Flock Friday for February 19

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:

Aerial pond

Duck prints in the snow:

Duck prints in snow

Despite the days of freezing weather, the pond didn’t fully freeze at all; the closest it came was a slushy crust:

Slushy pond

Ducks in slushy pond

The hummingbirds were very hungry with no other food sources:

Hummingbirds

Ducks on pond bank, with melting snow:

Ducks on pond bank

Ducks on the island:

Ducks on pond 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:

Ducks on pond island

Hungry hummingbirds again:

Hummingbirds

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks on the lawn

Let’s finish with a couple of token chicken pictures:

Chickens

Ice storm: generator, chickens, ducks, bees

Our electricity is still off due to the ice storm a couple of nights ago. Fortunately we have a portable generator, and fortunately I recently got it serviced so it actually works. I had it running most of the day yesterday, and expect to keep it going all day today (I turned it off overnight). It is providing power to our kitchen fridge/freezer, and currently slowly recharging the UPS for our internet router and Wi-Fi, and can be used to recharge other devices as needed:

Generator

Since we’re on a well, when the power is off, we don’t have any water, so we are using water jugs:

Water jug

Though weirdly when we flush a toilet it does refill; I know there’s some water in the pipes and pressure tank, but I would have expected that to be exhausted quickly, but hasn’t been yet. Upstairs, what’s more. Could water be coming up from the well without the pump?! We don’t want to push our luck, but are glad we don’t have to refill the cisterns the hard way yet.

Ice on a tree by the chicken runs:

Ice on tree by chicken run

Ice on the chicken run roof netting; it’s survived much better than the old netting I had previously:

Ice on chicken run roof netting

Chicken coop icicles:

Chicken coop icicles

The chickens are quite happy to stay inside, thank you very much:

Chickens

I took a look at the beehives this morning:

Beehives

They each have a sheet of ice on their roof, which could be concerning, as the heat of the hive should have melted it, though the feeders on top of each hive may have insulated the roof from them:

Beehives

Levitating ice:

Beehives

There are a bunch of dead bees on some of the hive entrances, which is actually a good sign — it proves there are some bees active to clean out the dead ones. There are thousands of bees in each hive, so a few dead ones is normal and not concerning. I did see a live one walking around, too, probably on the cleanup crew:

Bees

Ice storm: icy branches, icicles, ducks, hummingbirds

We had an ice storm last night. This morning, everything is covered in a layer of ice, with some powdery snow on top. Only about half an inch of each, but it was enough to knock out our power (and for everyone else in the region).

Some icy branches:

Icy branches

Tree branches weighed down; they’re normally high enough to walk under, not touching the ground:

Tree branches

Icy willow branches:

Icy branches

I lifted up a sample, looking edge on: a layer of ice with a layer of snow on top:

Snow and ice

The pond is starting to freeze. Just slushy at present, with some liquid on the edges:

Slushy pond and ducks

The ramp into the duck house is icy, but they can make it, so still have access to food:

Slushy pond and ducks

Icicles on the duck house:

Icicles

The ducks:

Slushy pond and ducks

Icicles on the bird food box:

Icicles

And the gazebo and deck:

Icicles

The hummingbird feeders were frozen; I brought this one inside to defrost:

Frozen hummingbird feeder

Since we don’t have power now, and thus can’t use the heater, I’m alternating the hummingbird feeders. We can heat water to make the sugar syrup using a kettle on our gas stove. They’re very hungry, unsurprisingly:

Hummingbirds

I’ll go out to the chicken coop every few hours to poke at their water dispensers, to break up the ice.

Our internet is working for now, powered by a UPS, though we’ll probably turn it off soon to preserve the battery. Fun times!

Flock Friday for February 12

It’s currently snowing; some snowy duck and chicken pictures towards the end of this post. Plus some pictures of the ducks using the new island, which makes me happy.

But first, a funny picture of a stretching chicken; such a long neck!

