This duck is plotting to take over the world!

11 EGGS!!

Or, she cannot count...

or she knows that many of her eggs will not hatch..

12 EGGS!!

or she's using probabilities to project her final duckling yield...

or she's related to my brothers and thus competitive about ev-er-y-thing!

13 EGGS!!

What's your theory?

Do ducks prefer Base 10? or Binary?

This morning I found 10 eggs and a duck guarding them.

Is it because she's finished now?

She's completed a set of 10?

Was "10" her nice, round numbered goal after all?

Or is this 1010?

What's YOUR take on this development?

Where will it all end??

Last weekend I found a duck nest just outside the south door of the barn. It's tucked up against the barn, under the overhang, just next to the stack of hay bales. When I found it, there were 3 eggs in the nest, but no duck. The next day there were 4 eggs, then 5 eggs, then 6 eggs.





I decided to document the progress. So each day I go out with my camera in hand and try to catch the duck in the act. Here you can see the hay bales and the corner of the door. Not the smartest choice but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.


So far, no luck - but look how many eggs there are!

How many will she lay before she decides that's enough?

She's up to NINE for heaven's sake! What could she be thinking?

Doesn't she know Eight is Enough?

And how can we be sure that the nine she's already laid will hatch?

Apparently, as they're laying their clutch of eggs, ducks allow them to cool, so that they slow the development and all the eggs hatch at once.

We'll see... when we tune in tomorrow for the next installment.

www.laughinggoatfiber.com

Nets and Wilbur, and finally The Recycle Bank!

Okay, okay. So Cornell didn't win. They almost won the FIRST half of the game. They were definitely in the running, and made it pretty interesting, until the half. I guess the Missouri Tigers figured out how to beat them during the break.

STILL! 59 pts! I rounded up and sent $60 to Nothing But Nets, for SIX nets! Nice work guys. Maybe some of those other teams'll get new t-shirts 'n stuff. Cornell can claim to have saved lives with their game.

We are having very cold weather again. (15 degrees tonight, 20 degrees tomorrow night!)

March is supposed to go out like a lamb, right? And March is over next in 7 days, right? I'm nervous that baby goats will be born during this cold snap. Ugh. If I'm here that'll be fine. I love taking them into the house and pampering them. But I hate finding cold, lifeless little bodies. I'm really glad that Wilbur didn't get to canoodle with the nannies until November 1st. That makes it likely that the fun will begin soon, but not TOO soon.

The kidding pens are all set up. The nursery is ready for them. Now we just need to turn up the heat a little.. just a little.

Today's excitement is that I finally sent in my application to partner with The Recycle Bank. They have this great idea. They go to communities that don't have very good recycling programs and they set up one that gives rewards based on how much stuff you recycle. You get credits that you can use to purchase from the merchants on their list. I'm going to be on their list soon. I love the idea of being part of a program that encourages recycling. AND they have over 300,000 people involved in the program already. SOME of them must be knitters! Recycling knitters. I love it.

Waiting, waiting...

The nannies are nestled snugly in their kidding pens with just a week to go before D-day! Here's a shot of Nod, my oldest, from the top! She's looks like she's having octuplets! I'm joking. She's probably having twins. I can't wait! Each morning, and every night I check them and report to the family - "No babies yet!"

In the meantime I have the NCAA tournament to amuse me. Today my favorite team - win or lose - is Cornell University. We've been fans for 10 years now, and when we first started going to the games they lost a lot! And no one was cheering them on. We'd be two of maybe 200 people attending.

These days you have to get your tickets ahead, and you'd better get there early or you won't get a good seat. They play Univ of Missouri today. For each point they score, I'm donating $1 to Nothing But Nets. They distribute mosquito netting to prevent malaria. For just $10 you can send a net that will protect a mother and child, often a whole family.

That's Mojo, he's the biggest fan. In fact, he eats the opposing team during halftime. Lookout Missouri Tigers!

Go BIG RED!

The Cast of Characters

The farm is coming alive this week, especially today. It was about 65 at 2pm today. Tonight it's supposed to go down to 22 with a wind chill down to 5! Whew! But I digress.

I went out to take pictures of the animals enjoying the weather. Here's an example - The ducks were splashing happily in all the puddles.

One of the ducks emerged from a hiding spot in the barn, meaning a nesting spot was there somewhere. I hunted it out behind the barrel in the corner near Bert's pen. It looks pretty cozy! Smart little duck.

But the fun part was the reaction of the baby goats. They ran to see what all the commotion was. The duck was complaining like a cranky old woman and they stood like little preschoolers with their eyes wide.

We have an amusing assortment of animals, human and otherwise, intent on entertaining you. If you come to visit us on one of our Farm Tours, you may meet:

Cassie-cashgora (aka Houdini),
Rocky-alpaca (the worrier),
Suzy and Matt - apprentices from Cornell University,
Jess (veeerrry friendly),
Fabio-cashmere (a very graceful jumper),
Gary (my longsuffering, overworked husband),
Marion and Nancy (yes, they're "Farmer's Daughters!"),
Violet and Wilbur-colored angora goats(New!),
Bert-angora (3 legged goat),
Gandalf-colored angora (Huge horns),
Shadow and Arwin-sheep,
The Ducks!
and many more angoras, alpacas and cashmeres.

Now, go do some knitting or weaving or something. More stories tomorrow.

A Fresh Start

March 5th.

Seems like a good day to begin again. February 16th was actually the new beginning.. or - wait - maybe it was actually January 27th. That's the day that Suzy and Matt arrived for the first time.
Suzy and Matt are my apprentices. They're seniors at Cornell University, here in Ithaca. The have made this brutal February so much fun. We put out hay together and trim hooves. We dye yarn and soon - work on assembling the 8 harness loom.

AND, on Feb 16 - Violet, my gorgeous new-to-me nanny, had twin girls, Cuddles and Puddles. Anyway, between Suzy/Matt and the baby goats things are starting to really get rolling. Of course that kind of ups the number of farm related tasks that need doing.

For instance:
1. I need to update my weblog regularly.
2. I need to post more yarn on my Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6919023
3. Trim everyone's hooves! Yes, all of them.
4. Trim hind ends of the nannies before they kid.
5. Get the kidding pens ready.
6. Finish the plans for Farm Tours and Events.
...
You've probably got the idea by now.