janis

How much do they understand?

Our ducks are becoming human.  Well, no, they're still ducks.  But there are times when we ask each other how much they understand English.

Last night when we put them in their pen, I sprinkled some Cheerios in there for them.  Even though they're indoors, they like to "forage", so since the Cheerios aren't messy, we sometimes sprinkle them around for them to pick up.  The ducks were in a row (pun not intended!) and they immediately scooped up the cereal in front of them, then looked up at me like "please sir, may I have some more?"  (Yes, I'm a "ma'am", but if I said "ma'am", you wouldn't get the Oliver connection.)  So I looked down at them and said, "there's still a bunch behind you."  Without missing a beat, all three turned around and snatched up the rest of the Cheerios!  Freaky! 

Dewey likes to stand on Todd's hand.  He'll pick her up and hold her close to him (she likes that, the others don't) and stay perched on his hand.  Even if she's in his lap, she stays on his hand.  (he has a very large hand, by the way.)  She'll stay there forever.  So tonight, Todd put some watermelon in their pen for them but Dewey didn't know it yet.  She was facing the other way, perched on Todd's hand.  He bent down to her and said, "There's fresh watermelon behind you" and she immediately turned around, hopped off, and went to eat the watermelon!

Things like this happen all the time!  In fact, I think they understand more than Jake (the dog) does!  He knows certain words, like "come", "stay", and so on, but sometimes looks puzzled when we speak sentences.  Sort of like that Far Side:  "blah blah blah Ginger blah blah blah".   But the ducks seem to actually understand. 

A Natural High

I had a chance to talk with a good friend of mine today, Cheryl Menders, inventor and owner of Croppin' Companion.  Her company produces awesome organizational materials primarily for scrapbookers, but also used by crafters of many kinds.  She started off with page-planning folders, then developed binders and totes that all work together as a system.  Talking with her always inspires me...she has so many fabulous product ideas and it gets my creative juices flowing too. 

Being manufacturers, we have to plan way in advance for trade shows, product launches, etc.  It takes time to come up with product ideas and see them through to fruition.  So today she was telling me about some product ideas she's working on and she even emailed me some sketches for my feedback.  Oh my gosh!  This girl rocks!  She has come up with a storage solution for one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) organizational dilemnas that scrapbookers and paper crafters deal with today!  It's exactly what we all need but nobody has done it yet.  I wish I could tell you all about it but, hey, can't do it, ya know.  Sorry about that.  But trust me, you have to keep an eye on this company because her ideas are awesome!  You will LOVE what she's come up with!   And when it's released?  Well, please don't trample me because I'll be the first in line to buy it!

And as we were talking, she said she likes to talk about product ideas with me because she's always on a high afterwards.  J     I guess I'm Cheryl's drug of choice! 

Catching Up

I'm back from my very quick trip to Chicago.  The show was great and I thoroughly enjoyed connecting with old friends, meeting new people, learning more about CHA (the organization) by participating in a task force meeting, walking the show floor, seeing new products, and so on. 

I have to admit that being around so many new products on a regular basis has made me a little jaded.  A new product has to be pretty fabulous for me to be impressed enough to want to buy it.  I realize that might sound snobby, but I'm really not that kind of person.  I'm just saturated with new stuff and can only have so much in my own craft room.  I tend to lean towards buying tools and things I'll use over and over again, as opposed to paper, etc. That said, my absolute favorite, must-have, new product of the show was the Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers.  They will come in 36 colors plus black and white and will, of course, match Adirondack ink colors.  They have so many terrific features that I can't list them all, but suffice it to say that they have my name written all over them!  Of course, Ranger did not disappoint with their other releases either;  check them out here.

I had a reaction to something while on the flight back and was pretty miserable the entire time.  We couldn't land quickly enough for me and I've felt sick ever since.  Combine that with typical monsoon weather (thunderstorms in the evenings, intermittent rain) and it's been a off week for me.

