Monthy post . . . whoops! :-)
Apparently I haven't been posting much on here, but then I guess grad school really has a hold of me now . . . but all is going well. We're going home for the whole week of Thanksgiving, since we can't make it back for Christmas again due to that blasted basketball tourney, but I strangely don't mind too much; Turkey Day is definitely my favorite holiday, with all the fun and family of Christmas without all the stress.
Although I had my dissertation proposal pretty much written, I think it's definitely an evolving document, so there's more research I need to do, and parts that need to be redone and reworked.
In other news, we have ducks! The minimum order was 10 ducklings, so I got my friend Laura to get some as well, so we each have 5. They arrived back on August 26th, and were so adorable! They're all grown up now, and are thoroughly enjoying our back yard. We have a small pen that we keep them in when we're not around and at night, but other than that, they generally have the run of the back yard. They love the kiddie pool, so now we have to be a bit more careful about letting Sophie get in there if it hasn't been cleaned recently! Fortunately, it's now cold enough out that she doesn't feel the need to jump in to cool off nearly as much as she did earlier in the summer.
We have one Jumbo Pekin(I got jumbo because they were out of regular for some reason) named Daisy-Zilla, one Khaki Campbell named Lily, one Blue Swedish named Violet, one Cayuga named Rosie, and a fawn and white Indian Runner duck named Marigold. :-) Daisy-Zilla is white with orange bill and feet, Lily is pretty shades of brown all over, Violet is a lovely gray with a mottled white breast and gray mottled feet, Rosie is black with iridescent green all over, and Marigold is tan and white with orange feet. She is probably the sweetest and gentlest of them all, and has strangely turned out to be the leader, even though Scott and some other friends thought Daisy would be because of her size. I thought Violet would be because she is sometimes the most aggressive feeder of the group, along with Rosie. They keep us amused, and the dogs have learned to leave them alone, and are outside in the back yard with them a lot now. They still worry about the dogs, but not nearly as badly as they used to.
Some pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223234&id=11000473&l=1fc6c415c6
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2220593&id=11000473&l=b725ed17c3
I'll have to take some more pictures of them soon, they've pretty much lost all of their baby fuzz now except for Daisy-Zilla, on the back of her neck.
Although I had my dissertation proposal pretty much written, I think it's definitely an evolving document, so there's more research I need to do, and parts that need to be redone and reworked.
In other news, we have ducks! The minimum order was 10 ducklings, so I got my friend Laura to get some as well, so we each have 5. They arrived back on August 26th, and were so adorable! They're all grown up now, and are thoroughly enjoying our back yard. We have a small pen that we keep them in when we're not around and at night, but other than that, they generally have the run of the back yard. They love the kiddie pool, so now we have to be a bit more careful about letting Sophie get in there if it hasn't been cleaned recently! Fortunately, it's now cold enough out that she doesn't feel the need to jump in to cool off nearly as much as she did earlier in the summer.
We have one Jumbo Pekin(I got jumbo because they were out of regular for some reason) named Daisy-Zilla, one Khaki Campbell named Lily, one Blue Swedish named Violet, one Cayuga named Rosie, and a fawn and white Indian Runner duck named Marigold. :-) Daisy-Zilla is white with orange bill and feet, Lily is pretty shades of brown all over, Violet is a lovely gray with a mottled white breast and gray mottled feet, Rosie is black with iridescent green all over, and Marigold is tan and white with orange feet. She is probably the sweetest and gentlest of them all, and has strangely turned out to be the leader, even though Scott and some other friends thought Daisy would be because of her size. I thought Violet would be because she is sometimes the most aggressive feeder of the group, along with Rosie. They keep us amused, and the dogs have learned to leave them alone, and are outside in the back yard with them a lot now. They still worry about the dogs, but not nearly as badly as they used to.
Some pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223234&id=11000473&l=1fc6c415c6
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2220593&id=11000473&l=b725ed17c3
I'll have to take some more pictures of them soon, they've pretty much lost all of their baby fuzz now except for Daisy-Zilla, on the back of her neck.