Duckies, Fear Not!

Mama and Papa Duck. They are the sole survivors of not 1, but 2 coyote slaughters. They also mated, and nested a clutch of eggs that were preyed upon by raccoons and possums and coyotes. I took 2 of the eggs and had them brooded by my silkie hen, and those babies are still in the brooding shed. However, the ducklings I bought from a hatchery and raised up have graduated from the brooding pens to the pen by the pond. This is the pen near the pond where I train the ducks to pen themselves up at night, and thus , will hopefully keep this new flock safe from predators. The young ducks have been penned up with the older , wiser ducks for a week now and it is time to release them out into the world, Cedar Pond. Mama and papa Duck will show them the ropes of life around here for a duck....... Mama Duck is excited to be free, and she rushes out into the pond...but ducklings AND Papa Duck stay behind. Not too sure about this freedom. The world is a scary fearful place you know. "Fear imprisons; faith liberates; fear paralyzes; faith empowers; fear disheartens; faith encourages; fear sickens; faith heals; fear makes useless; faith makes serviceable." Harry E. Fosdick Quite awhile later, they tentatively venture out...not too far! "Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. " Helen Keller Then, they stand around in a clump of fear. All that water and fresh grass, yummy slugs and bugs to be had for the taking, but- they are afraid! "Fear, if allowed free rein, would reduce all of us to trembling shadows of men, ( ducks ?) for whom only death ( coyotes) could bring release." John M. Wilson Mama Duck comes quacking back from the pond where she had been bathing and swimming, quacking all along for them to join her. "Hey, you guys, come on! The water is fine, the bugs are plentiful.....what's keeping you ? " The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, yet notwithstanding go out to meet it. " Thucydides The ducklings follow Mama slowly down to the pond, in their little clump of fear. "Every tomorrow has 2 handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety or by the handle of faith." Unknown Mama jumps in the water and begins to splash with joy and ....it SCARED the ducklings! They ran ( waddled) fast as they could up the grassy lawn heading for their pen! Well, at least I know THEY know where to pen themselves up. Mama and Papa Duck took the lead and tried to head the ducklings back to the pond. As they would venture closer the ducklings would turn en-masse and head this-a-way....."Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination." Chrisitan Nevell Bovee ...and that-a-way.... "Fear cannot touch me. It can only taunt me, it cannot take me, just tell me where to go. I can either follow, or stay in my bed. I can hold onto the things that I know." Christopher Rice Finally! The ducklings made their way , albeit , circuitously...to the pond's edge. "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." Ambrose Redmoon. The ducklings quacked amongst themselves a bit and decided to just sit on the edge awhile, because you know, the pond is a scary place! "Never fear shadows...they simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby." Unknown Mama and Papa Duck splashed, swam, and had a feast. The ducklings, not realizing Mama and Papa's wisdom and experience, and not trusting ME, who wants what is best for them and have provided a perfect duck home for them...2 days later...still choose to sit on the bank and watch ( fearfully ) as the older ducks take joy in Cedar Pond. "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith....Therefore do not be anxious ( or fearful ) for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own." Matthew 6: 30 , 34

The Glory of Sons is Their Fathers

My husband holding his 8th and youngest grandchild, Little J, last July. "Grandchildren are the crown of old men , and the glory of sons is their fathers." Proverbs 17"6

My husband's father, a man of honor and faith. His 6 children all love the Lord and he is the grandfather to 15 and great grandfather to 19 and more on the way! One of these days I will write about this man of faith, but it is telling that ALL his children give him praise and honor for being a man who trusts God in spite of some amazingly rough times. He gives God all the praise and glory for bringing his children to salvation , and he continually prays for his family. It shows. Praise God for fathers who exalt Him!

"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. " Proverbs 13 :22 Happy Father's Day !

Please Indulge This Request.....

..for prayer on behalf of our four little granddaughters , at our son's request. The courts in California have chosen to overlook legally signed, sealed , and delivered documents and a judge has ordered our son to send his 4 daughters to California to spend the summer with the mother who has no residence and the little girls will be in living situations that no sane parent or guardian would find even barely O.K. We have legal documentation of what I write and it is available for proof, but all we ask is for prayer for divine intervention , that the little girls will be spared harm , physically , emotionally, spiritually...however He works this. I had much to say, but I found this prayer in a book by Elisabeth Elliot " Be Still My Soul", the prayer was found in E. Elliot's mothers' prayer book:

"Father our children keep.

We know not what is coming upon the earth.

Beneath the shadow of Thy heavenly wing,

O keep them, keep them, Thou who gavest them birth.

Father , draw nearer us.

Draw firmer around us Thy protecting arm.

O clasp our children closer to Thy side,

Uninjured in the day of earth's alarm.

Then in Thy chambers hide,

O hide them and preserve them calm and safe

When sin abounds , and error flows abroad

And Satan tempts and human passions chafe.

O keep them undefiled,

Unspotted from a tempting world of sin,

That, clothed in white, through the bright city gates,

They may with us in triumph enter in.

The home in Deer Park the courts ordered them to leave for .....?

"Give ear to my prayer O God..." Psalm 55:1

Spot On Lady's Mantle ( Dewcup )

Candy Cat walks along the stone wall , Lady's Mantle ( Alchemilla vulgaris ) is growing on either side of her. Lady's Mantle, or Dewcup, grows well and easily in the shady, sunny, damp, and dry parts of our gardens. Lady's Mantle grows well along the wooded edges, in the driveway, and it pops up in our red stone entrance gardens.

