July is Just Around the Corner
Pretty much right after our
Key West Trip our ducks finally came in!!
They are so cute and so different.
I’ve never raised ducks from babies but I can tell you I’ve been
enjoying them a lot. They are very, very
different from chickens. But, just like
raising chickens, going from research to real life was completely
different from what I was expecting. I read all of these claims (massive amounts of reading)
and then when it came down to it (once again), either I have a bird (green) thumb or other
people have no logic/leave birds and don’t take care of them at all.
I would say the strangest
thing that I read was a site saying not to give them water because they can’t
swim/float for weeks. Ummmmmm… have you
ever startled a mother duck and her babies during the spring? They always float into the water as a huddled
group very quickly. So unless they are
packing secret hidden floatation devices under the water, all baby ducks
swim. Of course you don’t want to be a nincompoop
(however you spell that) and leave them in something too tall to get in and out
of.
So they swim, they swim good
and they swim amazingly fast. It’s their
favorite thing to do. It’s a funny
routine. They get some food, then walk to
the pool and drink some water and make other weird noises with their
bills. Then after they do that a few
times, it’s a brisk swim, some grooming and a nap. It’s so adorable.
I think the funniest thing
that happened is when I introduced them into the chicken coop. Usually I’ll put a bird in there and the original residents
want to come over to the new bird and attempt to let them know who is in charge. The hens walked over, took one look at the
ducks and just looked confused. Like
they knew they might not be chickens but weren't really sure.
Then I put the water in and
the chickens were walking around and looking at me like “what is this for!?” Then the ducks started swimming and it
completely freaked the chickens out. It was
hilarious. They didn’t run or
anything. They just stood in the corner
and watched in awe with confused looks on their face. I could not stop laughing.
I will say raising ducks might
pose a challenge cleanliness wise. Hens
do what they got to do (bathroom stuff) but it all dries out fast in the sun. They don’t play in water so they don’t make
things wet. So you have a nice, dry
clean place that they rake and dig in so it keeps it dry all the way through to the bottom. It’s really convenient. They are pretty much self cleaning.
Now I have ducks that are
making things wet. For 2 days now I’ve
tested out putting fresh hay in the wet areas to see if the chickens will help
me get things stirred up and dried out.
It’s there thing. They like the
barn organized the way they like it so if I move hay around they will kick it
back into place. Which of course mixes
it up with stuff I don’t want to touch and exposes it to the sun.
So far so good. They’ve been mixing and keeping everything clean. My backup is going to first be changing to
litter if things keep getting slicked up.
After that I’ll have to consider putting the pool out of the run and the
ducks will only be able to get to it when I release everyone to play. And I hate to do that because they love to
swim so much. So I’ll keep an eye out
and hope that one of the two first plans work out.
Besides that, the Silkies
puffed up over the weekend when we were staying at The Raphael Hotel over at the
Plaza.
Which by the way, I highly
recommend. They have Chaz on the Plaza
right in the hotel so they do the room service. We were getting Lobster Eggs Benedict sent up in the AM
and dessert, cheese platters and port flights at night. The room service is 24/7. It was awesome. The only thing that could put it over the top
and make it any better is if they had a pool.
That’s the only thing I can see that they are missing.
While we were in the city we
visited Lego Land and Sea Life Aquarium.
They were pretty cool. One of
those things everyone around here tells us you should go see once because it’s
something you’ll hear about from everyone. It's a local "must." Then you really never need to go again. And that felt fitting.
Now we’re just getting ready
for the 4th of July and I’m doing some crazy household investments
into organization. It’s been a long time
coming. I’m basically trying to figure
out how to work around everyone being messy.
I’ve been turning a blind eye since the kids were born and now it’s to
the point where I need something to change.
Well, no one else seems to be trying any harder so I’ve decided to buy
things to make everything look really, really, really good even though it’s
technically a pile of million-year-old mail (for example, lol…). I’m really happy with the results so
far. Some of the stuff I’ve purchased
and it’s uses (and this could help anyone who is having a similar issue… these
were amazing finds) …
I used these large woven baskets so that when I don’t have time to put away clothes, our room looks
really nice. Even though it’s
technically lazy as all get out… haha. I got a combo of
colors and patterns and they make the room look all decorative instead of messy.
I got a large variety of
boxes to organize things like our mail or mail piles that no one feels like
going through.
I bought a ton of fabric storage cubes to organize underneath cabinets in a nicer way.
I bought a really nice wicker toy box for the kids so the toy area looks a little less ghetto.
I picked up a 5 shelf book shelf to make more sense of our bathroom area.
In our master bathroom we don’t have any type of closet so our things
were scattered here and there. I used an
open book shelf to organize our stuff and that turned out really nice.
And it’s not one of the last
things by any means, but I bought a TV stand for a clothes pile that is always lurking. It’s nice because it’s a clothing cubby for
now but if we ever do decide to put a TV in our bedroom we’re ready.
Then I’ve been knocking out
getting things like dishes, silverware and other random stuff that just wasn’t
matching. I really let it slide. I mean everything looked nice, but I knew how
much I was digging to find round dishes so that it looked like we matched. I’m in my 30’s. Those days should have been long gone.
And last but not least, it’s
been crazy hot here in the mid-west!
