Ducklings day 46

For today’s duckling post, we start with a cam picture from last night, then sleepy ducklings, then treat time. I’m starting to use their names more, too.

From the cam, Betty spreading her wings in the pool; her feathers are coming in nicely:

Wings

Edit to add: a GIF of Betty dunking and flapping her wings:

Wings

Sleepy ducklings:

Sleepy ducklings

I had been plugging in the heat lamp each night, but now they’re old enough to not need it, so it has been discontinued. They still have the EcoGlow for now, though I’ll remove that in a few days.

Treat time:

Treat time

Betty and Cora (I think) heading in for a swim, with Bert approaching in the pond:

Ducklings with Bert approaching

Sonja:

Sonja

Betty and one of the Rouens on the steps, Cora at the top, watched by Bert:

Ducklings

Cora, I believe (I haven’t quite locked down the differences between her and Clyde, but I’m reasonably sure, if only because the females are more into swimming):

Cora?

Now that they’re mostly feathered out, and almost fully grown, I should do another duck name post. Once they’re in the pond, it’ll be harder to get as good pictures of them all.

Ducklings day 45

Today, in addition to the usual duckling run pictures, I have some pictures from up the path, and from the pond deck, including a GIF.

Firstly, a cam shot of nighttime activity:

Nighttime

And sleep:

Nighttime

Treat time:

Ducklings

Water droplets everywhere:

Splash

Shall we swim?

Haven’t quite figured out gentle paddling yet:

Haven't quite figured out gentle paddling yet

Dunking head:

Dunking head

View from the path to the duck house:

View from path

Closer:

View from path

View from the pond deck; I have both the fountain and waterfall going currently:

View from pond deck

GIF from the pond deck, with a duckling visible in their pool:

GIF from pond deck

Not long before they’ll be out in the pond; probably sometime next week.

Cat update for week ending July 18

For this week’s Caturday: Porcini by the small pond, Pommie by the cabins, Bella and Poppa by the cat house, Poppy inside the cat house, and more.

A nice picture of Porcini watching me from between the cat house and small pond:

Porcini by small pond

Pommie toe beans:

Cat toes

Sleepy Pommie:

Cabin cat

And in front of cabins:

Pommie in front of cabins

An interesting silhouette of a cat jumping up the log pile, with lots of lens flare from the sunrise:

Silhouetted cat jumping

Double-decker cats:

Two cats inside

While doing rounds, I felt I was being watched:

Cat

An animated GIF of Poppa, Pommie, and Bella arriving, Poppa eating then sitting on the deck while Pommie ate, Bella rushing him then rolling around on the ground, then finally Bella chasing Poppa off:

Cat GIF

Pommie and Poppa:

Pommie and Poppa

A GIF taking a closer look at part of that sequence, where Bella rushed at Poppa, then sniffed him:

Cat GIF

Bella rushing at Poppa, while Pommie ate:

Bella, Poppa, Pommie

I was pleased that Poppa didn’t fight back, he just raised a paw in defense; it wasn’t a serious attack. Then Bella sniffed him in a friendly way:

Bella, Poppa

Bella, Poppa, Pommie:

Bella, Poppa, Pommie

Bella rolling on the ground below Poppa:

Bella, Poppa

Poppy spent most of yesterday inside the cat house:

Poppy

Here’s a GIF of her day:

Cat GIF

Ducklings day 44

Various pictures of the ducklings from this morning:

Ducklings

A funny GIF from the cam; one of the Rouens stepped off the ledge and seemed surprised to not having any footing, and rapidly paddled to get out:

Paddling GIF

Ducklings day 40

As you will have seen in the YouTube video posted earlier, today I improved the steps into the duckling pool.

Here’s a GIF from yesterday of five ducklings in the pool, and flapping wings:

Swimming GIF

A still of those wings; still got more growing to do, but definitely looking more feathery every day:

Wings

Another shot of five in the pool:

Five in the pool

From the pond cam, Bert on the island, and me closing up the duck house last night:

Bert on the island, David at the duck house

This morning I brought a couple concrete blocks over to the duck house, and used them to make better steps for the pool, almost like a ramp:

Improved steps for pool

Inside the pool, I added bricks on either side of the steps, since they often want to get out somewhere other than the steps, and as a ledge to stand on:

Improved steps for pool

The ducklings came out to investigate while I was still filling the pool:

Ducklings

Once I was done filling, Betty headed straight in:

Ducklings

A couple in the pool, a couple stretching to reach treats from outside:

Ducklings in pool

Three in the pool:

Ducklings in pool

The water is now deep enough that they can’t touch the bottom, so they get their first taste of actual swimming:

Ducklings in pool

Splash:

Ducklings in pool

Bert watching with me:

Ducklings in pool

Ducklings day 39

Some swim time today, as you will have seen in the video posted earlier today.

