Nine's Bootcamp Experience (BRK)

#34

Junk pole harvesting this morning! My arms and wrists are still rubbery from digging this weekend.

Now time to go plant peas!

#35

When I moved to Florida to go to college, I ended up living with someone who let me transform his backyard (and his life) into a growie haven with chickens and ducks as well. The ducks came first - three white and cream Indian Runners. I was only able to tell one of them apart from the others, so its name became Rupert. The other two, after their facial markings were discernable, became Shiva and Sempurna.

I later learned that Rupert was the female of the group, and the two boys overworked her in the end. I had been sprouting various seeds and whatnot in the house, and had an avocado tree ready to be planted. It became her headstone of sorts. The past few years the hurricanes have tried to rip it apart, but she's still holding it together. At two years old, the tree produced over 200 avocados and continues to overwhelm him ever since. It helps the neighbor also has an avocado tree.

Today he sent me a message to let me know Sempurna passed. It's a bit out of the blue even. Shiva has been having some leg pains the past year, but Sem has been keeping him busy and occupied. He writes me now to tell me he put Shiva to bed, but he keeps calling for his buddy. 😭

Sempurna now joins Rupert in the backyard under a new avocado tree and a few aloe. Rest well, bud.🦆💔

It might be Shiva needs another duck to keep him company. A lady I bought ducks from told me a story of duck that died from loneliness. Not sure how true that story might be, but my ducks do get really sad and depressed if removed from their friends. They really do notice when one of their buddies passes, too. I hope Shiva isn't sad and lonely for very long ♥.

Loosing a duck is so hard. We buried ours under our fruit trees, too. It's comforting to see the tree nourished by them and new life grow from the old. But it's still really hard. I still miss my ducks and chickens that passed on ♥

Nicole Alderman wrote:It might be Shiva needs another duck to keep him company. A lady I bought ducks from told me a story of duck that died from loneliness. Not sure how true that story might be, but my ducks do get really sad and depressed if removed from their friends. They really do notice when one of their buddies passes, too. I hope Shiva isn't sad and lonely for very long ♥.

Since my friend hopes to retire to his land in Minnesota later this year, I think he's going to hold off on getting another duck for now. It might be that Shiva doesn't make it much longer either as they were brothers and are both about 7 or 8 years old now. Not a bad lifespan for them. I know my friend has greatly enjoyed having those two goofballs there with him since ducks are such quirky critters. He still has two old dogs that are hanging on too, so hopefully he won't lose his whole bachelor pack of boys all at once. That would cut too deep.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Loosing a duck is so hard. We buried ours under our fruit trees, too. It's comforting to see the tree nourished by them and new life grow from the old. But it's still really hard. I still miss my ducks and chickens that passed on ♥

Yep, it is hard. One of our roosters is planted out there as well, though maybe not with as much love lost since he wasn't the nicest fella. The duckies though.. they were good little dinosaurs.

We call our birds dinosaurs, too, especially the geese and chickens. Those one seems far more like the violent dinosaurs depicted in stories and movies. The ducks are probably like those gentle long-necks, just blithely grazing around, without any concern for their safety. Sadly, they aren't nearly as indestructible as those big saurapods (I've lost a lot to eagles, bobcats, owls and probably coyotes...a lot of the time because the ducks were just too stupid. I've seen them run TOWARD where the bobcat is, when I'm trying to herd them to safety!)

And yes, 7-8 years is a good long life for a duck! My son's rooster was that old, and it was really hard watching him go--he lived a good long life for a rooster, though ♥