Deal Breaker

Lady is healing very well. The paw paw ointment has worked a treat and the wound is sealed and she's all nice and clean. Actually she's clean for Lady (which is sort of still dirty). I really want to go and give her a bath in the pond, but I don't think she'd be very happy about that.

Everyone is still on lock down, I think they will be for the next day or two at least. The pen door will remain closed during the day, especially while Lady is in there.

I sat outside (near the back door) with Tommy, Izzy and Kitci last night and I had a good chat to Tommy. I told him to be brave and to look after everyone, Speedy included and to try to be nicer to Kitcsi. I'm not sure what's going to happen with my blog or the animals. I imagine they will remain at Hydrorancho living the good life.

I've been picking Speedy up and giving her lots of love and it appears that she's won the heart of Golden Child. Personally I don't see what she likes in him, but then again I'm not a chicken. Speedy is three this month, actually she's probably three already. She is the third oldest hen we have. Happy Birthday Princess Speedy the Wonder Chicken.

Plane banter

I can always rely on the ducks and chickens to bring me happiness in times of trouble.

I started talking to a guy on one of the many flights I had to catch when I was returning from Ohio recently. We did the pleasantry chat, "What do you do?"etc. I told him I was going home to see my ducks and no I couldn't have a drink as I had 3 more flights to do that night.


He told me he wished he had something that made him glow as much as I did when I talked about my ducks.


We are going to take Lady's bandage off her wing today and put paw paw ointment on her wound. We will take her up to the pond for a bath once wounds have scabbed up. She doesn't like that we are giving her tablets 2 times a day, or being touched so she'll clean herself up when she's ready.

We have a Lady down

I went to check on the animals today and I noticed a chicken looking at Lady on her nest. So I too went in and looked at Lady on the nest and all I could see was blood.
Lady was attacked by a fox or perhaps goanna and took lots of feathers out and punctured her right wing. Nothing is broken, there is just lots of blood and a big wound. We wrapped her up to stop the bleeding and then rushed her to the vets. The vet bandaged her wing and then started her on a dose of antibiotics.
We are going to keep the animals penned for the next few days and hopefully the fox will go away. Our freezer in the shed died and it wreaked of death so we think that it may have attracted the animals.
I will keep you updated of Lady's progress.

Isabel

Sometimes I call call my duck Izzy, Isabel even Isabella, I'm not sure she responds to any of the names I call her, but she does look like all three. She's very pretty and dainty, she remindes me of Lady before Lady started channelling Miss Muffet (not the sick Miss Muffet, the friendly, dirty one).

Izzy has been hanging out with the two boys, roughing it, keeping them in check by making them follow her everywhere. I'm working on getting her to eat out of my hand, but she still isn't quite sure of me.

Albie

Albie is off her smelly nest and not really loving it. Here she is watching something happening in the chicken house. She's so cute, although she's not happy with me at the moment.

Super Deluxe

Well here it is. The new pen, I think Papa has named it something to do with being snake proof 2.0, but I'm not sure of the exact details.

As you can see the roof is nice and hard. The wire is hard and the gaps are very small, the wire is dug into the ground and cemented into place so that neither rat or snake can enter. I was talking to the neighbour next door and he mentioned that they have had many snakes come through their pen. Midget chicken from next door had 9 babies a few weeks ago, but now only has two.

Yesterday I went into the pen armed with a face mask and wheelbarrow and cleaned out all of the nests (sorry Albie). But damn those eggs stunk, I think some of them were months old. Enough was enough for the chickens and duck included. I could barely walk in there without gaging. So I got rid of all the eggs and replaced it with nice fresh hay. Albie still hasn't forgiven me, she will with time.
Lady is the only one still nesting (on one chicken egg). I told her, if her nest starts to stink I'll get rid of her nest too. I'm happy to have her nesting as she looks a little scraggy, she's lost some weight from nesting so long, but her feathers appear to be damaged. Here she is watching me work yesterday.

Coyote

When I was visiting Remy we managed to spot a coyote twice over two different days.  The second time I was ready and armed with the camera.  The first time I missed it, so we turned around and drove back to where we first saw it.  My eyes were darting the area looking for the coyote.  As I had never seen a coyote before all I could imagine was this image from the Roadrunner cartoon.

No more holidays!

I had the most amazing time meeting Remy, Ripley, baby Cleo, Riley and Madison on my trip to the states. I got to go to daycare and see where Remy hangs out with her friends. I was welcomed with open arms and I miss it so much already. Here is Remy sledding with her best friend Ripley.

After I showed Papa all of my great photos he commented that they'd be even better if they were in focus. So while now I do have a new lens cap, that doesn't make me a better photographer.

The ducks and chickens were looked after brilliantly by Papa while I was away. He, Tibi and Natbob fixed the chicken pen. The wire is all new, its rat (and snake proof) and the roof is hard. It's now perfect, I will take some photos while its still all shiny and new.

