I feel perfectly awful

That would be Mr. Roo speaking...not me. Since he was attacked by the mystery critter over a month ago, he has good days and bad. Above was a bad day...face plant on the driveway with the girls all gathered around.

He is recovering, but very slowly. Although he can hold up his head much better than before, as his feathers are coming back in, they are looking pretty ratty...poor guy...

Otherwise things are going pretty well here at Lester's Flat. After an unusually rainy start to summer, followed by an unusually hot and humid couple of weeks, we are now having almost perfect weather.

I have not had a chance to photograph the latest additions to "the farm". We bought 5 new chicks from a local farmer. The rooster was a Black Australorp, the hen that hatched them was a Speckled Sussex, and a few other hens must have snuck their eggs in there because one looks like half Golden Laced Wyandotte, and another is all blue/black like the roo.

We kept the chicks locked up for a few days, but after a week or so started letting them roam. One Tuesday when I was working late, the 5 of them just would not let The Husband capture them and put them back in their crate for the night. By the time I got home at 10:30, 4 of them were huddled on the front porch steps and the 5th was nowhere to be found. I had searched everywhere and was just giving up and coming in the house when I saw them. They were eager to be captured after losing their little companion probably minutes before that.

They have been free-ranging ever since, and are now much better about getting tucked in at night. Very cute to watch them playing with the ducks—although the ducks don't think they're very cute at all. Mostly they chase the little ones away if they get too close to their water buckets and food.

The heat, the hound, the deer, the ducks

Why did we ever let them talk us out of air conditioning? This past week has been unusually hot and humid—typical for south Jersey, but not in upstate NY.

Woody, Virginia hound boy that he is, seems to enjoy spending the hottest of days out on the back porch in the sun. When he gets too hot, he digs himself a nice big hole in the dirt and takes a nap. After a few hours out there, it's difficult to get him to come in, even when I have to go to work.

He is getting much better about not barking at every critter he sees outside. He is really good with the ducks and chickens, but the bajillion groundhogs, rabbits and deer we have here still excite that hound boy howl. His deer friend spends almost every morning just outside the windows in the living room. All the barking and howling he can muster at 4:30 am will not get a reaction from her. Turns out she is a recent momma, and maybe that's why she won't leave. The first fawn I saw was so tiny it kept tripping through the weeds trying to keep up with her. A few weeks later we saw 3 fawns out there romping around, but we're not sure if they're all related.

The ducks also do not seem to mind the heat. As long as they have a big bucket of water to play in, they are happy. They still haven't found their way down to the creek, but the creek is still running wild from all the rain so maybe that's a good thing. They stay close to home, and close together.

We thought we bought Cayuga ducks, a really pretty black and beetle green combination, but I am beginning to think that they are going to stay mostly brown, possibly more like a mallard than Cayuga. You can see in the photos that some of them are losing their adolescent feathers and their heads are turning green. These appear to be the males. The females have a different kind of brown feathering that doesn't seem to be changing much at all.

All guessing at this point to know what color they will be. No matter how they turn out, I think they are beautiful, and fun to watch!

Today the weather is improving. Turns out we don't really need that AC after all.

Lots of activity, none of it good!

Poor Roo was attacked by something a few weeks ago. When The Husband found him, he was barely breathing. He has been in and out of "Chicken Hospital" (the garage) ever since. He looked pretty good a few days after, but then went back to standing with his head hanging down, or lying face down on the ground. The vet said that it could take a few months before he gets back to normal.

All three of the chickens in the top photo have been attacked by the Jack Russell across the street. Possibly he is the culprit again, or maybe the eagles nesting across the street, or the hawks, or the foxes... This was a few days after the Roo attack, and you can see he still has some blood on his neck. Red Meanie, top right, has a little humpback instead of a proper tail after her battle about a year ago.

Thursday, June 27, we had some serious rain. We woke up to a totally flooded back 40 and an inch of water in the basement as well! Our favorite builder promised us our basement would never leak, but I guess he couldn't predict the 10" of rain we had in June—about 3" of that was on Thursday night.

The bad news is that there were lots of cardboard boxes on the basement floor—all the stuff that we never unpacked after the move. The good news is that most of it was not valuable, and this has forced me to sort through and get rid of a lot.

The other good news is that it is so hot and humid outside, that it is actually pleasant to be working in the cool muddy basement.

The water is gone, but it will take a long time to clean out all the mud, especially because our wet vac is still in NJ, and my mop handle is broken.

And, speaking of NJ, we had a "water in the basement" issue there about 2 weeks ago. Good thing I left the wet vac there for the renters...

