Sights from around Crooked Acres.
This is what was going on here: the ducks (the left of the ramp) were chasing a hen with the intent of mating with her (ducks and chickens can mate, but there’s no conception), and Toasty the rooster was coming down the ramp and was surprised by the ducks, and kind of hopped up in the air.
I am actively trying to get Fred to find a home for one of those male ducks, because they are JERKS and they chase the hens around, and they jump on the girl ducks all the time and I DO NOT LIKE THEM. I know it’s because they’re jerks nature taking its course and all that, but it drives me nuts.
“You haz snack for us, laydee?”
“WAIT WAIT WAIT I’M COMING!”
“I’M COMING TO GET MY SNACK I’M COMING DON’T GIVE MY SNACK TO GEORGE!”
(“If you gave my snack to George, I would make this face.”)
(“But I know you wouldn’t give my snack to George, because you love me.”)
(“But if you didn’t love me, I would look like this all the time.”)
“SNACK, PLEASE.”
The puppins like their snacks.
Happy George.
When the scratch container is full, these hens can reach right into the container when I take the lid off and help themselves. (That black and white hen on the left is one of our original 12 hens and she’s now 5 years old!)
When I go out to the back forty every morning, the girl ducks are in the maternity yard, unable to figure out how to get out (they manage to find their way in every night to lay their eggs), and the boy ducks are right outside the fence waiting. If you ask me, those girl ducks could probably get out of the maternity yard if they WANTED to, but they enjoy the respite from those jerky boys.
“You haz a cookie for me?”
“::sniffsniffsniffSNIFF:: and I can smell that it is a TASTY cookie that you made for me with your own two hands!”
“I will accept your offering.”
“Just make sure you keep ’em coming.”
“You haz cookie for me, too?”
Pink pig is a little more skittish than black pig. Black pig is smaller than pink pig, and in the way of pigs that means that black pig is more brash and pushy than pink pig. Black pig probably has Short Man’s Syndrome.
“Thanks, lady.”
“OMIGOD! IT’S THE COOKIE LADY!”
“I BET SHE HAS COOKIES FOR US!”
“Where our cookies?”
“You haz cookie for me? Black pig isn’t here, you can share the cookies with me.”
“Share cookies with ME, lady. Pink pig went off to take a nap.”
“HER HAND IS IN HER POCKET, THAT MEANS COOKIES!”
“Where our cookies, lady? WHERE COOKIES?!”
“Stupid cookie lady acting like she doesn’t have cookies. Let’s go ignore her, and maybe she’ll bribe us with cookies.”
Gracie likes to walk around the pond with me in the mornings (I go out there to feed the Catfish). She’s obsessed with this root sticking out of the side of the pond, and it’s her life’s goal to pull it out of the ground. Good luck with that, Gracie Mae.
This is my little raised bed garden, behind the back yard. It was such a pain to mow last year that last week I put down weed blocker fabric, and we bought a scoop of mulch at the Co-op (a scoop fills the bed of the truck) and put it down on top of the fabric. I like how it looks.
Is that the happiest catnip you’ve ever seen, or what? I planted those last Summer. In the Fall, I chopped them down almost to the dirt. Over the Winter they grew a bit, and in the last couple of weeks they’ve shot up. I love how happy they look! (In the bed next to the catnip are the carrots I planted last Fall. They’ve finally gotten big enough to eat!)
The garden, pre-planting (well actually, I think Fred had planted the corn. It’s not sprouted yet, though, so it LOOKS unplanted). I’m planning to take a picture once a month or so to document the growth.
Blueberry bushes. I also put weed blocker fabric and mulch down around these, then piled bricks around to hold in the mulch.
Look at all those blueberries!
And one of our grapevines (growing along the fence) will be producing at least one cluster of grapes this year! (Assuming the birds don’t get them, that is.)