Spoiler

Papa found out Tony's name yesterday.. Are you ready?
Its Spirit, he's been named after a cartoon movie staring Matt Damon. At first I thought maybe he was named after Spirited Away, the Japanese movie, but then I just looked it up on IMDB and he wasn't. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166813/
The neighbours gotten another two horses, they are black. I'm not sure of their names.

I'm still going to call Spirit, Tony. He just seems so much more like a Tony to me.

Speedy

Speedy left the nest again today. I think she must be over sitting on eggs, or no eggs the way her and Lady keep fighting of the three they have.

With the light outside it looked like Speedy has such blue feathers, I'm not sure if it translates into the photo though. I was pretty lucky to get one that was reasonable in focus. Speedy's mum always had blue feathers, she was such a good mother and layer.

Speedy will be three in December. Tommy is already three and Kitsci, Albie and Izzy will be one in January. How time flies.

Conversations with Papa

This morning I had the following conversation with Papa:

"Lady bit me yesterday" I said
"Where you annoying her?" Papa asked
"Well sort of" I replied.

I couldn't find her little housemate Speedy in the box so when I tried to replace the nest/box over her, I didn't want to squash Lady's tail so I proceeded to try to move her tail out of the way.
I'm not sure if you'd call that annoying her?

I am off to see Remy tomorrow and I'm just so lazy, I've got so much work today.
I think I will go out and film some footage of the animals to show her.

Spring is here

The brown hen in the pen has about 10 babies, I was feeding her yesterday as she is still sitting with her babies. Izzy is still nesting, but not on any eggs. The one black hen left the nest with the one baby chick she and Izzy hatched.

I noticed yesterday when I walked into the pen that every time I step past Speedy and Ladies box/nest Speedy makes a little noise. She's like one of those door chimes when you walk into a shop. I think I must have harassed her too much on the nest by patting her.
Speedy cracks me up when she's nesting as like all chickens, she goes into this "I'm nesting" zone, where she doesn't eat or drink or leave the nest. Lady on the other hand loves it when I give her food while nesting. Yesterday I put the seed bowl into their nest so Lady could eat some food, so she was tucking into it, and Speedy just watch getting jealous, and only after Lady ate did Speedy realised that she wanted to maybe eat a little two. Honestly I could just watch that duck and chicken for hours.

Both Tommy and Kitcsi have sore feet, I'm not sure what happened to either of them, its probably just a prickle, but I'll keep an eye on them. In the evening last night, Kitcsi sat up in his bed with his sore foot up hissing at Tommy while Tommy did the same with his other foot hissing at Kitsci. They never let up.

Special moment

What an interesting morning indeed. Well not that interesting but truly special.
I've been walking up to the water tank daily (well, when I can be bothered) these past few mornings. On Sunday when I walked through the rain forest part I thought to myself "I wonder if koalas live in here?" I've never seen one. This is true. The only koala I've ever seen on the property was one night and I watched it cross the driveway.
So this morning I was walking up after watering the finger limes and I heard a noise in the rain forest. At first I thought it may be a wallaby so I took a few more steps and crouched down. I was so excited when I saw a koala climb up a tree, it was obviously on the look out for the noise (me) as it kept looking around. I watched it climb right to the tree. It may sound a little Corny, but it was a real magical experience. So after I realised it was still looking for me, I stood up quite loudly and took big steps continuing my walk up the hill. I didn't look at the koala and I pretended that I didn't see it as I didn't want to make it scared.

I spent the day working in Brisbane yesterday only to return home to Lady completely freaking out. She was attacking any animal/person in her sight. She tried to attack me, but knew better.
I didnt really understand why she was so upset until I found out that someone (not me or Papa) brought into the house the two last eggs that Princess Speedy and Lady had been nesting on. I ended up having to throw them out as they had been cold for a while. I gave Speedy some replacement eggs last night after I found out her babies where stolen.

Baby news

Well as it turns out, I was over reacting (who would have guessed?) about Tommy. It appears that everyone has been feeling the heat, dust storms and lack of rain. I'm forever noticing small things about the ducks and all of them turn out to be nothing. I guess its better that I'm being observant/vigilant.

In more nesting news Speedy and Lady are not getting along at all, Speedy has taken her egg bitchiness to a new level and was attacking Lady yesterday. They fight over these two eggs it's hilarious as neither of them laid the egg. Yesterday Speedy left the nest and was sitting on someone else's eggs but then today she was back on them and Lady was off. I had to let Albie out of the pen early this morning as she was chasing Albie around the pen.

Izzy is now the proud share mother with a black hen to some chickens. Papa asked me the other day whether I thought Izzy would kill the baby chicks or raise them with the hen. I'm still not sure what will happen, but I was a little concerned as I saw a little dead baby chick on the ground near their nest. I think this must have been sick or something as I heard chirping the other day and finally saw one this morning.

