Ducks Gotta Go

Well, I got a visit from the local police the other day regarding my ducks. It seems I need a permit to have such within the city limits. "Officer Friendly" made it seem like all I need do is go pay some fee and get the permit. However such was not the case. I'd need written permission from everybody owning property within 300 feet (not including roads and ditches), photos, drawings, land elevation documents to even request a special use permit hearing with the mayor and/or council. 

     I mean, DAMN! It's not like I want to raise elephants or do nuclear testing... it's just ducks! I'm looking to place the babies on a farm or a lake, not a stew pot or oven. Once I have them relocated I can begin protesting the near impossible process they presently have in place.

     Meanwhile my little patch of dirt is my home but I no longer consider Pearl, Mississippi my home town. I live in Pearl but work in Brandon therefore I shall spend as much of my money as possible in the latter and keep it out of the former's filthy little pockets.

     Speaking of permits, I asked the old warthog at the permit office if I needed a building permit to put a roof on my deck. I do and by looking at the application, filling that out will take longer than actual construction. Again, DAMN! It's a tin roof on a 12' x 14' deck, not the Taj Mahal! It's in my back yard so very few will even see the thing! The parking slab at my side door is some 13' x 26' and I'd love to have a cover to keep the rain off my ass between car door and house but another permit??? Hell, Yes! I hate to admit but I am feeling a bit oppressed by my local government!

     I've almost got enough biodegradable matter in the swamp I can start thinking about bringing in some hard fill. (i.e. gravel or rocks)... Maybe I best check to see if I need a permit for that! I'll ask "Officer Friendly" when she comes back to check up on the duck situation.

The Secretary of State's tax lien land sale was another bust set up to keep it within a small inclusive group and keep the average redneck out. I'm sure there will be another in the future by which time I shall have found the Rosetta stone to read legal description as an address I can locate. I'm trying to remain optimistic about finding some land outside city limits but within reasonable driving range where I can be as redneck as I want to be. 

A Long Day Yesterday

Yesterday was a full day here at the Garden but the weather was fantastic so I took full advantage.

I wasn't happy with the chinchilla lads being housed in a 55 gallon aquarium so I went to the pet store and bought them a brand spanking new cage. It's about 18' x 36' x 24' tall. Plenty of room for their hide box, play tube and dust bath tray. While at the store I also got a jar of bath dust and a sack of food for them. I'd read online that rabbit feed isn't suitable as it can cause liver damage in chinchillas. There was grass that needed pulling from the cracks in my driveway and around the edges of the house & raised bed gardens so the lads got some fresh greenery to nibble along with their hay and bowl of fresh bought diet made especially for their species.

The lady who helped me at the pet store seemed to know her stuff quite well, unlike the knobs I work around. They didn't have sugar glider feed in store so she suggested I purchase online and told me she buys a lot of her animal supplies at a certain website which she shared with me.

While the last days of Summer are still quite warm here in Mississippi the temp wasn't as oppressive as it has been. According the the good folks on TV we're still about 5 degrees warmer than usual. I did get out and work on the ducks & geese yard and all went swimmingly. After boarding the gaps between the barn and ground I removed the barrier tween young and adult hens, shifted the young 'uns and reclosed the fence there. It didn't take long for me to cut the fence as needed, move some around a bit  and add 16" x 4" to their enclosure and then remove the inner fence giving all my duck girls one big happy yard.  I went into the drakes & geese yard to do a bit of cleaning and prep work which will make things better for all, I believe. There is a small section in the Southeast corner I'm not totally happy with because if the angles of the fence. I closed off about 12' there, raked and burned the debris. There was a load of grand looking compost of decomposing leaves and bird droppings that I'll soon shovel up and add to the raised beds before reseeding that little area. I'll probably use deer feed plot seed mix there and rearrange the fencing more to my liking which will also add a few square feet to their yard.

