Free Sammy!!!

We're free at last!  Theo and I have embarked on a new adventure!  After much contemplation, we decided that we needed more room than Mom's backyard could offer.

It was difficult for Mom to let us go, but she wanted what was best for us.  She looked around for a situation that would work for us:  large pond, protected area, plenty of food for foraging, clean, other waterfowl...  When she found Blue Pond, she know it was perfect!

The pond is REALLY big, some might 

call it a Lake.  It's even got several fountains.

The big day came and we all piled into the car.  Dad drove (kind of quickly, come to think of it) to our new place.

That's Theo back there making a fuss about not wanting to wear a seat belt!

Mom's lap

Mom held me in her lap on the drive over.  She kept hugging me.  I felt a little sad,

but I was excited too!

Theo just kept asking "Are we there yet?

When we first arrived, we felt a bit shy.

But our new neighbors came right over and introduced themselves.  Everyone was very friendly and welcomed us warmly!

There are lots of ducklings around - they are a hoot!  We feel like big ducks now because those guys are so tiny!  They're pretty funny to watch!  

This little guy started following us around; I think I'll take him under my wing and mentor him.

Our pond has a fence all around it, so we really feel safe.  Dogs are only allowed if they are on a leash.  Ducks rule here!!

Mom wanted us to go in the pond to make sure we could get out by ourselves.  She said she wouldn't leave unless she knew we could get out of the pond.  So we jumped in and and then climbed right back out lickety split, no problem!  Mom was happy.

That's me climbing out of the pond!

When it was time to say good-bye,  Mom gave us a big hug and said she'd be by for a visit soon!  We took one last look over the hill as she walked away and then jumped into the back pond for a swim!

I'll stay in touch and let you know how things go on Blue Pond!

Love, Sam

Ducks Migrate

We've moved on the greener pastures!   Around to the side yard.  For the time being!

Looooovvvveee it here!   Lots of grass to search through, which means lots more bug - yea!!!   We were getting tired of always having bills full of dirt!  It was like living in the Sahara Desert in our last location.

Plus, we have more room to move about and stretch our wings.

Max gave his sniff of approval this morning.













Mom likes that she can spray down our room with the hose to clean it up and then the sun comes and dries out the grass.  Much fresher than our dirt & straw set up!  (Plus our poop is actually GOOD for the soil - it's a win-win.)  Ah, ya gotta love nature!

Theo and I are now 6 weeks old.  We have a lot of our 'real' feather's, but some are still coming in.  We're very soft and have big fluffy keels (tails, in duck talk).   We love being on our pond and spend most of the day there.  We eat A LOT!  We love frozen peas and now eat duck food instead of the stuff for 'baby ducks.'   We won't be fully mature until we're about 6 months old, so even though we might look all grown up, we're really not.  We're still not 'quacking', per se.  We kind of made these tweeting/chirping sounds.  And sometimes, this kind of  'qua, qua, qua' little ducky mumbling sounds!

We don't follow Mom around anymore.  We are our own ducks!  We'll let her pick us up if she can catch us!

Six Weeks - Swimming Pros 

1 Week - Not So Sure

We've always wondered why Theo's bill never turned a lovely shade of orange like mine. (Although, he does have beautiful orange feet like me!)  Plus he is quite a bit smaller than me, even though he is only four days younger than me.   Mom did some research and it turns out that Theo is probably a different breed than me!  I'm a Pekin Duck and Theo is vey likely an Aylesbury Duck!  My heritage is Chinese and Theo's is English.  That doesn't change a thing between us; we are still a ducky family and love each other more than ever!  (I don't kid Theo about his size and pale bill anymore though - that's the way he's supposed to be!)  Besides I have to respect his scrappy nature.

We are a Band of Duckers!

Mucky Ducks

Well, here we are again....

Back in Diapers....

Mom wasn't quite ready to give up on the idea of putting us in diapers so we could spend some time in the house.  We got around better with the contraption on this go round, but we still did not like it...not even one tiny tad.

We decided to stage a protest, a 'Sit-In'.  

We quacked 'We Shall Overcome' in our loudest voices.  (Theo can't carry a tune, by the way!)    We had a statedegy meeting to discuss what our demands would be.  (We had a strange funny feeling that we were being watched.)  

'Heck No! The diapers have to go!'

Mom got the message and soon we were waddling out to our pond free to poop once more.