I'm really not sure how this is going to work out, but if I can raise a chicken well then a duck can raise a chicken. I'll go out to the pen and take some photos. Here is a photo taken of Izzy and the hen a few days ago. I will go out there later and try to snap one of the chicks.

all eyes on tommy

While not wanting to panic anyone too much, me included. I noticed just before that Tommy is occasionally breathing through this mouth. I always get really worried when I notice a duck with his/her mouth open. Ducks are not like dogs and find it cooling to pant. While it is really hot here today, I'm just going to keep a close eye on Tommy. If I notice his breathing to be strained or laboured he's going straight to the vets in Currumbin Valley. I wont risk it taking him to here in Mullum.

Best buds

Tommy spends his days following Kitsci around, especially now that Izzy and Lady are off nesting with the chickens.

Today I thought Izzy was going to suffocate a chicken by sitting on her. Izzy makes me laugh as I know that she'd prefer to be out and about walking around and swimming but instead she nests with the chicken. Whenever I go into the pen (which is often) Izzy always pops her head up just enough so she can watch what I do.

I think we had a snake visitor the other night as Lady and Speedy's eggs have all gone and Lady's face looks like she's had a bit of a fight. I don't think Speedy has injured Lady so I'm guessing it was a snake. When a goanna eats the eggs it normally leaves the shell. I had a better look at her face today and its a little puffy but she'll be fine. I put some paw paw ointment on it, so she'll make a 'speedy' recovery.

Laziness

Alright alright, I know I've been lazy and well, today is a new day. Lets just say a corner has been turned and I'm ready to continue blogging about farm life here at Hydrorancho.

I've been back from my travels for nearly a month now so I'll bring you up to speed on whats been going on:

• we had a fire at the ranch, but as you are mostly aware it didn't come down to the house and the animals were all safe


• Everyone was looked after well while I was away and they all missed me a lot


• Aunt Izzy from USA came and visited everyone for 24 hours


• Tommy still hates Kitcsi, who has now taken to beating up any rooster he can catch


• Izzy is now nesting with a chicken in the pen


• Lady is nesting with Speedy, who has been gracious enough to lend her a few chicken eggs

There is also the mystery of Brown Bitch, but I'll save that for next time...

I'm coming Remy!

I'm coming to LA to meet you Remy. Fresh from my European summer I'm packing my bags to come and meet you (and your parents of course) this coming October.

See you soon!

Babies

I miss my babies, I'm sure Speedy even misses me too.

Here are some photos I found on the camera, taken just before we flew out. It feels like ages ago, but it was only a few weeks. I've been showing everyone my Kitcsi Katcsa's (translation - small duck). Its funny hearing people call them katcsa, when I think "no that's not Katcsa, she died, this is Tommy or Izzy" but as katcsa is hungarian for duck I know they are right.

I received an emai from the neighbours yesterday and everything is going fine, so thats great to hear.

Here I come Maru!

Well I'm off tomorrow, the neighbour is all lined up to look after the animals. I'm going to miss my babies, but I'll try not to dwell on it too much as I'M ON HOLIDAY.

I'm off to the country of Maru, my favourite pussy in all the land. http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/

I'm not sure if I'll be blogging while I'm away, it just wont be the same as I wont actually be at Hydrorancho. Who knows, hopefully I'll see a few ducks in my travels.

Girls gone wild

As I was penning everyone up this afternoon, Izzy was fighting with Albie. Then Lady got in on the action and all three of them were chatting to Tommy about it, who appeared to not want to know about it and kept walking off. I think they were fighting over who Tommy loved the most.

I've been trying to get as much duck and Speedy time in as possible before I go on holiday this Saturday. I'm really going to miss the babies while I'm away. This will be the longest time I've been away from the duckies. I'm sure they will miss me.

Coffee guest

We had a guest at our back window yesterday morning. Papa sure does know how to take a great photo.

Motherlover

Yesterday I let Kitcsi out of the pen and he ran like a greyhound out of the box for Lady. He chased and chased her, she ran flying, and I chased after them. I'm not sure if I scared Kitcsi enough as he was at it most of the day. Tommy tried to do his usual cock blocking but he wasn't as good as it as Beaker or Mandy were.
Kitcsi had one thing on the brain yesterday and it was no doubt a sign of the times to come.

Sat morning

The phone is great, although not using it to its full potential it is easy to take relatively good shots with. Lady must have thought it was a big block of cheese, that's why she's coming so close. Kitcsi seems to be enjoying his new bed, it will be much more comfortable for him as soon as I get some fresh hay.

Lady must know that Jolan is coming to visit next week as she's been laying eggs. There will be no more babies for a while as I'm going to make some pasta with the eggs.

House guest

I'm lucky that Papa doesn't read this blog as I would be busted. Also, I've gotten a new phone - check out the quality of these photographs. Well not the blurry one, but I was in a hurry to get Lady out as I didn't want to clean up the crap in the house.

