Duck Update -- Multitudinous Adorable Pictures Included

According to my calendar, and my memory, my four Muscovy ducklings range in age from about 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 weeks.    I'm having a great time watching them grow and learning about these ducks  by observation.  The way their feathers come in is especially fascinating to me, as i watch them go from fuzzy, to spotted, to more solidly feathered.  I've also learned that these ducks definitely LOVE water, deeply LOATHE being handled by humans such as myself, and grow very very quickly.  Also, everyone who ever said that ducks are messy was telling the truth in understatement.  Chickens are clean freaks compared to these guys.  

Here are some cute pictures of them in their little pool, taken this morning.

They can't just drink water, they have to get in the water and then drink it.

They're very curious about "outside," but they haven't dared check it out yet.

 Here, you can see how big they are.  This "pool" is about 15 inches wide and about 3-4 inches deep.

 Here, the statuesque duckling on the right is showing us his/her developing chest feathers.  This is one of the younger ducklings, and he or she is on the way to having the solidly colored feathers like the duckling on the left.

 Also, my lillies started blooming today.  Isn't that gorgeous!?

Baby Farmer Steps and Fruit Loops

After you read this post,  you might be convinced that i'm truly fruit loops.

S'ok.

But first, look at the beautiful flowers that my sweet love sent to me at work today.  Just because he's nice.

I really think i like this guy.  ;)

Oh yeah, now about the fruit loops.

Today, i got to do something that i've been wanting to do for approximately 3 years and 5 months.

I am so excited!

After i did it, i repeatedly yelled "YAAAYYY!"  because the happiness was too much to hold in.

I have been thinking about it and wishing for it and planning about it for so long.

I had to hold back the tears.

I might still have a good happy cry over it.

Are you ready?

I went online and purchased our first 3 pounds of

BEES!!!!!

Honey Bees!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I am scheduled on April 28 to take a small road trip and pick up something that looks like this, from R Weaver Apiaries in Navasota.

I couldn't be more excited.  I can't wait for April 28!

O.k., i could be a little more excited.  But as far as bugs go.  I'm stoked!

And before then, i'm thinking we should probably get a hive and a bee suit or some bee gear or something.

When i think about how much i don't know, i could get a little intimidated.  But i've learned something in the last few years:  it's o.k. to learn as you go, and you'll probably mess things up some, but you'll learn, and you might even become something of an expert.  At the very least, you'll learn something.  And on the top side, you might succeed and become a bee keeper and honey producer.  You also will definitely not become a bee keeper or a honey producer, if you don't ever just go ahead and buy bees and a hive and a bee suit (or possibly a big roll of duct tape and some plastic wrap) and try your hand at it.

Additionally, bees are one of the most fascinating creatures in God's creation, and i can't wait to learn more about them and about more of the ways that God is awesome.  I really can't.  O.k., i can.  'Cause i have to.  But you know what i'm sayin'.

Bees!!!!!!

YAAAAAAY!!!!!!  

six Living Words

It's funny how hesitant i am to admit to you anyone that i have weakness, especially spiritual weakness.  Not funny so much as completely illogical.  Don't admit that you can identify with anyone else!!  They'll know you're not perfect!

Duh!

And so i commence.

I am so weak.  Recently, i have seen my weakness in my inability to keep up certain "Christian" habits.  You know, the ones....read your Bible and pray every day and go to church twice a weak and also women's group and revival meetings for the entire month of February and fast through the month of January and volunteer for the nursery once a month and............and............and........

Honestly, after 30-something years of attempting to follow Christ, i still struggle with the first few items in that list.  And sometimes accomplish the ones at the end of the list without the ones at the beginning.

Recently, i have started making use of the fact that God is not afraid of technology.  For example, if you can't manage to lasso in your mind and your eyes and your wakefulness and your attention span long enough to read your Bible for five minutes and possible cover a whole chapter, you might be able to pop in one of those New Testament CDs you bought 7 or so years ago --  or use an app on your overpriced pocket computer to listen to the Bible.  Or at least to have the audio of someone reading the Bible playing at an audible level in your earshot, preferrably, without anything else playing in your earshot at the same time.  If you can entice your spirit to overcome your flesh for long enough to put in enough effort to install an app or pop a CD in a CD player (are those obsolete already), then you can still get some Word in your mind, and God's Word doesn't return void, even when your lazy flesh wants none of it.

Thus, i have discovered that my 30-45 minute commute to work in the morning, is a wonderful time to turn off the radio, with the touch of a little button, and activate a CD of someone reading from the New Testament.  And even though i wasn't listening very well the first couple of times, just hearing the Word of God began to wake me up (my spirit that is) and make me hungry to hear more.

Today, i listened to the first four or so chapters of Colossians.  I was even interested enough to back it up and repeat certain parts that captured my interest.  Here's the part that captured my interest the most:

"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt..."

That's the first part of the 6th verse of chapter 4.

I had to start thinking about it.  What does that mean?  What does it look like?

full of GRACE

Grace is unmerited favor.

