Duck Integration

We had frost on the ground today for the first time this year. The red in the picture below is the red clay peeking through as the common bermuda grass starts to die back. I could talk for hours about the problems we've had covering the bare earth, but instead I'll talk today about ducks and their social life.



Of course, we bought three new young ducks a couple of weeks ago. It took about two days for them to integrate with the three older ducks, and now they're a group...a group comprised of the young whippersnappers and the more mature, wiser group. (Can you tell which group I fall into these days?)

This morning, the younger group ran for the cracked corn, which they reach by passing under the gate. You can see the older group in hot pursuit as the young dudes go under the gate. And see that little white blob in the upper part of the picture? That's Halley the cat, just watching. She helps my husband with the chores in the morning, so has to watch everything.



Here's the older group passing under the fence. I'm not as svelte as I was once myself, so I shouldn't laugh as Gilligan, the big white duck, tries to stuff himself through, but I have to admit to a snicker. See Halley in the upper right corner watching patiently?



All six met up at the food tray. I was taking pictures from the deck so the tray was blocked from me by the wall, but I could hear that it wasn't a pleasant encounter. Ever watched the scene at one of those 'all-you-can-eat' buffets?

I can't figure out why these two groups integrated so easily, and yet at our other pond, we had so much trouble integrating new ducks. I think it's probably because this new group had two males and a female, and so did the older group, while before we were always trying to introduce a female to a group of males. (The females kept getting eaten by hawks so we went through this several times.) Sometimes it was as if we had told four crusty old bachelors that they had to take care of a Goth teenage girl, and sometimes it was as if we had walked into the local prison and said, "Anyone want to take care of this pretty girl?" You can imagine that there were problems with both scenarios. (Let's just say that ducks are not romantic and leave it at that.) It seems to be working out much better this time, though.

Halley eventually moved on to observe Emma the goat eating. She sat on the fence post and calmly watched her. Emma didn't care -- they're all used to Halley now. (My husband found Halley sleeping under the horse's feet the other day, which terrifies me.) Finally, she'd finished her round of chores and took off for breakfast.



Breakfast is, of course, the most important meal of the day, along with lunch, second lunch, dinner, and assorted snacks.

Again, not that I have any room to talk. Literally.

Lovely Day...

We were a little surprised this morning by the new occupant of our pond...



Just fooling! We took a trip today to the Columbia Zoo and Botanical Gardens, where this fine fellow lives. We amused ourselves imagining the animals' reactions to finding him sunning himself on the banks of the pond, though. Okay, I guess we would have been a little surprised too.

It's a very nice zoo, but the botanical gardens are really special. It's inspirational to see the way they put plants together, and I get ideas for plants I'd like to have.

Here's one I plan to have a lot of at some point. It's called Muhly grass or sweet grass. Most of the year it's a little nondescript, and then for a relatively short period in the fall, it takes on this pink hue that makes it spectacular.



There is a much smaller version growing wild along the roadways in our area. I want masses of it someday.

This was a beautiful little water feature. The palms make it look more southwest than southeast to me, but it was still lovely.



The park runs beside the Saluda river. You can see here what a pretty day it was. It was only in the 50's by mid-day but warm in the sun and so bright and clear. It was one of the days when you're just happy to be alive to see it.

Foggy Morning...

Looks like it's going to be a pretty day here in South Carolina, but the early morning fog over the pond was beautiful. See the beginnings of fall color...

Irving Update II

It's a lazy Sunday here. Clear and bright, but quite cold for us (43 degrees this morning).

Most of the animals are taking it easy this morning. Halley has taken up her normal morning nap position in front of my husband's computer monitor. She appears to be relaxed. The goats are asleep in the pasture, and Gus the horse is just hanging out.



On the other end of the scale, we have new-cat Irving, who is recovering from a cold, and starting to feel like himself again. He's been shut up in my sewing room for a week, where he's been content mostly to sleep. It's warm and safe, but now that he's on the mend, it's small and boooooring. He's played with everything that can be played with (and everything that shouldn't be played with is shut up in a cabinet).

It's starting to get scary to go in there. He jumps up and searches you for anything that can be played with.

The blurry thing in front of his face is a piece of string. String is huge on Irving's list of 'things that need to be killed.' String is very serious business.



Isn't it nice to see him starting to feel better?



But how are we going to keep him entertained?

Note to self: Put cat toys -- lots of cat toys -- on the shopping list...

Goats Like To Be Towel-Dried

It poured here in South Carolina today. Poured. We probably got three inches of rain before it finally let up around 5:00 p.m.

Gus the horse and the two goats stayed in the shelter all day. The goats hate rain. Gus doesn't mind a shower, but he doesn't like to get poured on. We took them hay throughout the day while they sulked.

When it finally stopped, Gus came out for some more hay. First he kindly stopped and rolled in the mud for me. He looked so funny with his mane all wet, covered in mud, and a deeply disgruntled look on his face.



Actually, they were all disgruntled. And the towel-drying? I did towel-dry them. Goats aren't supposed to be wet for long, and they were soaked. How did I get them to stand still, you ask? It turns out that goats ADORE being towel-dried. Who knew? I could have done it all day, and they would have just stood there. Their coats fluff right up too. It was oddly satisfying. I'm not sure what that says about me, but at least I do get to add the coveted 'have towel-dried a goat' to my resume.



There was another disgruntled animal out there too.



For the record, Halley ("the cat who did not pee on a bed") can come in anytime she pleases. I personally think the whole 'look how wet I got in the rain' thing is just a ploy for sympathy. And food. It's all about food. Always.

Irving Update

Last time we checked in with Irving, the young cat someone dumped on our property a couple of weeks ago, he was living in the garage in disgrace after having peed on a guest bed.

Well, the mattress is still out in the garage, but Irving isn't. It turned colder and rainy here recently, and he still hasn't gotten over his cold, so now he's living in my sewing room, where he's warm and resting. He went back to the vet today because the cold isn't getting better, and he has a new antibiotic we're supposed to give him twice a day.



I've posted before about wondering what the animals think of the things we do for them. Irving the stray gets his own room, food brought to him, and his poop scooped. We go in and love him up regularly, and have spent more than a bit on vet bills. This is for a cat we didn't even know a little over two weeks ago.

Funny how it doesn't take long for an animal to steal your heart, isn't it?

Teeming With Ducks

My last post was about the three new young ducks we bought today. When last we saw them, they were hiding in the brush. A little while later, my husband went out and threw them a handful of grain...and all of a sudden, they're out in the open. They've teamed up with the other three ducks, who are wary and disgruntled, but not entirely unwelcoming.



They're staying in a tight group, and every so often one of the older ducks reminds them who was here first. Miss Penny, our older female duck, attacked them by pushing at them with her breast, rather than pecking at them the way the others did.



We have a bowl of corn for the ducks just outside the fence to the pasture, reached by crawling under the gate. (That's so the goats can't get to it. They luuuuve corn.). The older three ducks went to it like usual, but were met by our cat Boot. A brief face-off, and then Boot continued on his way to dinner. (In case anyone is worrying, Boot is 18 years old, and has few teeth left. Most days he's lucky to know where he is, much less hurt ducks.)



The new ducks followed the older ones under the gate, and fed excitedly for a while, then apparently got disoriented, and started squawking loudly. My husband had to come down from the porch to help, and we herded them back into the pasture.



The goats have serious doubts about our sanity. They had concerns before, but they're pretty sure there's an issue now. We're just happy they have no way of contacting the authorities...