well that happened, time to start over

About two weeks ago we picked up a stray walking the side of the road in a storm after we almost hit it. Since it was only a minute or so down the road, we took it home and tied it up in our front yard so that if people were out looking for their dog they would see it. We also contacted the SPCA and posted a "found dog" ad on kijiji.


Well, she was in our front yard for 3 days. We put her in at night and even gave her a go in the house for a bit. On the 4th day it was the Great Glebe Garage Sale so we ventured into town. We dropped off the dog at a friend's place and finally was able to get in touch with the owner and we dropped it off later that evening.


She was a great dog in the car, well mannered, quiet. She was a husky.





Kinda looks like another husky I know who is very well mannered for a city dog.

file photo

Anyways, Tuesday was looking up all day. Had a good day at work, Alex got a lot done at the house in Nepean, we picked up 12 Muskovy ducks from a farmer. They are more quiet, can fly up to avoid predators, they have sweet red pimple faces and they apparently taste like roast beef.

On the way home we saw a wild turkey poult cross the road, so we snagged that one and two others. Turkeys for the holidays for shizzle and wild turkey genetics, hells yes!


Then we hit up the Dairy Barn for some chip wagon deliciousness and then home.


Home to chaos.


The dogs met us in the middle of the highway leading up to our house. The road cars travel 100 km/hr on. The dogs weren't wet so we can't imagine they were out for long.


Sitting on our porch is this husky. Ok.


We take the dogs into the barn and start to look around and figure out just how the dogs got out. That's when I notice chickens all over the yard dead. Not eaten, just dead.


The husky had blood on her face.


There were three areas of death and in all three areas, all birds were just snapped at once and killed except for one, the last one, which was eaten more. 


The ducks were all in a row. Every 3 meters or so, a perfectly good almost adult duck, no tears in it at all until the last one. They were running to the pond.


She broke into a pen by pushing her way in thus releasing our dogs.


Well, we had the owner come over to help clean up the mess. Twelve of our Chantecler chicks dead, the dog went inside their pen and snapped at them once and moved on. 7 mixed chickens that were almost full grown were gone. Then we remembered the ducks. Well, all four Rouen ducks gone along with our Chinese goose. That was almost all of the animals we raised from babies. 


Seriously. Like holy fuck.


Alex is just looking more pregnant than usual and this was now officially a bad day.


Obviously we find one not-quite-dead chick, great. My first I--need-to-end-it kill.


All in all, the owners of the dog understand to call us if she gets out again and they agreed to pay us $200. We are no longer free ranging our livestock if we are not physically home, even in broad daylight because you never know when a stray, or a comfortable dog comes along. I need a sharper knife, seriously. 


The ducks were big too. They were footballs with legs. I had to burn 20 animals; not-awesome. 


Here were the duckies before we even owned the house in Spencerville. What a waste.




Here were the duckies three days ago.





Here is my fire.

We had one of the geese get injured so he was inside, the last survivor (and the biggest). Here is Alex cleaning his wound, re-bandaging and even giving him a bath.

At least it was in the sink. Not like we put our farm animals in the tub with candle light...

Not the best day.

More research now. There's an auction next Saturday and we need to restock. Don'y feel like raising more babies again cause we already have 50 meat chickens showing up tomorrow. There simply won't be enough brooder space.

Today was a good day, great progress at the house. We're both exhausted. Bedtime.

first trip to the farmers auction

Saturday was a busy and hilarious day. We decided to go to the Spencerville farmers auction early on in the day so we could see what that was all about. Afterwards we were off to pretty much Kingston to hit up some tailgate/flea market thing in search for what sorta deals we could get on livestock.


We sorta know what species we want and how many of each we need. Between kijiji and feed store pricing, we have a pretty good idea about how much things cost but the thing is, what is out there? The auction would also give us an idea about the general interest of species in our area. It's good to know what your neighbors are breeding as well, farmers like to barter ;).


