Goodbye, Miss Duck

With a heavy heart I share the news that our Miss Duck has gone on to the great beyond... to that lovely pond in the sky. After all these years we found her dead. Goodbye, Miss Duck.

I'm pretty broken hearted, I really loved Miss Duck. She was our beautiful Muscovy hen that we've had for a good long time. The only thing Miss Duck ever wanted to do was set a nest and hatch babies. She loved all babies and took in all kinds of stragglers. Between her funny little walk, her gentle nature, and her sweet little peeping noises I just couldn't be more in love with her. I'm very sorry to see her go.

We got her from my pal, Bourbon Red....along with an enormous drake. Miss Duck and that drake were our first waterfowl and they were just terrific to have around. Miss Duck and that big drake made headlines .... and angry neighbors. But we learned a lot about ducks and we are glad for the huge herds of ducklings that have graced the farm over the years. You can read more about keeping ducks here.

Miss Duck had been failing for a while now and I was surprised that she lasted thru the winter. There was no sign of illness or struggle. Sometimes poultry just up and dies... we think Miss Duck must have been about 9 years old... so she had a good long run.

This is how I'll remember her.... sitting on a nest of little ducklings giving me that cute side-eye.

She just loved....

....setting.....

...a nest. And taking care of her babies.

Thanks, Miss Duck, for everything. Now waddle free of the cares of this life in that great pond in the sky....

Happy Monday, everyone. Do you love ducks?

You never know what you are going to find in the barnyard.....

So, this happened.......

One of these things is not like the other. 

I went out to the hen house this morning and of my hens was acting funny..... I thought she might have a chick under her.

Nope. I found this little guy instead. What a surprise!

The odd of him surviving out with the rest of the velociraptors was very low... so I scooped him up and put him with the fresh meats.

Why didn't I put him in a crate with his "momma?" Well... I'm not sure about a chicken raising a duckling... plus little ducks, more so than chicks, tend to be a lot more mobile. This way I can keep an eye on him and also he can hang out with the same-ish aged chicks. They will outpace him soon enough but at least he has a fighting chance.

He was a little confused by everything that happened but I think he's going to be OK.

Happy Thursday everyone! Do you have a surprise duckling?

Another Nice Day for Ducks

Did everyone survive that extremely weird storm over last couple of days? It hit us during the night - fortunately no damage but what a odd weather pattern!  We had a hellacious amount of rain and lost power for part of the night. Then yesterday the high temperature was 68*.... I had all the windows open and was in shorts.

The ducks loved it. They spent most of the day goofing around in the drainage ditch we worked on a couple years ago. All the water from the hill now runs into the drainage ditches and not into our house. Even tho the ditches were backfilled with gravel we still get a good stream going in the gully when we have a big rain. The ducks think it's the best thing ever.

I even dug them a few deeper holes so they could really splash around. This also helps direct the water into the drainage tile (that black bendy pipe stuff)... so it wasn't just or them. But it sure made them happy. 

Our ditch project was one of the more difficult projects we have done - mostly because it was so much work. However, we are extremely glad that we don't have all that water in our basement. So I'm giving it an A+ for sure.

Today we are back to winter. I had to get up, close the windows, and find my heavy jacket this morning. When we went outside there was some kind of frozen particulate matter falling from the sky.... and tomorrow we will be in the deep freeze.

Happy Monday everyone! Did you have a nice day for ducks?

A Mother's Day Surprise!

Look who I found!  This crazy little duck has been "missing" for a while - honestly we thought that something got her but here she is!

Hey - that is not a ducklings.....

And that is not a baby duckling it's a chick! Actually there are two chicken chicks peeping around and she still has a clutch of duck eggs under her. Sometimes these mixed nests happen - the hennies will lay eggs in a duck nest. However the duck eggs still have about a week or so to incubate. Since the momma will quit her nest after a day or two to take care of the live babies - I think we are going to have basement chicks for a while!

