What Season Are You Mastering? Seasons beget lessons on the farm.
Lessons from the farm this month – water and more water. So much water! This month started with a broken pipe under the house. The flooding caused our house to shift, which caused a door to drag, which then scarred the hardwood floor. This broken pipe is the same one that had burst on Christmas Day. It was still under warranty, thank goodness, but what a watery mess.
Rain hit the following day. Too much rain! It caused our front yard and one of our coops, the bachelor pad, to flood. FACT: Silkie chickens can be cold. Or wet. But not cold and wet. So, we had to do some chicken shuffling to keep the bachelors dry. Speaking of bachelors, we have two sweet black Silkie roosters (roos) needing coops of their own. These boys are pet quality and love taking mealworms from your hand. Contact me if you want a roo.
As the ground dried out, we realized that our septic fields were, in fact, not drying. Yep, more broken pipes, this time septic pipes. Septic fields cannot be fixed until they dry out, meaning trips to the laundromat for us, along with strategic showering to keep gray water from running into our alpaca pasture!
Observation: Six dogs (counting boarders) + a soupy septic field = lots of muddy paws to clean. Also many more dirty towels.
Then came the epic Central Texas ice storm, wreaking havoc on our treasured trees and more water for our struggling septic field.
Lesson from Farm Animals: Reality Is About Perspective
February is never an easy month for me as it marks the death of two important people who greatly impacted my life. It is also a dreary gray month; a let-down after the holidays and too soon to look forward to Spring. If not for Charley’s birthday, I’d skip it entirely. My familiar February blues, along with having covid, incentivized me to turn to my Father, and that led me to Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under Heaven.
For us, this past month was the season for water. Too much of a good thing is, well, not a good thing. However, the alpacas are enjoying the early green pastures, and our flock of ducks and geese love having a full pond. Speaking of ducks, their daggle grew by two this month –
Rescuing Ducks, Sprouting Hope
Gaia’s Story, Crested Mallard
When a predator killed Gaia’s only duck friend, her human family sent out an S.O.D. We answered because who doesn’t love a crested duck? Gaia was so excited to see other ducks that we had difficulty quarantining her. She started laying eggs her first day here, and while we intended to keep her quarantined for 30 days, she had other plans. She flew the coop and joined the flock on her own. She’s sitting on a full nest now. We’re hoping for ducklings this Spring…
Poppet’s story, Female Pekin
Poppet (aka Whipped Cream) followed a family home from the neighborhood Park. When they returned her, the other ducks promptly tried to drown her. She is believed to have been someone’s pet who was released. Fowl can be cruel when not properly introduced. Poppet is especially vulnerable as she is more interested in humans than in learning how to be a duck. She will stay in quarantine a few more weeks.
Three Tips For Successfully Adding Birds To Your Flock
When you’re ready to grow your flock by adding a new duck, goose or chicken, here are our top three tips:
- Create a safe space for the new bird(s) to quarantine for 4 weeks.
- Try to add two or more birds at a time so that your new bird comes in with a friend.
- Allow the established flock and new bird(s) to see (but not touch) each other while you wait to ensure the new bird is healthy and has had sufficient time to build immunity
Quarantining will keep your new bird safe while also giving your established flock time to get used to the new presence, thus reducing risk of injury when the birds come beak-to-beak for the first time. You may find that rule #2 is more of a suggestion. While it is good to bring in 2 new birds together, it just isn’t always possible.
Our goose, Joy Sue, was also rescued from a neighborhood pond. When a good Samaritan noticed she was limping, she was taken to a rescue and treated for bumblefoot before coming to live here at Wynley Park.
She was so squeaky and desperate to have friends that we let her out of quarantine a bit early. A mistake I will not make again. Eighty-four seconds into the Hallmark movie of her running and squealing, full-spread wings a flapping, toward the pond and her new best duck friends, her joyous run turned Superbowl ugly. Our gander, Bentley side-tackled her about two feet from her goal. Bentley was in full attack mode. We learned a valuable lesson. The 30-day quarantine is not just for biosecurity. The established flock needed time to recognize that this new goose was family.
Is it possible Joy Sue remembers her traumatic first flock meeting? I don’t know, but she has taken to watching over Poppet while she sleeps…come back next month to see if these two are best friends post-quarantine.
Growth Comes After Winter, Spiritually and Physically
For myself, and many others, the cold and dark of Winter evokes memories of loss, death, grief. To wrangle my least favorite month, I’ve spent time studying Ecclesiastes 3:1-22. It speaks to the seasons, or happenings of our lives. I don’t think challenging physical or emotional seasons are intentionally choreographed by God to elicit suffering or sadness. I do believe though, that if we allow him to, he will use the discomfort of such seasons to grow us.
My optimism’s laid dormant for a while, but I am beginning to see sprouts.
“But ask the animals and they will teach you.” The hand of the Lord has done this.
