Well, it's been a while since I've posted.
The summer is drifting away down south and autumn is sauntering in from the north. It was a busy summer and at times quite hot and humid. Aaron and I accomplished many things, but not as many as we had hoped. I suppose that's true for most people. Here's the basic summery of what's happened this summer:
The greenhouse is still standing but is now gutted and being prepared for phase 1.5 of the aquaponics plan which will involve a flood table and gravel bed and a lot of tomatoes. We are already beginning the phase 2 of the plan which involves building a geothermal greenhouse. We're both very excited about it and hope it will be completed by the spring next year.
The two ducks turned out to be two drakes. I really wanted duck eggs, so I adopted two more ducks for them, only to find out one was a young drake whose drake feather had yet to curl. So that's three boys to one girl. I've named them Peter, Sasha, Kevin and Penelope. Lucky for Penelope, Sasha and Kevin have entered into a homosexual relationship. I'm not sure it's entirely consensual, but drakes in general are kind of a rape-y bunch anyway, so there's not much I can do. In any case, she doesn't have to deal with all three of them trying to have sex with her. We built them a pond and fenced them in a nice little area behind my studio. They have become the bullies of the farm and can even scare off Wiley!
L -> R: Kevin, Penelope, Peter and Sasha. This was taken on the first day they met.
Everyone swims together happily in their new pond!
Penelope (on the left) and Kevin. Kevin came to us undersized and with what's called "Angel Wings". It is when the wings droop and it's a sign of nutritional deficiencies. But since he's been here, the problem has gone away and he's a big, robust boy with healthy, normal wings.
A close up. This is after they ate all the lovely plants I planted around the pond.
Our great cat huntress, Hilda, has most definitely passed away. She hasn't been seen or heard since the late spring and the last time I saw her she didn't look so healthy. I didn't get a chance to take her to the vet. I'm being more proactive with Chairman Meow who has been taken to the vet and updated on all his shots. The Goon Squad is still doing well. I'm pleased to report that Carl- who has FIV- hasn't gotten any worse. And Lucy, his sister, is still fat and pretty. The mysterious Himalayan still has no name but has taken up residence in the attic space above my studio. She is a night hunter and quite good I think.
We now have a total of 18 guineas- 1 keet (baby), 12 young adults, and 5 full grown adults. The adults had a clutch of keets in early August and I counted 7 originally. I killed one accidentally by leaving a bowl of food out overnight while it rained. The next morning I found one had drowned. Another was killed by Atticus. He was trying to play with it and he's so big and strong- one tap of the paw and it was dead. We couldn't get to him fast enough. The others I assume were picked off by cats, snakes, owls and hawks. Now only one survived but I am confident he will grow up and continue to thrive. He's fast and can fly and is getting bigger every day.
Wanda regards some of the young guineas. They don't roost in the coop anymore by their own choice. They roost in the big oak tree across from my kitchen window. They come and go in the coop as they please.
This is during a time when one of the adult guineas took on looking after the young ones- it was as if he was giving them a tour of the farm. This lasted for a week or two. He'd herd them all over the place and they followed him wherever he went and did whatever he did- all while making an enormous amount of noise. You can spot him at the far left in this photo. He's the one with the clearly white face. Whenever they would come around to where Aaron and I were working, Aaron would say, "Look! Here comes the idiot parade!"
They love hanging out at the pond and snatching up bugs.
They are no longer so very cute.
The six chicks I bought in the early spring are now the same size as the adult chickens and I've already found 3 small chicken eggs from them.... which is better than finding 3 small alligator eggs from them. I call them "The Chicklets" like they're a girl group from the 60's.
Wanda the one-eyed wonder chicken is still singing and having adventures all over the farm. My Mom has written a few children's stories about her and I've illustrated one and will be doing the others too. I'll have to figure out how to post it so I can share it with you all.
Wanda (background) and Betty help us dig the pond for the ducks. Betty is still missing feather, as you can see. I've tried everything but it seems that this is how she is now and that's final. I tell people she has emotional problems.
Wanda sits and waits to be taken to bed. Every evening she sits right here and waits for me to come and pick her up and put her in the coop on the roost.
A close up of my special girl back before the ducks had the fence penning them in.
Aaron and I have decided that we hate taking care of the "lawn" here. It's not actually a lawn. There's all kinds of weeds, which are mostly quite pretty if you let them grow. The reason we hate it is that there are no flat spots of ground. It's full of small ruts, divots, big rocks and muddy patches that are easy to get stuck in. And of course, you don't want to mow when the grass is wet- it will clog up the mower so we have to wait till the grass is dry. But by the time the grass is dry in the summer, it's 90 degrees and insanely humid. And the zero turn mower keeps breaking down, to top it all off. We can't win!
My backyard garden was an interesting experiment and I learned a lot. Next year I'll be working in raised beds and turning my backyard into a flower and fern garden. I did get a lot of watermelons and a few squash, eggplant and one little pumpkin. The corn didn't do very well and now that I know what I know- it should do much better next year.
The first zuchinni!
The first watermelon radish!
It looked good!
And here are more photos:
Chairman Meow in the cat barn with Lucy in the background.
Atticus loves to swim!
The chicken I call "Pretty Chicken" (I don't want to name her for real because she's gonna get slaughtered soon) went through a phase of getting out of the coop and laying her eggs in the cat beds. I have no idea why.
Sunrise
We had an audience during our pond digging.
Day one of pond digging.
My parent's dog, Callie, and Atticus are best friends.
My Mom got me this great table and chair set for my front porch. Wanda is inspecting it from afar.
Aaron and Atticus cuddle on the couch.
Atticus in my weeds. After I took this picture, I pulled all those weeds out and planted begonias. They looked beautiful until the chicklets came and ate them all.
Atticus and Aaron in the pool.
The evening hang out. Now the ducks are in their own area, this doesn't really happen so much anymore.
The ducks chasing Wiley. Actually it's Peter who chases Wiley and Sasha serves as point man. Kevin and Penelope don't seem to think it's a good idea and only come along because they don't want to be too far from the flock.
After a hot afternoon running around, it's nice to lay down and put your snout in a bowl of ice.
Atticus and Callie napping together at my parent's house.
