The ducks swimming in the pond, enjoying mealworm treats tossed from the pond deck.
Ducklings day 55: more swimming
Now that the new ducks are in the pond, I don’t consider them ducklings anymore, but I’ll continue with the “ducklings day” title for now, as long as I’m doing daily posts on them. Which I really should phase out, but I’m so enjoying sharing the fun of seeing them in the pond.
An animated GIF of Betty treading water:
Betty and Bert:
Afternoon ducks:
Flapping wings to go faster, pretty much running on the water:
Actually, that’s best experienced as a GIF, too:
Flapping wings:
GIF of Betty diving underwater:
Dragonfly and ducks:
Flapping wings:
Ducklings day 54: into the pond!
Yesterday I opened the duck house pop door for the first time, and while Bert joined them, the new ducks didn’t venture into the pond. But today was different; they had their first swims in the pond!
Here they are in their house, after I opened the pop door:
As mentioned in the video I posted on YouTube earlier today, since they weren’t showing any sign of wanting to go out, I basically nudged them out the door. I can understand their hesitation, but sometimes a bit more encouragement is needed.
The three female ducks went out first.
(Fun fact digression: female ducks are called “hens” or just “ducks”, while males are called “drakes”, but I don’t bother with that, since that might cause confusion with the chicken hens.)
Bert showed them around — “here is where you can get treats and steal fish food when the human does afternoon rounds”:
Then I encouraged the boys out, and they joined the girls in a corner of the pond:
Duck zoomies:
Sven flapping his wings:
Flapping, dunking, and splashing in the shallow end of the pond:
Flapping wings:
Nice formation:
Backlit and sunbeams from the other side of the pond:
A while later, they returned to their run for a rest:
Nap time; all that swimming was hard work!
(That’s Bert in the pool.)
New ducks first swim
Since the new ducks didn’t avail themselves of the pond when I opened the pop door yesterday, today I “encouraged” them (I basically shoved them out the door). The three females went first, and Bert showed them around the pond, then the boys joined them.
This video contains five clips from their first swim, from different vantage points around the pond.
Ducklings day 53
Today’s the day! Today I opened the pop door of the duck house. But it didn’t go quite as expected.
As mentioned yesterday, I didn’t expect them all to go into the pond… but I didn’t anticipate what actually happened: instead of the new ducks joining Bert in the pond, Bert joined them in the duck house!
We began the day the same as usual, opening up the duck house and refilling their waterer and pool:
And the usual treats:
Sven, Sonja, Cora:
Then I opened the pop door, that little door that leads to a ramp into the pond; here it’s partway open:
Looking in through the pop door at some surprised ducks:
Almost immediately, Bert hopped out of the pond onto the ramp and into the house. He really wanted to be with them. Here he’s to the right of Betty:
Bert in the duck house:
Bert’s the one at the back:
Bert in front:
Looking through the vent of the duck house:
Bert is on the ground, Betty on the steps:
He didn’t show any aggression towards them, or vice versa; they seem to have successfully gotten used to each other through the fence.
I decided to add more ceramic pots to the pond as islands, anticipating the new ducks sleeping outside (in due course); these are three spare pots:
I added two of them near the existing one (the square one on top of a concrete block):
And the third in a shallower part, since it was smaller:
While wading in the pond, I took some pictures of the ducks; here Bert is watching me from the pop door:
After lunch, back at the duck house, I noticed lots of bees drinking from the pond; it’s a hot day today (95° F), so the bees are extra thirsty:
The ducks still hadn’t ventured into the pond, so I opened the run fence on the pond side, to see if that’d help. Spoiler: nope:
The ducks watching from the house:
View from across the pond:
As I write this, the new ducks still haven’t ventured into the pond. We’ll see if they do later, or maybe another day.
Bert joins the new ducks
Today we opened the duck house pop door, enabling the new ducks to go into the pond, but instead Bert took the opportunity to join them in their house and run. (Bert is the duck closest to the pop door.)
Ducklings day 52
Today is the last day before the new ducks can go free-range; I plan to open the pop door and let them go into the pond tomorrow morning.