Our pond...a lovely shade of brown

We love our mucky pond, but some people just aren't fans:

Ah, everyone's a comedian

Ducks on the Water

A little home movie...

Ducky Reflections

Its' been a while since since you've heard from me.  Theo and I have found a nice routine and life is pretty mellow.  Mom relocated our temporary digs again so that we can have access to the pond during the day.  We get to swim without adult supervision now!  Whoooo -woo!  We showed Mom how well we swim and what good choices we make.  Plus, we bob around on the pond like, well, ducks on the water!  Did she really think that we were going to drown?  Hello - we have webbed feet!  Not that I'm dissing Mom - she's just looking out for our safety.  We think it's cute, the way she fusses over us!

Mom wants me to add that this is a temporary situation!  We are going to have a much better set up when the work on the backyard is completed!  It's going to be beautiful, I'm sure!

Now that we spend so much time on the water, the pond gets pret-ty dirty, pret-ty quickly!  We don't really mind it but everyone else seems to.  Even our Boy.  When a 15 year old boy comments on the quality of your pond water, you might want to take notice!  But for Theo and me, it's great!  We pretend that there's all kinds of scary monsters down there - snapping turtles, snakes, sharkes - that kind of thing.  We pretend that we're deep sea hunters and we dive down to capture them and make the pond safe for all Duckkind!  What?  You don't think ducks have active imaginations?  We imagine.  We play. We even ponder.

 Ducks aren't just one dimentional. Sometimes when we're bobbing on our pond, Theo and I like talk about life and stuff.  It's kind of awesome to think how we came to be duck siblings - dublings, if you will.

Out of the twelve eggs our Mom tried to hatch, I was the only one to make it.  (Mom says I'm a scrapper!)  I remember hearing someone quacking at me when I pipped, cheering me on, encouraging me to keep going.  Then, when I had worked so hard and for so long without much progress, and was about ready to give up, someone began gently chipping the egg shell away for me, just enough for me to be able to push the lid off the egg.  I was so relieved about that.  More quacks of encouragement - and I was out!    I was scraggly and wet and worn out.

Awww..

 I took a nap after that.  When I woke up I could see this thing (face) above me.  Imagine my surprise - this 'face' was not what I had expected!  I think we're hard-wired to kind of know what we look like, in a general way, at least.

This very non duck-like face was HUGE...  NO feathers of any kind, all skin - (and they say ducklings are ugly when we first hatch!).  A big knob in the middle (nose) and a mop of swirlly stuff on top (hair).  But two features spoke to me:  the eyes and the mouth (once I got over the fright of the white blocks (teeth) inside) both smiled at me. Somehow, I knew that was a very good thing.  I knew that this was my MOM!  I knew that we didn't have to look alike to be a family.  I knew she was going to take care of me and give me a happy home.

Remember when we looked like this?

Well, as you know,  the other eggs in my clutch, didn't hatch.   It looked like I was going to be an only duckling.  Mom did her research, and realized that I needed a friend, a dubling, to grow up with.  So, she found a place that sold 2 day old ducklings and a week after I hatched, she went to Wabash Feed Store and found Theo.  She said she looked for the most active duckling in the box, she wanted a scrapper, like me!

She said Theo cheeped like crazy when she picked him up, but then, looked her right in the eye.  She didn't even look at any other ducklings after that, she knew Theo was the one to join our family!  She said he cheeped furiously all the way home and even managed to jump out of the box at one point!  I wouldn't have even done that when I was just 2 days old!   (Remember how Theo was the first one to jump out of the pond by himself?   Well, there you go!)

So here we are now, Theo and me, two ducks with a human family, one dog and two cats.  Life's wonderfully weird!  We have the best life.  We like to think that we give something back to our family too.  We entertain them a lot, make them laugh, love them back.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  We are two very lucky ducks!

Camping Out

Sleepy Ducklings

The big news these days is that Theo and I sleep outside now!  We stay outside most of the time.  We love our little corner of the backyard!

The first few nights, Mom was pretty worried about us.  She'd come outside in the middle of the night and check on us. Of course,  we were fine.  I'd tell her to go back in and let us get some good REM sleep!  It was very disruptive.  We are ducks; we're meant to be outside for quack's sake.

