the darker side of DUCKS

some may question that ducks have a darker side. hah! (mirthless laugh). our two female ducks are "on the nest," as they say in "it's a wonderful life," except that they really are. sitting on nests. about 23 hours a day. our one male duck is also sitting on a nest 23 hours a day. he was guarding the female ducks and nests first, but then i think they got annoyed with him and gave him a couple of eggs and said, "here. do something useful, and for heaven's sake, BE QUIET."

these female ducks have undergone a complete change in personality since they laid their eggs.



yes, they have gone from docile, sweet, funny pets, to being threatening and sinister. the other day i went in their pen (to give them food, mind you, and they know me!), and they both came at me. one aimed a peck at my shoe, i aimed a kick at its head. both of us missed. they pecked at chickens who were just standing there, and then one ran out of the pen and pecked one of my cats. now, you can't that that is the behavior of a psychologically normal duck. they resembled nothing so much as animated bulb horns (see fig. 1).

so that's what's happening on my little wannabe farm today. anybody want a duck?

my daughter and her daughter(s)

just thought you might like to see my daughter and her daughters.

mother and daughter update

i trimmed the daughters off of my most prolific mother, leaving her looking a little bereft (top picture) (i can't figure out how to disperse my pictures throughout the blog. mary, help!). i saw a single lady bug in there walking around and around in a circle, wringing her tiny little hands.

then i put them in the little rooting jar. you can see the tiny sweet roots in the bottom picture. by the way, if you look in the background and see the fuzzy looking white thing, i put it up to have a light colored background so you could see that the shorn mother still has some little daughters coming along. i laid it over the top of the my plant light, took the pictures, wandered off, and a half hour later started wondering what smelled like burning. now i can't clean my floor. darn.

and by the way, my daughter is having a daughter some time in the next ten days.