The Left Side of Normal Airplanes, The Internet, and Everything Else

Back in April, we took on the responsibility for raising two awesome ducks that were only a week old.  They started out in a small plastic swimming pool with a bed of wood chips huddled under a heat lamp.  The wood chips quickly gave way to straw, and they began to grow very quickly.  Within a couple of weeks, we set up a portion of the back yard as their pen and built them a shelter to live in.  Within a month they were nearly fully grown and feathers were replacing their cute yellow fuzz.  After a couple of months, we took them out into the lake and let them swim around.  They've made several supervised trips into the lake, but they prefer to hang out in their pen instead.  They're always in a hurry to waddle back up the hill to get back to their safety zone.

Overall, the ducks have been awesome.  They're gorgeous, incredible animals, and raising them and having them with us has been an amazing experience.  Unfortunately, as they mature, the environment we can provide just isn't suitable for such incredible animals.  Ducks really need water to be happy.  We set up a kiddie pool for them, but that really just doesn't do them justice.  We considered leaving the fence open so they could commute to the lake, but there was too much danger of them wandering off and getting hit by a car or leaving the lake in someone else's yard and doing damage, not to mention the neighborhood cats, dogs, and other wildlife that could put them in danger.  It just wasn't fair to keep them penned up in such a small area without ready access to a pond or some other water to swim in.  The noise was also beginning to become a problem for us (and probably our neighbors as well) with fairly loud quacking from Peaches fairly early in the morning every day.

So, it was with a heavy heart that we decided that change was at hand.  Jeanette wanted to put them on a plate with a garnish, but I decided that we should try to find them a loving home before we resorted to taking their lives in the name of dinner.  I made a few calls to farms in the area with little success (one at least promised to call me back but as yet has not).  Craigslist has usually been a good way to find things or sell unwanted stuff, so I posted a note in the "farm and garden" category that we were seeking a loving, suitable home for two mature Pekin ducks.  As usual, craigslist did not disappoint.  I had a couple dozen e-mails from people who were interested, though mostly from people who had no experience with ducks.

Then, a message came in from a lady in Arcadia that looked promising.  I gave her a call and we spoke for a few minutes.  She lives on 40 acres of rural land and takes care of a wide variety of animals including horses, cows, llamas, goats, geese, and ducks.  She said they had six Pekin ducks, one of another breed, and two geese.  A small stream runs through their property and they've created a pond off of it with a large pen where the ducks live (right next to the pen where the goats and the llama reside).  It sounded perfect and we made arrangements to make a visit and drop them off if we were satisfied with the location.  We packed them and their remaining food and straw into the car and made the trek out to northern Arcadia, nearly an hour away.  When we arrived (in the middle of nowhere), I was happy with what I saw.  They did, indeed, have a very nice area sectioned off for the ducks and geese with an adjacent pond for them to swim in.  The ducks she had were similar in age and looked very well fed and cared for.  We let them out into the pen and they seemed disoriented for a few minutes.  The other ducks began checking them out and sizing them up.  Since they are new to the flock, there will of course be some jockying for position to see where they will fit in.  After a few days, they will be full members and have lots of new friends to huddle up with.

The new location isn't perfect, but it's far more ideal than we would be able to provide for them.  The pen is a lot larger and she said they have plans to make it even bigger.  The pond is adequate for all of them to swim in, and occasionally small fish come up the stream that they can chase after.  Overall, our experience with the ducks has been amazing and I wish we were in a better position to better provide for them ourselves, but it wouldn't be fair to them or our neighbors to keep them here.  I do not know if we will see them again, but she did say that if we're in the area we're welcome to drop by and visit if we like.  I'm very happy that we were able to find what I hope will be a much better life for them.  Quack quack!

Maybe it's the new mouse.  Maybe it's because it's Monday.  In any case, I'm feeling like I got a lot done today.  Domain renewals.  SSL renewals.  Moved the last remaining sites from an old (ancient) Windows 2000 web server with ColdFusion 5 out to a new home on a virtualized Windows 2008 web server with ColdFusion 8.  Once all of the DNS changes propagate around and we have a snapshot of the old server, that will be one less piece of hardware to manage (not to mention an outdated non-supported OS and ColdFusion version to support).  Hopefully I can shut it down by the end of the week.  I also closed a bunch of support tickets that had been hanging around.  I even brought lunch to save a few dollars and shave off a few calories from my usual intake (have to make up for buying this awesome new mouse).  Now it's time to go home and take some proficiency profile exam for school.  It's not part of the degree program directly, nor does it impact my GPA, but it's mandated by the school that we take it when we're getting close to graduation.  They ask you to block off just over two hours.  I really hope it doesn't take that long.  I have more code to write and projects to get caught up on.  Here's to hoping the productivity carries on at home and I can get everything done that I'd like to get done.

May seems to have been a relatively slow month all the way around.  No herculean efforts required on any of my work projects or contract jobs; school was tough but no major project due for the course; nothing major going on with life in general.  My course this month is Air Cargo.  We've been assigned a lot of reading, have two exams, and a short paper due at the end of the month.  This is a course I could knock out in a weekend if the school would let me.  The ducks are now fully grown and have made several supervised trips out into the lake.  One of these days we'll leave their pen open so they can go down to the lake on their own if they like.  As for this weekend, I don't really have anything planned aside from relaxing and responding to any emergencies.  I might check in on ServerFault.com to see if there are any questions I can answer, and I'll be checking e-mail here and there, but no major deadlines or projects in the works.  Perhaps the rest of June will be a little busier.