Each and every day entails about an hour and a half of feeding, watering, observing my kids some call pets but they are well worth it for the joy they bring me. Some days take more time for cleaning a pool or chopping a mess of fruits and veggies to last a week instead of prepping their salad daily. Sometimes I have bedding to change or a cage to scrub or dishes to wash and disinfect. Four legs, two legs or none; feathered, furry or finned they are all my children!

Ribbon Snake & Expanding The Duck Yard

Yesterday I was out blocking the gaps between the floor of the storage building and the ground so I could extend the duck yard all the way to the shed. As I was pulling some weeds out of the way I spied a green and yellow vertically striped ribbon that I had not put in the back yard. A quick ID on my part told me it was your basic ribbon snake, a non venomous member of the garter snake family.
Needless to say, I snatched him up in a heartbeat. He did bite me a few times to no avail  with his tiny teeth and gave me his secondary defense of a mix of musk and fecal matter, again to no avail.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a ribbon snake in the wild so he's doubtless the first seen in my new locale. I fetched up a 2 gallon or so plastic jar, poked a few holes in the lid and brought him into the house. I brought him in for the following reasons...
1 My next door neighbor on the North side seems rather "citified" as she don't eat home grown tomatoes nor duck eggs,  both of which I've offered when I had in plenty. She rather chapped my butt recently when as she mowed her yard she mowed over the tomato plants on our border. I'm sure she's have killed the little fella.
2 Bella, my dachshund will kill anything that don't kill her first.
3 Typical Mississippi residents will kill any snake they see.
4 Members of the garter snake family often form what I refer to as "breeding tangles" wherein from a couple to a multitude gather to breed. I simply want to hold this member for a while so should I encounter another I'll be certain I'm not seeing one snake a dozen times.

Well, I'm going to finish closing the gaps so I can give the ducks a bit more room.

My Brother's Health

I'm usually not one to share personal issues here but this is an exception.
My brother went to a neurologist today seeking answers to his "forgetful ways". That Doctor set him up appointments with another in Jackson and yet another in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. About all the sawbones could say is my brother has the beginnings of Alzheimer's. I only recently turned 57 and he's 2 and 1/2 years older at age 59.
Our Dad was diagnosed years ago but the Doctors put him on some medication so that you'd never know.

This has been an ordeal for all our family & friends, especially our Mom who has become more or less his caretaker/nurse/cook/housekeeper (in her house).

All my love, understanding and prayers to any and all out there who've been affected by this disease. All I ask is a little of the same if you have or haven't.

Love & Peace, Merlin

Dragons, Garden, Leaves & Ducks

After my male bearded dragon passed away I decided to get another so I'd have a chance to try raising babies again next year. To double my odds I also wanted a second female but the farm I order from was out of regular adults. We negotiated price and availability and I ended up getting a red male and 2 silky juvenile females.
The lizards arrived yesterday and I was a bit disappointed. The "adult" male is what I'd call barely adult and the pair of juvie females are very juvenile.  But I try to make the best of everything that comes my way. The male should have several good years of breeding in him and the young lasses will be productive for quite some time.

I cleared out one of my raised bed gardens the other day and reseeded with roots and greens hoping to get at least a few greens before winter. My Dad always insisted that collard greens and such needed a frost to make them sweet and tender and some say roots can stay in "cold storage" in ground during Winter to be pulled up as needed. I'm always one to try traditional wisdom as back in the day if it didn't work you didn't eat. Therefore I seeded rape greens as they was the only greens seeds I had along with radishes, carrots and beets.

Coming home yesterday morning I saw at least one of my neighbors has begun raking and bagging leaves. I already had plenty to do so I passed on this round. My experience last year was somewhat surprising as I had several hundred (at least) acorns sprout. Only God knows how many acres of new oak forest I could have planted with all the seedlings! But soon I expect to be fetching home sacks and sacks of leaves (and acorns).

