Rad, saved for tomorrow’s festivities. Many thanks!

Yup, been there. I’ve been getting bitten this week while removing the suspect eggs. Sometimes the girls will get off of them for enough time for me to inspect but sometimes they come back quickly and angry

I set myself a calendar reminder for the middle of June so I can remind folks who need to order any scripts for their furballs in advance. Sorry for the oversight this year.

We’ve been counter conditioning for fireworks since our first July in our home - our cats had not grown up being very close to fireworks, but when we moved into a more rural area every neighbor and their cousin set off fireworks for a week. The basic premise of counter conditioning is simple: pair something good with something scary. Think lollipops at the doctor for getting a shot. We’d play clips of fireworks from yt on very low volumes and hand out treats whenever one of them paid attention to the bang, raising the volume every so often to move closer to recreating the actual sound they’d hear. When we got our pup, we started off doing the same with him and now it’s just another day, albeit a somewhat noisy one.

Some other things that help us manage their stress: closing windows and doors, playing music or movies at slightly above normal volume levels, and occasionally playing small quick games during the noisiest parts to distract their brains.

It’s one of my favorite events of the year, seeing all the tiny new frogs and toads everywhere. I’m glad that trail let you share in that joy - sounds like that spot is hopping

My dude

Take my updoot and stay ┬⁠─⁠─⁠┬⁠ ⁠¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)

Hey congrats! That’s awesome! Also very happy to hear you’ve found another outlet for your music and great people to boot

This was me all day in the heat, but far less adorable

We raise Muscovies, who are generally pretty decent with rearing their young. I’ve only had to mother one duck since starting, but it’s a lot of work when they imprint on a human. Our drake only has a problem with his male offspring, and generally only once they begin to reach maturity.

I updated the post but to put your heart at ease: one of the hens has taken little Niji in and they were making happy little duckling peeps when I last looked in on them.

I’ll tell you that it does - or at least, the remembering becomes slightly less painful as time goes on. The lessons really stick, but it becomes easier to remember all the good stuff, and those are the things you should hold on to the hardest during those difficult times.

And I’m glad you shared with us, if for no other reason than helping you process your grief. I’m sure we’re all sending our love, hoping to lighten the load in some small way.

I’m so sorry for your loss and what you’re going through 🫂

It might not be possible right now but please give yourself some grace. You were attentive to his condition and when it worsened you acted immediately. I can’t imagine a better kind of human to place trust in, and I can’t imagine him not knowing how hard you tried, how much you cared, or that he would ever blame you.

I really appreciate it, thanks!

shade hoodie

I have two shirts like this from (the company) patagonia and they breathe until I start to sweat about ten minutes later. If yours was better than that, care to drop a name for me to go look into?

Our boy would sympathize with Jean - he loves the beach but not the water. We still take him every so often, but he wants the smells right on the edge of the waves and sometimes the ocean sneaking up on him is just too much

Happy early birthday!

Hello and welcome!

Our Maeko cries a bunch when she loses track of us too.

I dig it, thanks for introducing me to them!

This was a fun listen, thanks!

Going pretty well so far! A friend reached out this morning to see if I would be interested in receiving some plants from her (yes) so in the near future I’ll get to go hang out with an amazing person, and will get to grow some new plants with which I have no experience.

And I’m giving an introductory talk about biochar at my town library this evening, which will hopefully be a bunch of fun for everyone. I couldn’t come up with as many biochar puns as I did for my compost presentation, so I’m leaning on memeing for levity:

I have no idea how attendees will react to these, as most of them are retirees.

Our solo duckling is still solo, which is concerning at this stage. That said, there has been a lot of co-nesting and additional shuffling of eggs between hens which likely impacted incubation. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more chances to shove pictures of ducklings in y’all’s feeds

Have a great week everybody!

There is an issue with the claim in the first paragraph which immediately set off alarms. While it doesn’t hurt the argument for interpersonal respect, such a claim doesn’t support the point the author is trying to make. This reader found it interesting that the writer chose not to employ capital letters for the second person pronouns in the piece.

This reader also has Webster’s, Roget’s, The Harbrace Handbook, The American Spelling Book, and Washington’s Rules of Civility together on the shelf, for some context. Some portion of the neurodivergent population (such as the person here) cling to these conventions for a sense of security when interacting with others in a written format and no offense or slight is intended. Please assume good faith when interacting with the people on Beehaw.