Directions, ducks, Dolly the dog

I have often found myself at odds with the decisions made in bubbly discussions between Mama, Victoria, Grandma and Grandpa of just how easy it would be to get any certain thing done here at the farm. I am, in many those situations, looked at as a nay-sayer, a wet blanket, a daddy downer when I point out the obvious flaws in making those simple thing happen. But lately I have been involved only on the periphery of discussions of how to provide private housing for Grandma and Grandpa – all of which will cost a considerable amount of money. But the reality of their situation is that they have been dumped here without their camper home or any means of transportation. Norman sold both their camper and their truck. They own nothing but their clothing and a few personal items – no furniture, no appliances, no vehicle, and very little money.

It is not difficult to sympathize with their situation and it is predictable that as Grandpa gets ever stronger that the feeling that they need a place of their own would become a powerful alure. To that end, Mama set up appointment to meet with the man who put in the septic system we had put in service at the house several years ago. He came yesterday and I found out after the fact that the placement of the sites (Yes, sites, plural. One for Grandma and Grandpa and one for Victoria.) were somewhat different than what I had suggested to Mama. Again, a consensus arrived at in my absence, but not a bad idea when I thought it over. The price is substantial and non-negotiable. That is a stating point in beginning the process of determining the cost to complete this mission – should we choose to accept it.

Mama has found a camper available for Grandma and Grandpa that could be rented on a month-by-month basis through a personal friend. Water and electric are readily available at the selected sites. The electric portion will be a bit expensive but doable since there is a separate electric meter in the barn lot that we would tap into for the campers. It would be fairly easy then to know the separate cost of the electricity for the campers since each electric meter on the farm is billed separately. With all the pieces coming together, we could potentially have the camper for Grandma and Grandpa set up by the end of October. It would be useful in that setting to have a side-by-side for either Mama or Grandma to commute between houses. But that is a decision for a different time.

Having gotten the large ducks into the new enclosure, they seem fairly happy with the area in general. They are not curious like the chickens, so they have not gone out of their way to look the enclosure over preferring instead to spend all their time in one area near the pool. They only waddled up the ramp to the elevated portion of the enclosure when I purposely herded them that direction. On that elevated portion is the large box I built for them to hide in when they feel the need – and hopefully to lay their eggs. Since these three ducks are only three months old, they are basically very large chicks without the instruction of older birds to help them along in their adaptation to our farm.

That is one of the reasons they felt so comfortable around the chickens when we would let them out of their precious enclosure. They need a little guidance. So, this weekend Mama and I are going to see if the gentleman who sells chickens at Trade Days has any older ducks for sale. Perhaps, having some older ducks will accelerate our ability to collect duck eggs as well as teach our large chicks the finer points of being a duck. I do not know if that will be possible, but it is worth a try depending on the price of the older ducks.

Dolly the dog is working out well enough. She and Gemma have become fast friends, so the integration is complete. She is marvelous with visitors and almost every child that has been on the farm is unafraid of her. The only caveat is that Dolly is a digger and if I cannot work that out of her by threatening or training, I am going to be constantly upset at her leisure activities. On the positive side, Dolly seems to be very compliant, very eager to please us, me especially. So hopefully we can curtail the tunneling through the yard and around the slabs of buildings here on the farm. Also on the positive side, she and Gemma have been patrolling and responding to alarms on the back side of the property via the pathway beside the shop. That is one of the last things I needed to see to ensure that Dolly would work out as a guard dog versus a playmate for Gemma.

It is, as always, the little things that make life interesting.