Kitcsi is spending his first night penned in the old duck pen. He's alone in there but happy. I'll give him some food in there tomorrow morning and he'll be pleased he has his own place. I think he's happy anywhere anyway from Tommy.

Locked out

I'm such a bad mum.. I was letting them hang out in the mud while the sun went down and I went inside to catch up on work. Bad for them as I totally they were outside and quickly ran out to put them to bed. I did the same the other day but just with Kitsci and Albie.
Everyone is tucked up in bed, so its all good now.
The rain eased off this afternoon so everything is now covered in mud. The ducks as per usual are loving it, and for the time being the fighting has stopped amongst them. I've been patting Tommy more than usual and I'm pretty sure hes getting used to it. Not loving it, but not running away as quickly as he used to. Karli brought over some corn on the cobs for the animals today, so I'll try and find a camera to take some photos when I feed them tomorrow.

Them are fighting words

Its all out war at the moment at Hydrorancho. Yesterday the two girls were fighting each other with Lady egging them on. Here I was yelling out "Izzy stop it" while they didn't listen. Pulling them apart while they were fighting was certainly the closest I've gotten to patting them. Kitcsi has stayed cleared of Tommy and everyone really as he recovers from his fight on Friday.
Its back to raining here and the ducks are loving it (when they are not fighting). I had to do an early morning shovel to clear the drainage area and everything is running smoothly.
Lady has starting laying again, but I'm not going to let her have any more babies for a while. Its great timing as I was wondering if I was going to be coming home from my holiday to ducklings.

Honeymoon

Well folks the honeymoon is over at Hydroancho. Tommy beat up Kitsci today, while I didn't witness it, I can tell Kitsci is injured. He's been walking really slowly and he appears to have lost some feathers on his left wing. I can't tell the severity of it at the moment. I'm not sure about the sleeping arrangements for tonight as I don't want Kitsci to get into another fight. Perhaps I will put Tommy in the old duck pen. At the moment Kitsci is in the big pen by himself penned with some food. Hopefully everything will work out and there wont be too much fighting.

Merlin

I've been patting Tony the Pony these past couple of days. His owners put him in a bright purple coat and I think he looks like a wizard. I guess it's better than the hot pink riding gear he wears when it comes time for one of the children's birthday party.
The camera arrives home today so hopefully I'll spend the weekend getting to know the cannon.

When good shots turn bad

This photo would have been great if I managed to get Speedy in focus. She's such a princess and part-time chicken model. That is Golden Child in the background, or should I say in focus.

I'm off to Brisbane soon and mistakenly let the chickens out of the pen today. Hopefully I'll be able to entice them to bed at 3pm.

Welcome Kitsci

I left Tommy in the pen this morning and let Lady and Kitcsi out. I think Kitcsi is really starting to feel the brunt of Tommy's dislike, as I've seen a few clumps of feathers flying around. His voice is starting to break and while not quite as deep as Tommy's he is very chatty. As you can see his mask is really starting to develop and I think it will be fully red in about a month. I think it will take a while to be like Tommy's though.

Slack arse

You know there must be something wrong when my mother-in-law phones me to check on the animals, because I haven't been blogging. I've been thinking about writing a blog for ages but like Tommy I just felt like sitting around. Nothing much has been happening here. The babies are growing up so fast and their masks are really starting to develop. At night they no longer sleep together like a happy family. Kitcsi is cast outside under Speedy's nest, Lady and Tommy are on the ground in the pen and Albie and Izzy are up the top with the chickens.

Speedy is still a princess and unfortunately is very used to getting her own food inside the shed. I've been attempting to get the chickens to go to bed every night as I'm going on holiday and would like them going to bed so that it makes it easier for the neighbour.
I'm really going to miss my animals when I go away. I wish someone could update the blog or at least chat with them while I'm away. Papa and I are going to cement the edge of the pen and really get it snake proofed before we go as we'll be arriving home in early September (snake season).

Someone asked me the other day how Old Boy was, I told him to read my blog and that Old Boy is dead. Talk about memories.

I'm going to try and get back into my routine of blogging everyday. So come back tomorrow when its daylight and there will be a photo here. It will probably be Lady (I nearly called her Miss Muffet) as she follows me to the house every morning. But damn it if she'll let you touch her.

Friday fun

Here is Kitcsi and Lady and the back door just a few minutes ago. You can see that Kitcsi's mask is starting to develop and you can really see he's a boy. Tommy came to the back door as soon I let everyone out today. I think he could smell the bag of tomatoes I purchased yesterday. He came over and left by the time I came outside with a tomato for him. I called out and he came over, he was near the trees. I was so happy to see that he was responding to either his name, my voice, or even the sliding of the back door.

Our relationship has really grown this year, I think ever since he became a father. Maybe he received a new appreciation for me being a parent and all.

