You may have read my post on Gentle Joy Homemaker, about living in the country. It has been a dream of ours for many years and finally it happened! You can read about it here if you are interested:
Living In the Country
Anyway, on to the duck adventure.....
Yes, we have ducks. Six of them, to be exact. Was it a dream of ours to have ducks someday? No.... never.....
So, why would we have ducks?
It started with a trip to the farm store for some forgotten reason. While there, we heard lots of peeps and chirps which led us to investigate and discover baby chicks and ducklings. They were so cute, of course... which is probably why they were close to the cash register area as a temptation. Yes, they were cute, and I thought that was that. My husband said the girls would LOVE to see those. I agreed and we went about our business. Later, another trip was made to the farm store to show the chicks and ducklings to the girls. I thought that was nice... they enjoyed it... but I was firm about saying we didn't need any ducks!
Our sons also had to go to the farm store for something and commented on the cute little ducklings. I agreed that they were cute and life went on. We had lots to do as we hadn't lived in our house in the country for very long and one son was graduating and another son got engaged. Life was busy, but it was so nice to live in the country. I was also very glad my husband had dropped the duckling idea. Whew.
Then a few weeks later, one son came to us saying he wanted to buy 2 ducklings for the youngest sister for her birthday. I resisted ..... as the voice of reason..... too much work, it'll cost too much, what would we do with them as they got older, etc. By this time, son and husband were both very enthusiastic and countered all of my objections.
Now, don't get me wrong. I do NOT make the decisions for our family.... I just let my ideas be known because my husband had asked, "What do you think, Honey?" This went on for a while and excitement over the possible birthday surprise rose. I started feeling like I was holding up the party and figured that maybe I was being too inflexible, so I agreed she would love the ducks and since son and husband said they would take care of details, I hesitantly thought, "Ooookay... "
The day of her birthday was approaching, but ducklings were out of stock. What a disappointment... and a secret relief for me. Whew again!
Then the store had another unexpected duckling shipment arrive, so the surprise was still on. What a hard secret to keep!
Our Ducklings first pool was a small birdbath.
Our life began to revolve around ducks... they needed to be warm enough, but not too warm. They needed to eat... and then we also had to buy grit for them to be able to digest their food.... they liked the water, but couldn't stay in too long since they didn't have the ability to oil their feathers at such a young age, and more.
Our ducklings graduated to swimming in the wheelbarrow. They loved to have dandelions in the water for a snack.
A little pool gave the ducks more room to swim.
We learned, played with ducks, learned some more, cuddled ducks and kept learning.... and cleaning up after ducks. sigh.
Getting dried off and cuddled after swim time.... 2 very sleepy little ducks.
So, that is how we ended up with 2 sweet little ducklings. I know, I know.... there are more than 2 ducks in the first picture in this post and you are right.... we do have more than 2 ducks now. How all of that came about is a story for another time.
The ducklings were fun and a lot of work also.... and our family thoroughly enjoyed them... and yes, I also learned to really like the ducks. All of the family loved to watch them and hold them. Join me again for more pictures and stories of these sweet little ducklings and our adventures with them. I would love to read your comments also... Thanks for visiting me here at Gentle Joy Photography.
Find more posts on family, herbs, gardening, homeschooling, cooking, recipes, life and more by clicking on this link to my other blog:
Gentle Joy Homemaker