Stretching chicken

The ducks in the pond:

Ducks

On the edge of the pond:

Ducks

To see the new island, I moved the second camera to further back:

Camera

This is just a temporary placement, to check that the location works; at some point I’ll mount it more permanently:

Camera

The view from that camera, showing the first duck to go onto the island:

Ducks on island

Several ducks on the island:

Ducks on island

Chickens in the veggie garden:

Chickens in the veggie garden

Chickens with leafy treats:

Chickens

In a nesting box:

Chicken in nesting box

Coming into the coop to get mealworm treats:

Chickens in coop

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

Sleeping ducks:

Sleeping ducks

When approaching the pond, I noticed some ducks on the island; my first non-cam photo of them using it:

Ducks on island

Of course, as I got closer, most left it and swum towards me (swum/swam… grammar is hard):

Duck on island

Just Bert left on the island:

Duck on island

It snowed overnight. Here are some ducks on the island, and the older upturned pot islands, with snowy banks:

Ducks on island

Ducks going after leafy treats while it snows; they don’t care about the snow:

Ducks

Yes, the pond hasn’t frozen yet. It takes a while for it to cool down enough, but considering the high temperature today is about freezing level, I expect it to start to freeze in the next day or two.

Here are some ducks sleeping on the ledge at the edge, and some on the island:

Ducks

Ducks are very cold-hardy, but it’s probably warmer in the water than on land right now.

The chickens aren’t such fans of the snow. They came out to get their treats this morning:

Chickens in the snow

Then headed inside:

Chickens

Duck island installation via cams

Yesterday I posted about installing the new floating duck island. Today, some additional pictures of that process, as captured by the two cameras that watch the pond.

To start, here’s me easing the cart and island down the bank into the pond, as seen by the cam near the duck house:

Island down the bank into the pond

Another angle, from the pond deck cam:

Island into the pond

Island off the cart:

Island off the cart

Adding the two extra buoyancy buckets:

Adding extra buoyancy buckets

Moving it to by the duck house:

Moving it to by the duck house

Removing the upturned boat:

Removing the upturned boat

A wheelbarrow of dirt (look next to the datestamp):

Wheelbarrow of dirt

Adding dirt:

Adding dirt

Adding grasses:

Adding grasses

Digging up grasses next to the duck house (it was encroaching a bit too close, so I wanted to remove some anyway):

Digging up grasses

Wading in the pond again to plant the grasses in the dirt:

Planting grasses

Anchoring the island:

Anchoring

Ducks investigating the island from a safe distance, an hour after I was done:

Ducks beyond island

Ducks near the island this morning; I haven’t seen any go onto it yet, but at least they aren’t totally avoiding it:

Ducks near island

While on morning rounds, I propped up the old boat with a couple of logs:

Propped up boat

The thought is that they could use it as an additional shelter, e.g. for laying eggs:

Propped up boat

Here it is from across the pond. It isn’t super attractive, though has a certain aged rustic charm. I might move it elsewhere, but that’ll do for now:

Propped up boat

Some more pictures of the island:

Island

A glimpse of ducks on the bank at the back of the pond:

Ducks

Duck island installation!

Having completed construction on my duck island project last weekend, today I installed it in the pond.

I started by gathering up some tools, the two extra buoyancy buckets, and an empty bucket, and pulled it out of the workshop (remember, it was already sitting on my cart):

Duck island pulled out of workshop

I also attached a couple of bungee cords to the cart, to make sure it wouldn’t slide around too much:

Bungees

I added a couple of eye rings to attach the anchor cord:

Eye

Then I dragged it all to the pond, the long way around the veggie garden (as it was too wide to fit down the most direct path). I took a breather halfway there:

Halfway

Near the edge of the pond:

At pond

I then put on my waders, and lowered it — cart and all — down the bank and into the water:

Into the water

You can also see the anchor cord in that picture, a plastic-wrapped wire with spring clips on the ends (actually a dog tie-out cord, that I bought for this purpose). I also added a short piece of pool noodle to the cord, so it’d float if unhooked, though I later decided it was ugly and removed it; I can re-add it if and when I need to unhook it.

As I got deeper, it floated off the cart:

Off the cart

Floating high out of the water, just as expected:

Floating

I then inserted those two extra buoyancy buckets under the island, and used the empty bucket to add some water to the island to test weighing it down a bit.

