geese, ducks, chickens OH MY!

Our newest farm tenants are growing fast and have to be moved to their new and more permanent home (there's a duck in with the chicks, really, can you find it?!). The geese have tripled in size in less than 2 weeks and act as though they were full grown. It's cute now because they're not nearly as intimidating as they will be when they're full grown and making an obscene amount of racket while threatening to pinch you with their beak at every turn.

The ducks are the very opposite, sweet and gentle, each with a bit of their own personality. The chicks, well they're just little chickens and I don't find to have as much character as ducks and geese, but they are still very cute. 

Today we are going to "teach" the ducks to swim. I don't think there will be much teaching going on, I think swimming is a pretty innate skill for any age duck, but it should be fun to watch.

with out the bucket

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog. It could be the busy, almost summer, days or the hideous illness that plagued our family for a week and a half or it could be the lack of interesting things happening in our lives. Well, I can tell you for sure it is not the third option, we have so many things going on that I couldn't get them all up. So I will start with geoducking without the bucket. If you have never goeducked before it is a lot of fun and a lot of work. Goeducks only reside in the Pacific Northwest and in a small area of Alaska coast. Their a large clam (bi-valve) and are buried in the sand about a meter down. Now, they cannot move as their foot is too small to move their mass. They can weigh upwards of 8-9 pounds and are a delicacy that go for a heft price.
We geoduck in front of our house when the tide is low enough. Usually we use a goeduck can (a sturdy metal tube about a meter in length, open on either end with handles). You locate the goeduck, dig a trench around it without disturbing it too much and then push the can down around it as far into the sand as possible. You start digging out the sand from the center until you can pull out the creature. The can is essential to keep the sand from continually falling in to the hole.
We usually have the can, but this time we didn't and Ty was determined to dig one without the can and on his own. He said he probably moved about 3 yards of sand from the hole and it took him over two hours. Needless to say, Gavin and I went back to the house half way into the adventure to take a nap (it was that exhausting to watch and Gavin was covered in sand). But in the end he came out victorious and made a couple of friends too. I love the picture of Isaac, it's one of those that you cherish for ever (not that you don't cherish every picture of you kids). We had geoduck fritters that night. The tide was well on it's way in when they were finally finished.