My parents and brothers came over on Saturday for a visit, which we always enjoy immensely. This was a particularly special occasion, because we celebrated my upcoming birthday. Due to scheduling conflicts, we won’t actually be able to be all together on 4 September, so an early celebration was had instead. There was yummy pizza and breadsticks enjoyed at the Fenton House, and delicious German Chocolate cake from my favorite Italian bakery, Militello’s. My youngest brother charmed some of our chickens – he has a knack with birds; even the most anxiety ridden avian will usually perch calmly on his arm. My brothers gave me a talking Mr. Rogers card that provides validations and affirmations. I miss Mr. Rogers. He was actually the most comforting person I heard talking after 9/11.
My brothers funded the purchase of two new additions to the farm. I got birthday ducks yesterday! We’ve been wanting Muscovy ducks for some time now, but they are not easy to find. The U.S. Wildlife Service listed them as an invasive species last year, but made a special exception for those of us with farms who want to raise them. So two finally popped up on craigslist Sunday morning, and they live here now. Such a beautiful couple! Click on the photo to enlarge – you can definitely see them better when the photo is blown up.
Their feathers up top of their heads stands up when they are alarmed, which reminds us of John A. Zoidberg, the Decapodian of Futurama fame. Hence, the drake’s name. I am going to absolutely die if we catch him crab-shuffling at some point.
We have them in with our other ducks, but as we want to hatch some of their eggs out, we’ll need to insure that the hen (who has yet to demonstrate what her name should be, but I’ll let you know!) is only being um…serviced…by Zoidberg. So they may get their own honeymoon suite within the duck enclosure soon. The farm we purchased them from has a Black Sumatra hen who is very broody, and is currently hatching out some eggs there. But, they’d like to sell her once she’s done – they are starting over with their birds, I think. So we will be waiting to buy her and have her do her broody thing on some Muscovy eggs in the near future.
I really hope to get some better photos of these lovely ducks soon. They’re still warming up to us, and a bit leery of the paparazzi at this point, though. Watch for more, improved photos soon, I hope!
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