Madcap Monday

Cinder lipping off

Our morning surprise

The barn is usually a fairly noisy place first thing in the morning. The chickens are clucking, the rooster is crowing, the goats are bleating and the ducks are quacking. Well the Rouens are, at least. The Muscovies try hard but only manage a pitiful little squeak.

But today, I noticed another sound amongst the usual cacophony -- a tiny "peep, peep, peep." I looked down into the duck pen and there she was -- our very first hatchling!

After screaming and scaring the hell out of the donkeys and horse (they're a little touchy before breakfast), I went tearing across the barnyard while shouting at the top of my lungs, "Go get the camera, there's a baby duck in the barn!" once again, providing ample entertainment for our barnyard creatures.

We have two ducks sitting on eggs right now. One is in the feed area (she deserves her very own blog post) and the other is in the duck pen. Recently, I'd looked up the incubation period for ducks and while baby chickens hatch in 21 days, Rouen ducks hatch in 28 days and Muscovies in 35 days.

As this is our first time hatching our own -- in fact, we're not hatching anything... we just allowed the ducks to go broody and let nature take its course -- I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm horrible at marking dates but I didn't think she'd been sitting on the eggs all that long. I didn't even know if they were fertile, though I must say that our drakes are quite insatiable when it comes to their attempts at procreation.

Obviously, the boys did their job and so did mama duck.

What I find amazing is that the duckling isn't even technically hers. Mama is a Muscovy while the duckling is a Rouen. Doesn't seem to matter though. Lovely, isn't it?

By the time I finished taking a bazillion photos and finally got the rest of the barn crew fed, I realized it was 11:40 am. Because we weren't expecting babies yet, we had no duckling food on hand and the closest farm supply store -- which is 30 minutes away -- closed in 20 minutes. What's more, it wouldn't be open again until Monday (today is Saturday).

I quickly called the feed store, explained my predicament and pleaded for them to stay open another 15 minutes. After some hawing and humming, the disgruntled voice on the other end of the line agreed and 30 seconds later, the kids and I were in the truck and racing down the driveway.

It's a good thing too because when I got back with the duckling feed and put it and some fresh water into the pen, mama duck finally got off her nest and gave us a peek at the rest of her eggs.

Looks like duckling might have some siblings soon.

This first photo was taken at 1:00 pm.

And two hours later.

I just checked on them about an hour ago and mama is still sitting on her nest. I've read that hatching can take 24 to 48 hours so perhaps by tomorrow, I'll be met with a chorus of "peep, peep, peeps."

In the meantime, I've told the kids that mama needs her rest. She's going to have her wings full with this lot.

Do donkeys dream?

And if they do, what about?

This is April? Part 2

This morning we woke up to a full-out blizzard. Within minutes, all the green that we had been savouring just yesterday got buried by a few inches of soppy white stuff.

Needless to say, we weren't pleased. Well, some of us weren't.

As Lucas and I sat at the kitchen table grumbling over our morning coffee about how we couldn't possibly believe it was actually snowing (big tufts of it too), Ella turned to us with a sparkle in her eye and exclaimed, "Yay -- I get to make snow angels!"

And make snow angels she did. And a snow man. And snow balls...



As I sit here watching her play from my office window, I'm simply amazed at how young children truly exist in the moment. We adults get so grumpy over things we can't change such as weather or the economy or even little things like having to shovel more snow.



We spout platitudes such as, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade" -- but there's this implicit sense of intent, like this is what we should do.

Kids just do.


So while I still might not like our surprise snowfall, at least I have a new appreciation for it. Or perhaps for the simple joy it brings to one of the little people in my life.

The day after...

Troublemakers, you say? Who, us? No way.

Random moments of happiness #9

Waiting for spring.

Random moments of happiness #5

Nap time on the farm. That blue lump on the right side is Gallagher (and this was the first time in three months that I've seen him sleeping in the snow. Rolling around, yes, sleeping, no.)

Click photo to enlarge

As I watched them soaking up the sun's rays and dreaming about whatever equines dream about (I'm sure for Cinder, it was something to do with food) it was like the world stopped spinning, just for a few minutes. It was a moment of calm, quiet and simply savouring that peaceful, easy feeling.

Random moments of happiness #4

Sam, at three months old

We're thinking of entering him in a Vincent Price look-alike contest.

But seriously, how many goats have such a distinguished-looking set of eyebrows and a matching"goat"-tee?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's super-goat, getting ready for take-off!

Random moments of happiness #2

This is Sissy and Sunny, our supposed barn cats in training. I think they're far too happy being house cats to ever set foot in a barn, let alone live in one! Sissy is pretty good at chasing bugs (she's just far too proper to eat one) and Sunny just hangs out with Henry and plays Indy 500 raceway throughout our house at 3:00 a.m. Not a bad life, indeed.

P.S. I'll get back to my regular posting this week as I've got lots of sharing to do -- stories of escaping donkeys (actually, two stories, two escapes), my weekend visit to Whispering Hearts Horse Rescue in Hagersville, Ontario (big story to share there.. about 16 hands high, I'd say) and the pygmies (yes, as in pygmy goat plural) are hopefully coming home tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned!

Random moments of happiness #1

Bedtime in the chicken coop