Ducks, spinning, knitting and children

Here they are at 5 weeks, still cute but much more feathery.   Not what I would call friendly though.   Tried them on bread for the first time today; I think they might rather like that.   We've got less weeds around too, I keep pulling them to feed the ducks.

Spinning:  I've been working on some baby alpaca and silk I've drumcarded, but have temporarily taken a break from that as the carding is taking too long.   I've started some of the Ashland bay Merino heathered fibre instead.   It's the red one and it's beautiful!    I'll take a photo later of both lots of spinnning.

I've also finally finished playing Fallout 3 so I'm back into the knitting.   Doing the shoulder increases on Ingenue, I'll be doing more of that tomorrow at spinning I think as the weather forecast is horrible and I'm not prepared to take my lovely wheel out in a downpour.   I need to get the jersey done anyway before the fibre is all used up.

Dinner time so discussion of children will have to wait till next time.   See you later!

Duck goes quack

I heard the first quack today, so it looks like Sam is a girl, still only peeping from Jade, but fingers crossed.  Both are just starting to get feathers on the wing tips, can just see this cute little brown tufty bits appearing.  They're still coming indoors at night for the moment so the laundry is a touch funky first thing, but aside from that I'm really enjoying the duck thing.   They're not what I'd call friendly yet, but I'm getting better at catching them to pop them in their day or night cage.   Will have to go and get some grit tomorrow as well as some other food.

I do wish the local cats hadn't spotted them though, atm I have to keep them in the run during the day as the cats are eyeing them up and dreaming of duck dinner.   They should be ok in a few weeks as they'll be big enough to make the cats rethink.   The main thing is I don't want to lose one as I need at least 2 ducks so they'll be happy.  Ducks don't do well by themselves.

Boy do ducks doo!

Day 2: Put them outside for what I planned to be the whole day, and then the southerly blew in! I was out at the time but as soon as I got back I took them out of the cage and back into the box for inside. Put the heater on for them while they dried off and a bit longer, more food etc. They were very hungry first thing! Spent the rest of the morning fixing up an interim inside box using an old cardboard box (a big one) and lining the bottom with some Procare PUL to waterproof it. Hot glue gun holds the waterproofing in place and then I covered that with an old woven plastic sack. They look happier in that, more room to move which is good.
I've just put them back outside for a bit and they're splashing around in their mini-pond (litter tray full of water, lol). In the meantime the sack has been rinsed off and is on the lawn drying. It was very mucky so I think I'll have to wash it every day if possible. The water bowl gets several cleans and fills each day too. They'll get one more feed before they come in and any food left over from the evening will go in with them for overnight. In a couple of weeks we'll transition them to sleeping in their box on the deck instead of in the laundry; it's getting a bit cramped in there.



Here's the cage just after I finished making it

The other night the boys got to use sparklers for the first time, I think they enjoyed themselves! They've been asking for more ever since.

Ducky Doo

We have ducklings!   Dropped off this morning which is why I spent yesterday afternoon frantically making them a moveable cage.   They're 3 weeks old atm and very cute.   George has named them Jade (the lighter one) and Sam (the darker one).   We're hoping they're both girls so we get eggs later.
They're currently in the laundry in a box with straw, water and food and the heater on.   I don't like having that on overnight, but we don't have brooder lamps so they have to keep warm somehow.    They came with some chick crumble and we have plenty of greenery to add to the diet, they are much more fond of the silverbeet than the boys!    Got some wheat today too, so I'll soak some in the morning for them.  Still got to get grit, but it's a public holiday here tomorrow so it won't be until the weekend.    Hoping the weather is good so they can be in their outside cage for the next couple of weeks in the day cos they poop heaps and their little indoor box won't cope.   No way will they be let inside without it though.
I'm very proud of the cage, the bottom is open to the ground, has netting on the sides and is nice and sturdy.  Has a good waterproof sleeping area too.   Once they're older they won't need it so much so I'll open up the end so they can come and go as they want.   Atm though they're small and vulnerable to the local cat overpopulation so I'm a little protective; not to mention that they're a little skittish and I dont' want them running.   Will have to block off escape routes this weekend with the rest of the chicken wire.   These guys won't be flyers so we don't have to worry about that at least.

