Monthly Archives: May 2010

A Newsy Post

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Well, I’m back after a week of blissful solitude! No, I’m joking, I have missed you dear blog and readers. :D And, I have some news:

One, I’ve found a really cool goat due date calculator. It’s a pain to have to count out the days manually. :) The results were…

  • Gingham = September 11th
  • Paisley = August 1
  • Pegs = July 19
  • Daisy = July 22
  • Buttercup = July 9

Exciting, right? :D Of course, this is only an estimate.

Number two, the ducklings are getting huge! Their beaks and feet are growing like crazy, not to mention their bodies! We’ve got permanent names for them:

  • Bug (previously Scooter) = the yellow duckling with a gray cap and back.
  • Timmy = the biggest duckling with a gray cap and back (the rest of “him” is yellow).
  • Clover = the brown duckling with a yellow chest and spots on back.

My friend Megan recommended the name Clover. :D Thanks, Megan! Timmy is, by far, the biggest. His feet are HUGE and his beak is pretty large too! We’re *thinking* he’s a drake.

The GNOWFGLINS™ Fundamentals eCourse is going to launch again soon! Mom’s been working really hard these past couple weeks to get ready. Right now she’s updating the lessons. :) I helped her a bit with crunching down topics to only include important information. That was fun!

Our annual California trip to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie is approaching at full speed! We’re planning on leaving the last week of June so we can get back (hopefully) in time for the goats’ kidding. I’m really excited! Only 3 weeks to go! We’ll be cutting it close because Buttercup’s due date is on July 9. She could easily kid a week early. :razz: Please, please, please wait, sweetie!

We’ve stopped milking Pegs. She was down to 3/4 of a cup of milk. Pregnant does will dry themselves up two months before they give up. Right on time! :D

And now it’s time for milking. :) Bye!

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Emma (2009)

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We watched the new Emma movie this past week! There are two discs with two episodes each. It is sooo good. :D

We watched one of the one-hour episodes one night and then stayed up till 10 o’clock or so watching the next three the following night! Mikah wasn’t too happy about watching one of “the girls’ movies,” as he calls them, but Mom, Naomi, and I were thrilled! ;) Baba was out of town the second night we watched it, so he didn’t really have any input. :)

As for my opinion, it was utterly awesome. :D Romola Garai, the actress who played the character Emma, did a great job. I won’t tell you anything more in case you haven’t watched it yet.

I have one piece of advice for you: Go and rent the movie for yourself! :D You might end up buying it so you can watch it over and over again. ;)

Angel

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Angel broke her leg this morning. Naomi found her stuck in mud, shivering and her legs sticking out. We took her inside, only to see that one she wasn’t using one of her legs. It was at an odd angle. We nursed her all day but she still seemed to be in pain. Baba came home and we discovered that her leg was broken. We decided to put her down. Goodbye, Angel sweetie. :cry: :cry: :cry:

3 ducklings left. They are thriving.

The Drake for Dinner

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We ate the drake last night. What did it taste like? Very good! :D We baked it in the oven this time, but everyone thought it should be crock-pot-ed next time. :)

We ate it over some of Mom’s delicious quinoa. YUM! ;)

Seedy and Addy haven’t laid any more eggs, but Addy is pushing Seedy around so maybe Seedy will lay after she realizes the ducklings aren’t her’s. Or maybe they’re just holding off for a drake! Well, we’re looking into getting some more Muscovys — a drake included. :)

The three eggs that the hens were sitting on went bad. We had to throw them out. :(

A Jumble of Tidings

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Even though I try to write down everything that happens around here, there are some things that I forget to record. ;) This is a post that wraps up all the little details I keep forgetting to post about!

Pegs’ milk yield is way down. About two weeks ago, her milk was at 5 cups. Now it’s at 2 3/4 cups. She sure is drying up! Maybe it’s because of the baby. ;) Hope so!

Angel, poor thing, still isn’t very well. We’re feeding her sugar water, as Michelle @ Collie Farm Blog recommended in this comment. :) Thanks, Michelle! She seemed to like it last night (no surprises!). This morning, however, when we took her inside to warm her up, she wouldn’t drink. Pray, please!

And now, a funny story… :) Last night, after the lights were switched off, Naomi and I were lying in bed, reading (with flashlights). The window was open because it had been such a nice day and we had forgotten to close it. Well, a minute later, Naomi sat up, her nose all wrinkled.

“Do you smell that?” she asked.

I sniffed. “No… What?”

“Skunk!” she said.

