Ducks to water…

This morning was very focused on decluttering. Ady did a couple of runs to the tip, Davies and Scarlett played with the ducks while Ady moved their house into the car and I went through the ensuite bathroom clearing stuff. I now have a pile of stuff to use up before we go, a pile to bring with us and a large amount to have one go at being listed on ebay of lotions, potions, lipsticks, powders and paints. Oh and a big bin liner for the tip. Another room cleared :).

We loaded the ducks into the car and drove over to Tom’s Mum & Dad’s. Ady and I had a coffee with Tom and his parents while the kids headed down to the lake with the dogs (there are four; a terrier, a dalmation and one golden and one black labrador), then we drove down to the lake in the pick up with the ducks in their house and Ady and Tom carried them down the final bit.

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Ady and the kids rowed out into the lake with the ducks and sited the house on one of the small islands in the middle. The hope is that they will go there at night to sleep and for Sploosh to lay her egg. The islands are far out enough for the dogs and foxes to not swim out to so they will be safe there.

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The ducks were then put into the water and Ady rowed back while they quacked and splashed and dived :).

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The ducks explored the lake pretty thoroughly and got stuck in eating weed and enjoying the space. Unfortunately the dogs were really interested in them and the stupidly tame ducks kept trying to clamber out of the lake to be with Scarlett. Scarlett said goodbye and our intention was to walk away but the ducks tried to follow and two of the dogs got rather too close for comfort taking a real go at them. The others had already moved off so Scarlett and I had to drag the dogs off the ducks (they had been more ‘worrying’ them than properly attacking) and away from them. I never thought I’d face off a dog, let alone voluntarily grabbing it’s collar and forcibly moving it. I’ve not mentioned it much (and indeed completely ignored it on the WW blog) but knowing I would have to overcome my dog phobia sufficiently to deal with all the many dogs we are inevitably going to come into contact with next year has been playing heavily on my mind. So this felt like quite a breakthrough :).

I kept putting the ducks back in the water and they kept scrambling back out so in the end I picked up one under each arm and walked round to the reeds which were both more attractive and harder to climb out from and put them in there. Scarlett and I had a few minutes watching them from afar while she composed herself. She did cry but was very philosophical about it and kept saying ‘it is the best thing for them, it is the right thing to do’. I was so incredibly proud of her 🙂 🙂 🙂 My lovely sorted, brave girl.

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She’s loved those ducks from way back when they were still eggs and now they are laying eggs of their own it was time to let them go.

Scarlett and I walked back up together, talked to the pigs and looked at the chickens (they have two couple of week old chicks, both hens) and by the time we rejoined the others Scarlett had dried her eyes and was feeling good about the whole thing. We’d had a backwards glance at the ducks on the lake and she knew it was the very best place for them.

We were about to head for home but Tom and his Dad were off to do some feeding and releasing partridges and invited us to join them. They are both keen hunters / fishers / shooters and buy in partridge and pheasant chicks, keep them in various pens locally, feed them and release them in waves and then shoot them when the season starts. I have to say I am not at all keen on hunting for sport. As a meat eater I would always choose first meat I had managed to catch / kill myself because I was hungry and I personally justify eating meat, birds and fish on the basis it has had a good life, been humanely killed and respected and eaten and enjoyed with as little waste as possible. I don’t think I support culling animals because of their nusiance value and I don’t like killing for sport when the meat is not then eaten. That said Tom’s shoots keep us in game birds for much of the year so I can’t really judge.

So today was checking on birds, releasing some from some of the pens and putting out feed. The idea is by penning and feeding them in specific areas you get them used to staying there so when you have released them all they stay in the vicinity then are driven out by beaters so they can be shot. We went to five different sites, saw and fed pheasants that had already been released but are hanging around for the feed and released about half the partridges. Both the kids had a go at holding and then throwing up a partridge to watch it fly and we all rode in the back of the pick up truck which was loads of fun 🙂

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At one point the truck got stuck in a HUGE puddle (over the top of grown ups wellies!) so all the grown ups had to get out, create a human chain to empty the sacks of feed weighing it down out, help push the truck and then load all the sacks back in again. Ady had rather foolishly taken his wellies off to drive and not put them back on so got utterly muddy 🙂

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It was a really nice couple of hours, everyone got thoroughly muddy, dealt with livestock, did plenty of outdoorsy stuff and enjoyed riding in the back of the truck. We drove away having said goodbye all feeling very excited about the prospect of plenty of the above making up our day to day lives next year :).

Back home again I ran a bath for the kids, Ady put the chickens away including the newly hatched chick. We’ve decided to let the couple of broody hens sit on the eggs they are jealously guarding and sell the resulting chicks as soon as they are ready for sale – we now have lots more room for chickens again with the ducks gone.

The kids had a sleepover, I watched X Factor and Ady cooked a pheasant curry – I wasn’t keen, I think pheasant is better casseroled or roasted although the curry sauce itself (which Ady made from scratch) was very good.

And now everyone else is asleep and I have got caught up in Come Dine with Me and can’t possibly go to bed til I know who has won!