Mr Flowers seems to spend his entire day sneaking up on me, peering around corners, looking in windows, checking doors for lapsed latches.
I believe he is sending silent silent signals to me to throw more tiny tomatoes his way.
What is the name of the sound when you flick your tongue from the roof of your mouth to behind your teeth. It makes a clock clock kind of sound. as the tongue hits the floor of your mouth. This is the sound we send to each other when there is food. And if you make this sound really soft that s the sound Mr Flowers makes as he creeps up the steps to see what the cats have left him in their bowl on the verandah.
If I want to call him from afar I call ‘kneel kneel!’ in a high voice. But he is seldom far.
TonTon posed on his bed for you. Usually he is way under the deck on the front of the house overlooking the pond. It is his secret place! I think he is enjoying the cooler days and no – we are not mentioning the F word yet. I am not ready.
Quacker (the last duck) has been fully incorporated into the barn flock. I still have not found where she sleeps, it will be in the barn but she has hidden herself well which is good.
Like other solitary birds she has begun to lose her fear of me (influenced by the chickens who are fearless in their stupidity) and is often really close to my feet as she waits for a hand out.
Mr Flowers has almost lost all of his long summer tail feathers – these last ones to go seem to me like they would be amazing quills. They are strong and hollow. He is much more agile without the long tail feathers. On windy days he is pushed all over the place as the wind catches his long tail, so not having it for a wee while must be a bit of a relief. However every year they grow back longer so there is that to look forward to.
Wai’s skin has had a hard time this summer – the areas where he was burned the skin came back super thin and it peels in large swathes all the time – so now he is a pie bald pig with his bad spots covered in zinc. The fighting with Tima has worn some areas right down to open wounds (most of their fighting is push and shove with their shoulders) so those are covered in zinc also.
Every year we go through this but it seems to me that this year Wai is refusing to drop down to second pig – he is being very dominant. They will settle down but at the moment I am still separating them at meal times so they can take a break back in their corners.
And Wai needs a hoof trim!
Have a lovely day everyone!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
48 responses to “Birds of a Feather – Flock Wherever”
Referee, baby sitter, and animal whisperer all at the same time. You are busy.
Its the referee role that is proving the hardest! Good morning Jim!
Mom would make us sit across from each other until we quit fighting and started laughing. Likely it would be hard to get the 🐷 🐷 s to do that.
Just imagine!
A friend with a young son and a daughter would make them wear one shirt to do their chores when they were scrapping. It always brought them back to giggles.
That is too funny!!!
What happened to the ducks?
The whole flock (except for Quacker was sitting on eggs) disappeared without trace last time I was in California. It is still a mystery.
Might’ve been a fox. I had one wiped out my entire flock of chickens..they kill them, then return to carry them off. I quit keeping ducks because the fox was relentless and my ducks would not stay where it was safe.
Oh that is so sad! We were being plagued by the Bastard Mink at that point so personally I think he scared them up into the creek – we have not had foxes here. And usually there is some evidence of a mass murder.
I am hoping they just floated off anyway.
Aww ~ I love these pictures this morning!!! Ton is looking great here!! And I saw Quacker in that first picture!! He’s just loving it here!! Cool!!! Love all those chooks around ole Wai!! A cool shot!!! Needs to be framed!! Have a great day Celi!!
The chickens are very good at ‘helping’ Wai eat his lunch!
Ah, so that’s what’s going on here, is it? (I was just thinking his posse is so very pretty with all their glossy plumage!; )
Pretty hungry!!
Lovely insightful post, full of so many different stories. Poor old Wai, still suffering after all this time of your care, but nothing like when he first arrived. Love Mr Flowers, keeping a close eye on you so you don’t disappear again!
He is funny. Mr Flowers. And so quiet as he stalks me through the farm yard. Such a nice bird.
Dropping down to second pig has me giggling ! I remember when you spent hours and hours taking care of Wai Wai’s skin when he came to the farmy. It was nip and tuck for awhile.
I love all your animals, each one unique. They belong in a picture book. TonTon looks very handsome!
Ton is a handsome dog. And so well behaved.
That was the most terrible time – at one point I had debrided so much of his burned and rotting skin OUT – I could not see how I would ever be able to put him back together again.
It hurts just to look at him, the poor wee fella. But honestly, it’s a miracle (and testament to your healing touch) that he survived. ❤️
Is it a tricky process, trimming his toenails Celi?
He has to be rolled onto his back and then the nails operated on while he wriggles and screams bloody murder.
They do come off naturally too. But not tidy – nature is never tidy. People like them tidy. No wild pig has his hoofs trimmed – just imagine trying to trim Jude’s!!
Oh no! I can totally understand why he’d be screaming – it would be terribly painful for him to be laying on his back.
Yeah – I am not doing it to him.
Good afternoon, c. Love the long shot up to the barn. I’ve gone as dense as a meatball – what F word are you not ready for?
Fall … (whispering).
Ah. A. 😂 Autumn. That scarlet letter.
Wai has got a fantastic face – I can almost imagine him talking to you in English.
Probably very proper English too. Though with a decent sprinkling of well placed swear words –
Ha ha, probably referring to Tima – bless him!
Thank you for the portrait of TonTon! Very handsome! And thank God the duck has joined the chickens. She’s so cute!
I’m sure Wai’s skin pains him and that’s why he’s so cranky. Do you have anything to cover his neck? I looked for linen napkins but I was disappointed to see mine are all cotton. Would they help?
I use the cotton ones too but he is doing ok with the zinc – so I think that will do.
Ultimate multi-tasker
They say!!
I’m hoping your blog will appear on this, my other email.
Have you Re subscribed?
Yes. Here goes with my nee ID and password.
It worked! I see you!
Wonderful! The other one is full of ads that I want to delete but your blog I always read. Now I can communicate better. Yay!
That is stunning!
See you tomorrow I hope
Wai and I just had a long, long look at one another – Well, the darling boy may need a hoof trim but how is that a physical possibility! Do hope inside that big body he does have a relatively happy heart . . .
He does need a hood trim but you CC are right. He gets so agitated that it becomes beyond cruel. Tima will just lie down but not Wai he snaps and growls and bites/ the vet says leave him be- he has had enough trauma