I was alerted to the ducks being at the back door because this fool was crowing. He did though manage to take an alright photo so I'll forgive him for making a noise. I guess I do live on a farm.

From the vault

I have great news - Jolan, I didn't break your camera, the batteries were just flat. For about a month now I thought I'd broken her camera, with some footage of Tommy being long lost.
But not anymore.


Nothing really has been going on here at Hydrorancho, aside from major flooding that is. I feel like its flooding more and more here but being up on a hill I have little to worry about. The ducks loved it of course, but I was careful not to have them playing about in stagnant water. Izzy and Albie have taken disliking the black rooster, they bite his tail at any chance they get.

I've started feeding Speedy in the morning in the shed. She gets to eat out of her own dish in the privacy of the shed without all of the other chickens bothering her. When I go to get the food in the morning, Speedy follows me in and then I put down some food for her and then I put up the curtain so that no other chicken can go in. She's such a princess

Ducks vs. Edward

It occurred to me yesterday that I hadn't been blogging because I've been reading the Twilight books. At first I was thinking that it was because the ducks have been boring - just sitting in their pen during the day, and there was nothing to talk about. But then I noticed that I finished the last book yesterday afternoon and by that night I was looking for the camera to download the last photos that I took.

Unfortunately for me (and you) the camera has been borrowed for a dirty weekend away (not by me or Papa, who unfortunately remains in PNG with the swine flu). Fingers crossed the camera returns to the farm in one piece and not covered in sand.

Everything has been fine at Hydrorancho, with the days getting much shorter and colder the ducks are doing less and less. Tommy is becoming my little sidekick due to the fact I feed him whole tomatoes. In the photo above is Izzy. Izzy is very similar to her mum, Lady, very delicate and pretty. The other day I went into the pen and they were a mirror image of each other. Both standing on one leg and then waging their tail. Kitcsi is very masculine and strong. He is the first one to come out of the pen (behind Tommy) and waits to be fed like Tommy. Albie is very friendly but still a little scared ever since we picked him up.

The ducks finally went swimming yesterday in the pond. I've been filling that sucker up ever since Papa fixed the water and the bitches haven't been swimming in it. But yesterday (during a break from reading) I lured them up to the pond with the pretense of feeding Tommy a tomato. While they didn't all jump in the pond they noted that it was full and then later in the afternoon I noticed feathers in the pond. I told Papa maybe its too cold for them, but he gave me that look; so I was glad to see evidence of them swimming.

Albie

Papa and I managed to ruin all of the trust and love with the ducklings this morning. You see on Monday after returning from Brisbane I noticed Albie having a strange lump on his neck. The feathers are all arranging quite funny. I let it go and thought it would go down. So this morning we went about catching (him/her) to have a look.

Well it doesn't really look like anything. The lump sort of disappeared under our fingers and all it looked like was a hair lick. We'll keep an eye on it. Lady was not impressed with us and walked the ducklings behind the chicken pen this morning to hide from me. Kitcsi and Albie are in the photo above.

New toy

Papa is back and so is the new camera. I went out yesterday and had a play and managed to take some really good (slightly out of focus) photos. Papa managed to take this photo of the babies and Lady in the back yard yesterday. Fingers crossed my camera work gets better with time.

I'm convinced that Kitcsi is a boy and Albie and Izzy are female.

Tommy Tomato

Tommy is my handsome little man. I've been feeding him a few tomatoes and he loves it. As soon as he sees that I'm carrying a tomato he'll "run" out to me where I proceed to cut it up and feed it to him. He can eat a tomato in about ten seconds. Sometimes I manage to feed Lady or the ducklings a bite but rarely. Here he is with something in his mouth.

His hair is so fluffy at the moment, due to all the new feathers. Its been so great with the sun being out after all of that rain. Finally I've been able to put the gum boots away and enjoy all of the mud drying up.

I'm still undecided about the sex of the ducks. Originally I thought Albie was the male and Kitcsi and Issy were female but now that there is Giant Kitcsi on the scene I'm just not really sure anymore. I went back into my catalogue of photos to look at what the originally babies looked like and sure enough Katcsa looked giant compared to the other ducks and her red developed first around the beak, just like Kitcsi. So what do you think? Kitcsi is now already bigger than her mum Lady but does this make her a larger female or just a growing drake?

I think I'm in love

Maru where have you been all my life? I think I'm in love with a pussy.

Rainy days

Here is a little video I shot of the ducks playing in the mud.

Oh Old Boy

Whilst downloading pictures from Jolans camera I stumbled across these two little darlings. Oh Old Boy how I miss you. I think that's old Boy drinking from the duck pond, but I'm not sure. It looks a bit small for Old Boy. Who knows, but its a great shot regardless. These were taken in late December 2007. So those ducks in the background could be any of the old ones. At first I thought it was Tommy and Miss Muffet, but she didn't arrive until March 08.

Giant Kitcsi

Kitcsi is just not kitcsi at all. Here she is having a chat with Lady. I'm now stating to think she may be male. But who knows. I guess Tommy will inform me later. Izzy is in the centre and Albie on the left. They are just so cute and chatty. Its so good seeing them all hang out and including Tommy in on the fun. Actually I should go and put them to bed. I wonder if Speedy went to bed by herself today. She's such a princess

Normal again

Sorry for the delay, but with the camera broken and my new camera yet to arrive home from LA my blogging has dried up. But never fear, Jolan is visiting the farm and brought her camera so tomorrow it's business as usual. In the meantime I'll quickly fill you in on whats been happening:

• For the first time in about six months Speedy went to bed in the pen today all by herself
• Kitcsi is now the biggest duckling, she's even bigger than Lady; she takes after her old man
• Tommy had a sore foot on Saturday but he was fine again on Sunday
• The rain finally stopped on Wednesday and we've all been enjoying the sun and the mud drying out
• I think I like Brown Bitch

Saturday

I threw Izzy some food today and she caught it in her mouth. While I wasn't able to film this exact moment, here are the ducklings hanging out at the back door. Kitcsi has grown even bigger than Izzy, while the two of them are even bigger than Albie. This You Tube video breaks my gold rule of uploading anything with me talking on it. But with no camera that takes actually photos I feel the need to upload it. Rumor has it Papa has purchased a 10 mega pixel digital SLR camera as well as a HD video recorder. Look out I'm going to go professional with my photography when he gets back.

Rainy tuesday

With Papa off mothering wolves and Izzy (not the duck) leaving its been kinda quite here. Lucky for me its been raining and have plenty of animals for company.

My camera is still not working, but for some strange reason (only Sony will know) it still manages to take film, just not photos. So lucky for you, I'm going to turn into a major You Tube uploader.

Below is the family of ducks hanging out. It's great to see the babies being less scared of Tommy and him biting them less. While he still manages to bite Kitcsi in this take, it's more of a love bite.

Healing?

I've done a little investigating into my dislike for Brown Bitch it was around here I hadn't made my mind up on her http://hydrorancho.blogspot.com/2008/05/j-mag.html

and it was here that James told me she wasn't going to go anywhere with a name like Brown Bitch http://hydrorancho.blogspot.com/2008/06/spike.html

I think it annoys me that she always lays her eggs off in the bush and I can't find her nest to eat the eggs?

I was already to turn a new leaf when Brown Bitch shat on me last night. But maybe we should start fresh - a new start. What do you think? But then I think does Brown Bitch needs to forgive me? So much deep thought for a Sunday morning...

Me no likey

Does anyone know why I don't like this chicken? I looked through my blog (not that well, you know how well I look for things) and I just can't seem to find the reason.

She must have done something that I didn't like, even before she ditched her kids really young.

While she hasn't quite redeemed herself (for something I don't know what she did) I am thinking of granting her some sort of pardon as she's been quite mothering with her current six kids.

Am I beginning to like Brown Bitch? Something is holding me back though, maybe Speedy doesn't like her and therefore I don't? Who knows.... I think I'm going to try and work through this.

Duckies

With Izzy being here I have access to a camera again. Here is a photos she took of the ducklings from L to R is Kitcsi, Albie and Izzy. We've had a fun time feeding the animals and we even tried patching the fence but alas I didn't have a pliers so that task was abandoned.

Its been raining here off and on for about a week now. Most nights I believe we're flooded in and here is creek near our house. Papa has left for LA for a month, so no doubt he'll be tuned into the blog whiles he's away!

Izzy managed to capture me and Princess Speedy sharing a moment yesterday, if I'm feeling daring later, I'll post it. Papa put the chickens to bed last night and cracked the shits. I heard him say "Speedy should be eaten". Speedy was leading all of the chickens out of the pen and around the back instead of into the pen to go to bed. It took him a lot of stick banging but got them all to bed in the end (and Speedy is alive).

Wish you were here

Izzy arrived (not the duck) this morning and is safe and sound at the farm. What a time to come, its been raining non stop since she arrived and I'm sure it will continue to rain.
I introduced her to Tommy, Princess Speedy, Lady and the ducklings. I've never been so excited to introduce the animals to anyone. Photos will follow soon.
In the mean time please check out Remy's blog as it appears she's missing her mom and maybe jealous of the ducks (a tad!) http://remybun.blogspot.com/

Surprises

We got rid of a few roosters and did our bi-annual cooked up on Sunday. The roosters were becoming very unruly and disruptive so now we're back to having four roosters.
There is Golden Child, Blondy Bear the second, another young gray rooster and then a black one from the group that was just killed. He must have hid from Papa very well so he lived.

Izzy arrives from LA tomorrow and will be taking lots of photos, so no doubt I'll be blogging up a storm. I think there was a goanna this morning as Tommy was protecting Lady and the ducks and there was much chirping. Our chickens have been hanging out down the front of our house today. Its total turf wars with the chickens from next door.

