*Ok. Magic had nothing to do with it. Nor the miracle of Nature. My husband and I started feeling a little too comfortable with what we had on our plates and decided we were ready for the next element: more ducks! This is a bit of a character quirk for us: we rarely slow down or take it easy. When we’ve gotten cozy with one step (like moving in together or acclimating to a new job), we throw another log on the fire (like adopting a dog or getting married! Or on a bigger scale: moving out of the city and totally rethinking our lifestyle!).

So. Last blog I’d written about wanting geese. I still do! But there’s the issue of the coop door being way too small to fit geese, and we haven’t been able to figure out a solution to that yet. Plus, I started reading about the potential aggression of geese toward ducks and humans during mating season. Which we happen to be smack in the middle of! (Well, not us personally of course, but the calendar is against us). Not to mention, the breed of goslings I want- Pilgrim- are completely sold out for the year, both locally and online! And then last week I was scrolling through Craigslist Farm and Garden, my new favorite shopping site, and I saw an Indian Runner female duck for sale. She’s one of the other duck breeds I’ve been interested in. (In addition to Cayga. They’re black with a green tint to their feathers and the females lay black eggs. No joke. Look it up.) As for Indian Runners, they’re roughly the same weight as the Welsh Harlequins we have, but their carriage is very different. They’re longer and slimmer and hold themselves upright and actually do run, as opposed to waddle. When they’re standing straight they resemble a bowling pin or, as I like to think, a wine bottle. The Craigslist post said the duck was about to start laying, which would make her almost exactly the same age as our OGs (the nickname my husband has given to Patty, Maxine and Laverne). This would streamline all their nutritional needs and we could feed everyone the same thing at the same time!

I reached out to the owner, and she explained there was nothing wrong with the duck, but she just wanted to downsize since she had way too many (ha! I can understand how that happened). She asked if we could wait a few days for a lull in the mating since one of her drakes seemed to like this duck a lot, and she didn’t want to cause any disruption. This gave me time to wring my hands and wonder what the heck I was doing. Was I being greedy? Impulsive? Was I about to ruin a perfectly good setup when I should have left well enough alone? My husband and I started making the necessary adjustments regardless. We set up a temporary partition in the outdoor run with a roll of fencing bought from Lowe’s for about $25. This created a section where the new duck could get exercise and explore her new home without getting bullied by the current ducks. And more importantly, any bacteria or germs she’d be bringing from her farm wouldn’t have the chance to infect our OGs. As we’ve learned from Covid, there’s a period of germination when any symptoms of illness become apparent, and it’s recommended in the livestock world that any new animals should be quarantined for 30 days before integration.

The night before we were supposed to pick up our new ward, I got an email from the owner saying she’d also have an additional hen available in the new few weeks, if we were interested in her as well. I wondered if this was a sign that I was getting in too deep and should pull the plug now before we were drowning in ducks. I spoke to my husband over dinner that night and he made the call I couldn’t: we were getting this duck. The next morning I reached out to confirm and asked about the second duck…was she maybe available now? I see how our OGs move as a pack and I didn’t love the idea of a new duck being solo for a whole month as she explored her new surroundings. The owner wrote back and said that yes, it could work for me to take both ladies that day! After the enthusiastic go-ahead from my husband, I got on the road and went to pick them up!

I pulled into their driveway an hour later and saw them both in their crate, waiting to be picked up. And saw their drake standing guard. And I nearly lost my nerve. The owner admitted he’d been keeping watch on them since she crated them and hadn’t left their side. (Gah! My heart!) When I moved them to my own crate and carried them to the car, the drake ran after us! I asked the owner (former owner), if she was sure she really wanted to do this, because I was willing to walk away. But she said she had no choice, that she had too many animals and these girls needed to go. She assured me that she had some younger ducks she was introducing to him later that day and he’d forget about them soon enough. Ah, the inconstancy of men! But that was all the information I needed to take them home.

Now for the fun part. The decision is made and we own these two new lovelies! They’re named Joni (Mitchell), and Judy (Collins), and they’re just beautiful and we have no regrets. It means we spend a little more time in the mornings (and afternoons and evenings), to do double duty and take care not to cross-contaminate between the flocks. Luckily, we have that separate outdoor coop that until now had felt superfluous but was the perfect solution to this new setup! The temporary fence we put up loops in front of this structure and around to the gate to the run, which allows us to access it directly when we enter. To be extra cautious, we’ve started putting on disposable booties if we want to step from one “zone” to the other to minimize any germ contact. Sometimes my husband and I choose to tend to one group of ducks each, and he pointed out that I tend to choose Joni and Judy… and warned me to not forget our original girls! I guess my maternal instinct is coming out a bit as I notice Patty, Maxine, and Laverne getting a little bratty and territorial. They insist on sticking their heads through the fence and nibbling on the weeds on the other side. Grass is always greener, and all that… and sometimes if Joni and Judy are close to the fence, one of the OG will sneak up and “goose” them. I hope this is just a temporary initiation, or even flirting. Sometimes all 3 of them rush the fence and try to squeeze through, which is physically impossible but they either don’t realize this or their charge is meant to be a show of force against the new ducks. We catch them pacing back and forth in front of the gate a few times a day, like stocky little thugs protecting their turf.

