The raspberries are pretty much gone. There were lots of dried up lil berries…but not lots of yummy ready ones. While we were picking along the fence on T. and S.’s side, T. came over and said hello. We talked berries, and he mentioned there were tons of raspberry bushes on the other side of his property in his other neighbor’s land. He offered to and did call the other neighbor to see if we could go over there and pick berries, and then he led us through the grass and weeds and poision ivy to where the patch was. Alas, there weren’t many berries left there, either. Perhaps next year when ours ripen, we’ll talk to those folks again and see if we can pick there. We’ll also need a machete. We got about a pint or two of berries from all the plants. Maybe tomorrow I can make a cobbler or somethin’?

One of our slithering friends is growing. We found this skin floating along the edge of the pond. While it was in the water, the skin still looked sort of snake shaped…especially the head part. When Andy took the skin out of the water, the tail was full like a balloon and was leaky. It was neato.

Today the ducks started eating Big Girl food. *sniffle* They grow up so fast! They still have baby fluff but are mostly feathers. They are working on growing wings now, too. At the tips of their wings are growing what looks like white plastic pins…I guess the foundation for their big wing feathers. And they follow Andy so well!

The blackberries should be ripe in a week or two. At least that’s what T. thought, and he should know better than us. Blackberries. Ooodles and oodles of blackberries. Dang, we really need a big freezer! Ya know how lots of people set up wish lists of Amazon or Toys R Us or Bob’s House of Llamas? Do you know any online stores where we can build this wish list:

– large chest freezer
– hand sheep shears
– machete
– spinning wheel
– electric fencing

“Look, Ma! I can fly!!!”

The ducklings are getting their big girl feathers, and before we know it, they’ll be trying to fly. Their grown-up feathers are all sorts of shades of brown. I never thought boring old brown could be so pretty. Really, they shouldn’t be called Khaki Campbells. They should be Cocoa Campbells. Yumm. Chocolate ducks. You can sort of see their new feathers in this picture. Check out their tummies, tails, and wings.

Their house is done now, and Andy has a good start on the attached run. The girls don’t quite seem to know what to think of it yet, but there have been no more escape attempts.

This morning when I went up to feed the ducks I was concerned when I couldn’t hear them cheeping through the outside door. They were still fairly quiet even after I got into the work room next to the room they stay in…and considering the door connecting the two was open, I got a bit worried by the relative silence. Usually the girls are cheeping and peeping and honking and doing little tap dances when I visit them in the morning. What was wrong?

I walked into the duck room…and five little ducklings swarmed around my feet. Escapees! After the initial surprise wore off, I began to wonder where the other two girls were. I quickly found one still in the brooder, but the seventh was nowhere to be seen. Did she get outside somehow where she was eaten by a hungry raccoon? Was she stuck in the table saw? Arg!

I decided to take the girls down to their pen/tractor in the hopes that this would draw out the last duckling. When I pulled back the cardboard barrier around the brooder to let the sixth duckling out, number seven peeked out from where she was hiding (stuck?) behind the cardboard and under the edge of the brooder/pool. Phew.

Feeling like a parent on a school field trip making sure no kids were left behind in the reptile house, I counted and recounted feathery heads to make sure everyone was present as we tumbled down the hill to the duck tractor. I think we need to get the duck house secured and ready to inhabit ASAP because the ducklings can no longer be contained by cardboard and a baby pool.

When I went back into the house to tell Andy what had happened, I was giggly because escaped ducklings is rather cute. Andy was less than amused, however, and said, “Yeah, you think it’s funny, but you aren’t the one who has to go clean up duck poop all over the workshop floors!” HAHAHAHAHAAH!

Speaking of cute critters, here’s a photo of Sana sprawled in the sun.

My brother drew a design for our duck house that we, alas, had to reject. We couldn’t get the city to approve the wifi tower, and PETA was unhappy with the spiral staircase. They said it would cause too much stress to the ducks. How else, I ask, were the ducks supposed to get to / from the landing pad?

The work on our duck house continues. The boys got the walls framed and are finishing up the walls. Mom and I did some priming, but we couldn’t keep up with the boys’ progress. Plus we were running low on primer. Here’s some photos of the progress. Eventually the whole thing will be painted brickish red. We got two cans of really pricey paint for $2 each (normally over $30 each), so who cares about the color. Maybe I’ll put a mosiac on the side or something fun later.

It’s back to work tomorrow for me. Andy will probably collapse all day and rest. Or maybe paint. Hee.

Dad, Andy, and Craig worked on building the duck house all day today. They got the base finished, and I started priming it while they worked on framing the walls.

I ran out of primer, and they ran out of 2x4s. Dad and Andy went off to the store, and Mom and I decided to whip up some jam. Too bad the propane ran out right before the fruit began to boil. Bummer. We weren’t able to get the tanks off, so we had to put things on hold and wait for the guys to get back and use their muscles of steel to unhook the tanks. They ran down to J&Js for a fill up, and we finally got to make jam. It’s YUMMY. Would be better without the seeds, but still yummy.

We made 8 pints of jam, and used up most of the berries we picked on Saturday. Time to pick more! I’d like to try and make a pie tomorrow, so not only will I need more berries but ‘ll also need to figure out how to strain most of the seeds out. It’s all a learning experience.

A couple of days ago, we started herding the ducks back and forth between their daytime pen and their brooder (which is getting very small for them!). It took two people to keep the ducks moving in the correct direction because they are easily distracted by things like bugs, grass, puffs of wind. Here’s a picture of me trying to coax the ducks up the hill by wiggle their food bowl at them.

Tonight, for the first time, we opened the door, I wiggled the food and called to the ducks, and they came running. They followed me all the way up the hill with no detours! One got a bit lost and wouldn’t head up the ramp back into their bed. She was so confused and sad, but finally I got hold of her and put her with sisters.