Dang boys! And a growing kiddo :)

So I think that out of my 5 ducklings I have 3 boys. Normally that wouldn't be a problem but then it means I have 3 girls and 4 boys total which will not be good at all. That would mean I need to get rid of 3 drakes because to have a healthy flock of ducks you need 3:1 girl to boy ratio or at the very least a 2:1. 1:1 or more drakes than hens would be very detrimental to the hens well being. Maybe I can get some runner girls... Just a thought but I doubt Jonathon will go for it ;) I really like having ducks in the front yard and Suzie Cute to. That chicken is the funniest, best pet I have ever had. 

A couple of weeks ago the bobcat came back and cut one of our ducklings up pretty bad. You could see into her hip and all the little ligaments and all. I had read about something called Wonderdust that is used to treat cuts on horses and said it was ok for ducks in small quantities. I do believe that I am going to use it on every cut I get now. That stuff is amazing!!! In the matter of 3 days her cut had dried and started closing! She doesn't even limp at all and her feathers are growing around it like it never even happened. I think I need to have a constant supply of it on hand now.

Suzie is doing great and I think she may be losing a little bit of weight. She is able to get a tiny bit off the ground when she flaps  her wings now. It's only about 3 inches but hey that's still 3 inches :) She has turned in to the biggest character in the last few weeks. She will be standing all alone off to one side of the yard in the morning then will make a little "bock" sound and look at the ducks then run as fast as her chubby little chicken legs will take her towards the ducks then she stops and makes a "bock, bock" noise with her head high like she just did the coolest thing ever by scaring the ducks. And for some strange reason she likes to run around a lot lately. I'm kind of scared for her heart but it's just to cute to watch her and I know she is happy, so I let her do her little Suzie Cute thing and be happy. It is crazy how happy a chicken doing funny things can make you. Maybe everyone in the world needs a pet Suzie, then we would all be a bit happier and nicer and the world a better place :)

Cielo is losing more teeth!!! I had to pull one out yesterday and that's because I just pulled one out about 2-3 weeks ago! She has one more that is really loose and I expect it to be out in the next 2 weeks if she wiggles it if not about 4 weeks before it just falls out on its own. They told us at the dentist office she should be losing the rest of her baby teeth slowly again over the next year or so and then she will have a break from teeth until her 12 year molars come in. That is when we will need to go see about braces that I know she will need because hers slant like mine do. I went to the store the other day looking at father's day cards for Jonathon and looked at a couple for Cielo and almost had a breakdown in the middle of the card isle because my baby is almost 10. Can you believe it? It hasn't been that long since I had to change her pamper and sooth her to sleep and read to her because she didn't know how has it? She is getting so big so fast and it is mind boggling to me. I love that kid and I cant believe that she is going to be in the double numbers already. I am so worried about her growing up. Not because I want her to stay little (which I do) but because the world is such a scary place. I wish I could freeze time for her so that she can enjoy summer just a tiny bit longer, enjoy riding her bike all day long just a bit longer, enjoy snow days and tickle time and lightning bugs and faries and dolls and on and on just a little bit longer. I just want her to enjoy life a bit longer. That kid has been my world for 10 years now, so if it's this bad now how bad is it going to be when she graduates and tells me she is going away for college? I can't imagine what that will be like but I'm pretty sure I really will have a breakdown in the card isle then!

Life is good today. 

What good are toes really?

I found out a couple of days ago that they are really important! If one doesn't work then walking is very hard :-/ I came home just early enough to get a couple of things done around the house before Jonathon and Cielo got home. I was doing a bit of laundry and cleaning out the kitchen of the last of the boxes that need to be unpacked.  I went in to my bathroom to put up some soap and didn't even think twice about pulling out the bottom drawer which was a bad idea. My foot was in the way and of course I was pulling it out super fast and bam! it almost ripped my whole nail off! Ouch, that was bad! I never knew toes could bleed like that really. After I could feel the pulse in my toe and had to wear a band-aid because the dang thing just wouldn't stop bleeding. And it hurt to walk which was really odd. I guess I didn't realize how much your foot depends on your toes when you walk. It was kind of hard to walk for a day but it's better now. Just a bit sore and I hate it when Lily is jumpy because she likes to jump on that toe and try to bite it when we are in bed.