A bevy of ducks weather the storm

There is some difference of opinion as to what a group of ducks is called—a raft, paddling, flush, team, or flock—but the one I like best is a bevy. A few days into their freedom, the bevy still won't travel further than a foot or 2 outside the fence. It is pretty amusing how they all stay so close together, and they do go back inside the crate altogether at night. I have to wait until it is almost dark before I lock them up in there, or else they run out in a frenzy trying to escape the big monster—me.

We had a storm blow through just before I took these photos. They were warning of tornadoes and hail, but all we got were some black clouds and a lot of rain. I went out with the camera because we usually also get a rainbow after these fast-moving storms, but I couldn't find one tonight.

The Husband bought a new rototiller today. Farmer that he is now, he's got to get that garden going soon...

Setting free the big ducks

We've had the ducks for about a month now, and we still have all 8. At first we kept them in the dog crate, then moved them to larger quarters in last year's fenced garden, and then yesterday we started leaving the fence open for them to wander freely. Of course they haven't really taken advantage of their freedom yet—they spend most of the day in the fence.

The last photo is from May 2. You can see they still had their downy baby feathers. The other 2 photos are from today. I think these are called their juvenile feathers, meaning that they aren't the right color yet. That would explain why they don't have the "beetle-green" heads and black bodies that are typical for Cayuga ducks. The only other explanation I can think of is that they are not actually Cayugas, the price you pay for buying on Craig's List.

Now that they seem to have their flight feathers, I am hoping that they will learn to fly, as that will be their best defense against predators. Eventually we will introduce them to the creek, but we are not quite sure how to do that. For now we still lock them up in the dog crate at night.

I have been reading the duck books that were a gift from Little Sister (Thanks, Little Sis!) I hope to learn as much as I can before we send the little cuties out into the real world that is Lester's Flat.

The miracle of life

Spring is all about birth, and we have evidence of spring here at Lester's Flat.

First, the eagle in the last post is probably one of the parents in the eagle's nest across the street on the horse farm property. I have yet to wander through the field, which has at least 3 new foals in it, to go take a photo.

The chickens are reveling in the warmer weather and have been all over the property exploring. Exploring and laying eggs. We were just back to getting 8 or 9 eggs a day, when we suddenly dipped down to 2 or 3. A lengthy search finally revealed the newest hiding places: in the pig shed (photo) and in the hay bales. None of the girls are sitting on their eggs yet, but I expect  one or 2 of them will try again, like last year.

Finally, yesterday, the WoodMan uncovered a mouse nest on the back porch. He and Sophie promptly scared the mouse half to death before we rescued her and sent her on her way over the fence. In cleaning out the nest, we found a living newborn mouse, obviously born too soon.

On a happier note, thus rating the larger photo, we went to Madison County today to pick up what we intended to be 4 Cayuga ducklings. The Husband has been wanting to get some ducks, and I have been wanting them to be Cayugas, a very pretty black and blue-green breed that is native to NY state (I think...have to do some more research on them...)

After driving around lost and finding Stockbridge Hill Road instead of Stockbridge Falls Road, and then being offered all 8 for a discounted rate of only $20, well, I think you know the result.

More to follow.

What are the chances?

Monday morning as I was getting ready for work, I got a phone call from Cousin Chris saying how pleased he was with Frank the Pig. While I was talking to him on the phone, something huge flew right past my dining room windows. I looked off to the side to see that it was a bald eagle, who conveniently landed in a tree just outside. We've seen him (or her) several times before, but never this close to the house. He stayed on that branch long enough for me to run around the house to find the best window from which to take a photo. I took about 20 shots from inside, but it turned out the best shot was from outside when I was leaving for work. In the pouring rain I got the best photo, and thoroughly soaked.

So what are the chances that Don on the Hill's dog would be running around just behind the eagle in the photo? Bandit is a white dog, which made him pretty easy to spot, although I had no idea until I downloaded the photos that he was in there. Of course with me trying to get closer for a better shot, the eagle flew off...but I also just barely caught him in the photo as he was flying off.

Altogether a pretty lucky photo shoot for a not-so-great little camera!

I took a short trip back to visit with Little Sister in NJ for Easter. Sophie came along for the ride, and Woody stayed home with The Husband to keep him company. Much fun was had by all.

First Day of Spring! Ha!

In a perfect world, the first day of spring would look just like the masthead at the top (with the big Lester). Only that photo was taken on May 20, 2011, and maybe the color was enhanced just a bit in Photoshop... In 2012, we had a frost in early spring that killed almost all of the apple blossoms, so we had no pretty spring photos AND no apples last year.

