We finally found a mate for Marmaduck, our Muskovy duck.
He is a very handsome fellow named Duke.
I was hoping it would be love at first sight but they totally ignore each other!











I have been checking the 'beaver dam' daily and don't think it is changing at all. Which probably means it was wishful thinking on my part. We still think beaver are striping the bark but not building a dam as I had hoped.

Our little grand nieces and nephew love to come visit. This is the result of fresh air and playing hard.
























Charlotte, Sugar and Snowflake.
These three lovelies belong to our niece 's children.

There is evidence at the creek of beaver activity.
I started noticing a few weeks ago that small branches and twigs were being stripped of its bark on the other side of the creek.

There are two areas on our side of the creek where small trees, branches and twigs get caught up when the creek is running high in the winter.
New stripped branches are showing up on them. I don't know if it is just wishful thinking on my part or if a beaver dam is really being built . I will keep you posted.

My sister-in-law, niece and great niece, went to visit a petting farm.
I think these goats got a bit confused as to who is supposed to do the petting!!

The ducks haven't found a new way out their new enclosure for a couple of days so yesterday was a good day to start fixing up the fish ponds.
One pond needed the liner pulled back at one end and the ground shored up a bit.
It went so well that I had time to replant moss around it and now it looks as good as new.

Like most people I love this time of year.
In the winter our place looks desolate and uncared for, The spring changes that with all the new green shoots on the trees and the shrubbery starting to bud.
It is a new beginning again and design ideals start flooding into my head.

So don't bother me while I am thinking!!







Picture of my brother's cat Sweetpea

Had no time to miss Coronation Street yet.
Spring break brought my daughter and her two boys over for a week long visit.
Always hectic when they are here. They love it. They all but take over.

Feeding, watering, egg collecting, walking the dogs/goats to the creek is all done by them.

The poor chickens barely have a chance to lay their egg before one of the boys is there gathering it from under them.










Rob and I spent the weekend fencing the goats and ducks in to their own area. The ducks seen more put out than the goats do about it.
The ducks have to stay in their own pond now rather than my fish ponds!
I will start fixing the damage that they caused to the ponds once I know they can't escape from their new area.

Sophie, my niece who lives in England, sent me some critter pictures that I was going to post on the blog.
Not being very computer literate, I am having difficulty transferring them from my inbox to the blog!
Will get it figured out and add them to a future blog. (Probably after my buddy Sharon comes to visit does it for me! )

I have been a coronation St fan for a long time.
I record the 2 hours that is shown on Sundays and watch it at my leisure during the week.
It was preempted during the Winter Olympic so was not on for 3 weeks.
Last Sunday was catch up and it was on for 4 1/2 hours.

Well long story short, I set the VCR for 4 hours of play instead of 6. Meaning I didn't get the last 1/2 hour of it.
I realized my mistake when I saw the little red light blinking and the tape popped out!

I thought about it for a bit and decided that as I had already forgotten what had happened in the last episode that I saw, I could quite easily give it up.
I didn't watch what I had on tape and it was a done deal today as I didn't record this mornings 2 hours.. Waiting for withdrawal symptom to kick in. So far so good thought!

A post script to yesterdays blog.
I found Speckles the hen dead at the side of the house yesterday afternoon.
It looks like she may have been taking a dust bath and sunning herself when she was a attacked by a mink. All the usual signs. Head and neck chewed nothing else touched.
Horrid vicious things that they are, at least they are fast and thorough I doubt she knew anything before it was over.

The pleasure that I get from my critters far outweigh the negative side of having them all.
The negative side at the moment is having them die or just disappear.

We got a new rooster not so long ago. He was a handsome fellow who fit right in with his new 'ladies'
He disappeared 2 days ago.
Yesterday, Speckles, one of the hens was missing.
Just like the duck that went missing last week there are no feathers, blood or body to indicate what happened to them.

Three days ago one of the little rabbits was not looking so good. I brought him into the house.
He seemed very delicate compared to his litter mates and didn't seem to want to eat.
I mixed up some sugar water and bottle fed him every couple of hours. He seemed to have a bit more energy but still wasn't eating. I cooked up carrots, put them in the blender and spoon fed them to him.
I made a bed of alpaca wool for him to help keep him warm.

This morning the little guy was dead.

I think I am past crying over this kind of thing. I am resigned to the fact that it goes along with the territory but I think each of my critters will get a little extra attention today, I appreciate the joy that each of them give me and the pleasure from them does outwiegh the sad times.

I was talking on the phone the other day to my daughter, I was not paying a whole lot of attention to anything going on around me.
The road outside our house is not a particularly busy one.
I started to wonder after a couple of cars slowed down as they passed our house if one of the rabbits or chickens had wondered onto the road.
still on the phone, I looked out the window. My poor daughters ear is probably still ringing after me yelling into the phone, as I hung up on her, 'I gotta go, my goats are holding up traffic'
The three of them were across the road! Two cars were stopped because them.
I ran out full of thanks for stopping and apologies for them being on the road. No one seemed upset and both drivers were smiling as they drove away.
definitely time for refencing!

We were invited to our nieces home a couple of nights ago for dinner. She made the most wonderful turkey dinner with all the trimmings.
Lemon pie for dessert. Her uncles favorite.

It was a fun evening. Her little kids had a laughing so hard at their antics that my sides were hurting.

They are looking after a couple of critter at the moment. Cute little things but a bit high maintenance.

Pete and Cotton in their blankets.











Their own dog OLLIE











Their rabbits, Charlotte and Sugar.












Charlotte in her new home built by grandpa