I just have to share what happened last night with the ducks.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that the ducks come in each night for a clean bath and then sleep in their "pen" (an uncovered, inflatable swimming pool, sans water, with a few additions to make it more homey for them).  They could get out most any time they want since there's no cover on the top and the sides are only about 2' high.  In fact, last winter we did have to rig a cover so they wouldn't wander during the night (I woke up with a duck quacking in my face a couple of times!).  But during their molt, they feel safe in their pen and simply stay put, not to mention the fact that featherless wings have trouble flying out.  J

Last night I was in the office at the computer when Todd brought Louie in and set him on my lap.  Louie was perfectly content and didn't make a sound.  He let me pet his feathers, rub his neck, and, again, never quacked.  After about 10 minutes, Todd & I started hearing a faint "bok-bok" and it seemed to be getting closer.  Yep, Huey & Dewey were on the loose and heading our way.  We looked through the office doorway into the hall and sure enough, two little beaks peered around the corner.  They were missing Louie and came to hunt him down (even though he had not called for them).  When they had made their way to the door, Todd picked up Dewey, brought her back and set her on his lap.  That left just Huey, who continued to slowly walk into the room, not sure if she was allowed to do it or not (they usually get scolded if they wander around on their own and yes, they do know that they're being naughty!).  Finally, she ended up right beside me, looking up at Louie sitting on my lap.  Next thing I know, her little tush is wiggling and she's ready for take-off!  That's right, she flew right up to my leg and landed beside Louie.  It was perfect:  no mistakes, just flap right up with a perfect landing, no grabbing my leg with her toes (or toenails!) and she barely even had to steady herself. 

After that I didn't get much done as I had a lap full of ducks for about 45 minutes.  That's right.  They stayed there 45 minutes and started to go to sleep.  How's that for contented ducks?   It wasn't unusual for Louie, he's always enjoyed being held, but it was a real break-through for Huey.  She's always been the most skittish of the bunch and doesn't like to be picked up so much.  But last night it was her choice.  She made the decision to fly to my lap and then to stay there.  And none of them got down until we put them down.

Something like this may seem small to you, but with ducks, we have to celebrate the little victories.  Baby steps, ya know?  Ducks aren't like puppies.  They're prey animals and innately fearful.  Huey wanting to be on my lap and flying up to it is a big thing.  (Not to mention that our Labrador Retriever was laying under my desk at the time.)  And it makes me feel warm & fuzzy just thinking about it. 

The Windy City

I'm off to Chicago for several days to attend the CHA Summer trade show.  We're not exhibiting at this show, but I think it's important to attend anyway.  I get a lot of creative energy by simply walking the floor and viewing the exhibits.  And there's some Chicago-style pizza calling my name.  I'll give a report when I get back.

Scrappin' Fever

I've had a chance to do some scrapbooking this weekend and I decided to try out one of the new PDQ paper lines from Bisous.  A little background for you:  The owner and artist, Suzanne Carillo, is a friend of mine and we've done some joint marketing ventures in the past at CHA and Mega Meet.  I had a chance to see her PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) lines at the shows and was impressed at how fast the layouts could go together and still have that "designer touch".  You see, I'm an incredibly slow scrapper.  It takes me forever to choose the paper, embellishments, figure out where everything should go on a page, change it 5 times before adhering it all, and so on.  The "quick" part of PDQ intrigued me.  In addition, I am what I call patterned-paper-challenged.  I do pretty well with color, but when I try to mix up various patterns on one page, well, I'm stumped.  The fact that Suzanne had done it all for me already was a big draw.

So while at the Mega Meet, I looked over the various PDQ lines and decided that "Tailored" should go pretty well with the myriad of duck pictures I have accumulated.  It was time to do something with them other than just post them on this blog.  I sat down at my scrap table yesterday, went through my pictures and the papers, selected 4 colors of fibers, 2 colors of ink, a couple of font stamp sets, some chipboard letters, and started planning my pages.  You see, the PDQ papers (cardstock, really) are double-sided and pre-printed with nearly all of the photo mats and embellishments you could want or need.  But because they're double-sided, I needed to plan my layouts a little more carefully than I normally would.  However, it's totally worth the effort for the money and time it saves, and it works great for a theme album such as the one I was starting on. 

This is the first layout I did, as a title page to the album.  I used some blue cardstock to mat the larger picture, chipboard letters from Heidi Swapp ("love") with some green ink smudged onto them, a brown Zig marker for my journaling, a couple of feathers (we have lots of those!), and a bit of brown cardstock to stitch the heart embellishment onto.  The heart template and the fiber are, of course, from Timeless Touches.  Everything else is the background paper as it comes from Bisous plus the "ducky" letters which are also part of the Tailored PDQ line. 

I hope you'll check out this revolutionary new way of scrapbooking.  Suzanne's done an awesome job of preparing everything for us.  All we have to do is put the pictures on the paper! 

