Of Ducks and Dirt

For the past several years, we've had a core group of about a dozen mallard ducks that stay on our pond for several weeks each spring and then again in the late fall. Often there are more than the basic twelve that come and go. Every now and then we have up to 30 or 40 quackers spending a day or two.

(Apologies for quality of pics in this post. They were taken late yesterday afternoon in the rain.)

The pond is within the area that we have fenced in for our domestic fowl, and everyone seems to co-exist peacefully.

Morning and night when Roy goes out to feed, the mallards all troop up into the yard for their share of the goodies.

For a couple of years, we put out extra feed for the wild ducks but then realized that we were spending a LOT more than our budget would allow on feed. I think the mallards would gobble up about 25 pounds of laying mash a day if given the chance. (Wouldn't be bad if they'd leave us some eggs . . . )

We had to reposition feeders inside houses/shelters but continue to toss some whole grains outside for everybody twice a day. The wild ducks will often fly up into our lawn area where they do a good job of cleaning up seeds under the bird feeders.

It's a treat to see the beautiful wild mallards. They seem to like our small pond . . . and the free lunch.

Now for the "dirt" part of this post . . .

The sun is out today. Oh. My. Gosh. It looks like a different world out there. Seriously, we have had nothing but gray, damp, drizzly, wet, foggy, misty, hea-VY weather for weeks.

Everyone has complained about it, and I think it's even affected my mood and state of mind. This morning seeing the sun gives a whole new perspective to my life and sense of well-being. There is hope. I will survive. I've found the will to go on. (It's also making me more than a little melodramatic.)

The downside to the bright sun is the glaringly honest light it's bringing into my house. I've been over-due for a serious housecleaning . . . like pulling books off the shelves and sucking up inches of dust with the vacuum cleaner type cleaning. This morning the necessity of such a cleaning is quite evident, shall we say. (I'm NOT including pictures in this part of the post!)

And our windows! Despite promises that we would get the windows washed inside and out this fall, it hasn't happened. And, boy, does the sunshine ever bring that fact to light. (Pun intended.) If cleanliness is next godliness, I'm goin' straight down the tubes today. Time to roll up my sleeves and get this hovel shoveled out!

Or maybe I should just go sit outside in the sunshine and watch the ducks.