Filling the pool:

Filling pool

Hey ducklings:

Ducklings

Clyde and Cora:

Clyde and Cora

Reaching for treats:

Reaching for treats

Bert by my feet:

Bert by my feet

Betty leads the way:

Betty leads the way

In the pool:

In the pool

Two in the pool

Splashes:

Splashes

GIF of splashing:

GIF of splashing

The run from further back:

The run from further back

From across the pond:

From across the pond

Flapping:

Flapping

Cat update for week ending July 11

For this week’s Caturday, we start with a not-cat, then a GIF of a day in the cat house, plus pictures of multiple cats in multiple places, a second GIF of Poppa and Pommie, checking on the shop cats, and finish with some nice shots of sunrise in the breezeway.

A raccoon visited the cabins; nobody was home at the time:

Raccoon

An animated GIF of a day in the cat house, with snuggles and other cats visiting; you may have seen the YouTube video of this timelapse:

Cat house GIF

Three cats waiting for food at the cat house:

Three cats

A rare picture of four cats inside the cat house (probably just Spud missing; no boys allowed):

Four cats

A cat walks down the breezeway, while another relaxes in the cabin:

Two cats

Poppa spent some time hanging out with Pommie:

Poppa and Pommie

A GIF:

Cabins GIF

A late departure from the breezeway cabin; sometimes it’s nice to sleep in a bit:

Breezeway cat

Checking on Pepper in the front of the shop:

Pepper

And Pansy in the back of the shop:

Pansy

Classic Poppy face:

Two cats

Need more lens flare! Sunrise this morning with Spud in the breezeway:

Spud in breezeway

Ducklings day 34

Today, cleaning the nesting boxes, a GIF of stealing a treat, and more.

Did you see the video of the ducklings?

A morning swim:

Morning swim

Messy nesting boxes:

Ducklings

Fresh straw:

Fresh straw

Ducklings

This looks like biting, but it’s really an attempt to steal the treat:

Ducklings

Which was successful, as seen in this GIF from that Live Photo:

Ducklings

Converting the fountain into a garden, part 1

One of the features of our homestead is a fountain with a flower-girl statue, that was added by a previous owner.

Here’s a GIF of the fountain from 2014:

Fountain GIF

However, we rarely ran the fountain, as it tended to spray water outside the pool, and leaked, so we had to keep topping it up. Plus, after a few years the electrical supply became unreliable, popping the GFCI increasingly frequently. And without running the fountain, the pool became a breeding ground of mosquitos and such.

So, we decided to replace the pool with a garden.

Here’s the pump in the base of the fountain, which I’ve disconnected:

Pump

I had the idea of using the fountain tube to water plants in the middle basin of the fountain, so I temporarily connected a hose to check that that would be feasible:

Hose

Yep; here’s a GIF of the fountain working from that hose:

Fountain GIF

That basin has a drain hole, so it won’t fill up with water when we put soil and plants there (the drain is still plugged in that GIF).

So, after checking that, the next step was to add a new tap for irrigation tubing to the fountain. I could have connected to the existing tap next to the fountain, but I wanted to have the tubing enter the fountain from the back, where it wouldn’t be visible from the house or deck. The garden to the right of the fountain doesn’t already have a tap, so I wanted to add one.

I knew from a previous plumbing project that there is a pipe under that garden. Here’s a picture from 2015 of an overly complex piping system I added for the flowerbeds (the tap on the left is to attach a water timer and short hose to the nearby female port, enabling timed watering, with a bypass valve too). The pipe at the top goes under the garden next to the fountain:

Flowerbed plumbing

Here’s that location now; you can see the short white hose, though there isn’t a timer connected currently:

Flowerbed plumbing

When I dug down in the garden next to the fountain, I found the pipe in the expected location:

Pipe

I turned off the garden water supply, then cut the pipe (a little water drained out):

Cut pipe

Then I added a tap:

Added tap

The next day (allowing time for the adhesive to cure) I turned the water back on, checked for leaks, then filled the hole:

Filled hole

The next step was to drill a hole through the base of the fountain wall, so I could have the irrigation tubing tidily go through the wall rather than over it. To do that, I previously purchased a rather large 1 inch by 16 inch masonry drill bit:

1 inch by 16 inch drill bit

Here’s the drill bit in my driver:

Drill bit in driver

Though after a while I switched to a dedicated drill. It took over an hour to get through the concrete-filled block of the wall:

Drilling

The hole:

Hole

Then I added an irrigation pipe from the new tap through the hole:

Irrigation pipe

Inside the fountain pool, I added a T-junction to the irrigation pipe, with one fork going to the fountain tubing, the other for sprinkler emitters for the bottom level:

Irrigation pipe