Returning to the Farm and videos of the flock

It is amazing what kind of perspective-facelift a vacation can bring. Once we were slaves to the demands of our animals and the sensitivity of our plants. When we arrived home from our vacation we had a renewed idea of our little farm.
First of all, we took ten days away at the coast to celebrate a reunion and Independence Day. We took along Enslaved By Ducks by Bob Tarte with the recommendation of two of our favorite aunts. The story tells a tale of animals that is a similar variation of what we have a Rosefield. As we read of adventures with bunnies, ducks, and geese, we found ourselves missing our animals. The kids talked about the cats and Grimsby. I couldn’t help but wonder about our poultry and bunnies in the heat or our yard and garage.
When we arrived home I couldn’t help but see the animals in a new light. We let our daddy bunny, Sebastian, out of his cage to wander the yard. I have looked at the animals as mostly an obligation. After being away I saw them as having some unique personality. Sebastian is unwilling to go too far from his wife, Bigwig, who lay in her cage with the bottom pulled out. He defended his bride by surrounding the cage and chasing off much bigger cats and ducks. Every once and a while he would lay next to her as she ambitiously applied her wild instincts attempting to tunnel under her cage and destroying our lawn. They would grunt at each other as they both felt nature’s urges that couldn’t be satisfied with the barrier of the cage.

You see mostly flock in this video with Sebastian in the background. In the end he goes charging toward the flock and his caged love. Then there are our ducks. We coaxed the whole flock out to the front yard as we enjoyed our evening and watched them dabble in the grass. They are each so unique. Guppy is our huge Pekin that seems to always be out of breath. Fran is a silver-blue Swede that is almost Guppy’s size but much more fleet of foot. Confit is our Indian Runner. She is half the size of Guppy and stands up straight. Her voice is a whisper. She is the first duck and is responsible for this whole, crazy flock. Lastly we have the Rouens; Dabble and Billina. Billina is demure and looks like a wild mallard hen. She is easily lost in the flock except for her beautiful blue stripe. Dabble is our lone drake. Nearly the size of Guppy and Fran he is strongly encouraged to exercise his drakely will upon the ladies as he matures. As he continues to grow his head is turning more and more the brilliant green of his wild mallard counterparts. I love our animals. I used to love just the plants. The animals were far too much hassle and the returns diminished in comparison to the investment. After all, we have lost the garden on more than one occasion to our chickens. Perhaps Carly has used the sheer volume of animals to soften my heart to these things, because now that we have a zoo I find myself truly concerned about their wellbeing. Here is our flock of five on a rare visit to the yard. Meet Guppy our Plus-sized Pekin Meet Fran our Swedish princess Ethan presents, Confit, our "stand up straight" Indian Runner.

I’m not the only one that seems to have changed. As I have ooed and awed over our menagerie Carly spent a good amount of time trying to determine what the unplanted plants (otherwise known as weeds) are in our yard. As she seeks out actual names, food value, characteristics, and legend, I see my wife becoming a practical botanist. Our garden has grown tremendously and so have the weeds which have spiked her curiosity.
When we left I was concerned that the garden would die. I even dreamed about it. I dreaded that the starts that we left on the patio table would die. They did. I obsessed over the unfinished project of retransplanting the artichokes because I didn’t place them properly and building bigger tomato teepees because our cages seemed to be too small. But all was okay. For every squash start that was dead on the table we found a volunteer in the newly turned artichoke patch. If there is ever a change, a feeling of peace, a feeling of ‘I can’t control anything, including nature,’ I felt it today.