Not Great Weather for Ducks!

It is hard to believe that only last May these Ducks came to me.  This is their first winter and they must wonder what kind of world they have been hatched into...this world of perpetual winter!  It is hard for me to remember what spring warmth felt like.  We are on day 3 of howling winds that are keeping temps well below freezing...at times below 0!  When folk say that time flies by quickly they certainly have not lived through a winter like this one.  Forever is how long last May feels to me...I can only imagine how it feels to my Duckicles!

 http://injoyemporium.blogspot.com/2014/05/gratitude_25.html

A week ago we had a moment of thaw and could actually see some ground.  This has since been covered by snow.  Unfortunately, is was not enough of a thaw to clean out the duckhouse.  I usually am able to clean it once a month during the winter but not this year.  I am stretching my imagination to find ways to add comfort to my Duckies lives.  By now there usually would have been enough of a thaw that they could be foraging the ponds inlet and outlets.  I did make a discovery the other day that is adding to their diet.  I was in the freezer getting pumpkin out to make pumpkin bread when I came across boxes of grated frozen zucchini.  I thought I would make zucchini bread this winter...but then I thought of my ducks!  They usually won't eat veggies like chickens, I thought I would give it a try!  They love it!  Unfortunately, my zucchini supply is not going to last until the thaw....next year I will freeze more with the ducks in mind....maybe grated carrots next?  My sweeties are still laying eggs for me!  I tell them they can take a break...best ducks ever!

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"Be Joyful because it is humanly possible"~~~Wendell Berry

~~~Gratitude~~~

Helloooo~~ I am still around...I haven't been lost in a snow bank..... 

I have been taking a bit of a computer break.  This winter is sort of dragging on.  Usually, by this time in February, I am getting nervous the winter will be over too soon.  Well, this winter has got me wondering if it will ever end!  Besides copious  amounts of snow it has been bone chilling cold!  For 3 days in a row I skipped my daily snowshoe and I admit to getting a bit cranky.  But, Sunday we finally had a respite with temps in the low 30's.  I got in a snowshoe, a walk on the road with a good friend, and best of all, my duckies got a bath!  I have much more to tell you about this long month...including BEing here for 20 days in a row!!  But for now I will be content with sharing (and revisiting) this balmy Sunday!  Yesterday and today are frigid again....but at least the sun is shining and no snow is falling!!

GRATEFUL for Duckie JOY!!!!

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your moments of Gratitude. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~

Juno ~ Clean Up!

Here is a little photo journal of our clean up after Winter Storm Juno.  Not sure how much snow we got because, in some spots it was 4 feet deep and in others it was bare ground.  We got outside early before the sun was fully up to begin the plowing and shoveling.

 DH had to hand shovel the drifts in front of the house before he could plow.

 VERY grateful for the Tractor & the Operator!

Especially when back dragging those big drifts!

I shoveled out the Ducks...before

After

 Then the "Bears Cave"...before

After

Some pretty nice piles of snow!

The sun, finally, came out later in the day and it was beautiful!

Even the Ducks got in a little sunning!

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼ Everything is Just Duckie!

Egg #1

Awhile since I last talked about the ducks.  It has been a bit of a frustrating season.  It seemed to take forever for egg laying to begin.  Finally, this week I got my first smallish duck egg.  Two eggs today!   

I lost 4 ducks to a mysterious predator.  I am down to 8 ducks but, that number seems to be holding.  They were being picked off near their duck pond.  I thought if I could get them to go into the big pond they would be safer during the day.  It was a bit of a rodeo herding them...and then when Runa & I finally got them up in the big pond they would all run back to their little pond.  We had a very dry September and the little duck pond dried up.  THAT, definitely, convinced the girls to use the big pond.  I haven't lost another duck since then.  I have been locking them up earlier and I never leave them out if I go away for the day.  Luckily, for them I am home a lot.  

Duck Herding

Fortunately, the duck pond dried up during DH's vacation.  So he had fun with his tonka toy!

A few tense moments avoiding frogs and there were 2 crayfish rescue missions!

The weather remained dry the pond wasn't filling even though he hit a spring.   DH got the bright idea to use a hose and gravity feed water from the big pond to the little pond.  Three days later it was full!  We are keeping the hose running until freeze up...which doesn't seem to be coming.  We haven't had a hard frost yet!

The duck drama has died down and with the warm weather we have taken some moments to just enjoy the duckadoodles.  They are wicked cute!  Our home entertainment center!

Ducks

by Frank W. Harvey

I
From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,
Beautiful comical things
Sleeping or curled
Their heads beneath white wings
By water cool,
Or finding curious things
To eat in various mucks
Beneath the pool,
Tails uppermost, or waddling
Sailor-like on the shores
Of ponds, or paddling
- Left!  Right! - with fanlike feet
Which are for steady oars
When they (white galleys) float
Each bird a boat
Rippling at will the sweet
Wide waterway…
When night is fallen you creep
Upstairs, but drakes and dillies
Nest with pale water-stars.
Moonbeams and shadow bars,
And water-lilies:
Fearful too much to sleep
Since they've no locks
To click against the teeth
Of weasel and fox.
And warm beneath
Are eggs of cloudy green
Whence hungry rats and lean
Would stealthily suck
New life, but for the mien
The hold ferocious mien
Of the mother-duck.

II

Yes, ducks are valiant things
On nests of twigs and straws,
And ducks are soothy things
And lovely on the lake
When that the sunlight draws
Thereon their pictures dim
In colours cool.
And when beneath the pool
They dabble, and when they swim
And make their rippling rings,
0 ducks are beautiful things!
But ducks are comical things:-
As comical as you.
Quack!
They waddle round, they do.
They eat all sorts of things,
And then they quack.
By barn and stable and stack
They wander at their will,
But if you go too near
They look at you through black
Small topaz-tinted eyes
And wish you ill.
Triangular and clear
They leave their curious track
In mud at the water's edge,
And there amid the sedge
And slime they gobble and peer
Saying 'Quack! quack!'

III

When God had finished the stars and whirl of coloured suns
He turned His mind from big things to fashion little ones;
Beautiful tiny things (like daisies) He made, and then
He made the comical ones in case the minds of men
Should stiffen and become
Dull, humourless and glum,
And so forgetful of their Maker be
As to take even themselves - quite seriously.
Caterpillars and cats are lively and excellent puns:
All God's jokes are good - even the practical ones!
And as for the duck, 1 think God must have smiled a bit
Seeing those bright eyes blink on the day He fashioned it.
And he's probably laughing still at the sound that came out of its bill!