So last night in bed at around 11:30 my mind was working through the day, and I couldn't quite reconcile my end of day duties. G was already asleep, and I woke him to say I wasn't sure if I'd locked the ducks up. He said he was sure I had--I'm good like that. But experience doesn't mean you don't make mistakes. Over and over I tried to replay the end of the day, but I kept getting stuck at the visual of the three youngest ducks running out at dusk, and then me asking G if he'd seen them go back to bed. I didn't recall shooing any of them in from the run to the coop, doing a head count, and shutting the door. After close to one thousand days of doing this each night can tend to run into the next.
I kept melting into sleep, and then finally snapped out of it and decided I'd have to go out and check, or my dreams would let me know I'd made a poor decision. I found all of the ducks safe in their run, enjoying their buckets of water, and sort of looking like they knew they were up past their bed time and it was an exciting and naughty thing. Their run is not predator proof, in fact the gate was wide open.
I remembered afterward what had distracted me, other than being tired, still under the weather, and just wanting to go inside and see my sweety. When he got home I told him the sap bucket was full, so he emptied it and got it on the boil, and then hooked the hoses up again. What distracted me was going to check the setup, since earlier in the day we'd lost a lot of sap because of an air lock in the line, and it backed up and spilled down the trunk. In only ten minutes of reattaching the setup it was already backing up. So as I was intent on fixing it I passed over the ducks, then closed up the Flan crew, then the banties in the garage runs.
I'm glad my subconscious helped me out. It could have ended poorly.
A friend of mine just had a farm tragedy. She'd adopted and rehabbed a duck who'd come into the wildlife rehab centre with severe frost bite, and lost her feet. She was very special and a beloved member of their farm. This duck had accidentally flown into the drakes' coop, and then was severely beaten and likely raped through the night. Muscovies are horrible in this way. The duck had severe trauma to her back and head, and was likely going to lose an eye. Today she posted that her beloved little duck passed away in her arms last night. So sad!
Hoping our spring goes smoothly, animals will behave, and I can minimize mistakes.
It's 10 pm. Just eating dinner now. I went out to get firewood and discovered it's snowing!!
Good night.
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