Carina Hilbert

We've talked about clipping their wings but haven't due to hawks and such around. We have one who refuses to go in the barn at night and instead flies up high into a tree. We worry about her, but she is quite determined.

Honestly, ours haven't flown into the garden at all, even though I keep expecting them to. One thing a Muscovy guy told my husband once is that they are good driven ducks. They will stay around of there's food, and if you have enough food outside of the garden, they don't go in the garden. So far, that seems to be true.

We have raised Pekins, Pekin crosses, Rouens, Rouen crosses, Khaki Campbells, Cayugas, Runners, Runner crosses, and Muscovies.

In my experience, Muscovies are the toughest and healthiest. They raise their own and are fierce mamas. One of our mamas literally fought off the dang hawk that keeps going after our flock. Two other gals survived hawk attacks and are just fine despite not letting us get near them to take care of their wounds. They don't lay as many eggs, and some people think they taste different, but the only difference I've found is that their shells are harder to break. They also eat less feed by a lot and forage like mad, even from a day old.

If you want mallard-type ducks, we have found Rouens to be pretty tough and the Rouen/Pekin crosses to be healthy, hearty birds. More eggs, too.

I don't see anything wrong with workarounds.  In education, we call those accommodations, and those are so common that most of us don't even think about them anymore.  It's just normal.

I think we all need and use workarounds everyday.  It's just that the ones for so-called normies are so ubiquitous that no one sees them for what they really are.  For the rest of us, we figure out what works for us, and we do that.

I will say, moving to a house that's still in the city we need to live in but is quieter and has space for ducks and gardens and trees and even deer and wild turkeys, that has massively helped all of us with stress loads.  Having space to get away from the crowds that's quiet is such a needed thing.

Ryan Hobbs wrote:
I deal with things like this too. I'm as frustrated as you are. I also have to tell myself: There is always tomorrow to try again. Some days are just a bust for physical work from apathy from me. So I do something creative instead. If you have a lot of goals, you can either look at it from the perspective of having too much to do, or you can think you have something else to do when things don't work out.

Oh, there is always more to do.  Lol!  Always!  That's a good point about just switching to something else.  I mean, that's what I do with my knitting and spinning projects, so it makes sense to do them with the homesteading projects.

Honestly, I'd sell it.  There's a raw fleece group on FB, and I bet you could sell it through there.  A lot of spinners love to card that in with various wools.

This thread has given me so much to think about!  Thank you!

I'm still pretty new here, long-time lurker, but I have fibromyalgia and a bunch of other health nastiness that has me disabled.  We're expanding the garden this year (again), which means many more seeds started, and we have ducks, which means I have to take care of them every day, and don't get me started on how much work teens are.  ;)

My big job right now (other than trying a modified version of the Autoimmune Protocol for Lent to see if I really am allergic to more tree nuts than the ones I already know about, etc.) is working on the negative messaging in my head.  Tonight, for example.  I tried a new recipe (sweet potato gnocchi), and it was a disaster.  So, dinner wasn't ready on time or, in the end, at all, so everyone has had to just grab what leftovers they could.  I couldn't clear out the area of the duck pen I wanted to, but I got some of it.  I couldn't get to both grocery stores in the plans for today, but I made it to one and got the needed bread flour.  Okay is good enough.  Some is good enough.  Anything at all on my bad pain days is good enough.  At least, this is what I tell myself every day now.

I don't know where to start.  I want to make all the garlic things!  Black garlic!  Garlic honey!  Fermented garlic!

I did not plant enough garlic last fall.  Sixty bulbs just isn't going to be enough with all these options.  Hmm.

I know Windswept! Gorgeous fleeces, lovely people!

Shetlands can vary, but I have been blessed to work with gorgeous Shetland fleeces in the past. Gorgeous stuff! 😍

There's some evidence that hemp was the first fiber made into cloth (Women's Work: The First Ten Thousand Years). It makes a lovely linen, softer than flax, even. Same with nettles.