The first day of spring 2013 looks just like this. A foot of snow yesterday, and snow showers for the next several days, including this afternoon while the sun was shining. We had just gotten to the point this weekend where we could see almost all of the grass, and some of the trees have the earliest leaf buds. Now it's white all over again.

If you can see the snow that's disturbed in the bottom right of the big photo—I think that was from last night where a few of the deer dug themselves a bed in the snow, right over the leach field for the septic, nice and warm! Good thing Woody has a sheet over his crate. That is right outside the window where he sleeps.

I took these photos while I had Woody out on the leash in the back. I can't even let him out to go to the bathroom, because he jumps the fence and takes off, never to be seen again. So I take him out on the leash, and he barks like a fool and aims himself at the chosen weak spot—straight ahead of him in the photo. He had also just seen some deer wandering back there, so he was even more interested in the great escape.

Sophie just hangs out on the porch with me. We both wonder if he will ever calm down.

Wood Man—Wood Stove—Chickens—Snow

I've been neglecting the blog again...sorry folks! I've had the flu (or some nasty bug) for almost 3 weeks now. That's my main excuse, that and I just have not been motivated to take many photos of our snowy landscape.

This winter hasn't really been as bad as they predicted. We have had a fairly constant snow cover, but in inches, not feet. It warms up and melts, we can see the grass, and then it snows again within a day. What we are missing, most of all, is sunshine! This grey snowy landscape just doesn't inspire me to go out with my camera.

The Wood Man and me, we're staying close to the woodstove. He gets so close to it that I am surprised he doesn't start burning up. I can't even pick up the poker for how hot it is, and he lays right on top of it!

Woody is making very slow progress with his training. I think we need spring to inspire us both to work harder on that...

But those chickens think it IS spring. They are out and about every day, strolling around in the snow, hanging out in Charlie's barn, and laying about 8 eggs a day compared to their winter totals of about 10 eggs a month. The first sign of spring is when my araucana (the blonde to the right of Roo in the closeup) lays her first blue egg since November!

Lucille goes for a ride

Mama doe, Lucille, got to take a ride yesterday in the back of the hay transport vehicle, our Honda CRV. She has been complaining and rubbing up against anything she can find, to the point where she rubbed off a big swatch of hair on both sides of her neck. Best we could tell after minimal research was that it was either lice or mange (caused by mites) neither of which we were capable of treating.

So while The Husband was in work yesterday, I packed her up into the CRV with a little help from my neighbor, Don on the Hill. She was surprisingly well behaved sporting her pretty collar and leash (both from Sophie). We had to wait in the car for about 45 minutes, but then she walked right into the vet's office like she owned the place.

Other than doing a big P&P in the office, twice!, she was a very cooperative patient. Although she tested negative for both lice and mange, the default diagnosis is mange, which is often missed in the skin scrape and blood test. She has to return in another 2 weeks for a follow-up shot, but will otherwise be fine.

As for the wayward hound dog: I took him up to Don's house to wander because it is much farther from the road than our house, and because he has always been much better at staying with us when we walk up there. Maybe because Don and his dog Bandit weren't home, or maybe because he is just in his bad boy phase, he took off again. I gave up waiting for him and took Sophie home as soon as Don came back. Woody turned up about an hour later looking for us...bad boy...but yes we did praise him profusely when Don brought him back here.

The Obedient Wood Man, part 2

Really the earlier post should have described him as the disobedient one as well, but we are staying focused on the positive because we are working on positive dog training.

Wood Man has been out on the leash only since the last post, because he has discovered that he can easily jump the fence in the back where we let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. He is not happy with his leash-only walks, even though we graduated to the 20-ft Flexi leash. He nearly pulled me off the porch onto the concrete the first time I took him out with the longer leash, but that's definitely my fault for not explaining how this works.

Yesterday, since I did not have to work, I thought I would try to let him go free and test my recall abilities. I am a failure! He went out at 9:30 am, and I didn't get him back until 1:30 pm—and only then because a neighbor helped me. Susan from the horse farm called him to her, and he immediately turned around and ran back to the house...go figure!

At least my "No Road" training seems to have paid off. For all the hours he was running yesterday, he never went out in the road, even though another neighbor was directly across the street playing Frisbee with his dogs.

These photos are post-party. He was totally exhausted for the rest of the day, barely getting up off the chair until bedtime.

A tired dog IS a good dog! If only I could get him tired in some less dangerous way...