I think my ducklings are kind of sick. The feed they were eating didn't have enough niacin so now I have to give them supplements and a different feed to make them better. I hope they get better because one of them is really bow legged right now. Luckily they aren't showing signs of feathers yet so I think I have time to fix it. Ducks don't process niacin the way other birds do and because they grow at such a fast rate they need extra to keep the right amount in their body so that their legs grow at the same rate as their body. So now I'm supplementing and hoping I don't OD them and that it gets better before their body gets to big.

I think we are about to kill one of the roosters. He is really rough with the hens and even went after Olivia the duck! So now he needs to go to freezer camp so that he won't hurt any of the others. Freezer camp, lol! I like chicken terms :) Still no bobcat though. We need to get him but he hasn't seen food here for a week so I don't know how soon he will come back. hopefully he will come quick so we can get him and then be done with him. We will of course have to check if he is male or female but I'm hoping it is a male. Females have babies and attract males so that would mean we have more sooner rather than later. Dang big cats and their need to kill the livestock in the area!

Summer is here in full force and I don't know what to do about keeping everyone cool. I think I have a plan for Suzie cute but for everyone else I'm a bit stumped. I am putting her waterer a little less than half full in the freezer and then filling it with water at lunch so she has plenty of cool water till I got home. But I can't exactly have 5 waterers in my freezer every day and the chickens kind of make me mad anyway. So I think I just might put ice trays in their water every day. But the ducks are going to have fresh water in the pool every day to keep them from overheating and keep the algae from getting out of hand. I really want to keep them cool during the summer and us to.

So one more time... Night, night duckies!!

EFFIN bobcat!!!

So we have a bobcat that lives in front of the house! The dang thing has killed 4 of my ducks,all my favorites of course. Pekin, Bejing, Oliver and Chips :( All of my most beautiful birds are gone and it makes me so sad. The only ones we have left are Olivia and Dips. Olivia is kind of dingy and chips is still a baby. I'm really glad he didn't get Suzie Cute though, I would have cried harder than I did with the others. And yes I did cry because they are more than just lawn ornaments or pets. They are part of our family and we get up and take care of them from the time they are babies and they become such a big part of us. Yesterday when I went home for lunch Oliver flew out of the pool almost to the coop. I was so proud of him and looked forward to Jonathon and Cielo seeing him do it again and again. Cielo would have loved to see him get the little bit of air that he did.

Jonathon is an amazing husband and dad. He got us 5 new ducklings even though he hates ducklings because they smell really bad in the house, lol. Jonathon wants a turkey so we may wait and get a couple of those to. First we are going to kill a bobcat.... Well Jonathon is going to kill a bobcat I'm just going to watch and laugh at it then kick it in the head when he does kill it. But I'm not mad (maybe a bit lol)

STUPID EFFIN' BOBCAT!!!

Me and Cielo went to the Sugarland concert last week and it was pretty freaking awesome! It was Cielo's first concert and I was super excited for her. It sucked because my amazing husband scored the tickets for us but he couldn't go. He would have loved it but I'm happy I could take Cielo to her first concert and that she had a blast. I like doing things like that with her. She is fixing to be 10 so I know I don't have a lot of time left to be us. Why can't babies stay babies forever, or at least until you are tired of changing pampers :) I really love that kiddo. I think I'll keep her for a bit ;)

10:30 PM
We missed the effin' bobcat! He didn't see the ducks in the yard so he turned around and was just out of range when Jonathon shot! Oh well we will try it again tomorrow night.