Quick update

The hen that seemed to be doing well died not long after the last update.

We still don't have a real diagnosis for Huckleberry - his tests kept coming back either negative or ambiguous - but he got a big prednisone shot last week and now he seems to be doing much better.

Last Wednesday and Thursday: abundant rain.  Something close to 7" in two days.  Runoff!  The pond is noticeably higher!  Yay!

Last Friday: tail end of the hurricane.  Fair bit of wind, from random directions.  Some additional rain.  No big deal.

Meanwhile, within 20 miles eastward, there was a lot of storm damage.  And over yonder, in the mountains of North Carolina?  Vast destruction.

Friday, and over the weekend, there was enough runoff coming down the rivers to do a lot of damage in areas not particularly hit by the storm itself.  Douglas Dam was dumping water to avoid bigger problems, leading to evacuations along the French Broad River (one within a mile of here) and significant damage in some places.

We're 40 feet above road level, so safe against and plausible flood... but had the hurricane come that little bit west of where it actually went?  Some of the nearby neighbors might have had serious flood damage.

Anyway, that's how things are at the moment.  Much busy.  Abundant duck eggs.  Mad scramble to get various things done, with new things always cropping up.

Comments

[Jim_R]

Hope Huckleberry continues to improve. Glad you were not in the path of destruction. We are in central NC; not significantly affected here, but we feel for the folks in the mountains.

[Skipper]

Checking to see how you fared through the storm

[Eric Wilner]

All safe, sound, and reasonably dry up here. I think the nearby neighbors are all OK too. Right along the river is a different matter, but I'm pretty sure there's only property damage in this area.
20 miles or so to the northeast is a different matter entirely; sounds like Newport and vicinity got seriously flooded, and of course areas east and southeast of there were hit really hard.
Given reports of the official response (or lack thereof) in the disaster areas, I think we'll be upgrading some aspects of our household disaster prep.

[Rob]

Welcome to November! Big day tomorrow with the election... so how did October treat you and have you developed a taste for duck eggs?

[Eric Wilner]

Been meaning to post an update, but life is full of distractions.
Using lots of duck eggs in pancakes, muffins, and whatnot - but we're getting way more than I can use, and I haven't been finding time to distribute the considerable excess around the neighborhood.
Currently building a small shed for storing poultry feed and such, to be followed quickly by a new henhouse.

[Rob]

More duck eggs than you can use.... is a broody duck a thing? Does your pond have water? You could have your own duck flock... you could learn to make Peking Duck..

[Eric Wilner]

If we get a rainy winter for a change, the pond should fill up - and among all the other stuff, we need to get on a well-drilling company's calendar so we can keep the pond full.
Plan is to set up some nice duck habitat down by the pond.
If the ducks start incubating their own eggs, that's fine... but Joy is having notions of getting into the duckling business, which would call for setting up maybe a 5-bay automatic incubator. (Maybe there's a reason I just bought a bunch of ultrasonic humidifier heads?)

[Rob]

Ducks-R-Us!
You go into the feed store in the spring and along with a chirp-chirp in the background you you hear a quack quack too... you'd think you were at Old McDonalds farm... :-)