Lady's Mantle is growing here, next to the hostas. Lady's Mantle is very hardy and grows 6 to 20 inches in height ...but it grows bigger in our gardens. If you click on the picture below , it will enlarge and you can clearly see the dew drops that collect in this plant and will glisten like diamonds when the sun catches them.

"From "little magical one" , the Arab alkemelych ( alchemy ) comes Alchemilla, so-called because of this herb's healing reputation and the dew that collects in each enfolding leaf. The crystal drops of dew have long inspired poets and alchemists and were part of many mystic potions. So powerful a herb was acquired by the Christian Church , which named it 'Our Lady's Mantle'." THE COMPLETE BOOK OF HERBS by Leslie Bremness

I read many of my herb books and in all of them Lady's Mantle is recommended as the herb to infuse as a tea and drink to help alleviate "women's troubles". I harvested the leaves of this herb , dried them, and then when the time came I thought I needed some tea of this plant, I quickly changed my mind when I caught a whiff of the smell. YUCK! I decided that the smell alone was enough to make any woman decide she really did not feel so bad after all...

My Lady's Mantle is a lovely plant for our gardens. It is now beginning to bloom. I will take more pictures of it in bloom later. The blooms are gold, and on long stems.

My herb books say that Ladys' Mantle leaves are good for making a green wool dye, I might try that. The leaves are also supposed to be good for making infusions to help skin conditions, under eye puffiness, and to make compresses for healing wounds. I just might try this too . I have used comfrey to heal wounds, and calm irritated skin. But no, no...never, never will I consume this in a tea!

"I would heartily advise all men of meanes , to be stirred up to bend their mindes,

and spend a little more time and travell in these delights,

of herbes and flowers, than they have formerly done,

which are not only harmlesse, but pleasurable in their turn, and profitable in their use. John Parkinson (Theatrum Botanicum 1640 )

Look Who Came For Dinner

We set a catch and release trap to catch those pesky raccoons who are very adept at dining uninvited on our chickens and ducks.We baited the trap with the almost but not quite hatched duck eggs . Look who showed up for dinner. An opossum!

"Opossums have a couple of defensive bluffs at their disposal. They'll flash their abundant teeth ( 50 in all ) when cornered or frightened and back the implied threat with a horrific sounding hiss."....."opossums are unintelligent creatures ( they eat cockroaches by choice- nuff said) ,.....they carry fewer diseases than the average household pet, and have greater resistance to rabies than any wild or domestic animal living around you. They are also immune to the venom of most pit vipers ( rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, and the like ). Scientists are studying the opossums ability to neutralize venom..." Barbara Mikkelson

She is kind of cute, isn't she? On further investigation though the tail looks like a huge , huge rat tail and the teeth totally take the cute look and turn it into a monster grin. When I lived down south, ( Louisiana ) I learned opossums were not to be found north of the Mason / Dixon Line....I do not think the possums read the books.....they are abundant around here. And by the way, they really do play dead very well.....hence " playing possum".

Be Still My Soul

A dear friend has loaned me a book by Elisabeth Elliot entitled 'BE STILL MY SOUL'. Elisabeth shares from a book her grandfather wrote 'WHEN DAYS SEEM DARK' and I am sharing these words with you....."Standing still, on some occasions, is the paramount duty of the follower of Christ. There are times when we must be merely onlookers , when the flesh and the brain refuse to work, hopes shrivel like autumn leaves and we simply do not know which way to turn. It may be just then that we shall learn for the first time how to stand still in perfect peace and quietness of soul, not idling away our time, not hopelessly limp and heedless of the outcome, but working on in such ways as may be given to us, observing with eager joy the way in which God will work it all out to a perfectly glorious ending." "All our little fussiness and haste, all our strong anxiety and warping care are as futile as the tugging of a little child's hand at the great iron knob of a closed and barred gate through which the loving father does not care to have him go just then."

I am praying for and observing "with eager joy the way in which God will work it all out to a perfectly glorious ending." "Sit still, my daughter , until thou know how the matter will fall." Ruth 3:18 Thank-you Lord.

Some Babies Are Real Turkeys

Aren't these baby turkeys cute? How often can you hold 3 turkeys in your hands? These turkeys hatched out last Saturday. They were hatched out by my Silkie hen ( below) , but the eggs came from Lanny's family turkeys , and after being hatched, I took them home to be tended by Lanny and Dirt's daughters. Aren't they cute?

Here is Silkie Momma. If you need eggs brooded and hatched, you cannot do better than a Silkie. My Silkies go so far as to try to brood and hatch out rocks! They do a fine job with duck, turkey, and of course, chicken eggs. And as for raising chicks, they excel!

Look at my baby doves huddled together in their nest. They were not brooded by a Silkie, but by their own dove mom and dad. They are almost ready to leave the nest , and as soon as they do their parents will lay and brood another clutch of eggs. That probably explains why I have so many doves. Did you know both the momma and daddy dove feed the baby doves milk? Did you know it is nearly impossible to tell the sex of doves outwardly? I can tell the sexes apart by watching behavior and listening to them. Aren't God's creatures so wonderfully amazing? Baby chicks, ducks, doves, turkeys, lambs.....isn't new life so amazing and CUTE? Blessings: baby animals, cooing doves, good animal mommas