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.