Also - remember what happened last fall to my little dwarf duck's nest - so I think we are going with safety first.  When the rest of the eggs hatch we'll move this momma to a safer spot.

Isn't this a cutie patootie!?! Both chicks look like this - either barred rocks or Australorps.

Speaking of mothers.... have you done all your Mother's Day shopping? If not here is a last minute option - how about some flowers? It's easy and fun to order thru Amazon from either this link or the black search box on the right of this page. What can you buy? Anything you normally would purchase from Amazon - books, Kindle books, Kindles, movies, groceries - anything they offer.

Remember that I'm using all the loot I get from my Amazon store from the month of May to purchase supplies and snacks for "my" soldier! I just got a cute note back from my soldier thanking me for the stuff I've already sent - it's so much fun to make someone's day!

Happy Friday everyone - anybody else get some surprise chicks?

Missing Duck Mystery - Solved!

Ever since we got that new drake the ducks have been in a dither. We had to shuffle everyone around to put all of the duck hens in with the new dandy.

 I didn't see anything but hay. Hey! What's that?

All except two. My funny little garage duck doesn't get along with the other ladies so she stayed put. And we couldn't catch one of the little runner ducks so she stayed in the garage also.

But we haven't seen the little runner hen for the last couple of days. This usually means bad news. As in curtains. As in "get the gloves and bring a bag." Woefully I checked around but I couldn't find her remaining remains...or any other sign of her.

So I brought in the big guns. The Big Man is really good at finding the bodies. He was in the garage for about a minute and came out laughing.  He found her. She was up on the stack of hay bales on a beautiful nest. A nest! At this time of year!

Who knows if the eggs are good but at least we know where she is now. Silly girl. 

Happy Tuesday everyone! Anyone else have a duck who doesn't know when to set a nest?

How to Smoke A Duck

Editor's note: It goes without saying that I am not mature enough to do this post. We'll just try and muddle thru. In the meantime, lets get the obvious joke out of the way....lets all just say it together "Smoke a duck? How do you keep it lit?" There. We said it. Its stupid. But its still funny.

If you don't have ducks for your backyard for barnyard you need to run right out and get some. Now. Right now. For snuggling? Slug, bug, and snail eating abilities?

No. For eating.

Friend, I am telling you that duck is the other red meat. You have to try it. If you don't believe me then run right out and get one. There are probably tons of frozen ducks on post holiday sale at your grocery store. Try one. Once you are convinced, then scan Craigslist or just order a heap of ducks from your closest hatchery. They are basically "bomb proof," as my pal L says, which means they are pretty hardy, they are easy keepers, they mostly feed themselves, and they breed like rabbits. For my money they are the cheapest thing in the barnyard.

We had a duck harvest recently. They were just delicious. The harvesting is different from chickens.  Mostly, the plucking is ridiculous. We are the World's Worst Pluckers. And after about 10 minutes I get bored. Feathers get everywhere. Its a big disaster. So normally I just skin and not pluck. But wow we had a beauty that begged for plucking. So I stood there. A wise man once told me there are not enough hours in the day to pluck a duck. I believe him but I tried hard just the same.

This is why I put all that effort into it. Duck breast is like steak. But without all that irksome mooing and waiting around for a year or more while it grows out. It only takes a summer to grow out a duck to get breasts like this. And it's like the best filet you've ever had. Only better.

The best thing about having foodie friends is that they don't think you are out of your mind if you send them an urgent email telling them that right there in your kitchen you are having caramelized pears with smoked duck, figs, and extremely stanky, moldy goat cheese for an appetizer...and a seared, rare duck breast with a soy-honey glaze, plated up with crisp fried sweet and regular potatoes, and greens. You know who you are, and I appreciate that I have an outlet for my culinary celebrations.

When I lived in the city I'd have a similar meal at a nice restaurant....for about $50. My home grown meal was my time and about $2 in materials.