Theo and I have been busy.  Busy Growing.  It's hard work and takes a lot of our time.  It involves a lot of eating, drinking lots of water, making a big mess of the water, lots of little duck naps, lots of swims in the pond.  We also spend a lot of time practicing our preening.  It's important to be a well groomed ducky.
We both still have our soft yellow downy fluff, but I have cute little white pin feathers coming in on my tail!  My tail flips up in the back.  Theo's has a little sideways swirl to it.  Theo's bill is still kind of a pink color - his feet too.  I still have my beautiful orange feet.

Have I said how much we LOVE to swim in the pond?  We try to swim at least twice a day.  More if Mom has time.  It'll be nice when we can swim by ourselves.  I love to swim underwater.  Just like Flipper - he's my hero.  I pretend I'm a dolphin, just like him!  I can hold my breath and swim all the way around the pond underwater.  Theo tries, but he can't really do it as good as me.  He can only make it about 1/4 of the way around.  But I'm older.  (I'm really only 4 days older than Theo, but I'm almost twice a big!)   He loves to follow me around and do what I do, but really, when it comes right down to it - he is his own duck.  He doesn't let me push him around too much.  He just loves me and likes to be close to me.

Today, Mom took me out of the pond to dry me off.  (She says my downy fluff is like a sponge -  just soaks up the water!)  She turned around to pluck Theo out of the water, and he was already out, padding across the dirt toward us!  He had hopped out of the pond all by himself!  I haven't even done that yet!  I hope he'll show me how to do it next time we swim!

One of the good things about having ducks is that we love to eat bugs!  We also love le escargot! Izzz yuuuuummmmmy.  And good for you!  Lots of protein.  So, if you have a snail problem, we're your guys.  We also don't carry any diseases, just so you know.  Our biggest vice is (let's say it together): we poop quite a bit.  Mom would say: 'a lot'.  But, again, we can't help it - it's just the way the God made us.  Mom keeps the hose handy and washes down the deck after we've had 'free range' time!  One thing, I'm proud to say, is that we haven't yet pooped in our pond.   Mom says having ducklings is a lot like having a baby - you seem to talk a lot about the poop.  It's not such a big deal to us, but Mom seems a little fixated on it.

Our busy Little Girl

Our Little Girl came to play today.  She likes to 'take care of us'.  She's spends a lot of her time letting us out of our pen, putting us in the pond, taking us out of the pond and putting back in our pen!  We ran her all over the backyard this afternoon!  She can't catch us - ha!  But, Mom eventually scoops us up and lets her hold us.  She likes to do hold us a lot too!   Which is really quite nice.  We snuggle in her arms and take little naps.  She gives us kisses on our heads!

News from the Max front:
Some of our neighbor boys came to visit.  They were chasing us around trying to get us to go back into our pen.  Max ran up behind one of the boys, jumped up and grabbed his pants!  He almost pulled them down!  I think he was protecting us!  Maybe he does like us. I hope so.  I'd like for us to be friends.  Of course,  today when he finally came close to me, sniffing, I pinched him on the nose with my bill.  That may not have helped the 'friendship' too much!  I'll have to use a little more finesse next time!

Ducks in Diapers, Duh

Who would've believed this?  Not me, that's for sure.  See this?  This is a picture of me in  diapers.  Duck. Diapers.

















Theo had one on as well... here's a close up of his:

Even Our Dog couldn't believe it...

Mom put this thing on me, after much protest on my part, and I just stumbled around like I had drunk too much gooseberry wine!  I twitched, fluttered, flapped and staggered around.   Finally, I just gave Mom my most withering look and sat down in protest.  I didn't like it. No. Not at all.  Then I notice this silver thing on the back that seemed to hold the whole contraption together (safely pin) and I started to work on it.  Thinking. 'if I can just open this thing....'

Now, Theo, well, he wore that diaper like he'd been hatched wearing it!  What a baby hatchling.  He was just waddling around, happy as a clam.  (Does anyone know if clams are happy?)  Truth be told, he was kind of making me look like such a drama duck.  I decided I'd better make a go of it.  I did pretty well after that.  And darned, if that rig didn't work.  We both had poo in our diapers when Mom took them off.  Poo that would've been on the floor - that Mom would've had to clean up, if we hadn't had the diapers on.  So, I guess, if we want to be able to spend some inside time with our family, we'll just have to get used to the silly things.  It's worth it to be able to watch some TV with our flock.