On the way to the auction we drove past the farm and it looks to be empty now. I can't believe they cleaned up the side of the barn. There were a few things leaning against the barn with long grass patches but it's all gone and cleaned up. We seriously can't wait to see what shape the place is in come Monday!


The auction was literally 10 minutes away from the new house. It took place in this great big old out building or something. Like a giant orange half-moon. The stuff inside the auction was all from 1940. The speaker system to do the bidding were made from those old bull horns or whatever; like the ones that would alarm for bomb drills in the 60's. Tables have probably always been there and...


there was also FARMER STADIUM SEATING!!!


This filled me full of happiness and joy. From what I gathered, stadium seating was reserved for grandmothers, wives and kids. There was a blatant disregard for danger, alcohol or ridiculousness of any kind. I'm imagining those thermos' actually had hot chocolate in them and no one was fist pumping at all. What a waste of stadium seating. Spots were claimed with quilts while the women socialized. Meanwhile the men endlessly carted boxes filled with creatures and random farm junk.


Old parrot cages, feeders, homemade pens made out of cardboard and chicken wire; ANYTHING was used if it could house something delicious. 


No matter where we were it seemed like we were in the way. But so was everyone else so we didn't really care. The creates were sketchy as hell and we constantly battled with trying to decipher the handwriting on the tags to find out exactly what this ridiculousness was.

Polish chickens; dig that fro

A lot of the birds were exotic or 'show birds' and waaaay out of our league. All we wanted were chicks so we could start our heritage chickens and pekin ducks. We already have turkey chicks lined up with this 16 year old kid off of kijiji; he has more stuff we would be interested in except he hasn't responded to us in like 3 days.


Seriously, farmer people need to get their shit together. The kijiji ads are too generic, are never updated and the response time is absurd.


We made the rounds and checked out all the lots before they went to auction, and we didn't really see anything we were stupid in love with. Off to the next thing with the intention of returning.


The second sale was being hosted at someones house in the middle of no where. We got lost like 5 times and we even had our phone giving us directions. Roads that didn't look like roads would magically appear from no where; you mean take that driveway? After enough twists and turns we finally arrived. The internet peoples said everything we wanted would be at this place so we figured it would be a nice chance to meet and chat with others like us; or at least talk to some hilarious old farmer dudes.


There were two vendors and one had nothing but reptile shit. 

No we're not interested in your strange ducklings or your duck eggs cause we've never heard of these ducks before.

Thank you.

My ass didn't even have a chance to de-numb itself before we were back in the car. After the retarded amount of driving we had just done we had to get back to the auction, FAST. SPENCERVILLE HO!

Again, farmer dudes need to get their shit in order. Don't promise me all the unicorns and gumdrops from sugarcane valley if all you gots are retarded ducks...

We made it back to Spencerville just before noon and there were more cars than before and the auction was still in full swing. Phew! 

You could tell it was getting late in the day because they had to switch out the auctioneer for a while. That SUCKED. Just as soon as we started to better understand one 87 year old man's words, they switch him out for another mile-a-minute senior citizen except this one had a nicer hat. 

If we were going to buy something today we needed our system to be revised.

We soon found the source of the items and how they went up so we moved to over there. Now we could inspect the boxes shortly before they went up on the stage where they were to be sold by the old man we couldn't understand. This way all you have to do is keep track of certain boxes; I'm good at that.

Ok, so we want the chicks in the long red box right?

Ya, but don't go over $20, ok?

Ok. Well, how about you bid and I'll keep my arm down? You know more about this than me...

No, you're the man. Only men are bidding. You do it, just stay under $20.

How about you hold my arm and when you want me to bid you squeeze? When you want me to stop... pat my belly?

Sure thing.

Well, our system wasn't 100% but it kinda worked. Our inability to understand farmer caused us to miss out on a few bids; milliseconds are EVERYTHING! We also got caught double bidding cause Alex didn't see my arm was up and she threw her little chicken wing up too. 

