It’s a gray day, with lots of mud created by the snow melt. Seems appropriate for a bit of reflection.
So many of us lead ridiculously busy lives, barely having any time to just sit and think. What happened to those long summer breaks from school where it seemed like summer would go on forever? You could just stare up at the blue summer sky and daydream about the future. We need those moments.
Sometimes people get stuck in a rut. Many of us go through the motions, doing what we think is the “right” thing to do: go to college, get a corporate job, work the 9-5 (really, more like 8 to 6 or more for many), buy a house and cars, contribute to your 401(k). You do it not because it’s what makes you want to get out of bed in the morning, but because it’s what society says you should be doing. You work long hours, spend little time with those you care about, let yourself get out of shape, eat unhealthy meals at your desk or on the road, and collect your paychecks. You probably don’t or won’t take much in the way of vacation because work is ever-present – you have to check your email on vacation or deal with a thousand messages in your inbox when you get back. Maybe the office even calls you when you’re on vacation. So much for boundaries.
So, both the New Zealand does (Ava and Loretta) were not pregnant after the first attempt to breed them about a month ago. There were several possible reasons it wasn’t successful, but the most likely one is that the bucks didn’t exactly know what they were doing. In fairness, the does may have had a part in that, too.
We’ve been trying to figure out which of the Muscovy ducks is laying, and we know Coraline is for certain. The other morning, we found 3 eggs in the duck coop. Based on history, we concluded that one was laid by Coraline, but who laid the other two was a mystery.
We’re into fermenting. Right now, we do kombucha, water kefir, and milk kefir (and lacto-fermented sauerkraut). There’s also a really chunky Jun scoby languishing up in the cupboard, but that’s a story for another day.
The “waterbugs” are a week old today. They’re starting to get some real feathers on their wings and tiny tailfeathers. They do lots of scratching in their brooder, which has a layer of large pine shavings on the floor (large shavings are used to minimize the risk of chicks ingesting it). The scratching means that their waterer, which sat on the floor, was continuously filling up with shavings. It was time for them to graduate to the nipple waterer.
It snowed today. Everything is wearing a soft, lovely white coat. All the hard edges of the landscape have been softened. The snow muffles most noises, and few cars have been on the road. It’s a good day to watch the snow fall, and the birds mill around the feeders. The cardinals are bright splashes of crimson on the white background. A Northern Flicker, with its signature reddish-orange head, is busily working at the feeder.