Invaded by Communists

Well, they're not really Communists but that's a more exciting title than 'Bought Some Muscovy Ducks' today, isn't it?

Here's how they came home. We went to the flea market looking for some more mallards, and saw these beautiful huge black-and-white ducks. We wanted big ducks (more on why in a bit), and these are the biggest ducks I've ever seen. So we bought what the seller said was a pair and took them home in a big cardboard box. The seller taped the box, and we watched the tape nervously all the way home. These are BIG ducks, with claws. Who knew a duck could have claws? (Talons?)

They were quiet, though, and we made it home safely without having one of those tragic three-car pileups caused by the usual 'ducks with claws flying around in a car driven by two idiots.'



We took them down to the pond, and with a bit of caprine assistance, they jumped into the water and swam away. They immediately saw our other ducks, and sailed majestically toward them. Our ducks, being smaller, cleverly decided to flee rather than turn and fight, and we were treated to the sight of the two new ducks paddling desperately after the fleeing group all the way around the pond until they were back where they started. At that point, the (alleged) female Muscovy abandoned her friend and joined our group, leaving the poor male to follow the group pathetically at a distance. We're hoping they'll all join up at some point.

Here's the dramatic release.



So what's a Muscovy duck, you ask? I'm glad you asked, because I've just done a lot of Internet research and would have been disappointed not to be able to share it. Muscovy ducks are native to South/Central America and Mexico, and were being raised as domestic ducks by various Indian groups when Columbus discovered? invaded? visited? the Americas. They're the only domestic duck not descended from mallards. The males can get to be 8-15 pounds, which is a very good thing in our hawk/vulture-infested area. The name apparently comes from the original name, which was 'musk duck,' and they actually have nothing to do with Russia or Moscow.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to get good pictures, but here's a blurry one. The whiter of the two is definitely a male Muscovy, but the other one is questionable, since apparently Muscovies should have a red face, and this one doesn't. So it may be a cross, but according to Wikipedia, the Muscovy-mallard crosses are infertile.



Also, according to Wikipedia, Muscovy ducks are called Barbary ducks 'in a culinary context.' I can't tell you how much I admire the delicacy of the phrase 'in a culinary context.' The seller told us that most people buy them for culinary contexts. (He may have phrased it a little differently.)

Here's a closer picture, though still blurry.



I'm thrilled by this purchase -- cheap at $12 a duck -- because I wanted some 'different' ducks, and I also wanted big ducks. We've already lost one of the three mallards we bought recently to a vulture, I'm afraid. My husband was fishing at the pond, and came across a pile of feathers. He looked over at the ducks, and realized one of the new males was missing....and that there was a group of vultures sitting in a nearby tree.

I try to accept the cycle of life, but it's not always easy...especially when we're paying for the vulture feast...

Fall Arrives in South Carolina

We had a beautiful, moody day here yesterday. It was a very cloudy day, and we got rain later on (poor Halloweeners!), but when the sun peeked out, we got these views.



If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the range of colors.



A blue heron visited. He comes by from time to time, but didn't seem to catch much this time. I love how the wild shrubs around the pond have changed colors. That tall plant we couldn't identify before is dog fennel. It turns wild and lush in the fall. The county extension agent told us that the reddish plants are willows.



Then the clouds would shade the sun again, and we'd get this....all within the space of a few minutes.



I think fall is my favorite season. We do get four seasons here, just not as dramatically as in more northern climes, but I like it that way. I don't care if I never see snow again...

Red Clay Stains on Goats

I've noticed that our white Boer goats have red clay stains on their coats, but I never thought about how that happened. Today I caught Arlene applying the red clay. She found a little clay hill and first dug in it to loosen it up.



Then she started applying it to her body.



She looked a little ungainly, but it was clearly a deliberate action.



After she finished, she moved away and bit at some itchy spots.

How'd you like to be this flexible?



This is obviously something we need to look into, since she's most likely self-medicating for a skin condition that's causing itchiness, but I just hadn't realized she was applying the red clay on purpose. Gus the horse rolls in the sand but I haven't seen the goats doing anything like that.

I tried to research itchy skin in goats on the Internet, but most of the information was about using goat milk soap for itchy skin in humans. I can certainly understand why we'd rather use that than the red clay...

Ladybug Invasion

The ladybugs have started to swarm. They're all over the outside of the house, especially on the areas painted white. The dots you see in the picture below are ladybugs.

Want to know something embarrassing? I never knew ladybugs did this in the fall. I never knew that these ladybugs I've seen all my life aren't actually native insects. Instead they're Asian lady beetles. (There apparently are native ladybugs but they're not spotted like these.)



