Duck Nest In My Yard

From the Creaux's Nest

A commemorative ribbon cutting will be held in recognition of the 70th anniversary of the Swing Bridge to kick off the Bridge City Heritage Festival. The ribbon cutting will take place at 9 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Cow Bayou Bridge. The gates will open for the festival on the Community Center grounds at 10 a.m. A carnival will begin on Thursday prior to the festival. The carnival rides will be unlimited on Saturday with the purchase of a bracelet. Headlining the live entertainment is country music star Britt Godwin. Bands will begin performing when the gates open with Cajun and country music, oldies, rock, religious and solo performances from area groups. The Festival will feature arts, crafts, food, games and contest, including coin toss, duck pond, ring toss, milk bottle baseball throw, plinko and cow patty throw. A beer garden is being provided by Giglio Distributing Co. of Beaumont and will be near the bandstand. Dancing will be in the pavilion.  An antique car show and silent auction will also be held. There will be something for the entire family plus it will help a good cause, the future Cow Bayou Waterfront Park. The weather should be excellent. After enduring a couple of high 90-degree days, forecasters expect a cool front to arrive late Friday setting the stage for an idyllic fall weekend. Lows falling to mid-50’s and mid-80’s for highs for the first three days of October. Rain chances and strong thunderstorms are expected next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday associated with a weak stationary front. This year’s heat is 0.5 degrees warmer than any previous year on record. The drought is expected to carry through winter and into next spring. It will be a great time at the Festival. Make plans to come out and enjoy the festivities Saturday. I plan to be there all day, eating a lot and winning prizes. See you there. For now, I best get going. Hop on board and come along, I promise it won’t do you no harm.

Jon Stevens: Empty Nests | CamanoCommunity

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It has gotten quiet here at The Open Gate Farm.  We moved Margaret, the Muscovy duck, from her hen house nest to the little red barn where she could sit on her 4 eggs in peace and quiet and not chase the other ducks around the yard with screams and hisses.  While we caught her and moved her, the others stood around and watched with compassion and appreciation and when we were finished gave us a quack of thanks and took long, peaceful drinks of water.  Safe from Margaret’s chasings, they began to relax.  So did we.

Tuesday morning, after visiting the Washington State University Organic Farm Program in Pullman on the other side of the state, we put our dear WWOOFer, Anna, on a plane to head to her next adventure.  She will be in Chapel Hill, NC, interning in a horticulture therapy program there.  She was as sweet as Margaret had been mean but still, the car was quiet for a long time as we remembered her and our special times together… Wednesday morning our lovely Kathryn, who had been house sitting with Snickers and the gang while we took our quick trip east, loaded her car with our love and a couple cinnamon rolls and headed to her Mom’s place over in Arlington. After she left, your farmers walked the farm together and talked about the tasks remaining and noted how quiet it was now with no young folks here with their questions and energy.

One thing about youth these days is they are not afraid to ask questions.  Or to start a conversation with, “I have some bad news for you.”  It might be anything from a duck in the rhubarb field to mold on some lettuce to Snickers needing a bath.  They also asked why we do things the way we do and not in what to them seemed a more efficient way.  They were wonderful!  It got us reviewing just about everything around here and really helped tighten up our processes.  Processes that now run in peaceful silence.

Margaret got bored.  She ignored her nest and flew over the fence to be with the others and never went back to sitting.  We picked the eggs up and “floated” them in a bowl in the mud room sink.  Two sank and were fine.  The other two floated meaning gas had formed in them and they should be tossed out.  But she had gotten the need to nest out of her system and was forgiven by the rest of the flock. So they all spent Wednesday grazing on the bugs in the lawn together again and without fear of one another.

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