I Have Learned Much. And I Have Much to Learn.

I often say that life on the ranch is the equivalent of taking a college course, including the labs.  The grade you get is evident in the health, happiness and soundness of the animals and in the efficiencies, cleanliness, and the accurate anticipation of things to come around the ranch.

While I can say that I know quite a bit now about tracking and trapping raccoons, trimming goat hooves, the metabolism and digestive system of horses, recognizing coyote scat, the molting season of chickens and ducks, what to do when a dog has trouble pooping, how to nurse back a window-smacked bird, what a deer leg looks like--off the deer, the nocturnal patterns of feral cats, and much else that falls in between, I am still pages away from starting the next chapter.

I read this excerpt below and it struck me.  To paraphrase what I had just said to someone 20+ years younger than I, "You are young and there are things you just don't know yet and it is just that way."

Someone 20+ years my senior may say the same to me.

"A life story is like an impressionist painting, a riot of tiny brushstrokes when viewed up close.  There is a great deal we are unable to discern about our lives while we are still caught up in the small exertions of living.  Getting older allows us to step back far enough to recognize the overall shape of things, the full picture that can only be seen from the distance of an elapsed lifetime."
~~~~~Wendy Lustbader, Life Gets Better: The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older

Drakes in Eclipse

The local feed store is like a quick and easy trip to the reference section of the library.  They seem to know quite a bit about everything.

A couple of weeks back, Bill was loading feed into the 4 Runner, which was carefully guarded by cookie loving dogs, and we got to talking about his duck hunting.  Hunting of any kind isn't my favorite topic but I'm starting to understand the "food for the family" aspect.

I mentioned to Bill that all of my male Mallards, the drakes, have disappeared.  For some reason I have a pond loaded with females, hens.  He laughed.  "No," he said, "you have just as many drakes as before."

Drakes in eclipse is what I had plenty of in my pond.  After mating season, the drakes molt and lose their beautiful colorful plumage.  The look just like the hens!  Now, a real duck person can tell the difference.  Thankfully, I can now consider myself a "real" duck person.

Bill told me to look at their bills.  Drakes have yellow bills and hens have brownish/orange bills.  Their feet also are a clue.  The drakes have bright orange feet.  Sure as the day is long, I have a pond with a healthy mix of drakes and hens!

In the last week or so the drakes have begun to get their colors back.  It happens rather quickly.  Now, aside from a few late bloomers, their heads are a magnificent shimmering green once again. 

What a funny thing that happened at my pond.  It's another lesson learned.  It just doesn't stop.