Sunday, June 1, 2008

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 :)

4 comments:

Throwback at Trapper Creek said...

Wow, the garden looks great, it seems like just yesterday that you were buried in snow. Glad you're getting some decent weather finally.

Deb said...

Thanks Nita....your right - for awhile there I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see bare ground again! We are definately enjoying the warm weather.

Christy said...

What are you going to do with all the ducklings? The gardens look great.

Deb said...

Christy,
Tom has a friend who's Dad tried to hatch duck eggs in an incubator without success. He's going to buy a few of the ducklings. These ducks cannot fly and people like them because they will stay home. We will keep a few. They are great bug and slug eaters in the gardens, etc.