BOTH ducks are laying! Yay!

Both Crusty AND Olga are laying now. They both gave us an egg yesterday and today. Good girls!

These eggs are weird! Very smooth/polished, compared to chicken eggs. Also, unlike the chickens who just drop an egg in the nest box, our ducky gals make a little nest in the straw and lay their eggs in the same spot. Haven't tried them yet, but planning on it this weekend before heading out to our tree stands.

A drive in the woods

Took a drive up above Molalla today. Henry had fun running in the woods. Lots of good smells. Especially after Gus went and rolled on a snake (retch). Plus, Henry had rot gut today, so it was a very fragrant trip, even with the windows down!

Got home and set up my new deer stand. Very cool. If I don't get a deer, may have a chance at a bear (lots of big bruin poopy piles around the property) or a coyote (got me a new predator call at Cabela's this weekend!)

Buck season starts next Saturday. Yay!

First whole duck egg!

I say "first whole duck egg" because the real "first" egg was two days ago and had been stepped on. Not quite whole once I got to it. :)

Don't know whether Crusty or Olga laid this egg. Gonna have to see if some ducks lay green eggs and others don't. Pretty exciting, though!

Still alive!

I really am still alive. There's just too much going on to find time to blog. Pigs went to butcher, turkeys too. We'll cull the young roosters here in a few weeks, and Dunder will be butchered as well and replaced by one of his offspring. Darkwing and Launchpad are gone... We gave the two drakes to our neighbor's brother, who has a pond. We drove by to look, and they were happily swimming around with his other ducks. Currently working to get the old house ready to go on the market. I'm at this moment covered in paint, taking a break from kitchen painting. The next few weeks will be spent working at the old house, along with a full time job and farm chores at home. Gotta get this last coat on and head home to check on the 5 new chicks (3 ameraucana and 2 speckled sussex). We saw them at the feed store and, well, we're suckers.

Hope everyone's well!

We REALLY didn't need more chickens!

But MAMA maran gifted us with 5 new babies. Yes, Mama. One of the marans reappeared with 5 chipmunk chicks and one black sex-link girl. Maybe the other maran is also hiding out? We can only hope, eh?

I spotted a Maran

No joke. I mentioned before that both the marans are missing. Well, I was working from home yesterday, and happened to look out the window, and there was one of the marans guzzling water. She was acting very broody, puffed up, clucking away to herself, and pecking at the other chickens when they crowded her. She went over and started eating, and next time I looked up, she was gone again. So, my guess is that she's got a nest out under the brush pile (where we have no way of reaching her). I hope the other maran is out there with her. We are reasonably certain that the Wyandotte is gone, as I found a pile of breast feathers about 50' from the chicken yard, out in the woods. :(

Maybe the maran ladies will turn up with a mess of chicks someday soon (like we need more chickens).

Parked in front of the fan

Henry, parked in front of the fan this weekend, watching the Olympics.... Yes, my dog will watch tv. For hours. :) The funny thing is that he can tell if there is a dog on the screen, and knows the difference between canines and "other" critters (cats, bears, deer, etc...)  Only dogs/wolves/etc get a real reaction from him. Crazy pup.