So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but time of year being what it is and all , and all that needs to get done and all…………….

So quick recap from where I left off,

The ducks are not only IQ impoverished, but illiterate too…………the "lay the eggs here" dummy egg……………well we finally fed that one to the dogs, we were still fishing one a day out of the pond, and it took about 2 weeks to find the new nest for the others. So a massive amount of duck eggs of questionable quality later, we marked six of them as decoys ( dummies ) put them back in nest #2, and boiled up the rest for the other critters. 3 days later………….no new eggs in the nest, and yes we are still fishing one out of the pond every day. Give us a couple of days

and we find new nest # 3………………still more questionable eggs to deal with, but we have an active clientele for them so no worries, and the last dip shit duck that lays eggs in the pond has decided to follow suit and lay eggs on dry land with the other girls, but somehow they have managed to confuse a chicken.

All’s good for another week and then we have a complete overnight raid on all the eggs in the nest………….they are all dummies, completely marked up with permanent, probably toxic, marker, we used red this time as black seems to disappear in the massive amount of dirt a duck can put on her own egg. Anyways, ya damn coon, hope you get Salmonella, a seizure or something, because you have no idea how long it took to get these dumb ass ducks to all lay in one place…………and I know it was a coon, because now the shells are all in the pond. My poor pond, the one that was to be such a tranquil little oasis of running water, native plants and rockscaping……….ya whatever. I doesn’t much resemble that at all right now.

But, on the bright side, so far, so good, the ducks are still using the new, and did I mention, easy to reach, nest.

　

　

　

Easter Eggstravaganza....Wingnut style

It’s April already and Easter has just come and gone…….

With all the kids moved out, my Mom doing dinner and any remaining daffodils or crocuses that may have survived me and /or the landscaping project of 2011 being eaten by either squirrels or ducks………..there really wasn’t anything much Easter around here,

……….unless you count the new chicken that lays us green eggs.

It was basically going to be a work weekend anyway, cutting trees to let more sun onto the solar system and building my new and improved terraced garden, an unexpected and welcome by-product of the tree project.

Thinking that I was going to be working on the gardens, I did buy a new garden tool to replace the old and worn out one……………just a regular garden hoe, nothing fancy except for the lime green handle ( kinda Easterish I suppose ) but with the new project well underway it became obvious that I was not going to get around to using the new tool this weekend………………or so I thought.

Nice Hoe...eh



Raid, Vapona and Citronella
aka Huey, Dewey and Louey
aka Dumb, Dumber and Stupid

Seems our 3 remaining ducks, all girls, have their own idea about Easter. They came of age about a month ago and started laying eggs, and except for the first ones, which I figure might have caught them by surprise, they have laid 3 eggs a day in a nest which we found after it had about a dozen eggs in it. The nest they chose is under the chicken coop, behind a bail of hay, in a spot that is inaccessible unless you get down on your hands and knees and crawl into the spot with the least amount of clearance. But that’s fine, every day we collect 6 chicken and 3 duck eggs from the coop area and one chicken egg from the greenhouse
……….Helens new home.


Until Easter weekend arrives, and who knew that ducks were so into the egg hunt thing??

Just look where they have laid their eggs for the last 3 days…………..

This is where the first "surprise" eggs were laid, and they were still there, but now I have my new Easter colored garden tool turned egg scooper, and I’ve gotten some use out of it this weekend after all.

All the eggs retrieved, and the original ones too…………….2 fed to the dogs and chickens and one used as a "Dummy Egg" to put back in the nest to help them "maybe" get the idea that Easter is over and I really don’t need to make the trip to the coop every day with a basket ………and a hoe.

I hope they get the message.

As for the ducks..........

Nut Date…… Oct 18,2011

As for the ducks.....................well Holy Sh*t !!

.........pardon the language, but that’s all we are getting from them.

I guess that was part of the original plan, $3.00 duck, bug control and free manure, so far they are holding up their end of the manure part NO PROBLEM... as for the bug control, well they have just now found the field that holds the bugs that are eating hundreds of dollars worth of fruit trees, good timing, the bugs are sleeping for the winter, it’s Canada........... and all summer, rather than eating the slugs that attack my $13.00 Hostas, they ate the Hostas……..bug problem there solved, in their minds anyways.

So they stopped sleeping in the $1000.00 Quacker Box we built for them months ago, preferring the pond, spending the night floating about with their head tucked under one wing, looking really cute, but apparently filling it up with manure ALL NIGHT LONG. I’ve heard they have no sphincter at the south end, and I now don’t doubt that at all.

The reality is, that despite our best efforts at creating a nice calming eco – friendly, self sustaining pond, we now have to run hydro to pump it out. $$$$

So let’s just tally this up,

nine $3.00 ducks… $27.00,
bag of feed, $16.00 / month
Quacker Box with heat and lighting ( hydro ) $1000.00 +++
Pond pump, $30.00 ( I think, probably way more )
Pipes to access fresh spring water……….$ ??? another $30, let’s just say
Rental on mini excavator to dig hole for fresh spring water ( that was stuck in the mud for most of the rental, but did in the end dig the hole ) ..$50.00
Pond liner, sand, gravel, rocks, plants……salvaged, reclaimed or recycled from other jobs.

The whole system of sand filters, spring water and plant filtration, all for a duck pond, working wonderfully, till you make the fatal mistake of adding ducks………… freakin’ PRICELESS !!!


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Don't they all just look sooooo happy !!!
merrily pooping away

I’ve since learnt that this issue is called "Duckponics"

Whodathunkit??

Duckponics is actually a word. ??!! Well, probably not according to Webster’s ( yet ), but to anyone who owns a duck…………..it’s not just a word, it’s a reality that needs to be dealt with,
and to my relief, I’m not alone.

There is some comfort in numbers I guess.