And a lovely weekend was had by 2

A wee while back I posted I'd won a girls night out. Saturday was the day I chose and my knitting friend Joanne and I had a wonderful time! We started at the guild knitting and about 1.20pm we left for the hotel, which was Chateau on the Park in Christchurch. I was working on the beginning of Ingenue (a jersey) from my handspun Romney and Joanne was working on a feather and fan scarf (which looks lovely btw). I've got the neck almost finished over the course of Saturday and Sunday, just 2 repeats to go; and for those wondering, yes I swatched first.
Anyway, getting back to the point. We checked in and half an hour later were on our way to Dressmart in Hornby with the intention of spending our full budgets. I managed, within budget to get 2 skirts, 2 tops, a bra and undies set and my running sneakers. Joanne had a little more to spend, but also did really well with skirts, jeans and tops. We were picked up just on 5pm, back to the hotel and got ready for dinner with a touch of knitting done too.
We had dinner in the restaurant, a fishy theme here. I had the whitebait fritters (a little too eggy) and Joanne had Dory. Then dessert before we paid and left to go and knit. We were meant to go to the movies, but there was only 15 minutes from when we finished to when the movie would have started so we're doing that at another time with the vouchers. Need to give our DH's a little time to recover from looking after the children first.
We did get quite a lot of knitting done that evening instead though, but then Joanne discovered she'd made a mistake so had to undo quite a bit too. We watched "Along Came A Spider" on free to air tv that night and got to bed a little later than planned.
Next morning was a lovely smorgasboard breakfast (pancakes, bacon, hash browns and fruit), followed by; what else? More knitting! And then down for our manicures; J was sneaky and said I could go first, that way she got to knit, lol.
I now have deep burgundy nails, with bling.
Which I then went home and used to start making our new outdoor table, so they're not quite as perfect as they were. I'll post photo's of the start of the jersey and my nails later; as well as the table top. Had to stop before we finished as I was getting blisters.
I guess that's the end of my ramble atm, more ramblings later; maybe after Thursday's spinning meeting.

It's finished, it's finished, yippee!

I finished my Aeolian shawl at the guild this afternoon so this is basically a brag post.   It's gorgeous, and that's before blocking. 

Here it is blocking!

I also tried spinning linen for the first time, it's short bits and not going quite so well, got covered in it!   Will keep trying though.

School Holidays and I won something!

All I can really say for that is that I'm glad it's over!   No car for the first week aside from the Thursday so there was way too much computer and tv for the boys.   Weather wasn't great either which didn't help.
Monday this week they went to Grandma's place so I could go to the sock knitting day over in Bishopdale with the spinning guild.   I then picked Ian up and took him to his first session at the University for a course we're doing there.  He spent most of his time telling me he wanted to go home now.  
Tuesday we went to Willowbank which was definitely enjoyed if rather quicker than expected.   Wednesday both boys went to Grandma's for an overnighter; bliss!   I did quite a bit of knitting, a little tidying and Thursday morning went to the Heathcote spinning guild; which I'm going to join!    Unfortunately when I picked the boys up I found out they hadn't been very good, so no TV till after 5pm yesterday as well as no Xbox and PC at all for the rest of the week.
Got a phone call yesterday morning from "The Breeze" which is a local radio station.   I'd won the ultimate girls getaway, so I've invited Joanne from my knitting group to join me for a night at a hotel, followed by a small shopping trip and a manicure.   Should be good.   Just waiting to hear back if the night I want is ok with Joanne and if so then I'll ring and hopefully book it.   Has to be a weekend night.

Got a bit further on my sock, halfway through the foot of the first one now, also got partway through the first Agave chart for my Aoelian shawl, thought I'd stuffed it up for a while, but in the end it was simply my counting that was off.   Need to try and get that finished by the end of next month so I'll be taking it to the guild tomorrow instead of spinning.   Part of the reason for that though is that the weather is awful atm and I don't really want to take the wheel when it's peeing down with rain even if she does have a custom made raincoat.

Next week's going to be busy too.   Monday is fairly quiet, but I"m going to make a doctor's appointment for the following week for a general checkup.  Haven't had one ever and I need my tetanus shots updated anyway.  Tuesday I'm doing a spinning demo at school, hope it's reasonably warm as I'll be spinning raw fleece which won't be so easy if it's cold.   I'm demoing as it would have been done 100 years ago, so raw is the way to go, no drum carding and I'm not prepared to ruin my combs on raw fleece so I'm using an old flick carder.  Once that's done I can then spin the linen.    Wednesday is the first parents meeting for the course I'm doing with the University; hope I can find a park.  Thursday will be the Heathcote spinners guild again and Friday I'll start back at the gym.

From then on it's Monday and Friday at the gym, Wednesday at University and Thursday at the guild; I do hope Ian starts getting more hours at school so I have a chance to get some other stuff done!