I sniffed again and BAM it whooshed through the window and into the room. Pinching our noses (it really wasn’t that bad, but of course we had to act like it was horrid! :lol: ), we slammed the window shut and gasped for clean air. It took a little bit for the skunk scent to dissolve fully, but eventually it did and we fell asleep. Funny story, right? :cool:

And now just one more thing before I sign off. We are going to eat the drake today. Let’s hope it tastes good! Pictures later! :D

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The Complete Novels of Jane Austen

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My wonderful, hardback copy of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen arrived in the mail yesterday! :D YAY! This was my reward (other than the wonderful visit from Grandma and Grandpa) for spring cleaning. ;)

I started reading Sense and Sensibility last night, though I didn’t get very far because it was late. I was asleep within five minutes of putting it down. :razz:

I read Pride and Prejudice a while ago and just adored it. It was my early birthday present from Mom. She picked it up at a thrift store in late June/early July or so (my birthday is July 30) and was saving it, until I started reading her copy of it. Then she was like, “Well, Haniya, I guess I’d better give you your copy early!” Of course I was really pleased. :D

Any other Jane Austen fans out there? ;)

Duck and Duckling News

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Hello everyone! So sorry I haven’t written for a couple days. :( I guess that means an update is in good order. :)

All the ducks/ducklings are great, except for little Angel. She’s struggling. :( First I should mention that while the duck coop might be predator proof, it is most certainly NOT duck proof. They can get in and out of that thing even when both gates are closed! I think the ducklings go through the fencing and the moms fly over the fencing. :roll: Anyway. Every morning when we go out to do AM milking, they are out exploring. Well, everyone except Angel is exploring. She’s peeping as loudly as she can and shivering and hunched in a little ball. :( Poor thing! So of course we wrap her up in our clothes or our hands and warm her up. This morning Mikah brought her in the house and filled up the sink with warm water for her to swim in. She played a bit and got her body up to temperature. She’s okay now, but she isn’t growing or active like the other ducklings. Does anyone know what to do? She doesn’t follow all the other ducks around. She just stays put. At this point she could die out there and no one even know!

If we take her in the house, she gets lonely and peeps for the other ducks… Any ideas?

Naomi and I took the ducklings swimming yesterday — they go swimming by themselves anyway, but this session was more by our will than theirs’ ;) — and the spotted duckling dove under the surface! For 2 seconds we just stared where he had disappeared, hearts pounding. Never fear, he reappeared a moment later, his down all spiky like he had just been to the barber and gotten his hair cut in a mohawk-ish style! :razz: It was pretty funny!

I had an orthodontist appointment on Tuesday. :D The orthodontist said as soon as I get my rubber bands off (6 weeks for the right one and a little longer for the left) I can move on to the final stage of braces, the detailing! :) WHOOHOO! He doesn’t know how long the detailing will take, but he’ll give us a rough estimate as soon as I get my elastics off.

And I think that’s about it… I’m rereading the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. :) Since I’ve already read it a couple times, I skipped all the parts about Roran, Eragon’s (the protagonist) cousin and just followed Eragon on his adventures. :lol: Not to mention skipping the first book (Eragon) entirely! I started reading in the middle of Eldest, book 2. ;) Now I’m on Brisingr.

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Goodbye, G & G!

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Grandma and Grandpa (G & G) left this morning! We said goodbye last night and they left from their hotel at about 2 AM ( :shock: ). We had a WONDERFUL weekend! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

We went swimming at their hotel indoor swimming pool on Saturday and Sunday! Unfortunately, Grandpa wouldn’t let me pull him in, but then again, you normally get chased and tugged and growled at when he’s in the pool! :lol: He’s a great shark. ;)

After swimming on Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa took us across the road to a little ice cream shop. As soon as we got there cars started pouring in! :D Doesn’t that always happen? I got rocky road (though I’m not sure if I really was served rocky road… :?: ), Mikah got mint chocolate chip, Naomi got “BEST ice-cream” (yes, she renamed her flavor! ;) I’m not sure what the real flavor is). Grandpa got banana and Grandma got pecan.

We live in Oregon in a valley called the Umpqua Valley — it has VERY good ice cream! People from all over who are passing through stop for ice cream! :) Lucky us, right? Sometimes Mom lets us each have a bowl of ice cream at the country store nearby. But that’s only “sometimes”. :D

We had a family picture session out with the goats. They kept wandering into the picture! Pegs also nibbled on Grandpa’s jacket a bit. She was probably looking for scratching. :)

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Breakfast with Grandma

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We dined out of the house for the first time in absolute ages this morning! :) We went to a little restaurant called The Apple Peddler. I am stuffed! :lol: That tends to happen every time I eat at a restaurant.

Grandpa and his friend are out delivering trailers right now. They’ll come back around 6 PM. :) Mom made ice cream for tonight — two flavors! Vanilla and chocolate.

