Apparantly, I am now the care-taker of ducks.
About a year ago, I had a herd of ducks. The he garden destruction was massive, the pond was overwhelming and the badger (yes, a badger) gobbled up a bunch of my chickens and a few ducks, so “Put a fork in me, I’M DONE! EVERYONE OUT!!”
No more pond, no more ducks and no more badger.
Peace and quiet on the Agape Haus Studio until…..
“Keenan? Do you want some more ducks?”
Nope.
“But they are Sadie’s, and she needs a really nice home for them.”
Apparantly, Sadie had bonded with her science project. It also didn’t help that the home Sadie had found for the ducks had told her “We are so excited. My wife loves duck.”
So needless to say, I now have a pair of ducks. Olive, the white duck, is about twice the size of an average lady duck of her breed. In fact, she was so well fed, that she preferred to lay around and slug her way to her water bowl. Olive has yet to figure out how to get in her little pool on her own, and just relaxes in the mud next to the pool. Mabel, a beautiful Black Runner, is quite proficient in darting in and out of the pool, leaving Olive jealous on the sidelines. Both ducks have come to enjoy their surroundings. Besides the Hazel, the Cochin who runs the ducks off the food line, all is well.
My new city ducks have been extremely well-behaved. Olive tends to tromp her big duck-bottom through my bulbs and all through the gardens, but Mable does her best to keep her in line. The ducks are constantly laughing and heckling at me, especially when I am late for lessons. For the most part, we’ve settled in to a nice routine.
I feed, they eat. That’s that.
A few days ago, I discovered another pair of ducks at my studio. I’ve heard of people inheriting a lot of things, but ducks? Honestly, who does that? I suppose the ducks probably saw Mabel and Olive and thought “What perfect friends!”
I kept my eye on the stray ducks. After day or two, I knew they weren’t going anywhere, so I became (once again) a care-taker to two more ducks. It was quite humorous watching the four ducks get to know each other. At first, the ducks just stared. Then, they jibber-jabbered and started digging through my Daylilies and crinum as a big duck herd. By nightfall, they were all the best of friends. Olive still can’t get her fat, little self into the pool, but seems content watching her friends play.
The gardens continue to bloom and produce a lot of veggies. Today was the Garden Project day, so we worked, mulched, and picked veggies enough to feed five families….all at a little music studio that is supposed to be my day job. I love this little bit of earth I call my own. The gardens have begun to attract more bees, butterflies, birds and now, ofcourse, stray ducks. I definately need to establish the property as a wildlife habitat. I wonder if there is a tax-break or land exemption for raising ducks, pigeons and chickens…unfortunately, they are all a bunch of free-loaders, eating us out of house and home as they provide nothing in return except endless hours of enjoyment, and some days I even get an egg.
Happy Gardening, my friends. ….anyone out there want a duck? 🙂