pick-a-little, talk-a-little

i told you i would tell the story of florence the chick one day. well let me start by saying the story of florence quickly became the story of florence and the un-named turkey polt...which soonthereafter became the story of florence and a duckling called pascal.

it all began with a saxony duck mama who ventured from our pond to the wood shed to lay and sit on a nest of eggs. some busy-body, freeloading chicken of ours saw this as the golden of opportunities and...whilst little duck mama went on food & water breaks...lay a couple of her own, decidedly un-duck eggs in the nest. little duck mama being the non-discriminating sort of duck lady that she is took the high road and sat on all the eggs in the wood shed...duck and chicken alike.

one morning...some 21-28 days later (chicken & duck incubation days, respectively) the humans of longest acres backyard-farm heard a great squawking emanating from the bowels of the wood shed. little duck mama was beside herself, powerless to the NOT ONE BUT TWO large black snakes circling her nest. the great strong humans screamed and pushed with long branches the black snakes away, but they did not kill them.

black snakes are good...well good comparatively....good if you can call any snake good because they are not venomous and are rather territorial...meaning, they keep the copperheads at bay. which is VERY GOOD and we appreciate this to no end mister black snake! even though these are the facts two things remain very true. 1. every time i see any snake i cannot help but wish evil upon it. this is a gut reaction that i am not proud of but cannot control. 2. their favorite snack appears to be new-born birds of the cute and cuddly and loved variety.

so the humans were left in a predicament if ever there was one. let the black snakes live and continue to eat every duckling/chick that hatched from our saxony's nest,  allowing for nature to take it course of terror? NO!! do we then kill the black snake and thereby violently interfere with the sacred but maliciously ironic circle of life? shame on you! NO! the humans came to a sordid compromise; incubating the final, surviving eggs in the safety of the farm's shop. leaving the black snake hungry and, most likely, vengeful, and abandoning the duck mama... egg-less, horrified, and undoubtedly confused. yes, it was a horrid solution....though i'm not sure what would have been best.

four ducklings survived and one chick. three of those ducklings are being raised alongside the farm's baby turkeys. but for one, pascal. he, and florence, the chick, are living in our mud room. i'd always wanted a chick and a duck. ever since joey and chandler got one.

so there you are. our newest house-guests. pascal and florence.