It's been about a week since my ducks have laid any eggs so that harvest season may be drawing to a close but my young hens are well into growing real feathers and becoming all grown up. I'm mixing more scratch and grains into their feed as well as giving them more grass clippings and weed pullings from the yard. It won't be long before I can open the fence and let them in with the adult females and then later in with the males and the geese. Then I have enough wire that I can fence off a section at a time to allow greenery to grow again and rotate their enclosures. Once I block access to underneath the storage building I can PDQ add another couple hundred square feet to their yards.

Mac & Tosh

Remember the old Warner Brothers cartoons or the reruns thereof? Remember the pair of impeccably polite gophers, Mac & Tosh? Yesterday after blogging I checked the local pet sales and soon thereafter went and picked up my own Mac & Tosh. Only they're not gophers. They are a pair of six week old brother chinchillas! As cute as can be, sorter than cotton and quite friendly little fellas they are.
Years ago I and my then significant other had one male chinchilla. Actually I have no memory of whatever became of him.
Anyway, the fella I bought the lads from seems a pretty decent sort. He gained a butt load of esteem points when he told me of another sale that fell through. Seems the potential buyer wanted to raise them for their skins so that sale was cancelled on the spot.
I then shared with him the tale of how I had told Gail how I would deal with excess drakes (male ducks). She quickly told me, "You won't be able to eat those babies". In my most macho redneck carnivore voice I said, "Watch me".  Long story short, she was right.

So now my at home family consists of 1 male Jack Russell terrier, 1 female dachshund,... (quick note, in the animal care/keeping world 1.2.3 means 1 male, 2 female, 3 unknown sex) so I continue listing... 1.2 African brown geese, 3.3 Rouen ducks, .4 Pekin, .2 Khaki Campbell, .1 Runner, .1 bearded dragon, 1.1 green iguana, .2 sugar gliders, 1. hedgehog and 2. chinchillas.

I was talking to a customer at the store the other night about where he works and he said, more or less,  "My job doesn't define me, who I am. It's merely a means to allow my wife and I to do the things we enjoy". I took that to heart straight away as we all should, I believe. We are not our job description. We are all unique and wonderful individuals who perform a given task that allows us to have what we need and do what we love.
As a (somewhat) student of the Latin language I say "Carpe diem" .... "seize the day"!

Ducklings Becoming Ducks

My not long ago ducklings are well on their way to becoming fully grown ducks. They are all growing real feathers, learning to quack, etc.

When I had my storage building built I had it put in 3' from the back fence so I could walk behind it (which I seldom do). When I extended the duck yard making it into an "L" shape I stayed 4' from the storage building so I could walk through (which I seldom do). In the next few days I'm fixing to use some 1" x 6"  w/ 4" x 4" backing blocks to close off the gap between the floor of the shed and the ground. Then I'll plant stakes in front of the 1" x 6"s. The main reason behind this effort is to restrain my murderous dachshund, Bella from getting to the Quack Pack. I'll use an arbor bit to drill some holes in the 1"  x 6" to allow air flow to minimize chance of mold, mildew, fungi and rot in the shed's floor.
After that is done I can cut a gap to let the young girls in with the adult (laying) girls and close that fence gap. Then I can cut the fence in a couple of places and open up the aforementioned 4' beside the shed and 3' behind to them. 4' x 15' = 60 square feet plus 3' x 14' = 42 for a grand total of 102 extra square feet of duck & goose paradise. I'll keep expanding so in time I can rotate their enclosures to seed a section and allow it recovery time while they eat every green growing thing in another.

My Birthday

Today, September 10th 2016 is my 57th birthday. I mentioned at only to 2 people at work and left right at quitting time.
Once home I went through my normal daily routine of caring for my (non human) kids, checking the gardens, etc. I plan to spend my day in quiet reflection of my past and looking forward to my future. If I'm not mistaken I'm of the generation that reaches retirement age at 62. Retirement is the last thing on my mind however. I do plan on a career change to one more suited to my happiness and away from the daily grind of just doing something 8 hours a day/5 days a week to pay my bills.