This bring us to how to smoke a duck. After I took off the breasts for the above meal, I had the rest of the duck and another smallish one to deal with. I just fired up the charcoal grill by making a stack of briquets on one side, and put the ducks, well salt and peppered with a drip pan under them (I just used a cast iron fry pan), on the rack on the other side. Then I tossed a handful of soaked hickory chips (from the store by the bags of charcoal) on the hot coals. And I just kept doing that until the ducks were done, adding charcoal and chips from time to time. How did I know they were done? By looking at them. I know. Its not very scientific. Here's better instructions.

Using a smoker is my new favorite thing. Basically you can't monkey it up. The only thing to remember is to allow yourself plenty of time.

Once the ducks were cooled down I took as much meat off as I could then put the carcasses into a stock pot and let them simmer until I had lush, rich stock and the meat was falling off the bone. I canned up the stock and took off all the meat. I got a nice big bowl of meat for my efforts and will be using it for eggrolls and potstickers.

I also got some beautiful breast meat that I'll be using like smoked salmon - probably in a pasta dish kinda like this.

I know that it sounds too easy to be true, but really, smoking a duck is extremely easy. *Struggles to not make any more stupid jokes.*  I have an older model of this smoker, the Char-Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Deluxe Charcoal Grill. The best thing about this model is that I can either have the smoking fire on one side of the barrel or use the "smoke box" on the side. I use this type of smoker for our bacons and such - and I'll be using it for the ham that is curing right now.

So now you know. Now run right out and smoke that duck... if.. um... you can keep it lit! Ha!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Thursday Happy Snaps and Comments

My new camera is working out great! I just love it - easy to use, great results, and its a shiny red color so I haven't lost it yet. The day isn't over tho. I've been taking happy snaps left and right.

My slightly confused duck momma... I need to take her off this nest soon. I think the eggs are dead but she's been very protective. I'm hoping she hears the babies and that's why she tried to kill me with mean looks when I checked on her. Maybe I'll give her a couple more days.

The meatlets are growing like gang busters. They think my shoes are gods... they swarm my feet whenever I get close thinking this will make their feed appear faster. If we get the good weather they are predicting this weekend (70*!!!!) then they might be making a meat-walk right outside. We had a man down the other day - no reason, just a random creepy meat death. Dang! That makes me so mad. But still have 25!

The little pigz are lookin' good! One of my pals said that Tamworths with black spots are the best eatin' and this one is extra mean so he is going to be delish!  They love their yard way back in the woods and are bull dozing (pig dozing?) everything. I'm hoping the deer hunters don't shoot them by mistake. Yikes!

My Bubby - after a hard day of Bubbing around, with Lucky for scale. Zander is huge and is having another growing spurt. His legs are almost as long as mine and his head got bigger. He is extremely impressive these days.

My most excellent good dog. Dog#1 has been helping me a lot lately. We have to go out for chores before 5pm these days and he helps me keep the troops in line. Especially our new rooster, Taco Loco.

Taco Loco is crazy and mean. Someone pawned him off on us and now we know why. He chased my Miss Duck and has flogged me a couple times. Dog#1 explained to him that we don't do that. We'll be changing his name to "First" on our next butcher day. Then he'll be just "delicious tacos."

Thanks for everyone's fun comments lately!  Especially JJJ, and yes my major award was fragile..which is Italian.  I've been a little under the weather so I'm behind in replying. But I read each and every comment that comes in here and on "the facebook"....and I really appreciate everyone's contribution. I'll get back on track here soon.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Just some cute little ducks...

Just some cute little ducks... doin' cute little duck things.

These are my little milking buddies. They love it when I fill up the drainage ditch to make a little puddle for them. This momma ducks loves to brood and raise her babies in the garage - right near where the goat milking happens. She knows that if she comes over to me peeping and stomping her little ducky feet that I'll give her some sips out of the milking pail.

I can't help it - I just love little ducks.

Another scorcher today but the humidity has come on us so its worse than before. I need to keep these little guys cool so they will be playing in the water again.

Any body else got little quackers splashing around in puddles today?