That's two now you guys, keep it together says the old man.

Le sigh.

There were two lots of 4 Orpington chicks that we liked, three lots of 4 rouen ducklings that looked interesting and a lot of rabbits. We were seriously expecting a lot more quantity especially with the chicks... 

We didn't get everything we bid on but at least we knew when to stop while others didn't. We bought the first lot of 4 ducklings for $17 while the second and third lots sold for $27 and $35! Aw well, I guess that's all we get for now.

We also scored a sweet replacement cage for Elwood the lovebird for $20. It's probably twice the size of the one he has now and in mint condition. I think people chose not to bid on it cause it has a brown base and dark bars. From stadium seating distance it truly looked like a piece of shit but we knew better. The same cage at PetSmart is $135.

Wow, I sound like dad.

When I won my first thing I didn't know what to do. Some kid brings you your whatever you won, you pay him, he runs to bring you change and then you get this slip. Here's a pic on my favorite one:

these are like $25 on kijiji; muhahahahaha

5 rabbits, 4 ducklings and $74 later, this:

note to self; leave goalie stick and your own boxes at home next time...

I tried to take a recording of the auctioneer but it must have been too long for my phone and the file is gone.

Between kijiji kid and the feed store (where we're getting our chicks and more ducks), we figure our total for ALL the livestock will be just over $300; YAY FOR BEING UNDER BUDGET! Tack on another $150 for the peafowl we bought on Wednesday (but those aren't for eating... or are they? At the auction one male peacock sold for $120. Score.

We learned a lot on Saturday about farming culture. My favorite moment of the day was when we bought a hot dog and pop at the cantine. It was $3. Alex tipped $2; meanwhile people are bidding back and fourth at dollar increments inside for chickens while we are throwing toonies at hot dog people. Yaaaa, we're not from around here. I have never seen more sour faces after the words keep the change were said. We might as well have been from France.

Right now the animals are getting fatter by the minute. Seriously, the ducklings gain about an ounce a day in the beginning. It's weird to notice them getting fatter in just one day. Here are the setups:

As soon as we get the keys we are off to Spencerville tomorrow. Need to do a few trips in order to get all the animals there with their cages and stuff. Oh ya, a mattress or something for us too unless there is a pen that is big enough...

the plan has changed, sorta kinda

I only have one day to find out everything there is to know 

about ducks

- Alex

Ducks, sure why not. In my mind ducks are essentially chickens that have a better life. Ducks just seem to be more clever than chickens plus they and have a better temperament.

 

i don't know what sort of symbolism this is but
i sure could go for a vault of gold

how can we say no to this at the auction tomorrow!?!?

The whole imprinting thing aside, these are not pets. They are not going to be in the house and they live far, far away. We'll just let the ducks be ducks and see what happens. 


Won't it be cool to have 12 or so ducks following you around quacking away? 


Isn't it cool they eat grubs and things that harm vegetable gardens... so then why not have a garden?... Ok done we're going to have a garden then.


The meat is delicious says the internets. It's full of flavor and very nutritious. What? They're $2.80 a chick, bahahahahahaaaaa.


Holy Toledo! Ducks in general seem pretty cool, neigh; they're awesome.

#998 - ducks

We were already heading in the direction of getting more chickens anyways cause 25 just doesn't seem to be enough. Seriously, it's just not enough. Think about it. Harvesting 15 tops to keep about 10 laying hens seems low. 

We might just get 40 or so chicks and then a dozen ducks. Ducks can be processed after eight weeks so they're not around for that long; it's just going to suck to have to slaughter your buddy. 

Stone wall Kevin, stone wall. Do not make friends with the ducks.

We're already pretty much locked in for 6 turkeys and we have the PEACOCKS!!! already so thems ducks shouldn't be a problem.

That's almost all the meats for a turduckin!!!!!!!

mmmmm
postal code turduckin;    ggaaaawwwwwww