Preening

All those feathers need to be carefully maintained and our ducks are as fastidious about it as can be.  Every time they bathe or eat, it's always followed by a long session of preening.  In addition to simply straightening out any errant feathers, they are also spreading oil on the feathers to make them waterproof.  The oil gland is located on their back near their tail.  This picture of Huey shows her doing a back-bend to get the oil on her head.  Normally, she'll gather the oil with her bill and spread it around that way but on this day she was really getting into the whole process!   This oiling process is very important as without it their feathers would become waterlogged and they could drown.  This is especially dangerous for baby ducklings as their oil glands do not produce oil right away.  The mother duck shares her oil with them until the ducklings' glands become active.  Ducklings without a mama close by must be watched carefully around water for the first few weeks to be sure they don't drown (a leading cause of death in ducklings).

This second picture is of Louie preening his belly.  I chose this picture because it's a good shot of his closed outer eyelid. (click on the image for a larger, more detailed view)  Ducks have two eyelids.  The inner eyelid is transparent.  They close this while swimming under water and flying (for those ducks that can fly).  It protects the eye but they can still see.  The outer eyelid is covered with itty bitty feathers and closes from the bottom to the top.  In Louie's case, it is very light, especially in comparison to his nearly-black eyeball.  I'm only guessing about this, but my hypothesis is that the eyelid is light so that predators aren't aware that he's sleeping and cannot see him when his eyes are closed.  When shut, Louie's eye is actually more noticable than when open.  Nature's way of protection.  Pretty incredible.

Heat Wave

121 degrees.  Yep.  But alas, I have no proof to show you.  My digital camera is on the fritz, just in time for record-setting temps, so you'll have to trust me when I say our thermometer on the patio in the shade displays 121.  Or maybe it's 122...can't really tell as the thermometer tops out at 120 and all I can really determine is that the pointer thingy is above 120.

It's hot.  Must.  Stay.  Inside.

Some history

When Louie (our only drake) was a baby, he looked like a girl.  All boy ducks do, until their first molt.  At that point, they start getting their big boy colors.  This first picture shows what Louie looked like last August as he was in the middle of shedding his girlish appearance and starting to look like a boy.

The second picture shows what he looked like when the molt was over.   His belly turned silvery grey and his head was a brilliant green. He looked like this from September until February, when he molted back into his girly, camouflage appearance.  And now here we are in July, he's going through yet another molt, and starting to look like a drake again.

You might have noticed that even after his first molt, he never got the mahogany "bib" or the white ring around his neck which is typical of Rouen and Mallard drakes.  We've never figured out why he didn't but are hoping that those will appear with this molt.

Todd & Louie

People often wonder how "pet-like" ducks can be.  We are used to cuddling up with our cats and dogs and think that a pet like a duck couldn't or wouldn't be affectionate.  Well, granted, our ducks don't exactly nuzzle us like Jake (our dog) does, but they definitely have become tame and show affection.

For example, all of our ducks enjoy being held.  Yeah, they protest a little at the picking up part of the deal, but once in our arms or laps, they are content to stay there for long periods of time.  They let us pet their feathers, rub their necks and chins, and stroke their bellies.  Each of them has "preened" my face and hair (it tickles!).  And when they're really happy, they'll even give us their version of a ducky hug.  It's pretty cute and a lot of fun when they do that!

This is picture of Todd and Louie in the outdoor pen. It's not a very good picture of Todd, with the sun in his eyes and all, but I think it captures their relationship pretty well.  (It occurred to me that while I've posted lots of pictures of the ducks, none of them show the ducks with us and how they interact with us.)  Louie could have easily flapped down to the ground if he wanted to, but he didn't.  He stayed right there as long as Todd wanted to hold him.   Louie is the most bonded of the three.  We're pretty sure it's from all the time he spent with us inside while recovering from his broken leg last year.  He feels safe and secure with us, trusts us, and enjoys spending time with us.

So yes, while they are a bit unconventional, they truly do qualify as "pets".

Wanted!

Our Louie is a wanted man, er, drake.  Yes, it's a sad tale, but I suppose the truth was going to come out eventually.  Bigamy is not permitted in the US but he continues to defy our laws. 

"Slick Louie" is the one at the far left, last known to be in the presence of his two ladies, Huey and Dewey, seen here emerging from a scandalous threesome in his private love palace.  Huey & Dewey, while also on the lam, are young and easily influenced by Slick's charms.   Care should be taken when approaching this dangerous trio.  Known vices are tomatoes and Cheerios, in addition to multiple females.  Louie may be wearing a disguise as he's been shedding feathers recently....last known to be wearing female camouflage (as pictured) but may be going back to a more male appearance.  We hope that if arrested, the judge is merciful and sentences him to lots of pond time and gives him probation for lack of previous record.