How do you put unmerited favor in your conversation?

What is unmerited favor?  I think it's the embodiment of agape love.  You know, the kind of love that loves those who don't love back or love first.

What does that look like in your conversation?

I think it's sincerely compassionate.  Truly listening.  Not gossiping.  At all.  Ever.  Agape love is generous.  How can i speak generously?  I must need to share God's love in my words.

seasoned with SALT

Salt.

Salt brings out the natural flavor of the food on which it is sprinkled.

How can i bring out the natural flavor of agape love?

Salt preserves nutrition and keeps it from spoiling.

How can i preserve with my words.

full of GRACE seasoned with SALT

I set out at the beginning of my day today with a prayer that God would help me follow this admonishment.  That my conversation would bring out the natural flavor of agape love.  That's a pretty big expectation.

You know what i discovered today?

I discovered that you can't fake conversation full of grace and seasoned with salt.  It has to come from the heart.  After all, "from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."  Since i was paying attention, i noticed that my normal conversation is far too fond of criticizing instead of lifting up.  Far too eager to please those who would seek to shun those who don't fit in or who seem odd.  Too happy to love the nice people and not nearly eager enough to love those who don't love back or love first.

My mouth revealed what i didn't know about my heart.

full of GRACE seasoned with SALT

Six words that shined a bright light on the condition of my heart.  Amazing.  The Living Word.

And now i can keep listening and let it change my heart.  My my words and my heart be full of GRACE seasoned with SALT.  Funny, that describes the Word of God, itself, doesn't it?  I guess i know where to start.

How to Butcher the Vegetables?

I had a plan.

I planned to be telling you all about my newly built keyhole garden.

But alas.  My keyhole garden is still a figment of my plans' imagination.

And some wet phone books on the ground.

I'll have to explain more about my keyhole garden, or the version of a keyhole garden that i'm planning to build, later.

Suffice it to say that the materials needed to build a "small garden wall," i have finally learned, are the same as those needed to build a 25 foot, 3 foot tall, brick wall.  So ...  not so "small" after all.

Thankfully, i found a happy source of super duper cheap bricks.

Now, i will learn how to build a brick wall.

Yay me!

Do you remember way back in the day, two or three years ago, when i decided to learn, all by myself, how to butcher a chicken, by doing it by myself.  By myself.

???

Well, i may have mentioned, once or twice, since then, that i seem to have the ability to raise things that run free and multiply on their own, with great success.  But things that are supposed to be green and grow from the ground, seem to consistently fail to be green or alive, or food-worthy, in my care.

Well, recently, i stumbled into (when a friend tripped me) an interesting article about this keyhole gardening business by a lady named Deb Tolman.  I'm sure i'll post pictures later, but if you're dying to know what i'm talking about, you can google it. (I really like the part about the center compost basket in the garden.) Anyway, said article, and said friend, inspired my interest enough to see about giving gardening another shot.  But i have to do it by myself.  Maybe this 6 foot round raised garden, filled with cardboard and other unexpected garden filler, will help me learn to speak "green."

Or something like that.

I'm hoping.

This is my gardening version of butchering chickens early in the morning while no one was available to help, or lend advice.  I'm just going to dive into the guts of it, make mistakes, and see if i can come out on top.

One brick at a time.

Let the River Flow!!

When we first moved into our tiny woodland house, we were fascinated by the many dry creek beds that are carved throughout our property.  It didn't take long before the first big rain came, and we saw what had carved so many tiny creeks.  Our property is very near a gully, and at a a bottom of the hill kind of point in comparison to the properties that are nearby.  So it turns out that our property becomes the pathway for all the water from multiple properties nearby, to make its way to the giant gully on the other side of us.

In an attempt to help the water benefit us and not sog up our land, my creek digging super hero grabbed his shovel and went to work.  

And then we entered a drought.  

Good timing. 

After all that work, we were starting to feel a little silly.  

And even though i know they say that we're still in a drought, the near-flood that we had here two days ago, and the ample rain in our forecast, make it very difficult for me to think of this as drought conditions.  The rain that came the day before yesterday filled and overflowed every formerly dry creek bed on its way to the wonderfully deep gully, and hubby's work finally paid off.  

The picture above is the natural creek in the woods.  Can you see the tiny water fall?  So much fun!

The picture below is one of the creeks hubby built.  It's grand fun when it really rains around here.  Suddenly, it sound like we live next to a river.  And then it all drains away, and it's normal again.  Just wanted to share.  I thought these were some really cool pictures.

And in somewhat related news, as we figure out how to channel some of this water into a pond,  here are my super-rapidly growing Muscovy Ducks.

Aren't they cute!?  Camera shy.  But cute.  I brought these babies home in a small shoebox 3 weeks ago.  The four of them didn't fill 1/3 of the box.  Now, i'd have to use one shoe box per duck.  They're huge!

Looks like Celery, Eats like a Potato?

I'm  a little stuck on foraging.  That workshop i went to last week made an impact on me, and i have a lot of foraging interest to work out before i can talk about other things too much.

