Ducks!

March 11, 2025

Our ducks: Ava, Goose, and Geoffrey, snuggled up for an afternoon nap

This past week has been quite the dichotomy of highs and lows.

Every time we have planned to get our ducks, some issue has arisen and we have had to put off getting them by a few weeks, a month, a weekend. So when we finally went to collect our ducks on Saturday, I could have squealed with excitement the whole drive. Along with two ducks and a drake, we got two more chickens to keep Bennie company. The rescue lady asked if we specifically wanted the ones we’ve had previously, and we said not at all, everyone is welcome. So she gave us two gorgeous girls who needed homed together as they had come in together.

Both of our chickens are little mini ones! Don’t misunderstand me, they aren’t pullets, they are just a wee tiny breed and I’m excited to see how small their eggs are! Quite the equilibrium given the size of the duck’s eggs. Bilbo (yes like the hobbit) has black feathers and slightly fluffy feet, and the other is ginger all over, and she is Guinevere (like the queen), but we mostly just call her Ginny. The ducks are called Goose and Ava and our drake is Geoffrey. To our surprise, Bennie has started no arguments when merging these flocks, and everyone has settled in really quickly. We have been gifted one duck egg a day since we brought them home, and bed time gets easier every night.

We have been getting up thirty minutes before sunrise to let the ducks out and fill their little pond with clean water. Our new favourite routine has to be drinking coffee while watching Geoffrey splash about in the pond, soaking everyone and everything within a five feet radius. He flaps his wings and quacks with such joie de vivre that I cannot help but love him, even if I’m getting splashed in the process. Ginny and Bilbo are funny little things - the small ones are always a little more skittish (I say, throwing stones from my glass house) and Bilbo in particular has surprised us with her aerial skills a few times. I am very proud to say that Bennie is a recovered bully, and with this new flock she has adopted a maternal role, cleaning them and showing off her favourite spots for a dust bath. Bennie the Bastard no more!

Unfortunately, I have torn my hamstring. It was entirely my own fault. We were playing with our young nibling, in whom we always try to get instill interest in exercise, and eating vegetables. I had not warmed up in any way, and decided to show them my pancake straddle. I bounced a little into it, knowing I have been very close to full chest contact with the ground recently, but instead was rewarded with a very loud POP, and an immediate slackening the whole way down my leg. I am a figure skater, a climber, and spend most days of the week at the gym, ice rink, or out by the lough for a run or walk. We try to do at least a little yoga every day, and our life in the hut is very active, from climbing up onto stools to get another loaf of the delicious Biona sprouted rye bread we have stashed away, to carrying breeze blocks from on end of the field to the other, or even just chasing after our ducks, who have decided they don’t want to go to bed tonight. Along with the fact that I need to be active to get ahead of the growing season, I have recently discovered that most of my hobbies are sports based, and that my life revolves around one kind of physical activity or another. I truly love all of the sports I do, and I’m gutted to take an undetermined amount of time off.

Today my leg is feeling much better thank I expected, which fills me with hope and gratitude. As a result, I have been able to do a good amount of work in the field. Thanks to db lifting a very heavy piece of equipment from the collapsed polytunnel, I was able to clear most of the rest of the wreckage. I filled six compost bags with debris, moved all the breeze blocks into a neat stack, and all of the huge stones and ancient rusted farming relics we have found through digging, are now in a pile ready to use to border flower beds, duck pond ramps, weighing down cardboard, or whatever else. We now have lots of space to plant, and have managed to reclaim all of our equipment that was stuck or wedged between breezeblocks and the bars of the polytunnel. I cut back a lot of the brambles that were trying to root, and started work on a hot bed.

I planted some more herbs at the front of the hut for easy access making lazy salads, and repotted our wild strawberries to see how much they can spread. Our eucalyptus looked a wee bit sad, so she got a new pot too. All this and I still had time to laugh at the ducks. Our peas have started to grow increasingly quickly, and along with our other veggies starting to sprout, I’ve even spotted a glimpse of the start of our chamomile. Our rhubarb has reappeared and our berry bushes have started to bud. We are delighted to welcome longer, brighter days, and feel as though we have the best of both with clear frosty mornings, and late morning sun that lasts right through to early evening. This means we get more solar, which in turn means that I get to play more video games, which makes it easier to relax and play video games with my leg up while db fusses over me, instead of worrying about when I can start skating again.

(aj)