Life

They are coming!

After working on some chores, the girls and I headed out to check on Mama Duck. She was hissing in a different tone this evening.

Sure enough, we heard faint sounds of "Peep! Peep! Peep!"

One little duckling was hatched out. It looked nearly dead, but I think it was just traumatized from the exertion of getting out of the shell. Another duckling had beak sticking out of the shell, peeping like mad. Yet another was tap, tap, tapping on its shell, making it rock back and forth. Just like real human babies, they look a lot better some time after the birthing process.

We wanted to stick around and watch the whole show. Maggie ran to the house and grabbed Patrick to join us. But after several minutes of absolutely no change, we got tired and headed back to our chores. Mama Duck was thankful for our boredom.

Due to the extreme amounts of rain, the bottom part of our big garden has been flooded for some time. Since I haven't planted much, the weeds have taken over. I was about to send Patrick for the weedeater when the light bulb went off in my head.

We have living weedeaters!

All of a sudden, I saw the value of those goats. Maggie herded them over to the garden, and she, Rose, Patrick and I fenced in our garlic and onions. Nobody touched the potatoes so we put on some more hay mulch and left them alone.

I wish you could have seen the herd attack the yellow dock! They were amazing!

As I watched, I wondered how long it would take for the crew to clean up the plot.

Then I heard the baaa of one of the lambs.

I grabbed Patrick and we went to herd the flock over to the garden, with the help of a couple of friends who dropped by (thanks, Mike and Lex!).

So now we are wagering on how many days it takes for those guys to weed the garden. Isn't organic living wonderful? ( just so they don't figure out how to knock down our fence and eat up all that beautiful garlic and the onions!)

Late May in Virginia is a lovely time. All is sweet and moist and green and lush. I think if you stuck a lamp post into the soil it would grow.