Like for example, i haven't told you yet, that while i was at said workshop last week, my husband went to the store and bought me a CAR.  Yeah,  I haven't even told you that yet.

So, back to foraging.

One of the most intriguing parks of the Edible Weeds Nature Walk that i told you about last week, was the part about the Dwarf Palmetto.  A plant that grows profusely in my little wet woods, and one which i have considered to be a weed.  Rumor has it that some misguided migratory birds must have accidentally pooped  Dwarf Palmetto seeds in our forests some hundreds of years ago, and that's why we have tiny wannabe Palm Trees growing in the middle of the Piney Woods.

Well, to my delight, Merriwether (you know, the edible weeds guy) told us that the tap-root-ish part of this thing is a wonderful source of starchy calories, and it "looks like celery and eats like a potato."  Or at least that's the way i remember it.

So this past week, i got inspired in the middle of my day that i was going to dig up some Palmetto Root and see what's up with this potato celery business.  I raced (at all the normal speeds i usually race home, but with greater purpose) home after work, changed my clothes, and found a shovel as fast as i could.  Before i started digging, i pulled up the Dwarf Palmetto entry on Merriwether's website, and then i started digging.

Here are the Palmetto's,

Here are their root balls.

Here is what was left after i peeled back all the fronds, etc., according to Merriwether's instructions.

Then i peeled a little more.

He said it would be a little sweeter if i roasted it a bit, so i put it in the oven for a few minutes.

I think i missed something.  That's nothing like a celery or a potato.  And it wasn't edible.  

BUT, like Edison or Bell, or some scientist who failed a lot before doing something that would change American life for the forseeable future, i will press on.  Perhaps, with the Palmetto, i'll just wait for the berries in the Spring.

Today, in a less effort-laden experiment in foraging, i went outside and clipped some dandelion-ish family weeds to add to my salad.  Not too bad.  And while i was out there, i remembered that some of our lettuce plants from last year's mostly failed garden, had started growing, and those were delicious!

Woodland Salads

When we first bought this house, almost 3 1/2 years ago, and the tiny forest that comes with it, i was fascinated with all the wonderful plant life around me.

I spent hours and days and weeks scouring the internet and taking pictures of my plants and trees, in order to identify what is around me and what it's good for.  I dreamed of learning to use the forest as a natural pharmacy to treat minor ailments, scratches, burns, allergies....what have you.

I learned a few things, but i was also learning about raising a thousand chickens and how to butcher chickens and how to survive without running water, and .....what have you.

The dream remained, but was dormant.

This past weekend, i was happy to attend a Wildlife Workshop, put on by Texas Parks and Wildlife at a nature center near Houston.  The entire day was very interesting, but the real reason i went was for the optional extra at the end of the day:  Edible Weeds Nature Walk.

Oh BOY!!!!

A fascinating gentleman, with a name that will force you to speak with a European accent, Dr. Vorderbruggen, took us on a seemingly haphazard walk around the nature center's yard, next to a small wet woods, and told us how to eat virtually every other plant we saw.  Thankfully, he also pointed out the ones that would keep us on the potty for unpleasant periods of time.

Very helpful.  And the absolute most fun of the day!

If you live in my area, and actually even if you don't, you might find this website as wonderful and fascinating and helpful as i do.  Dr. Vorderbruggen also goes by the name Merriweather, and this is his beautifully indexed and informational foraging site:

www.foragingtexas.com

On that site, you can also find a link to Merriweather's facebook page, where he helps with plant identification and highlights items that are in season at the time.  Tons of fun!!!!

And now i'm looking forward to making completely free salads from the impossible to kill weeds in my yard.  I might even propogate them!

Woohoo!

Yes, i'm a little giddy.

It's really NOT for lack of trying.

You may or may not recall that the last time i wrote, i was eagerly anticipating the impending debut of Muscovy Ducks in Rogers Country.  And then there was dead blog air for some two weeks.

Sorry about that.

I tried to blog, but something went wrong with my free dial-up internet connection, and while i could connect, i couldn't make anything happen beyond that.  It seemed silly to call customer service to complain that my completely free service wasn't working fast enough, so i decided i would type an entry on my computer, transfer it to my phone, and attempt to publish that way.

I wrote a really cute and informative blog entry about all the wonderfulness of muscovy ducks, and when i was finished, edited, and ready to transport, the program failed and erased my blog entry.

I believe this is know by some in the blogosphere as and "epic fail."

Thus, i broke down, made my decision, and coughed up enough cash for the cheapest and slowest DSL connection possibly available from my local telephone co-op, and that i how i am writing to you today.

And now, i give you the long awaited ducky cuteness.

Adorable, aren't they?

More adorable ducky pictures are located here.

Don't forget, these aren't your average Aflac Ducks; these are Muscovy Ducks.  They will grow up to forage for their own food, raise their own young, and make wonderfully non-greasy, lean, yummy beefy dinners.  Or at least that is what i am led to believe.  I guess i will see what i see, and hopefully these will be a big step toward self-sustaining meat production for our home.