According to my Internet research, they're moving from their summer feeding grounds to warm spots where they can spend the winter, and our house looks like Nirvana here in the woods. We never had these large numbers of them in the fall in either our old suburban neighborhood in Georgia or our suburban neighborhood in Maryland.



I'm just going to speculate that's either because of the amount of pesticides used in those neighborhoods (by other people), or because now we live near agricultural fields where mass quantities of them may have been let loose to kill pests.



I also never knew that people consider them pests themselves. I've always thought of them as beneficial insects. They are, but apparently during the fall they can infest people's homes to an annoying degree. One of the articles recommended just vaccuuming them up if that happens. That's something I never thought I'd be adding to the winter checklist! (Put away summer clothes. Bring out winter clothes. Vaccuum up the ladybugs.)

Sheer Brilliance...and Hay

Gus the horse has been having problems with hay lately. He kicks over the buckets and wants to eat it off the ground...if he'll eat it at all. We've been racking our brains to figure out the problem, and finally decided that it has something to do with him not liking to put his head in the bucket.

Once he's put the hay on the ground, he'll eat it, but it gets soiled quickly and then he stops. So we've been trying to figure out a better hay delivery system (HDS). It has to allow us to put a rectangular bale of hay in at once, so my husband isn't having to bring hay out every few hours, and it has to have ventilation from all sides so that when it rains, the hay doesn't spoil. It also has to allow access for the horse and the goats at the same time.

Isn't the solution obvious? An antique baby crib, of course!



We were taking a country drive today and passed an antique store that was advertising goats for sale. (Yes, I know that's a little odd. They own an antique store, and also raise goats.) As we went in to inquire about the goats, my husband saw the baby crib, and knew instantly that it was the answer.



We're also going to enjoy the double-takes as people drive down the road and see it...

On the Road to Riding

I had a really fun day yesterday. I finally bought my own saddle! We've only 'owned' Gus the horse for about seven months, so it seemed like it was time. Isn't it pretty?



We went to a local tack shop where they sell both new and used horse gear. The sales people were wonderful -- so helpful and kind about my being a complete and total newbie. There was a woman about my age and a young man, and it was fun listening to them argue over what I should get. It turns out that there are a lot of choices to make. Leather or synthetic saddle? The synthetic ones are lighter and don't need much care, but this used leather one fit my behind better and it was...well...pretty. I know I'm not supposed to care about that, but there it is. Who wouldn't wanted a pretty tooled leather saddle over an ugly black synthetic one? And it was lighter than most of the leather ones anyway. So there -- the choice was obvious.



Then you have to decide what kind of bit to get in the bridle. I finally had to call Gus's real owner and ask her what to get. They can put together a bridle for you, or you can buy one already assembled. It's all very confusing, but they were so helpful.

We chatted with them both quite a bit, and spent a long time trying various saddles and getting advice, and finally my husband asked the young man how long he had worked in the store. He looked surprised, and said, 'Oh, I don't work here.' He was just a friend of the sales lady who had stopped by and got interested in helping us!

I was thinking that was a Southern thing, but maybe horse people are like that everywhere....

Good Hay, Bad Hay...With Pictures

The pictures didn't come through last time I tried posting this, so here goes again:

The grass is no longer growing in the pasture, so the goats and Gus the horse are eating mostly hay now. We buy our hay in rectangular bales, one at a time, from a feed store not far away. We buy it one bale at a time because that's all that will fit in the trunk of our car.But there's another reason too. One time in the past, and this week, we've bought a bale of hay that Gus will not eat. Both times it's taken us a while to realize why he's being so cranky. He kicks the fence, stares longingly into the other pasture, and just generally is a pill.Here's a batch of bad hay. When we put this hay in the bucket, Gus put his head in and threw as much of the hay as he could on to the ground, then stalked away.



Okay, we're pretty slow, but we finally got the message. We had picked up another bale today, so my husband put some out for him to see if he liked it.Here's a contented horse eating hay. This is what he's supposed to look like. (And of course, the obligatory small white cat watching him eat. Because farm animals are her life.)



Here's a contented goat eating the new hay, with, of course, a small white cat sitting in the hay watching him eat.



It's nice to have the 'why is Gus so cranky' mystery solved. Now we just wonder what was wrong with the other hay? We've talked about having 15-20 bales delivered so that we don't have to pick it up every few days, but what if we get an entire bad batch? A fellow we know told us a horrible story about renting some land to use for hay to feed his cattle. They baled it up into the large round bales, and the cattle wouldn't eat it. Any of it. That is a bad day.Here's a gratuitous picture of Arlene, just because she's such a pretty girl. I love how her ear is curling through the fence. I'm just glad it isn't her head. She got her head stuck in the fence the other day, and my husband had to cut the fence to get her out.



Hey, I said she was pretty...not smart.