Did you ever have one of those dreams or what probably one would call a nightmare, where you're running as fast and as hard as you can, but you're not getting anywhere? After seeing the snake all slithered out on that tree trunk, all I could think of was to find Sig as fast as I could. I knew a rifle was going to be included in there somewhere but first I was going to have to run. And that is what I did.... if one could call that huffing, stumbling type gait actual running. I am certainly not as fast as I used to be. So there I was running down the road, leaping – sort of – onto the yard and yelling “snake!”
Not to change the subject (a saying I will never understand because, of course, the subject is being changed and quite intentionally), but this running and yelling at the same time took me back a few months earlier. One cold, winter day, Sig and I were in the front yard working on a house project, when we heard our chickens making extra noise in the back yard. Rather than my husband checking on this himself, he sent me to see what was going on. When I rounded the house, there to my amazement a few yards in front of me, was a red fox with one of the hens in his mouth. I immediately started yelling and shouting at the fox and to my surprise, he dropped the chicken and ran up the hill away from the house. En route, he passed the rooster and to my wonderment, he didn't even attempt to snap up the biggest meal he could have had at his disposal. Anyway, you would have thought that with all that yelling, someone would have come to my rescue. But, no... Sig didn't have a clue what was going on. To this day, I still am in awe of myself that I made a fox drop his meal!!!
So, back to the duck story. I finally get Sig's attention.... SNAKE.... AT THE DUCK NEST! This calls for the rifle and with the tree and hole at an odd angle, the shot zips past the snake and the snake does his own zipping thing right into the hole and completely disappears. The next step to stop the snake terrorist is to get the extension ladder. This is almost scarier than the snake ordeal. Picture a very tall tree on the side of a hill with a ladder perched on the side of the hill leaning up against a tree with a hole that has a snake in it. Sounds and looks like a recipe for disaster to me. To make a long story short, Sig climbed the ladder, stuck a hook thingymajig into the hole, pulled out a snake and threw it to the ground. Thankfully, he hadn't fallen off the ladder and was able to climb down... I handed him the rifle (I'm sort of like a surgical nurse.... able to handle the equipment but not able to use it)... BOOM... the snake was dead. But to make sure, Aaron used his air rifle for insurance. (If someone else were writing this story, someone would have added that a certain person performed a little dance when the snake hit the ground in front of the certain person. I know for a fact, that the certain person did emit a noise from the mouth.)
After the ordeal, another climb up the ladder was necessary to see if there were any eggs left. With all the eggs seemingly intact, we were left wondering if Mother Duck would come back. We had raised mallards in the past and were experienced enough in their habits to know that if something scared them off their nests, they would never go back. Eventually, relief was felt when Mother Duck was seen swooping in to take care of her nest.
Not knowing when Mother Duck had started incubating her eggs, we really didn't have a day to pinpoint for hatching. However, one morning I observed a commotion that involved a low-flying fowl and a cat right on its tail whizzing past the window. Almost before I had a chance to think, the same bird and cat whizzed by going the other direction. Luckily, I broadcasted the fact that Baby Cat was chasing a bird which triggered the thought in my husband's head that the ducklings had probably hatched and the bird I had actually seen was probably Mother Duck keeping the cat away from her family.
That sent panic among us.... we had three cats and we knew all three of them were not averse to feathers and wings. We scrambled outside to evaluate the situation. And where was that nasty cat? She had disappeared. I was sure she was munching or had been munching on little ducklings. It's always a wonder to me that I can think of a cat as a wonderful pet with its purring, lovable softness and companionship and yet, at the other end of the spectrum when all is not going well.... I am seriously thinking of bodily harm to that no-good rat. It's called nature.... but I don't like it.
There I was.... peering here and there, looking into brush, under bushes and listening for any rustling and peepings of little, fragile, fuzzy balls of cuteness.... when Sig pointed out for me to look behind me. I turned and what a wonder!!! There went Mama Duck and one, two, three, four ducklings right behind her.... marching across the dirt road, to make their way to the creek.
Again, out came the extension ladder. Again, up the tree went my husband.... this time to check if there were any unhatched eggs. Soon he was down with three unhatched eggs and shortly thereafter, all three eggs were sitting in an incubator. And so the waiting game began....
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