March 30th, 2017 | 
Author: So this happened today…
Bubbles was lonely. She is happy and ok if I keep her with her sister chicks, but their size difference is getting out of control. Everyone I discussed it with insisted that ducks shouldn’t be solo… Once they are grown and can be incorporated into the flock everything will be fine but there will be a big space of time when that won’t be. So, I went and got her a friend. What? A friend you say? You think I have a counting problem? It’s true but I have to defend myself. The store won’t sell only one duck. So I had to get two… really…)
The problem with this store is that they don’t really know what they’re doing. I was a little sad because the babies had no water. They told me they had just arrived at the store 45 minutes earlier but ducks with no water? That’s not ok…
Anyway… No names yet. I did some research and I think one is a white crested and the other is a Campbell Khaki but only time will tell… But they are cute and the brown one is very enthusiastic.
So now… my flock is up to 15. ENOUGH! (for now 🙂 )
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Over spring break I made a birthday cake for my son and his wife. Their birthdays are just 6 days apart in April and so I thought it would be fun to have a mini pre-party. I asked my grandchildren to help decorate the cake. That was a bit messy but… oh well….
I learned an important piece of baking information during this round of cake. My son asked for chocolate ganache frosting and that was no problem. BUT, I bought the richest, darkest chocolate I could find. Of course, nothing is too good for my family. (insert eye roll here, but I was trying to make it extra special). Well, guess what? Although that is good, it’s not sweet enough for frosting and just turns out to be heavy and dark. There wasn’t enough sugar! Lesson learned…
When I got home from my trip, it was clear that bubbles had outgrown her latest tub. Did I mention that it’s 54 gallons? Anyway, I realized a change needed to be made so off we went to the barn. I put up the circle fencing, put in a big bucket of water and food, etc… and popped her in. Won’t she be happy?
Nope… no sisters. I thought she’d get used to it, but 36 hours later she was still crying and running into the wire trying to escape. I put her back in with her sisters and I’ll make a different plan this weekend.
We spent a few days of our spring break in beautiful Tucson. The weather is warm but spectacular!
Sunset…
The beautiful desert… We hiked today and it was wonderful.
When we come into the room to clean the box (3 times a day) or just say,”hi!” or try to get cute pics with bubbles in cute poses, bubbles generally gives us the cold shoulder. As a matter of fact, she tries to hide…behind her sisters. The problem is, bubbles is three times larger than the chicks now. So it’s rather humorous.
Yep, that’s her, peeking out but trying to hide. It’s so cute. She’s completely unaware of her size. Her sisters play along. “Sure, we’ll hide you. Just act cool,” they seem to say.
I keep trying to get bubbles to swim because, she is after all, a duck. But, no such luck…
She found the place where she could stand and turned her back to me.
Being wrapped in a towel is much more her style.
We are amazed at how quickly bubbles is growing. She arrived 6 days ago just a tad larger than her chick sisters. Now she is almost 2x their size.
I have taken to putting her into odd spots and taking pictures. She is sweet, cute and willing to pose.
She actually loved being in this spot for this pic and I realized that she was having a nibble of the leaves!
So yesterday Chris, Jeannie and I flew down to Lebanon.
It was a beautiful day and I nice flight. We went to a local restaurant called Elm Street and we had a nice little lunch. Then we got to the main event – a trip to Cackle Hatchery.
First, I chose 4 chicks that my friend requested. She want a Welsummer, a silver laced wyandotte, a black astralorp and a buff orpington. They had all but one. We got her a cinnamon queen instead of a buff orpington. Of course, if you look in the box a few minutes later, it looks a bit more crowded…
There are two extra cinnamon queens and a little yellow and black…. duck!
Yes, this is bubbles… she is sooo adorable. I don’t have any duck skills yet but I am about to acquire them!
Planted tomatoes, melon, cucumber and peppers inside on Saturday. My sister-in-law got me a grow-lite for Christmas. I am still worried about the warmth though. I worry it’s not warm enough to sprout the seeds…. 
I ordered my seeds from Territorial this year. A friend and I spent a happy lunch hour choosing from the catalog!
Violets….