It looks like people are starting to look ahead to the camping season already. I have received a number of calls about seasonal campsites in the last week. I was a little surprised considering what the weather is like these days. Hopefully that means it won’t take too long to get rid of the open site.
Hold on to your hats if you are outside today. It’s crazy out there.
A girl duck, or hen makes a loud QUACK sound while the boy duck, or drake has a raspy, muffled call.
Ducks sleep with half their brains awake. Ducks are more likely to sleep with one eye open when they are located on the edge of sleeping groups. They can detect predators in less than a second.
Ducks can live 20 or more years with good care and feeding. The world’s record is held by a Mallard Drake that lived 27 years. Quacktastic!
Baby ducks are precocial, meaning they are born with their eyes wide open, with a warm layer of down, and are not fully dependant on their parents for food. Ducklings are ready to leave the nest within hours of hatching.
Ducks have very good vision, and they see in color.
Did you know that a duck’s quack doesn’t echo? Nobody knows why.
This is just a few tidbits that I came across. Some of them I know are true, some who knows. How can anyone tell if a duck sees in color? It’s a little hard to ask them if the sky is blue. The echo one is interesting though. I will have to start listening closely to check it out.
You can almost hear the sigh from parents all over. The kids are gone back to school today and we can get back to normal routines again. No more ‘bored’ kids anymore.
We took advantage of the incredible weather yesterday with a little sledding. That little bit of freezing rain that we got overnight gave us a nice crust to the snow. We go down the bank on one side of the fish pond, onto the ice and across to the other side.I must admit that it was fun for this big kid as well as the little ones. The 14 day trend according to theweathernetwork.com is for above average temps so hopefully we can get some more good sledding in.
I have updated the events page for 2008. http://www.rubberduckyresort.com/option.asp?catcode=28 Things will stay much the same as last year (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it). I have added a couple things here and there. Also, more things will come up throughout the season. It is only January of course. While everyone else is thinking winter I have to think summer. The first of the ‘shows’ (Boat show) is in mid February then they continue from there. I have to get things figured out now, so that we can advertise them.
As a note to anyone that regulary attends the boat show, RV show etc. The dates have been changed this year. The boat show (http://www.midcanadamarinedealers.com/?pid=wpgboatshow) is Feb 21 and the RV show is Feb 28.
We have come to the end of another whirlwind year for us here at RDR. I am switching to a new web album for my website and in the process am going back through all my pictures from 2007. It really puts it into perspective how much things have changed when you see the pictures of what it looked like back in May. When we were building the new sites I took pictures every day, sometimes more than once if it was a busy day. Once I get done updating the site I am going to try to put together a before and after album to post on here.
Tonight will be very low key and casual around here. Last year we tried to do a fundraiser in conjunction with a hockey team and it didn’t go as well as hoped – Live and learn they say. If you recall we got about a foot of snow that day which certainly didn’t help. People also don’t seem to be doing much for New Year’s anymore. This suspicion of mine was actually confirmed in the Free Press the other day. I don’t remember the exact statistic, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 50% of people that don’t do anything. So tonight we have done nothing special – other than doing up a whole pile of chicken wings. The rec building will be open as usual; the concession will be open for hot wings and other things. The hot tub is set up outside the side door. We will have the music on and watch the ball drop at midnight. We don’t expect a huge crowd, but those of us that are here will have a good time.
Whether you are the percentage that stays home or the percentage that goes out make sure you have a good time and be safe!!
It is starting out to look like it will be a nice day. The sun rose at least and there are no clouds for the moment. I think that I will be taking the girlies for a skate on the pond this afternoon. I can handle this -10, but that -30 is for the penguins.
Sometime this weekend I guess we will be putting up a few New Year’s decorations in the rec building.
It’s just about time for Santa to stop by. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Only a few more days till it will all be done and we can get back to normal again.
After this last dump of snow, it looks like snowmobiling will be in full swing. The Northern Lites (Woodlands) club has been out to groom and sign their trails. The South Interlake Snoriders (Stonewall) club has had their signs up for some time. I haven’t seen any sign of their groomer yet, but I am sure that they will be out sometime soon. These clubs are all volunteer members that do the work and they must be commended for the time that they put in.
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It looks like the ducks are enjoying the warmer weather too – and getting a little silly. I had just finished opening their ‘door’ so that they could come out to roam around, then I looked and here is one of the crazy critters sitting on the bale. I had to run back to the house to grab the camera because they just looked so silly. The others were crowded around below him like he was the king or something. Shortly after I clicked he did a wing flapping as if to say ‘Oh yeah baby, I still got it’.
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Well it was a cold, cold night but the parade still went pretty good. Apparently the spectator count was down quite a bit, but those that came out seemed to be having a good time.
Our float turned out good thanks to Dennis, Martin and Jason. They did a great job. I will posting a picture as soon as I get it uploaded. Darryl (aka Metro) eagerly became our ‘rubber ducky’ for the evening. He was most definately the hit of our float. He walked down the street high fiving all the way. A couple kids even wanted hugs.
The parade itself had a good turnout of floats – around 43.
Rubber Ducky Resort & Campground - A family campground located in Warren, near Winnipeg, Manitoba 