G Freden

I had a hard time keeping mine watered enough when in a container;  my potatoes came out pretty small.  If I had to grow them in containers, I'd make sure my potting soil was really rich and moisture retentive.  

Thank you Jay, I would never have considered just crating that jerk drake overnight, but maybe that would be the best option.  Today I've let the new ducks out to free range while the two oldies are still locked up in their yard.  Newbies have been hanging out next to the oldies' yard most of the day but I'll try to get them herded back into their own temporary yard overnight, to make sure any panic attacks don't happen next to the neighbour who complained.

We recently adopted three young Cherry Valley ducks from a rescue charity;  apparently they are just a couple months old, though full sized, and have been raised in a barn with very limited human contact.  We got them about a month ago and boy are they nervous!  Everything (still) scares them, and they quack LOUDLY.  Including in the middle of the night and early morning, and I've had a complaint from a neighbour.  She was polite about it, but obviously this needs to be sorted out.

Probable reason for all-hours quacking:  we have two more ducks, a mated pair, and the drake has been very aggressive towards them.  Drakes are jerks in my opinion, but we've had this guy and his lovely mate for eight years now.  He lives here, it's not really an option to get rid of him;  his mate would be heartbroken I'm sure.  He's been chasing them around in daylight hours, so probably doing it all night too.  But these three ducks quack a lot, not just when being chased.

My quick fix after talking to the neighbour the other day:  we locked up the mated pair in their own small yard and made another temporary small yard for the new ducks on the other side of the garden.  Now the newbies are next to the neighbour on the other side and it may be he will want to have a word with me in the coming days too!  So this is not a long term solution.

Long term options?  Thinking out loud here:

I have a chicken coop and yard, with eleven chickens.  Is it feasible to keep the new ducks locked up with the chickens and put them away at night in the coop?  The coop is on that neighbour's side of the garden, but perhaps being inside would muffle any unsociable quacking?

I also have a small detached garage which we use as a large shed;  new ducks could be locked up at night in there too (but I dread to think of the mess).  

And one more place to separate them:  we have a small coop and yard (currently empty) at my allotment, a few blocks away.  We are not allowed cockerels on the allotments as we are a bit close to some houses (not as close as my neighbours though);  while I'm willing to risk bringing them there, I may also get another noise complaint.

However, ideally I want to integrate all the ducks;  they had all been free ranging over the whole garden together until the complaint.  This is not the first time we've adopted new ducks, but none of the others were this nervous and loud.  The last time we adopted new ducks it took a couple of months for that jerk drake to accept them.  I can't let them wake the neighbours up for that long.  Any suggestions please?  

I don't have a squirrel problem, it's mice and rats;  I seem to be able to deter them by laying down insect mesh over the bed, preferrably burying all the edges so they can't get under it (but sometimes I just lay down old planks of wood and that seems to work too).  I take the mesh off when the seedlings are a couple inches high.  They even dug out my newly transplanted corn seedlings one year, to eat the little bit of corn left at the root ball!  I put the mesh down as a precaution over new transplants now, too.

When I had a working printer, I did;  but it was a hassle!  I have a stash of patterns from charity shops, and also have experimented with altering those patterns--and even drafting patterns from scratch, after watching a lot of youtube videos.  Here's one I watched to draft a pajama top pattern for my five year old daughter.
 
I watched another set of videos about drafting for children, and learned how to add more ease into the pattern (can't remember this video, sorry!).  I also used the same method to draft a bodice pattern for her Barbie; and another video to draft both daughter's and Barbie's trousers.


(Ed to try to get youtube links working)

Love the crocheted jacket, nicely done.  Another way to do it is to dye the yarn first, which is what I have done in the past (in my younger days I really enjoyed dying wool yarn with kool aid!  Really fun colors, though maybe not what you're aiming for).  I've been doing some sewing and knitting recently too, somewhat inspired by your first post  I look forward to what you do next.

I second the turnip/beet combo;  I cook my beets first but only use a little bit--I put in mainly turnip (raw).  And salt and water and that's it.  It's so good.  I haven't tried it with swede but I suspect it would be similarly amazing.  I have learned to cut my roots into thin slices or shreds, as they retain their crunch and eating them can be a real jaw workout.  A mandoline is good for this.

And if you find they aren't so fun to eat as is, add them to stews/curries/etc.  The husband went overboard on carrots in the Aldi Easter special (only 7p per kg!) this year and I ended up fermenting several kilos just to stop them going bad;  even though they were sour to eat, after cooking in a stew it was unnoticeable.  

I just successfully logged in to my account.

Maybe they were harvested just a little late--mine do this too if I don't catch them in time, so I keep a close eye as harvest time nears.  It was pretty early for me this year:  the end of May (sometimes it's mid-July).  Apparently they don't store as long in this condition, though I haven't put that to the test.  I usually save those ones for replanting.

My problem this year was white rot;  I lost several bulbs only a month or so after harvest.  To make sure I didn't lose the whole lot, I peeled, minced and froze the rest.  A tedious job at the time, but rather handy to use now it's done.

Nancy Reading wrote:That's great Burra - and all for free! I pay £1.10 for 250g lard. I wonder what my butcher does with his scraps?....

Nancy, ask!  I get free beef fat from our local butcher (pretty sure all the pork fat goes into his sausages), and bones too.  I render down the fat for our main cooking fat and make stock from the bones.  I used to pay a very nominal amount for "dog scraps," though not since the dog died.

I'm currently experimenting with the beef cracklings left over from rendering the fat.  I've whizzed them up in the food processor to add to stews--no one in the family has complained yet (they sort of blend in with the broth during cooking).  Also tried adding the whizzed up bits to meatballs, to bulk them out (sort of worked but pretty greasy during cooking).  I do sparingly eat them as is, though they aren't as tasty as pork cracklings/scratchings;  they kind of remind me of cold popcorn:  just add salt.  

Anybody else have a good use for the cooked connective tissue that remains after rendering beef tallow?