Happy Monday everyone! Keep cool and think adorable little ducky thoughts!

Because they just keep getting cuter.....

This is what I found yesterday when I went to check on my momma duck and her babies....

They just keep getting cuter. The little black and yellow one is still much smaller than they others but he's trying to catch up. They are full of fun and happily peeping all around.

This is our last cool morning then the heat will be blazing. They already issued heat advisories and all kinds of weather warnings for tomorrow. We might hit 100*!  Then we'll be in the 90*'s for a while. And there is no real rain in sight.

The other day it occurred to me that I'm already done with the heat... and then it dawned on me that we still have three more months of hot weather. Drat. There will be some pretty fancy footwork here in the next couple days trying to keep everyone cool and watered.

Happy last cool morning everyone! Here comes the summer!

My New Milking Buddies

How cute are these little guys?

One of our duck mommas finally hatched these ducklings. She and a chicken hen were sharing a nest - which never really works out.

Finally these little ducklings came toddling out one morning. The momma duck sat on her nest for another 3 days and finally the little black and yellow one hatched.

Now they are my new milking buddies. The momma loves to peep all around when I'm milking hoping for some sips of milk out of my bucket. How can I deny these funny little faces? An empty cat food can is a perfect drinker or feeder for these babies. I put a little milk in the can and they just enjoy the dickens out of it.

I'm keeping them locked up for a few more days. That newest one is still a bit small to be outside. She's a great momma tho and will protect them from the hen swarm. My only worry is that they are still "crow sized" and are easy pickings if they are out in the open.

Happy Monday everyone!

Something adorable is happening here

I just love baby ducks.....

Hey baby! Look who's here!

Miss Duck is a favorite and an excellent momma. She's settin' that nest... like a boss.

 I hope more babies hatch. I'll check on her later today.

More on this stunning new arrival's surprise entrance later... we got a little rain this morning and I'm hoping to do some work outside.

Happy Monday everyone!  Crank on the air conditioning... its gonna be a hot week in the mid-West!

Nice day for ducks

Raining here...

but its a nice day for ducks!

These little ones think this is the best day in their whole lives. I'm hoping to catch a break in the rain... but looks like I'll be working on inside chores.

Happy Wednesday! Is everyone keeping dry?

Hog hosing and Ducklet for Heiko

How to Have a Happy Hog? Hose 'em off, baby!

When the days are hot we follow the long, long, long hose down the hill and crank it up to hose down the pigz. They just love it. Not only does this give them a cool down, but its a great way to keep their wallow full and muddy - just like they love it.

Them pigz come running from the far end of their lot as soon as they hear the dogs and I tromp down the hill.

They belly right up and enjoy the cool water. They stand there and let it run all over them, shake their heads, drink from the spray, and then run around carvorting in the mud.

Remember that pigz don't cool themselves like we do so this is a great way to keep the bacon happy.

Afterwards, they are shiny and happy - would you just look at that beautiful red color! Yay bacon! We are so glad that we found Spring Hill Farms.... wow! For those of you who aren't lucky enough to have your own Tamworths - if you are in or even near Central Ohio - run, don't walk over to their site and order you up some fresh pork. And word is... they are now raising Large Blacks.... I know... that's what I'm talking about. You can bet that I'll have my name on that list for more feeders next spring.

And, my dear Heiko requested a ducklet.. I mean.. a duckling so here you go, brother!

Your little pal is the far one in the water pan - she's a peach and a winner for sure. Name suggestion please....

Is everyone enjoying this cool morning!? Ohmigosh I need a long sleeved shirt to be outside - I'm lovin' the cool down.

Happy Monday everyone!

Hey Mr. H - Here's your chick!

As requested... here's your chick, Mr. H!

She's a beauty for sure..... I'm holding her funny but check out her coloring...

