Today is my first day of blogging. The weather at Frogpond is hot, hot, hot (the thermometer says 102 for the high). Welcome summer. Out on the pond Mama Muscovy and her 8 remaining ducklings cruise the shallows. She brought the tiny things down from the barn on only their second day after hatching. We managed to get her and the tiny fluffs of ducklings back up to their stall on the first night -- it was a struggle, as she wanted to roost right out in the open on the edge of the pond. We ended up grabbing her (Muscovies have claws and can scratch like a cat) and brought the babies up in a bucket. By the second night, she was wise to us and both she and her brood were hidden away when we looked for them. Nothing to do but hope for the best and leave them down at the pond. In the morning two of the ducklings were gone. Sigh... Most likely taken by raccoons. However, Mama Duck seems to have become a lot warier and we've lost no more babies. This, in a nutshell, is life at Frogpond. I love this place, but there's nothing benign about this place -- there is as much survival of the fittest going on here as on the African plains.