I moved it over to near the duck house, and hitched the anchor cord to it temporarily:

Hitched to the duck house

Then I got out of the waders, and went and got a small wheelbarrow load of dirt:

Wheelbarrow of dirt

Then a second larger load of dirt:

More dirt

It was then floating lower with the weight of the dirt; just about the desired level:

Floating lower with dirt

Next, I dug up some of the grasses that grow like weeds next to the pond, and tossed them onto the island, with a larger one in the center:

Grasses

The island could be a little lower, but I wanted to err on the side of a bit higher, to allow for the dirt to get saturated. I might add more later, once I see how it stabilizes.

Then back into the waders and into the pond, where I poked the grasses into the dirt:

Grasses

The grasses are pretty dormant at present, and some may not survive the transplant, but hopefully some will. They’re pretty hardy. I can always add more later.

That done, I moved the island to the desired position, near the center of the pond, and anchored it by stringing the anchor wire through a couple of cinderblocks, that are sitting on some spare pond liner (to protect the pond floor):

Anchored

Here are some more pictures of the island in position:

Island

Pond and island

It’ll probably take the ducks a few days to get used to it there. Hopefully it won’t freak them out as much as the upturned boat did (which I have moved to the pond bank for now). It looks like it fits much more than that did.

My waders seems to have sprung a leak around my knee; I could feel cold water seeping in, and the leg of my work overalls and sock was wet. I guess I need to try to patch it, or buy a new one:

Wet leg

That concludes the duck island project, at least for now. It may get tweaks over time. I hope the ducks like it, once they get used to it being there. It was a fun little project, started almost on a whim, and mostly using materials I already had on hand.

Flock Friday for February 5

It’s quack and cluck day.

Here are the quackers beyond the pond:

Ducks

And the cluckers in their run:

Chickens

The ducks in and next to the pond:

Ducks

The chickens are ramping back up laying eggs; they slow down in fall while molting, but are back up to about five per day at present:

Eggs

I often include screenshots from the cam viewing iPad app in my Caturday posts, but don’t tend to do so for the chickens and ducks, since it’s more easy to take better photos of them. But here are some samples.

Firstly, the page that shows the new chicken coop, the duck house, and two angles of the pond:

Chickens and ducks on cams

Later in the day; you can see how the upturned boat shifts around (I have yet to see the ducks on it; I’ll remove it when I install the duck island):

Chickens and ducks on cams

Another page in the app shows the old and new chicken coops, and the old and new chicken runs. Here you can see them starting to head inside as dusk approaches:

Chickens on cams

Heading up to the roosts:

Chickens on cams

All settled:

Chickens on cams

The pop doors automatically close when it gets dark:

Chickens on cams

Duck island completed construction

Yesterday I did the finishing construction touches on my pond island project: adding some bracing, the pond liner to hold the dirt, and some bumpers.

I started by added some bracing boards to help prevent the pond liner from sagging under the weight of the dirt. The liner is pretty stiff, and will be supported by the water, but a bit of extra support can’t hurt:

Added bracing boards

Another reason for that was to prevent the buoyancy buckets from pushing up into the liner:

Bucket strap

Plus I attached a pipe strap to support the buckets, to keep them off the ground during transport to the pond; again, the water will support them once in the pond:

Bucket strap

Here’s the last look at the island structure before adding the liner:

Island

Next I added the pond liner, using some scraps I had on hand. (Other than the buoyancy buckets and pipes, all of the materials for this project are things I already had spare; I always order extras when getting lumber etc for projects.)

There wasn’t a piece big enough to cover the whole island, so I added two overlapping pieces. Here’s the first, temporarily weighed down with heavy buckets to help position and shape it:

Adding pond liner

The liner is attached to the frame using screws and washers:

Screw and washers

Here’s the whole island with both pieces of liner installed:

Pond liner

(The liner is wet because it was sitting on the driveway while constructing the rest.)

I didn’t bother trimming the liner on the angles, I just tucked it behind the lower platforms, which helps fill the gap between the frame and platform, too:

Liner tucked

Lastly, I slit pool noodles and added them as bumpers on the lower platforms, to prevent damage to the pond if the island floats free and hits a side:

Pool noodle bumper

I will anchor it when installing it, but doesn’t hurt to be cautious. The noodles might provide some buoyancy benefit, though will probably become waterlogged over time.