I don’t expect them all to take that opportunity the first day, though having access to the run and pool might make them more comfortable with going into the pond than the ducklings last year, who didn’t have that advantage. I’m very glad I hacked together the run this year:
Betty on the steps:
Cora shaking off water:
I wanted to compare Clive and Cora; Clive has darker wing feathers, and Cora is more uniform, but their bills and feet are very similar. As mentioned yesterday, Clive will put on a bit more of a show in spring, and I think in the fall too:
An animated slow-mo GIF of Cora dunking and the water flowing off her back:
And a slow-mo GIF of flapping her wings; look at all those feathers:
Setting up the swimming pool
I usually have a fairly strict separation of topics between my personal blog and my homestead blog: the personal blog is for short posts about personal stuff, and links to my homestead and Dejal blogs, and the homestead blog is for longer posts about animals, gardens, and building projects.
But they’re my blogs, so I can bend the guidelines if I want. This post is something I’d usually cover on my personal blog, but I wanted to do a longer post, and it kinda relates to a building project (the pool deck), so I’ll let it slide. Let’s not make a habit of it, though, eh.
Anyway, the topic (as you might have surmised from the title) is setting up our above-ground swimming pool. Something I do each year, for us to enjoy for something between about 5 and 15 swims between late July and early September, before taking it down again and storing it in our workshop for the rest of the year.
Speaking of my personal blog, you might recognize a cropped edition of this picture from my most recent What’s It Wednesday post: the poles and supports for the pool, as stacked in the back of the shop:
The two solar panels are also stored back there, somewhat rolled up:
But the first thing I bring over is the pool liner. Here it’s folded up on my cart. It’s rather heavy and bulky, but each year I’ve been getting better at wrangling it (or maybe all this homestead lifestyle is improving my muscles?):
Then I bring over the poles and supports in two cart loads:
Along with tubing and pool floats:
Some of the components next to the pool area:
The steps we got last year live next to the pool deck, being weather hardy and rather heavy, though the two buckets of sand, used as weights for the steps, were stored in the shop:
Once everything is on hand, I spread out the tatty old tarp as extra protection for the pool liner (I really should buy a replacement):
Then I lay out the pool liner, carefully positioning it based on some nails in the ground I added as markers last year, to ensure proper alignment with the pool deck. I also move the steps onto the liner, and insert the poles and supports:
A closer look at the supports:
The assembled (but empty) pool:
I then add the sand buckets under the steps, suspended from it, and position the steps in the right place, on a protective mat:
The skimmer, not yet connected:
Another view of the steps; notice that I’m starting to add the water; it takes quite a long time to fill:
The steps are screwed to the pond deck:
The pool continues to fill overnight. In the morning, it is pretty much filled:
It’s a lot of water, but our well can handle it, and the water is returned to the ground when we’re done with it.
Here are the sand filter and pump:
And the solar heaters; the water flows from the pump via the filter, then through the solar panels, warming the water from heat from the sun adsorbed in the black plastic:
The completed pool:
It just needs a few hot days for the water to warm up from the cold water out of our well, to a bearable temperature.
Now it feels like summer!
Cat update for week ending July 25
This week for Caturday, a couple of GIFs with Poppa and Bella, and the usual assortment of cat pics.
Paladout is watched from the cat house:
Poppy and Pommie:
The mushroom girls, Bella and Porcini:
Poppa, with Porcini in the background:
An animated GIF of Poppa drinking, with Porcini approaching from the back, then Bella rushes up, chasing Poppa:
Another GIF from a few minutes later; Bella was having a bath, Poppa started to get comfortable, and Bella didn’t allow that:
She seems to have a bit of a problem with him; they don’t fight, she just appears to want to put him in his place.
Porcini relaxing on their deck:
Pommie in front of the cabins:
Pommie watching me from behind the cabins:
Costco deliveries:
Three cats:
Poppa and Pommie sniffing noses:
Pepper in her nest on the shelves in the front of the shop:
Three cats:
Snuggles:
Ducklings day 51
Today, I feel like I’m being watched, and I watch shimmery feathers.
Everybody looking at me in the morning:
Just waiting for their treats:
I was fascinated by the green feathers of a Rouen:
Or are they blue feathers?
Green feathers?
Fascinating feathers:
By the way, the Rouens currently look like females, though I know they are both males. Apparently they only have the colorful plumage in spring; other times they have more female-looking feathers to blend in. Sneaky! Should be interesting to watch. I didn’t see that with Bert, as he stayed the Buff color year-round (though did get the characteristically male tail curl in spring).
Swimming for treats:
I feel like I’m being watched again; heads tilted to point an eye at me:
Afternoon mealworms:
