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.