Friday, May 18, 2012

Farewell feathered friends...

I'm back...again! Don was on vacation last week and I didn't get to post. We had our hands full trying to get the garden planted and taking care of Strayhorn, the injured rooster. We managed to get 48 potato starts planted, two patches of corn, four peppers (two each of two different varieties), green beans and cucumbers. Don also did a lot of mowing and bush-hogging and I did a lot of running in circles!

Sadly, our efforts to save Strayhorn were in vain. He died yesterday and is now buried out at the garden. He will be missed, especially by Don and I. We'll miss his gentle nature...a blessing after the last evil rooster we had (who should have been named Diablo instead of Randy)! We'll miss Strayhorn's afternoon crowing and the soft way he would chide the hens in the evening as he urged them to head for the roost.

I don't know when, or even if, we'll get another rooster. I fear we won't be as lucky as we were with Strayhorn, who didn't have a mean streak like most roosters do. If karma decides we need another one, I'm sure we'll take it in and give it a home.

On another sad note, our duck, Ducky, also died on Mother's Day. I'd noticed Saturday evening when I was feeding the ducks and chickens that Ducky was not herself. She was lying down next to the hutch and didn't come to eat. Normally, she would have been all excited hoping I'd brought fish. Don stood her up, but she just laid back down.  Sunday morning Don went out to check on her and found Ducky with her head tucked like she was just sleeping. The other female duck, Ping, was lying next to Ducky.

She was getting old, we've had her almost eight years, so it wasn't a huge surprise, but we will also miss Ducky very much. She was our first duck and had more character and charm than a lot of people! Don loved the way Ducky would "talk" to us, especially if we had the blue bucket with fish in it, and the way she would wag her tail when she was excited.

So it goes on the farm. It's never easy to say farewell, but we know it is a part of life and accept that there will be farewells...sadness along with the joy that our feathered friends bring us.

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