Its raining here, I'm about to go and see how my drainage is going down at the chicken pens.

Old Boy Respect

Check out the new Spendour in the Grass website. http://www.splendourinthegrass.com/
Do you see any familar faces there? My friend and (many times) visitor to Hydrorancho, Christopher designed the website.
Talk about respect to Old Boy. Plus is there a duckling at his foot?

Speedy vs Izzy

Speedy likes to think she's queen of the ducks. As long as there are female ducks around, she'll have a go at them. All female ducks have been scared of her, I think I watched her and Katcsa fight once but that was it... until today.
I watched her sort of do her usual chase after them and try to peck the ducklings when I saw Izzy turn around and ark up to fight with her. They are about the same size so it was game on. Speedy's neck feathers got all arched up and she was ready for a punch on.
I had to separate them twice as I'm pretty sure Speedy would have won. If it had of been any other chicken I would have been really annoyed at them but I only look at Speedy through my rose coloured glasses.

Rumor

I heard a rumor yesterday that the original Izzy is coming to Hydrorancho to meet our Izzy the duck. I personally don't think flying from California to Brisbane is that far to visit a duck.
I've already advised her that everyone will be on their best behaviour for her impending visit to the ranch. I'll see about putting a bow tie on Tommy. I only wish that Old Boy was still alive so he could sleep through her visit.
Everyone is penned today as I'm off to the big smoke. I don't like penning them during the day but I told them I do have to have a life you know.

Holiday snaps

I found this little gem while going through our film from our holiday in Japan. While not duck related it does feature a dog.

What is it with Snoopy in Japan?

Friday

There was a snake in the duck pen last night. It was moving towards Lady and the ducklings when I went over there for a nightly check. I ushered Lady and the ducklings out of the pen while I ran over to the house to get Papa.
He came running over with me and he picked it up and carried it out. I then put Lady back to bed in the pen with her babies.
I was lucky we didn't have dessert at the restaurant yesterday otherwise we could have returned home too late. Talk about a close call.

Its official

Well its official Tommy is depressed. He's in the pen today and not coming out. This is how he was last year after the ducks died. I went in there today and we had a little bit of a chat and I told him I'd find him another lady to hang out with. Lady doesn't care, she's off running around with her kids, she doesn't want anything to do with Tommy.
Plus he's malting, maybe his emotions run high when this happens.

Introducing...

With much thought I've decided on the ducklings names. The last name came to me this morning as I was drinking my morning coffee discussing what to name them..

Albie is the male duckling

Kicsi (pronounced Kichi, meaning small in Hungarian) is the female duckling without the black mark on her head

Izzy is the female duckling with the black mark on her head.

This is an old photo as I have four ducklings, but I mainly just wanted you to meet Izzy at the front there. What a pretty duckling and a great name!

What's in a name?

Well its that time when I've been thinking about names for the ducklings. I thought of Fela for the boy (I'm going on the theory that there is one boy and two females). But then papa said that was a bad name, he doesn't really like Fela Kuti much (he thinks the songs are two long). He suggested Albert, which is ok. I like that I can shorten it to Albie.
As for the ladies - papa said we could name one Katcsa again, but I'm against reusing names for pets. I like Georgie, sort of like George the original duck we had here, but again Papa didn't like it.
I thought of a good one today, but I've since forgotten it. Any suggestions?

Tues

I was able to pluck Speedy right out of the tree at night yesterday. Fake Speedy she is not. She was so cute, we had a little chat and I told her she knows she can't sleep in the tree at night.
We're yet to catch the goanna, the trap is due back on Thursday. I'll probably just take the trap back tomorrow as papa is away and I'm not sure how I'd go if I caught one.

Sunday

Well it turns out Lady didn't like being protected Tommy as much as I thought. The next night she was in the other pen and risked losing another duckling than being with Tommy.
We're yet to have any luck catching the goanna, but the dead rat in the cage is starting to smell.
Everyone is being penned today as I'm going to Brisbane early today - they don't like that.
The neighbours chickens are really pulling their weight in the egg department. So much that I'm giving half a dozen away today. Plus they have a pretty good vege patch we've been looting.

Tommy the Bouncer

I went to lock everyone up tonight and saw that Lady and the ducklings had moved from the other pen to the pen with everyone else. They were up the back in the house and Tommy was in front of them protecting them.
It seems that Lady is less scared of Tommy than she is snakes.
The goanna left the tree sometime in the afternoon. I wonder if we'll be successful with the traps tonight. Everyone is staying penned for the next few days.

