Hatchwatch 2010: am report

Rince's Segunda is still doing great. She keeps very close to momma, standing on her webbed feet whenever possible. Rince is getting calmer having me nearby, but she's not happy about it.

Babs now has five ducklings, all doing wonderfully. I thought I saw a few pippings on the other eggs, but she practically flew at me in full attack, so I only had a brief glimpse. They all look just like her at that age (the icon I'm using), so I've no idea who the sire is. She's an incredibly protective mother. I may try for pics again in the afternoon, but I'll wait until she leaves the nesting area before taking pictures, as I don't want to stress her overmuch.

A day in the Whidbey Life

Woke up this morning absolutely exhausted, but needing to get moving. One of Josh's crew members from the Lincoln is deployed and his new wife, Krista, is driving up to the Island to spend the night and day. I get to play Elder Navy Wife for awhile and give her the tour. Should be a hoot. We're trying to get the house up to visitor standards, which we're gonna fail. Diane had me come into the store today for a few hours, mostly to play with her Corgi while she went to an appointment and to vacuum. As the only employee (other than the owners) of the Wind & Tide, vacuuming has been added to my job description. Joy. Damn vacuum has no suction.

I did manage to get a Rhubarb Crisp in the oven. Josh is in love with Rhubarb. Go figure. Thankfully, our friend has had a bumper crop and is sending it home with folks who come by. Can't say I'm fond of the stuff, but it's in the oven. The recipe is pretty simple, so here's to crossed fingers.

Kevin will be joining us for dinner in town tonight. He knows Krista's hubby, so now he gets to meet his cutie patootie wife (she's on my FB). I'm getting hysterical texts from him in pseudo-spy speech - "the Rhubarb sings at midnight, tell no one". "The Eagle rides a refrigerator at dawn, wear mittens".

I think I accidentally volunteered to buy a few Rhodies. Someone asked me for breed recommendations, I recommended Rhodies and now they are coming by with two. Since same guy is gonna take a few of our ducklings, should be interesting - just not sure what age he wants the ducklings. Most folks around here want them at 1 month or so, independent, mostly feathered-out, etc. And I still need to get pictures of the new ducklings! Maybe Joe can hold Babs while I do so. Josh is a wuss when the ducks start attacking.

So that's my day today. Hope everyone else's was considerably more normal, with plenty of rhubarb and mittens galore.

17 Ducklings and COUNTING! *slump*

After work, I checked on Lucy (Khaki Campbell) and found that she had 8 ducklings, with 4 viable eggs. I made the decision to move her into Freckle's old pen in the West Wing of Bunhalla to keep the ducklings safe. Looks like she has a combination of KC (the brown ones) and Rouen (the dark ones w/ yellow bellies) mixes.



We went out to dinner with our guest and came back to find 2 more freshly hatched ducklings, both look to be Rouen mixes.



This Evening's Count:

Rince; 1 duckling (Segunda), 1 egg yet to hatch (viable)



Babs: 6 ducklings, 4 eggs yet to hatch (viability unknown)



The Trio KCs - 14 eggs (viability unknown)

Luca: 10 eggs (viability unknown)