Like the liner, the noodles are attached with screws and washers (small and larger washers on each):

Screw and washers

That completes the construction of the island! 🎉

Island

The next step will be to take it to the pond. It’s already on the cart, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get it there. I may need Jenn’s help in getting it from the cart into the water without damaging anything. Though one interesting notion could be to take the cart into the pond, and float it off. Either way, I’ll be wading in the pond.

I’ll be very interested to see at what level it floats. Once it is, I’ll try adding water to weigh it down, if it doesn’t all leak out between the two liner layers, then add dirt and grasses. I’ll also position it and anchor it to some cinderblocks on the pond floor.

The next update should be super exciting; stay tuned!

Flock Friday for January 29

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:

Thermostatic controller

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:

Hummingbird feeder heater

Here’s a closer view of the feeder and heating pad:

Hummingbird feeder heater

The first customer approaches:

Hummingbird

A couple of hummingbirds:

Hummingbirds

A cam shot of the ducks on a snowy morning:

Ducks

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:

Aerial ducks

Snowy ducks:

Ducks

A couple more pictures of hummingbirds, with at least 15 visible on the two closest feeders:

Hummingbirds

A closer look at the hummingbirds on the house feeder:

Hummingbirds

A bunch of pictures of the chickens, with new pumpkin and apple treats (and the older pumpkin shells slowly dissolving):

Chickens

The ducks on the back lawn:

Ducks

Snowing:

Ducks

A GIF of ducks going after mealworm treats while it’s snowing:

Ducks

A couple more pictures of ducks:

Ducks

Duck

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.

Duck island tweak

Only a little time to work on the duck island project yesterday (Weekend Wednesday). I spent about a third of the time planning the previously-mentioned upper platform, about a third changing my mind about the position of the pipes, obviating that platform, and a third moving the pipes. Read on for details.

Last time I wrote about the buoyancy of the island, and adding the ring of 4 inch pipes inside the frame as part of that. The plan was to add the dirt-containing pond liner over the top of the pipes, then build a third platform level on top of that. So I started by laying out some scraps of wood to prototype the platform:

Platform prototype

Another angle:

Platform prototype

But on further reflection, I thought that the position of the pipes was suboptimal… or not optimal for submarine buoyancy. As mentioned last time, I wanted the water level to be about halfway up the pipes, which seems a waste of the buoyancy potential of them… and with the expected weight of the island and dirt, I need every bit of buoyancy.

So I decided that the ring of pipes should be below the 2x4s, not above, i.e. underneath the island instead of within the surrounding frame. Which also means I probably won’t need the upper platform I’d just prototyped; the dirt can just go to the edge of the frame, as I’d originally envisioned.

Having decided that, I unscrewed the metal hanger straps and carefully removed the pipes:

Removed pipes

I then lifted the island onto an edge, so I could access the bottom:

Island on edge

Then mounted the pipes underneath:

Pipes underneath island

A closer view:

Pipes

A pipe strap:

Pipe strap

I also mounted a couple of the buckets, attaching them with heavy-duty fence staples:

Bucket

Maybe the last view of underneath the island, with the pipes and a couple of buckets:

Underneath

I didn’t attach the other two buckets, as they would get in the way of the cart. I can just tuck the buckets under there while installing; they’ll be contained by the wood and pipes.

Back down on to the cart:

Island

A closeup of a bucket and the pipes below the frame; the bucket will be lower down later; it’s just resting against the pipe for now:

Bucket and pipe

The current state of the island:

Back down on cart

So not as much progress as I’d hoped, but that’s fine; this was a worthwhile tweak.

Next time, hopefully, I’ll add the pond liner. But before that, I’m thinking I’ll add a few 1×2 strips to help support the liner, to prevent sagging.

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Yellow Cottage Homestead

Chickens, bees, feral cats, lavender, and more.

Pond

Flock Friday for February 19

Ice storm: generator, chickens, ducks, bees

Ice storm: icy branches, icicles, ducks, hummingbirds

Flock Friday for February 12

Duck island installation via cams

Duck island installation!

Flock Friday for February 5

Duck island completed construction

Flock Friday for January 29

Duck island tweak