Goanna alert

I herd a bit of a noise with the chickens so I went to investigate and saw this goanna underneath the mango tree. It then climbed the tree so I ushered Lady and the ducklings into the pen and grabbed the camera. Papa took this photo as I didn't want to get too close. As I write this its hiding up another tree waiting and watching the chickens. We went down to the council and borrowed the largest cat/possum trap we could find so we can attempt to relocate it. I'll let you know how it progresses. As a side note, I don't think this is what took the duckling last night.

Another one

Instead of being awoken this morning with gifts a plenty I woke to only three ducklings. I'm not sure what happened, I'm guessing a snake but who knows. I definitely penned four ducklings last night. Brown bitch still has all six of her babies, Lady looks like she has a little bit of blood on her chest and there are a few feathers in the pen. I only wish I had of heard it.

Tuesday

We drained the duck pond on Sunday and filled with lovely clean water. It was clean for about a second and now its filled with duck poo. The duckling with the black on its head hurt its right foot on Sunday. I had to pick it up as it had lots of blood on it. Once I picked it up I passed it over to papa who inspected it closely. I think it may have lost a nail. It will be fine, I'm really not sure how it happened, but at least it got to wash it off it in the clean pond.

I haven't heard back from the lady I purchased Miss Muffet and Lady from last year, so Tommy is yet to get his new lady.

I was showing my friend these duckling photos and she said I should have a calendar and this would be March.

Fake Speedy

This is Princess Speedy, the wonder chicken.
This is Fake Speedy. Fake Speedy is a chicken that looks remarkably like Speedy, she's even made me think I'm talking to Speedy when I've gone over to the chicken pen. Here are a few of the monologues I've expressed
"Why is Speedy fighting with that other hen? Speedy will kick her arse anyway"
"Speedy, do you want a banana? Speedy why don't you want a banana? You love bananas"
"Speedy... Speedy.... Speedy, where are you?"
"Speedy why wont you come to muma?"

I was out one night and Papa put the chickens to bed and I asked him if he got Speedy to bed and he said yes, but sure enough he put Fake Speedy to bed.

I've been enjoying looking after the neighbours chickens. We're even getting four eggs a day from those sluts. They have this midget chicken that is pretty cool, she's brown white and really small. I'm thinking I should do with it what they did when they stole Mongy Foot. Just tell them it was eaten by a fox and have it just one day show up at our place.

Lady

I filmed Lady and her ducklings this afternoon just chilling out. Watch around the 26sec mark as she has a go at Golden Child. All of the chirping noises are the young roosters which are surrounding me wanting a piece of the action.

Ducklings update

The ducklings are so big now and they really respond to me when I go outside. They love to spend their days up in the pond hanging with Lady. There are still only 4 left but only three managed to get in frame. I think we have one male and three females. Only time will tell I guess.

Thursday

Papa and I decided over lunch today that we're going to get Tommy another female. Lady and her ducklings are avoiding him and I think he needs someone to visit him in an intimate way. I'm hoping to get a female that has coloured feathers. I have a feeling that the duckings are made up of three females and one male, I hope this is the case as there will be less fighting.

There was a large goanna in the pen today which managed to eat up quite a few chicken eggs. I got quite a shock when I came home from shopping to see what all of the commotion was about. I'm looking after the neighbours chickens next week for a month while they go away. It will be pretty easy as there are only 5 or 6. You should see this one hen, its smaller than Speedy - I'll take a photo.

Introducing Barbarella

I'd like you to meet Barbarella, she is my friend Sean and Rob's chicken. She nested on some duck eggs and now she's a great mother to these cute chucks. Sean tells me that Barbarella is a great mother, I wonder if she'll take them swimming? Hopefully Sean will continue to keep me updated with lots of photos.

RIP Miss Muffet & 1 duckling

It appears we've had a snake in the pen last night which killed Miss Muffet and took a duckling. Lady has some blood on her and she's pretty shaken up while Miss Muffet's eggs are gone. Poor Miss Muffet with her leg she would have been unable to move much. Miss Muffet was a beautiful duck who had been plagued with problems all of her life, I really hope she enjoyed living at Hydrorancho.

One of the ducklings with black on its head was gone, so now its down to four.

I will work on the pen today to fix up the holes and make it more snake proof.

Flat Stanley

My poor little princess duck Miss Muffet is back to not walking and her heavy breathing. I noticed about a week ago she'd starting laying, however at first she was still able to walk. By Saturday I could tell her leg was getting weaker and by Sunday she wasn't moving at all. I now pick her up and move her around and I've been making Tommy sleep by himself in the old duck pen. I came out of the house on Sunday only to be making matters worse for poor Miss Muffet by him trying to mate with her. If her breathing isn't bad enough, here comes big Tommy to ride her like a surf board. She looked like Flat Stanley by the time I kicked him off.

Her clutch of eggs is getting larger so hopefully she'll stop laying and just rest on her eggs. She'll be a great mother, I see her nuzzle Lady's ducklings and its so cute. I think if she can just make it through this phase she'll continue to have a long and happy life. She's still eating so that's positive.