To answer the burning question from yesterday’s post, when the kittens come down off of that cat tree, they don’t do the normal thing, which would be to jump down to the platform that’s halfway between the top platform and the floor. Instead, they hook their back feet over the “lip” on the back of the platform and kind of dangle over the side, then grab the pole with their front claws and let go with their back feet, which flips them right-side-up, and then they let go and drop to the floor. Razzie managed to get in such a position that she was braced between the pole and the wall, and she wasn’t quite sure where to go from there, so she just stayed there and tried to figure it out! Then you saw how she solved her dilemma, by landing on her head. Silly Razzie.
After I posted yesterday that Razzie was the only kitten I’d seen eating kibble, Newbery decided to make a liar out of me, and bellied up to the bowl himself. So that’s two of the four that I’ve actually witnessed eating food! And I’m pretty sure they’re all using the litter boxes. I haven’t found any accidents in several days (I only found three puddles where they shouldn’t have been, and that was back when they first started using the litter boxes), so hopefully things will keep going well on both fronts.
Wahhhhhhh! Darwin’s the BAYbee!
“I am NOT the BAYbee! I can wash myself! So there!”
Cute monkey toes.
Hello, gorgeous.
Newbery, hanging out in the cat bed.
“Do I have something in my eye?”
“Um… nope, I don’t see anything.”
“Rub the belly. You know you wanna!”
Eyes changing from blue to green. I think it’s so neat the way they change, from the pupil outward.
Sweet miss Logie.
::thlurrp::
Darwin in mid-tip. Luckily, she caught herself and didn’t fall over.
::CHOMP::
Logie and Darwin (I think. Might be Razzie.)
SO. CUTE.
Razzie’s got Newbery pinned. The look on Newbery’s face cracks me UP.
Three little tabbies (and Logie’s behind).
Happy Joe Bob.
“What? I can leave the scratcher if I want to!”
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Previously
2011: “Don’t judge me.”
2010: Dreamy little Corbett.
2009: Let us talk about little Bessie.
2008: The pigs like chocolate.
2007: “Please, lady? Can’t I go out?”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
I would love to have as much land as you do! Sooooo want a veggie garden!
What is the recipe for your piggie and doggie cookies? They don’t look like I expected them to!
Boy ducks – oh my! Wow…poor chickens and poor girl ducks! Kisses to the kittens and love that happy Joe Bob face!!!
I’ll post the link to the pig cookie recipe in tomorrow’s post. The dogs actually get whatever I’ve picked up for them (ie, whatever’s on sale). I’ve made dog treats in the past, but they’re much more involved than the pig cookies, so I’ve gotten lazy. 🙂
Oh my god, I adore Darwin! That fourth picture just kills me dead. Such a sweet little thing!
Love your outdoor family member pictures and equally enjoyed the commentary. I am a foster care provider for kittens so I am loving the kitten antics and watching the weekly growth. Adorable.
I wanted to let you know that after seeing all your amazing photos of cats leaping after Da Bird, that I went got a Da Bird for my cat.
And he’s terrified of it. Hides under the bed as soon as it comes out.
Our Shiba Inu mix dog, however? LOVES Da Bird. He leaps and jumps and snaps at it, all while whining this high pitched chatter at me because he’s so upset he can’t quite seem to get it. It’s hilariously funny when his long muppet limbs suddenly go out from under him and he lands in a heap on the ground after a particularly high leap.
He actually begs to play with it. So. Da Bird: Not just for cats!
That is hysterical!
That is AWESOME! It never would have occurred to me that dogs would like to chase Da Bird too, but it makes sense! 🙂
Charlie the Chocolate Lab… also a big fan of DaBird (although Simba and Norman attack the dog if he interferes with their bird playtime). He also LOVES the laser light. We bought it for the cats, but they never get to play with it. Goofball is obsessed and forgets all reason once the dot shows up. The cats have decided it’s better to ignore the dot and let the doofus have it.
