The last duck on the property is sitting on her chickens eggs with lazer focus. When I pass by her sitting on her nest in the blue plastic tote tipped sideways she ducks super low, camouflaging herself into the old straw. She is actually very hard to see too, in the barns gloom, this chameleon duck.
Yesterday when I opened the feed door she raced over so she could have something quick to eat. She eats with frantic haste then literally throws herself in a big basin of water for a quick wash on the way back to the barn.
She is not a pretty duck, she does not have startling markings or a friendly nature but she is the last duck, by a stroke of luck she survived the last mysterious purge of ducks from the farmy so that makes her special.
There is no languor in this duck. Her whole feed and bath routine might take the maximum of 5 minutes. When she had finished her food yesterday she turned and literally shot straight under r the peacock feathers in her way – ducking slightly as Mr Flowers shot her a murderous glance, unerring in her determination to take the fastest route back to her water then on to her nest.
Everyone else was quiet and laid back preparing for the hot days ahead.
Big Jude and FreeBee are determined to break the record for wallows. I need to fill it every day but this is the only really effective way of cooling a pig down and these are LARGE hogs.
Finally the pond is finished.
And the waterfall is running.
With the flock of ducks gone we will stock it with fish. It is not connected to any waterways (I do worry about invasive fish like koi) but I will do the research. We need to be able to eat them, of course. You know you can have live fish delivered? Not for eating but for ponds.
I things that this last duck (who I call Quacker – God Help Us All but you know the rules – once named then named) will bond with her chickens and become part of that flock if all goes well. And the chickens never come down as far as this pond. So the fish should be safe from her. Fingers Crossed.
On the Agenda for Today
- water all the gardens
- plant sage (because no-one can have too much sage)
- sow more beans and peas, plant out capsicum and aubergine
- re-organise Wai’s bedroom (he has drug all his blankets out into his corridor – too hot)
- tidy my own bedroom
- begin the next story
- fix fence on concrete pad
- record TKG past posts
- clean out calf creep
- make asparagus risotto for dinner
- make another weed salad
- fill big pigs wallow
- clean out laying boxes
- lots of other stuff
The Creep
This Big Bobby is standing guard outside the creep door – if I shut the top door to the barn and leave the lower door open the calves can get into the cool of the barn by themselves without having to worry about a big beast laying down on them.
Actually they are not totally by themselves in the barn because Tima has set up camp in one of the bays in there. Sometimes I can hear her yapping at the calves to get their own bed.
I suspect she has trained them to give her back rubs because she has lost almost all the hair off her back from their raspy tongues.
Weather
Getting warmer. I am watering the gardens (as I write) while it is cool and cloudy. This makes the writing kind of disjointed but there you are. We are all friends here.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
34 responses to “Last Duck Standing”
Asparagus risotto sounds lovely! OMG that is quite this list to do in one day. You must fall into bed at night if you get all of that done! My calendar today as this quote, “procrastination is really just the reorganization of one’s priorities”. I quite like this this quote as it makes me think of my 95 year old mom who every so often announces that she is going to have a procrastination free week and then does all her tasks on her lists with flourish. Have a productive day Celi!
I love that last duck, Quacker. Her determination to look after her (foster) eggs is amazing. Good luck in completing that long list. Bit I have no doubt you will get it all done before bedtime. (I love lists!)
I too love lists – and nothing here takes too much time. Just a matter of doing a couple of things at a time.
Oh my, your list of things to do today makes me tired just reading it! I do try to make out a list like that just to get me going toward something useful and needed. Otherwise I begin rambling through the garden beds seeing this and that which do need to be tended to but can wait for other more pressing concerns.
Are ducks typically that mothering or is Quaker an anomaly? If she starts clucking after her chicks come rather than quacking wouldn’t that be interesting 🙂
I just think it is so clever of Tima to have put herself totally in charge of every cow on the farm. A very sensible and forthright pig she is!
Poor Quacker! You pobably don;t have to worry about her eating the fish – my wild ducks were more interested in frogspawn and the bread that a neighbour threw them. The biggest problem here is the heron, but he’s still frightened of the decoy.
I’m sure Tima has read Animal Farm!
Ha ha- Tima is just plain bad!!
We have herons too – in the summer though I have not seen any yet. Ha ! John will LHS if a heron takes over interfering with his pond!!
Catfish are a good edible pond fish – koi are expensive and taste muddy 😉
Catfish definitely sound better.
Catfish taste good …and there’s tilapia.
I thought about the heron too, Mad, taking her young’un(s) – if she hatches any – down to the pond to go fishing. Would reeds for hiding help? Would netting the surface or just above potentially create a disaster? Several decoys might be the best solution. John would not object to the sight of deadwood ducks on his pond, one hopes.
The pond is quite small – and right next to the house so I am
Going to play it by ear.
There’s a decoy heron here and a few wires across the pond to keep our heron out. He killed a lot of small fish and didn’t eat them.
Naughty heron.
Very!
I hope her eggs hatch this time.
They are chicken eggs – green ones – so they will hatch I think. The duck eggs have always been infertile. Plus if I were to introduce more ducks John would again refuse to look after them. He really has taken against the ducks.
So we will see how she does with chook chicks! It will be interesting to see. She only has five – all layed on the same day –
O! YAY! Babies for the Duck!
I so agree with Karen, thank you SO much for fitting us into your oh so busy itinerary. I love lists too. Good luck Quackers
with your impending motherhood! How handsome Mr Flowers looks, pity there is no longer a Mrs Flowers. Bossy old Tima must be in her element! Hope Quackers never finds that pond, John will not be impressed! Bet you finished all the jobs on your list!
“ducking slightly as Mr Flowers shot her a murderous glance” What a great sentence! both because she is a duck and because of what she is doing, dashing back to her nest…
Sounds like things on the Farmy are bumping right along as they should.
Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy days to keep us all on our seat edges, oh, what would we do without you???
I laughed-out-loud at that great sentence!!
Interesting
Love the water feature!
awwww sweet mommy duck! And your pond looks great! Hopefully the fish will thrive! Take care!
Yes! It is sad now without its ducks. So fish it will be!
I’m very proud of that duck’s determination!
And I love your pond!
Yes! She is one determined duck!
And I thought my to do list was long yesterday so it pays to insignificance compare to yours. I hope you got everything done and that risotto sounds wonderful
The case of the missing ducks… curiouser and curiouser. But edible fish in the pond sounds like an idea, adding aquaculture to the farmy repertoire.
Though to be clear. I am not fishing them!!
I’m also curious about the disappearance of the ducks and while you away no less. You don’t think a certain two legged had anything to do with it do you? LOL, just kidding but why didn’t John like the ducks? Made too big of a mess of his pond? I hope Ms. Quackers hatches a brood of chicken babies for her own. Wouldn’t it be something if they followed her in to the pond and she taught them how to swim? Hah!
Too messy and they laid eggs in his pond so when he cleans it he has to deal with rotton eggs – not to mention poop. It’s all about the pond with him.
Quacker is a perfectly good name. I like a good plain descriptive name…
Yes! I think so too! Good morning!