Ducklings, gardening, etc.

Proud Mama duck and her ducklings

Our proud Mama duck has a grand total of 11 ducklings! The eggs hatched sporatically over two days and this morning she pushed the last two eggs out of the nest. We assumed they weren't going to hatch and disposed of them. She is extremely protective and the zoom came in handy getting photos. Tom opened the door to the duckhouse to feed her this morning and before he knew it she had him right by the pant leg. Sure did take him by surprise!

Mama duck #2

Tom's other female duck is now setting on a nest of her own. We are going to be overrun with ducklings. We really don't mind. They are so darn cute. Mama duck #2 was more than eager to help "babysit' the new babies this morning while Mama duck #1 grabbed a bite of breakfast. The ducklings didn't seem to mind at all :)

North Garden

The weather cooperated today and we were able to get the north garden planted. Tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, spinich and sweet corn. We received about 1/4 inch of rain yesterday. Not much but every little bit helps. We watered everything thoroughly after we planted. Hopefully all will do well. We have several rainwater collection barrels by each garden. They work well when it rains. West garden

We ran out of time today but hopefully we will finish planting this garden as well as the south garden tomorrow. We added mesclun mix greens in here today as well as cucumbers, melons, head lettuce and glad bulbs. I love gladiolas. I am normally good about pulling up my bulbs in the fall. Last year I simply didn't get to it. Surprisingly I have glads coming up. I guess they were deep enough and because of the incredible snow pack, they survived. I was lucky this time!

I thorougly enjoyed the day. We all worked outside together as a family. It doesn't get any better than that for me. Things get done much quicker too :)