The Duck Dilemma and Blackberry Picking

     Sigh...I suppose that it should go as no surprise that as soon as I got complacent about Stripe and her brood coming up to the barn every night, everything would change.  When they came up to the barn yesterday afternoon, I decided that I didn't need to bother putting up the portable fencing to keep them in.  Not the case.  As soon as they'd filled up with food, Stripe took everyone back down to the pond where we were taking our evening walk.  I asked Bruce what we should do and he said, "Nothing.  They'll work it out."  I didn't really like that answer, but knew that he was right. 

     But, as pragmatic as Bruce sounded, before going to bed the guy was down there with a flashlight to check up on everybody.  He came back to report that every single duck on the place was stuffed onto the little duck raft.  That would be Big Love, Smudge and her brood of eight, Stripe and her brood of twelve, and Smudge's first brood of eight.  If my math is correct, that makes 38 28* ducklings and 3 adults on one 4x6' raft. 

*Oops. Not so good with really big numbers, especially when you have to carry and do complicated junk like that.

     Forty-one Thirty-one ducks is too many for that raft and, to be frank, too many for our pond.  And those forty-one thirty-one ducks are all going to be breeding (interbreeding, actually) very soon.  In all our years of living here, we've never had a single duckling hatch and now we have this absolute avalanche of babies to deal with.  This is the strange thing about success -- too much of it can quite suddenly flip flop completely around and turn into catastrophe.  We simply have to get rid of the majority of them.  Soon.  If they were cats, we could get them spayed/neutered to stop the cycle, but I don't think that one can do this with ducks (and I can't imagine the expense involved)... The practical course of action is to slaughter some of them for the table (Muscovies are a meat breed and supposed to be very good eating).  In a world where the majority of the population goes to bed hungry every night, it seems silly not to use our excess ducks for food.  But still... My friend, Dorothea (who is much more of a country woman than I will ever be), suggested taking them to the local livestock auction and selling them.  Again, I don't know.  But I do know that we're going to have to figure something out - and quickly. 

     Speaking of Dorothea, she came up yesterday for a visit, bringing mosquito fish to release in the troughs and pickled herring to eat. We had a grand time chatting, feasting (Bruce made a German potato salad from our own homegrown potatoes), and comparing projects (she brought her knitting and I showed her my weaving) -- but the highlight was picking blackberries.



With our wet winter and mild summer, we've got a bumper crop of berries this year.  And, amazingly, the birds haven't found them.  Yet.



We started with the bushes up on the dam (carefully avoiding the poison oak)









 Here's a quick comparison of containers -- Dorothea's is on the right.  I'm not sure how it happened, but at first the majority of my berries somehow landed in my mouth.  :)

Then we went to the really huge clump of blackberries that grow at the base of the dam where the water seeps out.  This pic was taken standing by the blackberries, looking out towards the riding arena.  You can see in the foreground our own little Swamp Frogpond .
















Dorothea very kindly took my picture as I was slowly being sucked into the bog.  Notice that I am able to smile even as I'm frantically trying to pick up my foot while not losing my clog in the mud.  And I didn't drop the berries either! 






I tell you, when these two grown women went out to pick blackberries, they turned right back into the two tomboy-girls they are at heart.  We came back to the house with muddy legs, stickers all over our pants, and a goodly number of ticks.  We had a blast!



Yeah, it was worth it!



Of Sushi and Stripe (and The Last Airbender)

Yesterday I once again cruelly left Bruce languishing on his sickbed and fled Frogpond -- this time to have sushi down in Stockton with Claire.  We tried out a new restaurant and she made big points with our waitress by chitchatting a bit with her in Japanese.  Those lessons are paying off!  This place was great -- fabulous fish and our portions were so large that Mama actually boxed up leftovers to take home (I believe, in the long history of her sushi-eating, this was a first).



Got home to find Bruce up and shuffling around a bit more.  At this rate, I can soon go back to being my normal ornery self with him and everything will be back in balance around here!  I'm sure he can hardly wait.

That morning I'd taken down the fencing that penned in Stripe and her babies.  Part of me wants to keep her and the ducklings safe up here, but I've decided that the time has come to let them go down to the pond to be ducks.  When I left for Stockton, Stripe and the ducklings were still hanging out in the barn.  But when I got home, the barn was empty and the little family was happily down at the pond.

All is tranquil on the pond

I sat on the bank with the dogs to watch for awhile.
Granny Goose, one of our Chinese Geese, swam over.  Granny has never had goslings of her own, but is extremely maternal and tries to take under her wing any new baby that comes to the pond.  As you can see, Stripe was more than happy to share babysitting duties with her.

Such a good Granny Goose!

The ducklings had no fear of Granny at all, although they definitely hadn't any confusion as to who their real mommy is.






Then Stripe and the ducklings, with Granny taking up the rear, began a leisurely amble along the edge of the water...

Big Love

...and along came their papa, Big Love.  Muscovy drakes are easily a third larger than the hens and many people are very put off by their bumpy red faces (sort of like a turkey) and ponderous way of moving.  The word "ugly" frequently comes up when people describe them.  I, however, find something very noble in Big Love's bearing and think he's exceedingly handsome in his own way.  His tail is a blur in the picture because he has the endearing habit of wagging it when greeting other ducks (or anyone else at all, for that matter). 

Big Love leading his family while the geese swim up

And then began the most fascinating part of this little drama.  Big Love moved into the lead as they slowly strolled along the pond, while all three Chinese Geese moved into a sort of triangle formation alongside them in the water.

This is how they all ended up.  Big Love was casually dabbling out in front, Stripe was behind him with her babies, and the three geese were ranged out in the water in a perfect point formation like three white patrol boats.  The whole group remained like this for as long as I watched.  Perhaps I'm reading too much into what I saw, but it sure seems like all of them were looking out after these newest, smallest pond babies.





Much later, towards evening, after I'd finished watering the orchard garden, I said to Bruce that it sure would be a relief to find that Stripe had taken her ducklings back to the safety of the barn for the night (I held no great hope that this would be the case, though).  I peeked around the corner and...

Clever Stripe!

I took one last pic before closing everyone in for the night. Take a look at the little guy with the glowy eyes, bravely protecting his mama...

It's not a mere duckling, it's...

...The Last Airbender!

Ok, so Bruce is the one who made this connection and pointed it out to me. A most remarkable resemblance, wouldn't you say?  :)

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.