Grandma just loooves the ducklings. How could anyone not?! I’m off to take a peek at them right now. BYE!

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The True Meaning

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I promised I would have big/awesome news for you today! Well, guess I’d better start at the beginning…

Spring cleaning really wasn’t spring cleaning. It was house cleaning for a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa! (Though we needed to spring clean anyway. :D ) I’m sorry you were out of the loop, my wonderful readers, but…alas…Naomi and Mikah follow this blog with gusto. :razz:

Grandma told me last weekend that she and Grandpa were coming up here for Mother’s Day! Grandpa, who started a trailer business called Iron Panther with a friend, was delivering trailers to several dealers up in Oregon and wanted to stop by for a visit! YAY! So of course we said they could come.

I wanted to keep it a secret from Naomi and Mikah (spare their poor nerves from all the anxiety attacks…looking out the window every two seconds can have quite an effect on the nervous system) and I am so glad we did!

Naomi’s eyes almost popped out and her jaw almost hit the floor when Grandma and Grandpa walked up the front porch steps! :lol:

Naomi and Mikah knew something was up when Baba went outside to open the gate for G & G (they didn’t know he was doing that, though) but I told them not to peek — that would spoil everything. Mikah thought Baba was fetching a chocolate lab puppy for us! ;) But then G & G walked up and everyone jumped over the couches to get to the front door and welcome our unexpected guests.

We stayed up till 11:20 PM! You can probably guess I’m pretty tired! We’re going to go out for breakfast with Grandma while Grandpa and his friend (he came last night, too, but a little later than G & G) deliver all the trailers (they’ve got 6). :) Fun fun fun.

Auntie couldn’t come this time because she’s got to work. :( :(

I’ll post pictures of the breakfast! Bye till next time!

(The thumbnail was added AFTER this post was written. :) )

“Spring” Cleaning Is Officially Over

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Notice that I put spring in quotation marks. That is because it. is. going. to. rain. all. next. week. GRR. I am sick of rain. :razz: The calendar marked spring as March 20, but I say differently! Spring starts when the sun comes out of hibernation (like about time!), snaps on her shades and gets busy warming up us poor people over in Oregon who are still using umbrellas. It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, though, so YAY!

The ducklings are enjoying the freedom of a daddy-less property. They’ve been running all over the place! We paid a visit to the compost pile, but the ducklings scooted off somewhere else. They weren’t very interested. ;) The 4 ducklings that are left are named:

  • Timmy Tim Tom (or Big Tom or Large Tom…we haven’t really decided yet… :lol: We’re at the joking around stage right now. His name probably won’t be anything CLOSE to those listed a minute ago.) — big with yellow down as the primary color and gray patches on back and head.
  • Scooter — “cousin” (actually a sibling) of Timmy Tim Tom. He’s a cousin because he’s got darker gray patches in the same places at TTT (Timmy Tim Tom).
  • Currently Unnamed — brown duckling with yellow spots.
  • Angel — teeny tiny yellow ducklings with tiny gray spots on tail.

And then, of course, the wonderful mamas:

  • Seedy — gray hen with darker gray flecks.
  • Addy — blackish-green hen.

:D

Now onto the “spring” cleaning… We finished cleaning the house today. I am glad! It was a looong week but the house looks a TON nicer because of it. :) I’ve probably re-propped pillows up on couches a million times in the course of 5 days! :lol:

The goats are all spiffy (as the Brits say…at least I think it’s the British who say that… :???: )! Everyone is extremely wide right now — especially someone whose name starts with “C”…come on…you know it… BINGO! Congratulations! *dingdong* “Especially Cosmo” is the answer! :D Heehee.

Here are some slideshows:

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^Above^: the new “in” among the goats. ;) It goes with the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” :)

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^Above^: maybe spring is on its way after all!

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^Above^: the ducklings! (Or 2 of them…)

Tune in tomorrow for some big/awesome news! :D :D

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Our First Plucking

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Well, the drake is dead. To be honest, it’s a bit of a relief, though I feel a little sick from the whole ordeal. We found proof of his murderous nature in his belly, where we found one duckling. I’ll spare you all the gory details of the beginning, but here are some pictures from the plucking…

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In order, from picture one to eight:

  1. Carrying his body to the plucking station.
  2. Naomi insisted on helping Baba pluck the drake.
  3. Stew, anyone?
  4. Quills up for grabs! I’m starting at 5¢ apiece! Any bids? *pause* Thank you, sir! 10¢ each!
  5. The feathers are mounting up.
  6. What a mess!
  7. Look at those claws!
  8. Just for fun, Angel.

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