Learning to live a permacultural life … one day at a time! … by Damon E. Farnham
Big thunderstorm last night (3.3 inches of rain). A few showers during the day, and another major T-Storm in the evening hours.
Saved a turtle from getting squashed by my tractor.
Setup a ‘play date’ for my baby bunnies to visit the 18 new baby chickens in their brooder for a bit. Very cute.
1. Feeding the loud-mouth (when they are hungry) ducks
2. Recycling the worm farm
After all of yesterday’s trials and tribulations … I got up this morning not defeated, but determined to enjoy this day … a new day … fresh, and with a positive attitude.
Obviously, I have my hands full managing this here farm thingy. I’ve only been at this for less than 2 years, so every day undoubtedly — and without fail — presents many new ‘lessons learned‘ and ‘teachable moments.’ Yesterday was rich with such experiences, but today may not. Even if it does … so be it. Onward. Upward.
This video covers my morning activities between first cup of coffee and breakfast (sweet Italian sausage, veggies, brown rice, eggs, feta cheese, basil). Got all the critters up, out, checked, fed and watered, and run threw a few ‘snake drills‘ because of all the snake activity this week. 😉
Enjoy.
P.S. OBVIOUSLY (and no surprise) … the 7 1/2 shot was way more effective vs. the snake (target) than was the 000 buck. Onboard my ranch gun (Taurus/Rossi Circuit Judge carbine) I carry 7 1/2 shot (snakes), 000 buck (coyotes, short range), .45 Colt (coyotes, long range), and PDX1 (biped trespassers). 😉
P.S.S. And NO, I didn’t shoot the two ‘chickens’ beneath the ‘snakes.’ They just did what I taught all my chickens to do when I engage predators in their vicinity … drop, cover and bug-the-f*ck-OUT (i.e. beat feet).
The ducks just crack me up. When they are hungry, they’ll let you know. Normally, they’re pretty quiet animals, but when their stomachs start growling, their beaks start flapping … without fail, like clock work.
If they are REALLY hungry (like this morning), they’ll start barking at me as soon as they hear the front door open (about 150 yards away), or as soon as they see me walking across another pasture (250 yards away).
So, I thought I’d share the experience of silencing a horde of 5 seemingly starving ducks. Peas, corn, rolled oats, cooked brown rice and a handful of baby spinach. THAT should shut them up!
Enjoy.
I’m highly motivated to get the 5 ducklings out of the barn and into their duck pond enclosure. They are really messy and can really stink up the barn, so OUT they go! 😉
I plan to build a much more elaborate duck house once I get the big pond done later this year. For now, I converted a dog crate into a temporary duck house by building a raised platform beneath, a cover for the top, thermal insulation on the top and two sides, and adding an access ladder to the duck can waddle their cute (but stinky) little butts directly from the pond to the house, and back.
Interestingly enough, I put the ducks in the house and locked it for about an hour. Then I opened it so they could go play in the pond. But, 2 or 3 hours later when I checked, they hadn’t left the house. That’s odd. I’m guessing by morning they’ll be ready to hit the beach.
On a whim, I bought 5 baby ducklings yesterday to add to the farm fam.
They will be in the barn brooder for 4 to 6 weeks, but I decided to get busy today transitioning the work-in-progress pond into a dedicated duck refuge.
Step 1 was to install a new 90 foot, 3-strand electric fence to keep the donkeys away from the pond area.
Had to teach myself a few new skills, and learned what a “spinning jenny” is and why you need one to make a 12.5 gauge wire fence.
Overall, not bad for my first such fence. I need to upgrade one of the terminal posts to add more rigidity to sustain the tension created by three tight wires all pulling in one direction. But, for now, I think it will keep the donks out of the pond, so I can start building out the ‘duck infrastructure.’