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The two new ladies keep to themselves (thank goodness we got them both together!), and don’t love being handled. In fact, I’ve never gotten close enough to them to even try! My wish for a cuddly duck has yet to be fulfilled. [sigh] But they’re still so fun to watch and even though it’s been less than a week, we can notice small personality traits coming out. Joni is obsessed with the pool. I’d read that Runners aren’t big swimmers but I stuck a metal tub in there anyway and am so glad I did! She floats all day long, napping, preening, making her little duck noises. My husband and I both noticed that their quacks sound uncannily like someone saying, “Duck, duck, duck,” over and over. I guess we’ll only worry if one day they start saying, “goose.” Judy is a little more of a wallflower, and nestles under the ramp to their coop or hides in the alcove right behind it. They both are big fans of pool salad, though. And they’re great foragers, like the other ladies, so that’s a big help for the number of insects out there.

We’ve been checking their coop to look for eggs each morning, but nothing yet. If they start laying in the next few days, there’s a chance those eggs will be fertilized, since they’d been mating with a drake just last week. That’s another element we’re waiting to tackle if and when the situation arises. While I’m not in any rush to become that crazy duck lady whose backyard is full of feathers, straw, and constant quacking, I can’t say I’d hate to incubate some babies to either add to our flock or give away. But we’ll see what happens.

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In other homestead news, the nonstop rains of July took a toll on the veggies. The zucchini plant never quite got off the ground, and I may have to admit defeat with this particular vegetable. I didn’t have success with them in Brooklyn, either. Funny enough, I get sick of zucchini really fast and we’ve been getting so many in our CSA anyway. So maybe I can strike this from the list of next year’s planting. The tomato plants are still alive and producing fruit…but I don’t know for how much longer. The Sun Golds are so delicious and by far my favorite tomato, but the plants seem to be on their last legs. So I’m checking every day for any new fruit to harvest before the blight or the bugs get to them first. The carrots, however! I harvested a few this week and I was thrilled. They were either white or purple and so gorgeous and sooo tasty. Remember how I said carrots weren’t a big favorite of mine? Wrong. I’m going to grow these every year. I might even plant another crop to harvest this winter, since they don’t mind the cold. The basil, lavender, and parsley are all going strong, and I add some fresh herbs to almost every dinner we make. The jalapeños and dill have come in handy when I’ve pickled the cucumbers and green beans from our farm share each week. Our fridge now has a pretty hefty stock of dilly beans and pickles, and I’ll be sad when the season is over and so are they. Pressure canning is still a little scary to me and I’ve given myself permission to just ferment this year, and eat everything we make in the few weeks that follow. (Not hard to do, I’m finding.)

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And lastly, but certainly not least, we had a big celebration over the weekend to commemorate my husband’s birthday. I’d been planning this for a few months and had coordinated with friends in Brooklyn, Queens, and some other towns a little closer to us. We’ve slowly started to have guests for lunch or even overnight this summer, but this was going to be a little bigger- ten people for dinner at a restaurant, and then 3 overnight guests at our house for the rest of the weekend. Through the magical alchemy that’s sometimes at work for these things, it was incredible from start to finish. Gathering with a group of loved ones to celebrate a happy event is one of those simple but deeply rewarding things in life. And getting to share our special home with those people was maybe especially satisfying for me. We walked around the property, explaining what we’d already done and chatted about what we hoped to do. Our friends had some great suggestions about where to put the future apple trees and bee hives (alternating one after the other in the garden we plan to overturn), and made themselves at home in the way we’d been hoping our loved ones would.

My husband said the other night, after I asked if a friend of mine could stay for 5 days, that this place wasn’t meant for just us. It’s bigger than us and wants to be shared. That’s exactly it. While I am an introvert and could easily keep to myself for days on end, I want for this place to be a haven. I’m still getting used to being around people for extended periods, but I dream about friends coming to stay for a week or more, feeling the freedom to roam as they please. It’s funny to think about how much we used to travel, since now I’m really content being here to watch things grow and check for eggs each morning. I do want to travel again, and will soon, but I’m so thrilled to have found the place where I want to stay.

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