The only debt I owe is my home mortgage. Robert and I often talk about ways to make/save money. Last night I told him that once I have my Realtor's license I plan on putting 30% of every sales commission in a savings account dedicated to taxes. I'm now in the bracket where of every dollar I earn I bring home 76 cents. That's a loss of 24% to taxes et cetera so putting 30% in savings should a little more than cover taxes. The other 70% is going to a principal only payment on my mortgage.
Robert told me that by making 13 payments per year vs 12 will cut a 30 year mortgage down to 22 years.
I think I've mentioned I already send in a little extra each month which adds up to around a 13th payment so if I can make enough selling real estate to make a 14th or 15th payment I will be beating this debt down PDQ. Once that debt is eliminated I will owe nobody any damn thing so (after taxes) I can either keep or spend my money as I see fit.

I'm exploring multiple venues to make side money as well as a couple to be able to leave my present employer. All will require time, some money and faith on my part but I can't depend on PCH showing up at my front door with a $10 million check!

Working On My Truck & Land

I've a 1997 Nissan pickup with just over 10,000 miles on it. That's right, a '97 with 10K. It's never had an air conditioner in it which was no problem when I bought it 10 years ago but now I drive my CR-V which does have a/c. The truck has a few minor problems, a couple of which I attempted to rectify today. The passenger side rear tire has a slow leak so I removed it from the truck and tried to air up but ran into a snag. I have a tiny compressor that was just not airing fast enough so I found my larger. Seems it's a total piece of junk as after 5 minutes the tire had less air in than when I began. The heat index was nearing 100 F so I called that project a bust.
The radio and TV seem to every 10 minutes run an ad for a product you can simply dump into the gas tank of a poorly running vehicle to burn out the water, etc so as I was attempting to fix my tire I poured in a battle of the aforementioned and ran the engine some 15 minutes as per instructions. At least the engine does seem to be running a bit more smoothly now.
I'll try again to air up the tire, find the leak and plug it up. Also I'll call the local junk yard to see if they have a rim so I'll have a full size spare and can discard the "doughnut" spare. Too sweet would be to find a half dozen 15" rims that would fit so I could get tires with more aggressive tread. The truck had 14" rims and all I can find for it are "city" tires.
I'm seeing a lot of building material free for the picking up online so I really need to have the truck ready to pick up! Enough free good bricks that would take at least 2 loads, a deck to be broken down and hauled away... and soon the neighbors will be raking up all their leaves for me to add to my gardens and compost bins.

I'm still trying to get info on translating tax auction land legal descriptions to street addresses.  One description did give a subdivision which I looked up and found it is smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood where my present full time job supervisor lives. I'm trying to decide if I'd want to own anything near that baboon or not. It might just be fun to be able to tell him I own right around the corner from his house. If I can't find what I want closer to home I may place a bid over there.
The dream property would be close to home, 1/2 acre + or-... fenced would be icing on the cake and a tool shed would gild the lily! I'll just keep plugging away towards getting info and trust God to send me down the road He wants me to walk.

As always I'm thinking about small ops to make side money that could possibly translate into larger profits later. If we're not happy doing what we're doing, we should be doing something else, right? God wants all His children to be happy and prosperous. All the preachers and motivational speakers say we should take a leap of faith. Well, I'm not 100% comfortable with that. What I am comfortable with and what I'll do and suggest to you all is to take a few baby steps of faith and see how they work out.

Start small but dream big. If you have a mortgage and a handful of credit card bills,  don't try to kill the giant first. Pay off the smallest first then apply that payment to the next. Knock off the credits one at a time, smallest to largest.  I have a home improvement store card that I pay off as I go each month before they can add on a monthly fee. Every month I add a little extra to my mortgage payment w/ the note "principle only". It's usually only about $50 but that's $50 today that I won't be paying interest on for the next 28 years. And what is $50 a month? $1.67 a day .

