Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

I can smell grass! It smells lovely. So here's the count of animals  here: 7 adult geese 4 adult ducks 3 roosters, 4 hens 6 female goslings 3 ducklings of indeterminate gender 6 bantam chicks of indeterminate gender 28 duck eggs incubating 3 bantam eggs incubating 18 eggs on Sissy the goose's nest. 3 human adults 3 cats who do absolutely nothing but eat food. A duckling explaining life to Dave. Isn't he/she adorable???? They've lost much of their yellow fuzz and are replacing it with white down.  After that come the feathers.  They are liking it outside and have been introduced to the flock.  The boys are very interested in the girls. As Mama Goose, I must remind them to keep their distance. In order to help keep the two flocks apart, I made a partition of sorts from a sheet torn into strips with narrow strips of fabric sewn at the corners with enough room to stick bamboo garden stakes through. You'll see it the background of the top photo.  It

That duckling who ate the box elder bugs? Died. We think that eating the bugs without grit in his/her crop must have clogged the system.  We didn't even *think* of adding grit to the feed.  Now we know better. The other 3 ducklings that have survived are in with the goose girls.  Yes, we have 6 female African geese now, in the laundry room eating and crapping.  The photo is very wonky due to the color of the heat lamp.  This photo was taken about 3 days ago and they've already doubled in size. We had 5 eggs due to hatch this week.  One hatched, but the duckling died within hours.  One other was pipped but died last night in the egg.  The other 3 didn't even make it out of the egg.  It's been a rough week - here and in the US, with all the explosions, deaths and injuries. Dave ordered up the 4th thermometer. Yes, 4th.  We cannot get an accurate reading on any of them.  For the proper incubation, you need 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Comparing 2 thermometers, we get

Note: Ducklings will eat box elder bugs.  Apparently they do not know better.. We are over run with box elder bugs but not so much with ducks.  Out of the 5 expected, we have 2 living that hatched.  And wow, one of them had a journey! Duckling #2 pipped wrong.  Ok; Pipping: Using their beak to make a hole in their shell to let in air.  Once that is done, then they rotate in their shell and start 'zipping' or opening the top of the shell counter-clockwise.   This little one pipped upside down and way too early.  So on Friday I started to help out but it was entirely too early to even try.  The membranes of eggs are lined with blood vessels.  As they mature out of their egg, these vessels dry up and the blood enters the ducklings through their yolk attached to their umbilical. Now normally, the pipping is done close to hatching.  This ducky spent 3 days with his foot sticking out over his head in this opening of his shell.  It was tragically slow to watch. Finally, yes

Lockdown is a term used to indicate the last 2-3 days of incubation on a poultry egg.  The eggs are not rotated any more but left in the position ideal for hatching.  The humidity is raised to help thin the shell and the warmth stays the same.  This week, we have 10 duck eggs due to hatch.  The first 4 are seen here.  I see internal pipping with the top left one.  That means that the duck has started making a hole to the outside. They all rock back and forth from time to time. It's getting crowded in those shells, and they want out!  We stand there watching for movement, excited when we see them rock back and forth even a little bit. BUT, onto Knitting and Spinning. This is the start of the Tree Roots Scarf by Kristi Holaas.  The yarn is the real story on this scarf so far. In search of yarn/fiber to become my Easter present, I happened on these skeins of Martha Stewart Wool Roving at JoAnn fabrics on clearance for a buck.  Now, I took a look at it, and thought, "Hmmm pen