...and those funny feet! Her momma is a Salmon Faverolle... and they have an extra toe. I just love them - they have a funny round shape and are a little ridiculous..but thats OK. This is Jane's singleton chick. We decided to put her with the chicks inside - turns out Jane has started to lay again which is VERY unusual while a hen who still has a baby to raise. So she has been leaving this little one alone to make googoo eyes at her rooster, Mr. Tibbles. So for her safety we decided to put this chick with The Mob. Any name suggestions, Mr. H?

Ginny, your gal is doing just great - her 'racing stripes' are coming in beautifully. I'll see if I can get some pix later today. She's the best one of The Mob for sure.

Today we marched our Momma Duck and her Eight up to baby yard by the hen house. Its a long walk if you have tiny little feet.They are having a blast. When I last checked them they were all sitting in a cake pan full of water. They took to it like.. well... like a duck to water.

We are heading out for more fencing - is everyone gonna have a great day?

Reach for the sun!

Happy Thursday everyone!

I would have posted sooner but.....

I would have posted sooner but I was sucked into the vortex of cute that is baby ducks... ohmigolly... can you stand it? Milking took a long time today because these little cuties were toddling around.

Their first big day - seeing the Whole Wide World

How was I supposed to milk with all this cuteness toddling around the milk stand?

As I was taking one goat back and bringing the next up for milking, the Momma Duck took her babies on walkabout.

They thought the bridge to the hen house was awesome!

And Momma Duck was very proud of her babies.

They loved the green stuff.

It took a while but I slowly walked all the babies to the baby yard by the hen house. I felt confident that they were safe when I watched Momma Duck run two of the turkey hens off and then go after our barn cat. The hens actually have to be afraid of her! This afternoon I'll walk Momma Duck and her Eight back to her original nest. Its already been a big day for these little cuties.

And by popular demand... here's a quick pic of the pigz. They are huge! More on this tomorrow..

Baby ducks are way cuter than pigz.....but can you believe the bacons on these two porkers???

Hope everyone is having a great day and enjoying the sunshine! Happy Wednesday !!

Rotten bean row and making vanilla....and ducklings?

I think the solar flares got my wireless router because its been kinda funky. Hopefully its all fixed up. But I'm getting some quick notes in before it goes out again....

That's all there is to it - vodka and vanilla beans.

First, I'm starting a batch of home made vanilla. Vanilla - I know! How weird is that? Actually not so weird. Have you noticed how ridiculously expensive it is in the store now? So I'm taking evasive action. I found these directions here and they seem to be pretty consistent with a few other links I found. I had to make a slight alteration because the $13 I shelled out for Madagascar whole vanilla beans only bought me TWO.  So I used slightly less than 2 cups of vodka to accommodate the recommended 3 beans per 2 cups of booze. Its in a dark cupboard where it will be shaken every once in a while and will be ready in October. Until then I think I paid about $9 for my current store-bought bottle of vanilla.

Next - as for planting notes, I took all the over-ripe beans from our Horticulture Bean binge and planted them, shells and all next to the 4 new rows of fresh green beans in the square garden. If they don't sprout that's just fine, I'll just heavily mulch that row and call it a slow compost heap. I planted cylindrical beets on the other side of that raised row.

And here is a funny thing... this morning there was some mysterious peeping in the garage.... turns out my little milking helper micro duck hatched! This was quite a surprise because we got rid of our drakes a while ago.... hum...... I knew she had a nest but let her sit on what I thought we unfertilized eggs just to give her something to do (she's kind of a trouble maker)....and there you have it. There were at least 3 of the cutest little duckling ever this morning. Pix tomorrow, I'm sure.

So far its been quite a day. Hope the solar flares haven't wonked out your router like mine!

Happy Monday!

Runners on the move

Today we set up super-reinforced fencing (OK it was recycled chain link from somebody's pool) for our runner ducks.

They ....well.. ran right out into their new yard and proceeded to run up and down the length of the fence looking for a way out.

After talking about it for a while they decided that they should just relax and enjoy their new digs. So they did. Actually they were pretty funny all day.

And they were happy to get out and into the cool grass. We hit 102* today! Can you believe it?