broody hen + babies

Taken by my brother, of Adventures with David. 

Fluffy butts!

Our incredibly cute Lab pup. As always, click on the photo to enlarge.

Tanicha, if you're reading this you need to post some photos of your chicks on your blog! Please????

~ D

button quail

I am now the proud possessor of a juvenile pair of Button quail, which is slang for the coturnix chinensis, Chinese Painted Quail, or  Excalfactoria chinensis. These diminutive birds, being less than 4" long full grown, are ground dwelling quail originally from a tropical country, as they cannot endure less than 60* weather.   

They are fascinating creatures, which being so small serve very little practical purposes, being bred in captivity mainly for pets, amusement or entertainment.   As a farmer, I prefer not to accumulate useless, inedible and frivolous pets, but these quails were too cute to pass up, and they cost next to nothing to keep. 

I deigned to name them since they aren't going to be eaten. 

Meet "Pyramus" and Thisbe", so named after an old Greek myth, which can be read here.

Thisbe, the female:

 And the male, Pyramus.

For more information about Button Quail.....

Stellar Gamebirds

Multilingual Quail

grammar lesson: commas

For once here is a nice, ladylike, flowery heading for this post. Speaking of ladylike-ness, I would like to say that my five oldest hens (Mary Lou, a Barred Rock, at left) aren't very ladylike. Oh, sure, I can hear them protesting loudly, but the way they steal food from the little ones and bother/annoy/steal from the roosters is definitely not very ladylike. My hens are more the loud, obnoxious, feminist, lazy, and bossy female type rather than the sweet, unassuming,  gentle, smart and ladylike female type.
Ah, chicken personalities. I love them! I have sweet docile little pullets, fire-brand little hens, a gentlemanly-chivalrous (yet not exactly the brightest bulb!) Silkie rooster, a gangly cockerel, a dumb yet lovable blonde Polish hen, a paranoid Leghorn hen, and a slew of other personalities in my coop.


I have been brainstorming, trying to think of a topic to post about, but have come up blank.....


I believe I will post a short lesson in punctuation, namely, the correct use of the comma, for the benefit of all.


Commas are used to separate thoughts or ideas. 
Example A:
"Because I am going away, you need not bother delivering the milk."


If the sentence can be divided into two sentences, such as this:


"I really need to blow my nose, it's dripping all over the floor!"


Chances are you shouldn't put a comma there, it would be wrong. As demonstrated by my last sentence! This is an unfortunately extremely common mistake I have noticed often in different books and periodicals. It irked me to see the much-loved little comma abused in this way.


 You can either a) place a semi-colon [;] there, or divide it into two sentences.
Example B:

"I really need to blow my nose; it's dripping all over the floor!"

Example C:

"I really need to blow my nose. It's dripping all over the floor!"

 (You can tell I made up the examples!)

Example  D: 

"Andromeda decided to buy the orange blue purple green black yellow socks."

That is wrong. It looks wrong, doesn't it? That, my friends, is why we need commas!

Corrected:

Example E:

"Andromeda decided to buy the orange, blue, purple, green, black, and yellow socks." 

Too many commas:

"Andromeda decided to buy the orange, blue, purple, green, black, and yellow, socks."

That one extra comma can make a difference!

~ Finis. Enough punctuation for now. Next lesson will be on that infamous apostrophe, plurals, and why Bill's cats were fat. 

A handy chart from the New Yorker.

"How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath? "  ~ Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, the only witty thing Juliet EVER says!

"O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! 

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times." ~ Julius Caesar 

Speaking of Caesars, I have two things to say. A) I love ancient Roman history. B) You should try making this Caesar salad; it is delicious, easy to make, and delicious.

"...Parting is such sweet sorrow!" 

~ Diana

duck naming contest...weirdness...

If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work on brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to dust.
But if we work on immortal minds, if we impress on them high principles, the just fear of God, and love for their fellow-men, we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface, and which will brighten and brighten to all Eternity.    
~Daniel Webster


.....And now, for the Official DUCK Update. *theme music starts*

....*theme music ends* 
And there you have it, folks. A display in irrational cuteness as illustrated by a a Muscovy duckling. 
Who STILL doesn't have a name!!! 


If you can think of a good name for this duckie, please LMK in a comment. I'd like a cute, sophisticated, not too sweet, and special name for the only duck in the flock. Preferably female, as I am 75% sure s/he is a ducklet. (Ducklet=young female. Drakelet=young male)


Andromeda? Ducky? Miss Covy? 
Person to suggest the name I pick will win.....something. Once I decide what that is. A prize!!!!
 





I'm still reading AF. I've found I like the third, fifth, and sixth books best. 
It is much to hot to write deep thinking or relevant cogitations, so...

Auf Wiedersehen!  ~ D

two thoughts.....

Thought number one:


"I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee."
~ Hymn by Annie S. Hawks 


Y'know, we really do need God. We literally cannot exist apart from him. As His creations, we can try to escape all we want, but when you pray to God and know in your heart and mind you belong to Him, it feels perfect. Because it is. We are His children. 


Thought number two:


~ If the youth and civilians of America don't care enough, as a whole, to preserve our culture, traditions, history and civilizations, who will?


Who will?  Who will reverse the moral decay in Western Civilization in general, and stand up for our beliefs, if we don't? It will disappear, just as Rome did, and the world will sink back into barbarism. 


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Okay!!! Enough seriousness for this very fine evening!!!!


I enjoyed the other Artemis Fowl book(s); I've read the third book so far. Much more interesting than the second, and an exasperating ending. 


And this week I'm taking a crew rowing camp here.....it is so much fun! I am terrible at it, improving but still at the exasperation-to-the-coxswain stage. Crew is basically the only truly amateur sport, meaning you usually don't get paid to do it anywhere. It is done because it is the funnest way to get exercise you can imagine! 
And it has a whole glossary of words unknown to those who aren't/weren't boat people.
Starboard, right, port, left, "way enough" means stop and many more......

What? No photos? Fie upon me, shame, shame. So here is a beautiful clownfish, nice and bright and summery.
And lastly an old photo of one of Artemis's Fowl, as edited by a BYC member (thanks!). Bottom picture is of two more of Artemis's fowl, Mary Lou and Ophelia, looking coy:

I love summer. 

addition to the farm.....

It's a DUCK!  This little duckling was abandoned by his mother after a fox ravaged his or her siblings. He is one week old, and doesn't have a name yet.

 This duckling is a Muscovy duck, which means he/her will hiss rather than quack, and be able to fly quite well if I don't take precautionary measures in the form of wing trimming. Muscovies are also a distinct species separate from the other duck breeds which are descended from Mallard ducks. These ducks were domesticated from the wild Muscovy, an elusive tree-nesting duck from South/Central America's jungles. 

 This photo is rated PG-13 for extreme cuteness overload. Just kidding!

Muscovies, or as they are affectionately known as, 'Scovies, like most ducks possess webbed feet. But their claws are bigger and their legs stronger than Mallard-derived breeds because of their tree-nesting tendencies. This also means they can scratch you, so care should be taken when handling these fascinating ducks.


I'll write more tomorrow. I didn't feel like writing something particularly witty, deep, or philosophical so I decided to inform my readers about the DUCK!