Like any good parent I spend some time with all my children each day. Still no human children to call my own but my critter kids. Dogs, sugar gliders, hedgehog, iguanas, bearded dragons, geese & adult ducks and rapidly growing ducklings as well as the Molly fish all get some daily love and attention.
Today as I was sitting with the ducklings I made what I deemed an interesting observation. Duck poo draws flies but that's not what I noticed. When I sit with the ducklings I keep a fly swatter handy and smack as many of the vermin as get within range, usually near or on the feed bowls. After their initial gobbling of their breakfast starter crumbles most of the quackers go and mill about looking for greens or such. What I saw was one or the other or both of the Rouens were staying nearby and eating the flies that I killed or disabled. I still can't tell the Pekins from each other nor the Khakis but I can now tell one Rouen from the other. One has bigger feet with more yellow than the other. She with the smaller and darker feet was the one staying close and eating flies. She usually waits 2 or 3 whacks before returning to the feed bowl to collect her treats (freshly killed flies) but never more than 5! I can whack a fly 2" from her head and she sees her goodie more than the fly swatter. Then I noticed that if I reached as far as I could to smack one she'd scamper briskly to the scene to see if I had connected or not.
Heading back towards the house I remembered seeing a couple small flashes of white on my Anjou pear tree a few weeks ago. I stopped a moment to check and yes! There is a pair of pears developing. They're still not even as large as marbles and the worms or wild birds will probably get them but just knowing my tree will bear fruit is enough to keep my hopes up.
Of all the fruit trees on my front yard; one each apple, pear, nectarine, olive, Meyer lemon, a couple each kiwi and pomegranate I got one undersized nectarine. But it was quite tasty! In the back yard my 2 plum trees are either dead or at Death's door. I got nothing so far from my fig, unknown citrus or apple tree or blueberry bush and the wild birds et all my mulberries.
The unknown citrus is a short story unto itself. I bought and set out (I think) Key Lime, satsuma and kumquat all in a bunch to see if they'd all be happy together, cross pollinate and perhaps create a new variety of citrus. To the point, all the tags fell off and only one tree still lives so all I know is it is some sort of citrus.
I'm still wanting to go to my late dad's property in Kilmichael and fetch home some native trees. To wit; persimmon, sassafras and apple if any are still left in the old orchard. I remember his Mom, my Maw Clara had screen frames that she'd dry the apples on to make the best apple pies. My store bought blueberry bushes only gave a 1 in 3 survival rate so I'd prefer to try huckleberry bushes from the wild next time around.
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