Mom's Birthday

Mom's birthday was yesterday and we had a good time. I took her the largest of the Sugar baby watermelons from the garden. We went out to the catfish restaurant and filled up on a nice meal. She got the baked tater and cole slaw as sides while I opted for the turnip greens and mashed taters w/ gravy. I must admit I had never seen hush puppies that small before in all my life.
The main drawback to getting greens as a side is I love greens! When I eat (especially collard) greens I want anyone following me into the toilet for the next 3 days to know I been eating collard greens. A few years ago a whole group of went went to another catfish place where they bring the sides for large parties out in big old pots. I said "Park them greens right here in front of me!"

I was about to go back home when I remembered the young ducks had received the last of their starter feed earlier in the day. So a trip to the feed store was due. As usual I loaded up to make my next visit as far into the future as possible and bought 250 pounds of feed. The adults were still pretty good so I got the following:
100 pounds starter, 50 layer, 50 scratch and 50 chopped corn and 1 bale of hay.

I must have gotten my love of growing things from my Mom. She has flower beds and trees all over her yard. I really don't bother with flowers unless they produce some sort of edible like sunflowers. Mom has a fig, satsuma, Meyer lemon, peach and a couple of plum trees in her yard so we swap produce whenever possible. My girls have slowed egg production so I didn't have any to share this time around. At least I'm not to the point of having to buy mass produced chicken eggs even though the grocery has them on special @ 18 for $1.00. I've an eggplant plant in a whiskey half barrel planter that has 4 fruits nearing ripeness. I'm not a huge eggplant fan but again all those I've had came from the store and not home grown here. These just may change my entire mindset! Either that or I'll never try raising the damned things again.

Our Secretary of State is having a big tax lien repo sale of properties via internet auction. I'm trying to find a parcel of land to turn into a larger than I need garden to sell, swap and share produce at food banks if possible. The main problem I'm having with that now is the properties are listed only by "legal description" and not any street address or such that a semi normal person knows anything about. I've found a couple of properties the size wise fit the bill perfectly (about 1/2 acre) but "the NE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of Section 15" or whatever doesn't tell me a damned thing. Since this is an auction for back taxes, a $6,000 value patch of dirt is start bid prices at only a couple hundred bucks which I'd jump on like a duck on a June bug if I could find one within acceptable driving range.
I'll let you all know should I find the Rosetta stone translating legal description to real address and am able to get the land I want.

Avon Starter Kit, Mom's Birthday & Watermelons

I was beginning to wonder when my Avon starter kit was going to arrive and this morning while in the front yard I saw it there by the door. It may have been there a day or two as I never use my front door, always the side door.
Somewhere I have boxes of picture frames, mostly with pictures of people I don't know. Hey, I was given the box and figured somewhere, sometime I could use the frames. Anyway I'll frame a sign saying "All Deliveries To Side Door Please"  so I don't have any future ones sitting out in the weather.

I'm still reading a bit of my real estate book daily and that enterprise will be an entity unto itself. My Avon and other sales I'm looking at will be under the "umbrella" company of Merlin's Garden.

Tomorrow will be my Mom's 78th birthday and the 10th of September will be my 57th. Tuesday (the 6th) is one of my nights off this week so I'm taking her out for lunch. There's a place not a mile down the road that has excellent catfish so that's where we're going. The all you can eat is only a dollar or so more than the 3 piece dinner and I can eat way more than 3 pieces so that's my road! I'll show Mom all my Avon crap and then get a receipt for tax purposes. Any and everything I can use as a tax write off this year and coming years I will.
A few (quite a few, actually) I was at the Belzoni Catfish Festival with my then significant other and her 2 daughters. A plate of  2 or 3 fillets and a handful of fries cost like $5 but entering the catfish eating contest was free. I entered the contest and took home the 2nd place trophy. First place trophy and $100 cash prize went to a mountain of a man who weighed no less than 400 pounds. I later learned that was his "job". He was a professional competitive eater!

I harvested a watermelon today for my sugar gliders, Ruth & Naomi. The melon patch is in a back corner of my yard not often visited. With the little rain we've had the vines got a bit wilted so I'm fetching in all the fruits I can. I'll take the biggest to Mom tomorrow but the wee possums got one today only about the size of a tennis ball but still, ripe, juicy and sweet.

Free Duck Eggs? I Think Not

A while back I mentioned to Eddie, one of the jackasses I work with that I had ducks laying eggs. He wasted no time asking for some and I replied I'd be happy to sell to him. Well, he seemed somewhat offended that I would sell him my "free" eggs.
Night before last he mentioned my ducks again in front of a new employee and figured it would be a good time to shame me into free eggs so he repeated the previous conversation (complete with voices). I fired back, "When the feed store starts giving me free duck feed, I'll give you free duck eggs!" I think Eddie was a bit taken aback when the new lady said, "There ya go!" to me.

Maybe some folks who don't raise birds for eggs don't realize those eggs are not free eggs. Before we even get the birds there is the cost of building an enclosure. Fence posts and wire are not free. A coop or laying house requires lumber and nails, again not free. Whoever coined the term "it's just chicken feed" meaning little or no cost hasn't seen the price of feed lately. 365 days a year no matter the weather I have to have my monkey ass out there feeding, watering, checking on my birds' health, walking the fence line to make sure all is secure.
This time of year the geese aren't laying any eggs but still have to eat and drink. My 2 adult duck hens lay 1 or 2 eggs a day but still eat the same amount eggs or not. My juveniles are still months away from laying their first egg. "Free" eggs? Not even close!

So why even bother raising my own eggs? Simple question with a simple answer. My eggs are from free range birds, not caged egg laying machines. Ergo I can write in pencil on each egg the date it was laid so know how fresh they are. My girls eat bugs and grass along with their feed which makes them happy! Even the grass and weeds aren't free as I put in my time and sweat mowing and fetching to them.

The main reason I raise ducks for eggs is because I enjoy having ducks. They make me laugh when I sit with them and watch them being ducks. You may not understand me enjoying having ducks but that's fine with me. You may enjoy something I don't understand. Does that make us bad people? Is it a reason we can't be friends? I think not.

Death Of A Dragon

Today I got home from work and checked on all my children as I always do. Sadly I found Arminius, my male dragon had passed away. He had showed no signs of illness just passed (I assume) peacefully during the night. I gave him a burial between the pear and apple trees in the back yard.

I was disappointed that a mere 5 of his and Boudica's 27 eggs hatched and none of the babies survived  so I went back to their breeders and ordered another male and second female to double down on my chances.
Meanwhile I moved Boudica into another tank and disinfected their old one. Instead of using sand as a substrate this time I'll be using rabbit feed pellets. Maybe Arminius swallowed too much sand and got impacted. Rabbit feed is all veggie so any they ingest can be digested and passed.

My Maw Kemp & Today's People

Writing my last post and mentioning my Maw Clara made me think about her Mom, my Maw (Beulah Mae) Kemp. She was born only a couple or 3 years after the American Civil War ended in 1865 and lived to the ripe old age of 98.
I never knew how any of the other kids felt about her but I loved that old woman with a special piece of my heart. I never saw her wear anything less than a sunbonnet and ankle length dress. We boys would be out in just shorts, our girl cousins in tee shirts and sorts and Maw Kemp would be hollering about "them young uns running around half nekkid!"
Each morning and evening she would take her "constitutionals"... a walk to the bridge and back. Probably some 30 yards or so each way but hey, she was old!
She lived out her days with Maw Clara and Paw Stuart in a little house not much larger than my living room, dining room, and kitchen combined. There was electric lights, running water (in the kitchen only) from a well and electric pump house out back and the only heat in Winter was from a fireplace. Lord, if I could only find one of the pair of andirons from that old fireplace it would be worth to me more than twice its weight in gold. Quick note to you kids here, andirons are those pieces of metal you see in fireplaces to hold the logs in place. Another quick note re: running water in the kitchen only. We bathed in a #2 washtub in the back yard, hot water came from heating cold water on the stove and "other" business now done in the bathroom was done in a little shed behind a mimosa tree. Sometimes there was store bought toilet paper, most often a Sears catalog and at times a basket of corn cobs... but I digress.

For some reason I loved to walk with Maw Kemp or just sit with her and listen to how things were when she was young. We can go to the store now and think nothing of buying salt. When she was a girl they would dig up the dirt from under the smokehouse and wash it until the water ran clear. The water came by the bucketful from the spring. When the water was clear it was set out in the Sun to evaporate until there was only the salt left.
Yes, I am proud to tell you that I come from people who had to work that damned hard to survive. Who had to in the 20th century hunt, farm and gather to put food on the table. Possum & sweet potatoes was a fine meal. I reuse my bacon grease because I love the taste although my doctor wants me to stay away from it. Back in the day they used it because it was all they had.

Time for me to get on my soap box and preach on something....
I actually heard rumor some airhead called a radio talk show as she was against hunting and said she only buys meat at the grocery store because no animals were killed to provide it. Hey! I can't make this up. Myself I've eaten almost any and every critter I can get. I can promise you one thing. Free range anything is better than cage fed. Even better is wild meat. Frogs taste like chicken? No! A home raised chicken is 100 times better than a store bought any day but frog is even better to my taste buds. I'd spit chicken and dumplings halfway across the county for squirrel and dumplings. Raccoon and possum I'll admit aren't on my top 10 list but even the best hog sausage can't compare with venison sausage.
Let me propose a challenge to you all. Maybe you don't have a yard or garden. Maybe you live in an apartment. Somewhere you have the space for a couple of 5 gallon buckets, right? Fill them up with dirt, toss in a few tomato seeds and grow yourself a home grown tomato. You'll either be glad you did or mad as Hell at the grocery store for what he sells as tomatoes!

Miss Smarty Duck & A Pair Of Pears

Like any good parent I spend some time with all my children each day. Still no human children to call my own but my critter kids. Dogs, sugar gliders, hedgehog, iguanas, bearded dragons, geese & adult ducks and rapidly growing ducklings as well as the Molly fish all get some daily love and attention.
Today as I was sitting with the ducklings I made what I deemed an interesting observation. Duck poo draws flies but that's not what I noticed. When I sit with the ducklings I keep a fly swatter handy and smack as many of the vermin as get within range, usually near or on the feed bowls. After their initial gobbling of their breakfast starter crumbles most of the quackers go and mill about looking for greens or such. What I saw was one or the other or both of the Rouens were staying nearby and eating the flies that I killed or disabled. I still can't tell the Pekins from each other nor the Khakis but I can now tell one Rouen from the other. One has bigger feet with more yellow than the other. She with the smaller and darker feet was the one staying close and eating flies. She usually waits 2 or 3 whacks before returning to the feed bowl to collect her treats (freshly killed flies) but never more than 5! I can whack a fly 2" from her head and she sees her goodie more than the fly swatter.  Then I noticed that if I reached as far as I could to smack one she'd scamper briskly to the scene to see if I had connected or not.

Heading back towards the house I remembered seeing a couple small flashes of white on my Anjou pear tree a few weeks ago. I stopped a moment to check and yes! There is a pair of pears developing. They're still not even as large as marbles and the worms or wild birds will probably get them but just knowing my tree will bear fruit is enough to keep my hopes up.
Of all the fruit trees on my front yard; one each apple, pear, nectarine, olive, Meyer lemon, a couple each kiwi and pomegranate I got one undersized nectarine. But it was quite tasty! In the back yard my 2 plum trees are either dead or at Death's door. I got nothing so far from my fig, unknown citrus or apple tree or blueberry bush and the wild birds et all my mulberries.
The unknown citrus is a short story unto itself. I bought and set out (I think) Key Lime, satsuma and kumquat all in a bunch to see if they'd all be happy together, cross pollinate and perhaps create a new variety of citrus. To the point, all the tags fell off and only one tree still lives so all I know is it is some sort of citrus.

