A story about Ducks

A little tidbit of information about our four ducks, Quasi, Susie Q and their ducklings.

When we first looked up the information on Craigslist it sounded like a wonderful set up: a breeding pair with two baby ducklings. The price was very reasonable so we took off, excited, for a tiny little town called Elma. Now there's not much in Elma except for a nuclear reactor that never got finished (funding dried up 18 months before completion) and a bunch of little farming communities. Quaint. Perfect to find ducks! I was excited, imaging how cute the ducks would be, tucked in under our arms as we secured them into the wire cages for transportation back home. Whitney was equally excited for the duck's slug-eating properties.

We get to the woman's farm, which is a beautiful piece of property nestled against wetlands and forest. She leads us into the barn and oh my god! MUSCOVY DUCKS ARE ENORMOUS! Call me naive but I had been thinking along the lines of Mallards or call ducks. What Whitney forgot to tell me is that these ducks (especially the drake) is roughly the size of a cocker spaniel. Yes, the dog kind of spaniel.

I look at the box we brought and then back at the drake. There was no way it was going to work. The little mama and her babies, sure. But this drake was BIG and had no intention of "coming quietly." Luckily the woman must have gotten a special certification in duck wrangling because she pounced on this giant bird and in the midst of a flurry of feathers and indignant squawking, she had him captured and shoved him into a larger box she thankfully had on hand. The ducklings were harder because they're tiny and fast but eventually she had them rounded up. Then we were on our merry way. The entire way back I'm wondering how on earth we're supposed to get these big birds into our pen.

Fortunately I turned out not to be too shabby at catching birds myself but I'm impressed at the Drake's sheer size and strength! Now we've settled them in, dug a little makeshift pond, and they seem to be adjusting fairly though I still can't get them to use the dog igloo shelter. The mama had one at her old home so I'm not sure why she isn't using this one. Might be an access issue with the lip being too high. We'll have to experiment a little.

Some before and preliminary pictures

So this will be known as our infamous "before" picture of the house. The front still needs a lot of work, finishing up the front beds (although we've now planted some pretty baby bushes in there) and getting the clutter organized and put away. With the moving of roommates one month after moving in, it's been a little hectic with furniture and misc household items getting moved around.
Thank god we're having a yard sale this weekend! (1735 26th Ave NE if any of you are interested)

I'm so glad we're no longer housing our chickens in THIS! Our little temporary makeshift "we're-goddamn-sick-and-tired-of-chickens-escaping-in-the-house-and-pooping-everywhere" pen got pulled down this last week and the chickens got moved into their more permanent chicken pen. They even have a bona-fide coop now instead of plastic bins! I know, so fancy ;-)

Our garden seems to be doing really well and I'm bummed we didn't plant a bigger one this year. Next year we'll be planning ahead for a very large cropage so this year we'll just have to make do with our moderate but successful one. Plus we have oodles of berries to pick and process in September. Blackberries, Salmon berries, huckleberries and maybe a raspberry bush? I need to go back and see if I can find that one. All in all, I'm quite happy with our thriving zucchini plant, sugar snap peas, radishes, carrots, jalapaneos, corn, and tomatoes. We've also got two different kinds of lettuce.

Here are the eight chickens (from top left to bottom right): Barty, the Wyandotte, the evil red bitch (though she's grown on me quite a bit since her more evil baby stages), the black Austrolop, the black sexlink (affectionately known as Dinner #3), the golden sexlink (definitely Dinner #1!!), and the two Ameraucanas.

The Urban Homestead

Hmm. So here we are, starting a blog. We’ve decided to start a blog about our adventures in homesteading because self-reliance is becoming more and more important in our society. I won’t use this as an opportunity to get preachy about economic woes and the like, but you all know what I’m talking about. It started with four people united by common goals and a dilapidated avocado green house.

I convinced my landlord to let me rent it, until I could secure some kind of financing over the next two years to buy it. The house was nothing to throw a party over but it was nestled on four acres of beautiful property, shouldering state-protected wetlands and a few neighbors on the other side. And best of all? It is tucked just inside the city limits, even located on a bus line! So, with a little more bravado than common sense, I moved in and proceeded to task about getting appliances in and bringing the house up to livable standards. I have big plans for this place, oh yes I do.

So I convinced my fiancée to move in with me and she (being almost as crazy as I am) proceeded to get just as excited about the potential of our new acquisition. Then we sprinkled in a couple roommates and voila, we are well on our way to real community!

So here we are: Lindsay, Whitney, Hank, and Travis.


Here’s the countdown:
4 people
5 ferrets
2 dogs
8 chickens
1 rabbit
… and counting!

Because we’re technically still within the city limits, we have done our best to maintain a low profile. There are statues that limit how many animals we can own, etc. But with four acres we feel that we have ample space to create our own urban homestead! We’ll be updating this blog with pictures of our projects, progress, and disasters!