Does anyone else hear “The Ride of the Valkyries” in their head when they look at the photos of Gracie running to Robyn? Or is that just me?
I hear circus music! It might have something to do with the drifts of floof on the ground all around her as she runs… it’s hard to think of such floofy dogs being Wagnerian!!
That’s the way Newberry is-destined to one up EVERYTHING! Even the cuteness. Bring it on Darwin and Logie (and you too Razzie)! Also love the outdoor pics of the pigs.
What kind of blueberries are you growing; a male and female plant or self pollinators? Is the fruit large? I have a friend who grows them just outside the kitchen door and she has instant breakfast treats! They’re on my list for this year… do they fruit the first year?
Oh, and and those kittens… my daily AM fix!
I’ll save your blueberry questions to answer in tomorrow’s post (I don’t actually know off the top of my head what kind they are, I need to go out and check the tag!). I can tell you that we got (and planted) them last year and I got about two handfuls of fairly smallish blueberries (which is probably my own fault, I don’t think I watered often enough), so apparently they do fruit the first year. 🙂
Joe Bob my love my love!! Forget about Spanky and the Loonster! You are my love!!
I know what you mean about male ducks. They are relentless!! Would there be any way you could send one to freezer camp or are you too attached?
And of course those pigs are the luckiest porkers in the world until this Fall! George and Gracie are the luckiest dogs alive and it won’t end in the Fall neither!
Finally, you mention that the kittens’ eating and litterbox habits are going well on both fronts, but really it’s on the front and the back!!
…
Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be here all week… er… month… er… year… ummmm… years. As a matter of fact, it’s going to be hard to get rid of me!!
🙂
Honestly, I am not attached to those boy ducks at all and would be just as happy to have them gone, but Fred likes the way they walk around quacking under their breath. I’m trying to convince him that we only need one, but he doesn’t seem to be buying it. 🙂
That Fred! What are you gonna do?
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (BFAS)has a flock of rescue ducks and geese and one of their most hilarious entries was about James, the alpha male of the flock, befriending Quackers, a blind female. BFAS wrote, “There’s a new development down at the pond, and it seems James’ intentions towards Quackers are not honorable.”!
Lolol
Love that rooster with some invisible something or other, that is too funny!
It’s all good tho, ‘cept for those hyper drakes…
Thanks!
Pigs, dogs, chickens, cats and little kittens = you live in PARADISE!
Obviously, you have never smelled pig poop and chicken poop! You think dog and cat poop is smelly… OOOOOOOH-WEEEEEEEE!!!!
Can you neuter a duck?
Ha, I was wondering that too!
Excellent question – I don’t know! 🙂
Word on the web is that you can do it, but it’s expensive. Essentially, you need to find an avian veterinarian. Apparently, ducks can actually injure hens by mating with them since ducks have penises and hens aren’t equipped to ummmm ‘receive’ a penis. There’s a discussion on how to cope here
Hang on, so how do hens have sex? Wow, L&H, the national geographic edition…
Toasty will protect his womenfolk from the marauding boy ducks!
Love “self-service”… we feed the cats from a plastic cereal container. The loud ones get fed first (imagine that) while Norman provides his own self-service by snacking out of the container until it’s his turn.
Darwin’s itty bitty belly stripes are enough to make me swoon. What a gorgeous little baby doll.
I remember that about male ducks from when my mom had them.. Those lady ducks and lady chickens were NEVER safe! Relentless! All the chickens got bald backs from the roosters and duck boys standing on them… She finally locked the boys out for a while to give the girls a break. And for all that, not a single ducken or chuck! Sounds like your lady ducks have learned to lock the boys out themselves!
Joe Bob! Look at you gettin’ the lovin! You so cute!!!
I never thought I’d be interested in a pig blog, but if you did one, i bet you i’d read it.
I forgot all about the hook the foot thing. My current set just meow pathetically till I come rescue them if they don’t feel comfortable enough to just leap off where ever they are.