I'm still wanting to go to my late dad's property in Kilmichael and fetch home some native trees. To wit; persimmon, sassafras and apple if any are still left in the old orchard. I remember his Mom, my Maw Clara had screen frames that she'd dry the apples on to make the best apple pies. My store bought blueberry bushes only gave a 1 in 3 survival rate so I'd prefer to try huckleberry bushes from the wild next time around.

BBQ Sausage

I've many things to try and get done here at Merlin's Garden each and every day so anything I can get done in advance gives me a head start.
Today is the coolest day around here in a month of Sundays so I'm gonna light up the grill and cook me some sausage for today and tomorrow.  Just to add a little something different I'll grill the sausage as usual then about 75% done I'll slather it down w/ BBQ sauce, wrap em in foil and lower the heat.

It's been a while since I had some roasted garlic so I'll wrap a couple of heads in foil and chuck them on the grill as well. Let them bad boys simmer in their own juice until they feel soft & tender (not mushy), then mash 'em out like butter. Put some on top of your head and your tongue will slap your brains out trying to get to it!

Thinking About Latest Duckling Death

I've been thinking about why one of my (seemingly) healthy Pekins just up and died recently. All I can figure is (not speaking bad about the breeders I got the ducklings from) is they do have a limited supply of breeding stock. Perhaps the duck that passed was suffering from an inbred heart defect.
All the girls were panting and the heat wasn't near as bad as they'd already lived through.

On the upside I do know where I may be able to fetch in some mallard eggs and/or duckling next year. When I worked at the zoo I assisted our veterinarian when he pinioned some birds. That is clipping off the last joint of the wings of hatchlings so they can't ever fly away. If I can manage to fetch in some eggs I do have my incubator so I can pinion any babies at Day One.

Coming Into Season

Years back I worked with a large black man we all called "Rev". It was quite a while before I learned he actually was a Reverend! But we share the same birthday, September 10.
It always tickled the Hell out of me that I knew when the astrological sign became Virgo because Rev would walk in and loudly announce, "All right, V~ people! We in season now!"

And I am so happy "we in season".  Last night's weather forecast called for lows in the 60's (F) later this week. I don't go deer hunting (although I love venison) because I simply cannot tolerate the cold. During the Summers here the heat indices are onto the 110 F range quite often which is too damned hot for me. Spring and Autumn are my happy times... highs in the 80's and lows in the 60's.

I'm working on a theory which is seeming pretty good... Cold equals age. When in my 20's I lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Twenty degrees was common in the Winter and it didn't bother me. Now I'm in my mid approaching late 50's  and mid to high 50 degree temps feel cold to me!
Cold equals age!

Unknown Cause Duckling Death

My ducklings are starting to fledge, that is grow real feathers. Sometime between yesterday afternoon's check and this morning's check one of my Pekins passed away. No sign of anything gnawing at her carcass just she was dead.
She must have died soon after last PM check because as much as I wanted to give her a proper burial I simply could not. As soon as I picked her up and got a whiff I began gagging. The best I could do was say a prayer over her before I turned her body over to the local sanitation department . Thankfully they were making one of their twice a week runs today.
I'll check more often on the rest of the pack throughout today to check for any sign of possible heat distress or any other ailments. All I can possibly imagine is heat got to her so I'll be sure the rest have plenty of cool water.

By the way, I now have 3 Rouen males (adult). As per females I have 3 Rouen (1 adult and 2 juvenile), 4 Pekin, 2 Khaki Campbell (all juvies) and 1 Runner (adult).