
Ducks on the lawn:
Let’s finish with a couple of token chicken pictures:
It’s Friday again. Today, a bunch of pictures of hummingbirds, chickens, and ducks. I know, very surprising for a Flock Friday post.
As mentioned on my personal blog, the hummingbird feeder was starting to freeze overnight, so I added my hacky heater. The heater comes on when the temperature gets down to 35° F, and goes off when above 45° F, via a thermostatically controlled outlet:
The heating pad gets quite hot, enough to melt the ice, but too hot for the plastic base of the feeder, so it hangs a bit below via some paperclips:
Here’s a closer view of the feeder and heating pad:
The first customer approaches:
A couple of hummingbirds:
A cam shot of the ducks on a snowy morning:
Did you see the snowy aerial photos? Here’s one picture of the pond and ducks that I didn’t include there; check out that post for more:
Snowy ducks:
A couple more pictures of hummingbirds, with at least 15 visible on the two closest feeders:
A closer look at the hummingbirds on the house feeder:
A bunch of pictures of the chickens, with new pumpkin and apple treats (and the older pumpkin shells slowly dissolving):
The ducks on the back lawn:
Snowing:
A GIF of ducks going after mealworm treats while it’s snowing:
A couple more pictures of ducks:
We still haven’t decided on a name for that Silver Swedish male duck formerly known as Sassa; options include Stefan, Silvan, Sigfrid, Sigge, and Silvester; what do you think? I rather like Stefan, though am tempted by Sigfrid in honor of Siegfried from the All Creatures Great and Small TV series we’re enjoying at present.
Last night it snowed a little for the first time this season. Less than an inch; just enough to give a winter wonderland feeling around the homestead.
So this morning I flew my drone to capture the snowy landscape from the sky, plus some ground-level pictures on my morning rounds.
Here’s my DJI Mavic Mini drone hovering in front of me on our deck:
An overview of much of the snowy homestead:
Angling up a bit to capture the lightly dusted trees and mist:
Closer to the trees:
Our pond from above the back lawn:
Another angle of the pond, and a better look at the ducks:
Looking straight down:
From further back, you can see the pond, back lawn, and flowerbeds:
Back a bit more, adding the shop, hoop house, veggie garden, and chicken runs:
Looking down on the white gazebo and dormant flowerbeds; the cat house is also visible in the top-left corner:
The back lawn, brown gazebo, grove, and veggie garden:
Down on the ground, here’s the greenhouse, with a sheet of snow sliding off the roof:
Our beehives; they’re all huddled inside, keeping themselves warm. We’ll see in a few months whether or not they all survive the winter:
By the pond:
The duck house and pond — the water maintains its temperature well; it needs to be cold much longer to freeze:
The white gazebo and flowerbeds, with a glimpse of ducks on the back lawn in the background:
Finally, looking across the fountain garden towards the cat house:
I flew my drone today. Previous flights this year included October, August, June, April, and March.
This time, we’re done with the fall foliage, so there are just the millions of evergreen trees around us.
Lots and lots of trees, to the misty horizon:
Here’s a glimpse of Mount Hood:
Zoomed in a bit:
Our pond, flowerbeds, etc:
From lower down:
The junk area in the corner of the property; there’s an old dinghy (that I occasionally think about putting by the pond as a decoration and duck shelter), and a bunch of rocks, pipes, wood, and other stuff, mostly buried under weeds:
That rectangle near the bottom is an old potting shelter, that I plan to enclose to make a beekeeping storage shed. Here it is again, along with the beehives:
An angled view of the beehives, hoop house, veggie garden, etc:
Looking down on the veggie garden, berry cage, and chicken runs:
One reason for flying today was to investigate a gutter that has come loose:
After flying, I got out a ladder and fixed it; all better now.
Here’s me and Rory on the main deck:
I flew my drone today; the first time since the end of August. Previous flights this year included June, April, and March. This time, some nice fall foliage.
A view of the shop, veggie garden, chicken runs, back lawn, pond, flowerbeds, etc:
Closer to the pond:
One reason for this flight was to get an aerial shot of the path to the duck house; I have a hose used to fill the duck’s waterer, which is also arranged as a possible edge of the path. Hard to see in this picture, though:
Over to the flowerbeds; you can see a fallen tree from the big storm that contributed to the wildfires earlier (we’ll cut it up and remove it soon):
Closer:
Part of the field and flowerbeds. The long grass in the field looks like nice soft velvet:
From higher up:
I landed the drone to change the battery, then took off again; Rory wasn’t thrilled about that:
Finally, a few shots of trees, to capture the fall foliage:
Time has no meaning at present, but the all-powerful overlord CAL-N-DAR informs me it is Friday… so time for pictures of chickens and adult ducks.
(“CAL-N-DAR is a reference from the Six Colors member podcast that I’m sure none of my readers will get… but it amuses me.)
Chickens waiting for treats:
Chickens with rice and strawberry treats:
Koi in the pond, with some floating duck feathers and straw from the duck house:
Ducks with leafy treats:
Duck butts:
Aerial views of the pond and ducks (did you see my post of aerial photos?):
The first time I’ve seen one of the new ducks on an inverted pot island (I think it’s Cora):
Night ducks:
Chickens waiting for treats again:
Betty by the ducklings:
I flew my drone over the homestead yesterday. Interesting to compare to when I did so in June and back in April and March.
Let’s begin with an angled aerial shot of the apple trees in the field, the flowerbeds, pond, back lawn, and veggie garden:
The reverse angle, with the shop, hoop house, veggie garden, back lawn, pond, and flowerbeds:
Closer to the pond, with the ducks visible; they weren’t sure what to make of the strange noisy bird hovering and flying nearby:
Another angle of the pond and ducks:
And another:
GIF of flying upwards from the pond:
One more from lower down; I think this is the first time I’ve hovered over the pond:
The flowerbeds and white gazebo:
Beehives, greenhouse, veggie garden, chicken coops, hoop house, back of shop:
Veggie garden:
Hops taking over the top of the berry cage:
The berry cage and weather wind speed and direction sensors:
Mount Hood is looking a lot less snowy at this time of year:
Zoomed in on Mount Hood:
It’s been a while since I flew my drone over our homestead. I felt an urge to do so today, so did, and took a few pictures. I thought I’d share some.
Let start with a top-down view of our flowerbeds, pond, back lawn, veggie garden, and driveway:
An angled view of the flowerbeds etc from lower down:
Flowerbeds, back lawn, pond:
Flowerbeds:
Back lawn and pond:
The two chicken runs, the veggie garden, and greenhouse:
A closer look at the veggie garden:
And the berry cage:
Finally, a glimpse of Mount Hood:
