Tag: deer mouse

The parts I like…

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

My sweet little duck passed away the night I wrote about her. I was far more relieved than I imagined I would be. She was just peaceful when I found her the next morning, and I found myself so thankful for the wonderful life she had been able to experience. Truly, I cannot imagine a better life for a duck, and she got more than seven years of it. I have so much love for the little animals on this little farm, and I have come to understand that they know this. And, my gosh, that helps with the hard parts.

Last night, it was late when I was putting up the ducks. I called for them and held out the white bowl of peas, and four of them came right away–our drake and three of the old girls. I couldn’t see Anna Maria right away, but I heard her. Because she is blind, I have go searching for her many nights, but I could hear she was close. I kept calling for her.

“Watch out for the rocks!” I called, as she bumped right into the rocks that line the fire pit. But she bounced off, as she does, and kept coming.

“You got this, Anna Maria!” I called, as she came running.

“But wait, there’s a pumpkin vine!” I called as she approached a long pumpkin vine that has spilled out over the fence and into the yard. Sure enough, it caught her, but she shook her webbed feet and escaped the vine’s grasp and was on her way.

I held the peas until she made it to me, and everyone dug into. Even with just five ducks now (down from our seven), they can devour a large bowl of peas in seconds.

Even though Anna Maria will hate me until the very end, I adore that duck. She is so resilient and strong. Ron said she will probably hobble her little blind duck self all the way until she’s the last duck standing. I actually hope not. Can you imagine me trying to care for a duck who hates me all by myself?

But seeing her in action is joyful. She is absolutely a reminder to me that there are good things in life, even when times are tough and you are down. That duck is an inspiration for sure.

And there are other amazing parts of this life. Seven or eight years ago, Ron and I planted a Transparent apple tree. It’s not one known for growing well in Maine, but Ron and I both have a long history with this unusual apple. When we met, it was one of the ways I knew we were meant to be together. His favorite kind of apple was the Transparent–as was mine. And I had only ever had a Transparent apple twice because they are so rare. I actually spent years calling around to apple orchards every fall to see if they had Transparent apples. Ron’s grandparents had a large Transparent apple tree in their yard when he was growing up. He has so many good memories of the tart apple. They are great for cooking.

Ron and I have waited patiently and then without hope that our apple tree was ever going to make a single apple, but this year, it produced! I am so excited to get these apples.

And Ron has fallen in love with the turkeys, and it’s the sweetest thing I have ever seen. I thought they would be mama’s babies forever, but they are giant, giant daddy’s babies. I am no longer strong enough to carry them to bed at night. They refuse to go to their house and roost on our back porch and watch through the glass door while I cook dinner. So every night, Ron carries these giant birds to their roosts inside their house.

Last night, I watched, as our favorite girl, a white turkey who really needs a name, walked right onto Ron’s hand and balanced herself as he held her on his arm. It was beautiful. The trust she has for him is magical.

And I have one more lovely story. The other night, we had just finished putting up our first round of green beans, and it was time to feed the mice. Jeremiah, our rescued deer mouse, is a foodie and is very picky but loves garden fare. We had some tips of the green beans left, and the beans have been really, really good this year. I wondered if he might like a few green bean tips for his dinner.

I collected the dinner options for Jeremiah and his friend, Cynthia, who does not like garden food so much but loves popcorn. So I had blueberries, walnuts, popcorn, and two green bean tips of decent size. I will add something that I am sure will be no surprise to you–both Jeremiah and Cynthia are chunky mice.

Anyway, I gave Cynthia a piece of popcorn and then held out a green bean tip in front of Jeremiah. He leaned in and took a nibble but pulled back. I held it there in front of his mouth just for a little longer in case he changed his mind but decided to give up. I was just about to pull away with the bean when his little paw reached up to my finger as if to say “wait a minute. I’m still deciding.”

I held the bean there a little longer while he held his paw on my finger and considered the bean.

He ended up taking it!

Transition

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

We are in the transition period around here. I have many stories to tell but am only just now feeling well enough to write very much. I think I mentioned the week before last that my son was really sick. Of course, I caught it, and it was a rough one. I don’t think I have been this sick since COVID. But I am so happy to report that I am doing better, and today, for the first time, I was able to do some real work around the homestead.

I did a deep clean on the duck house, even the windows, which I am sure will be completely dirty again when I let them out in the morning, but I tried. I also worked on raking up the straw from around their house and around their food–and at the little warm spot under the dryer vent at the back of the house where the ducks like to hang out every winter. It was so snowy this winter that we put down a lot of straw for the ducks, and now, we have layers of straw to gather and compost. I didn’t get it all finished, but I made good progress. Next weekend I will try to finish that task.

I always wished for a barn for those ducks in the winter, but I don’t think we are ever getting a barn for them. The ducks will be seven years old this year, and I can see that we probably don’t have too many more years with them. In fact, the other night, when I went to give the ducks their peas, I couldn’t find Anna Maria. I was so worried because we have had the owls hanging out again. Hopefully, they are getting the rats, but I worried they maybe got Anna Maria. I found her though, and I knew there was trouble because she let me pick her up.

I brought her into the house to study her and couldn’t find anything wrong until I got to her vent. She had a soft-shelled egg stuck, only it wasn’t that soft. That poor baby! I held her, and Ron very gently got it out. She’s doing fine now, but this is not a good sign. The ducks are laying more soft-shelled eggs than proper eggs right now, so I had to research.

And it’s not easy to research this because it is rare to find anyone who has had Indian Runner ducks this long. In all of the forums I have ever been in, it’s rare anyone has a duck more than three years. Usually, the ducks are killed by predators, but Boudica and I work together to keep those ducks as safe as possible.

Anyway, all I could find was one Reddit thread where a woman asked about ducks in old age laying soft eggs. Only two people responded. One person said, to keep the ducks alive, they would need birth control, that laying eggs as their bodies are failing will kill them. This is devastating to me, but I looked up the birth control, and it’s about $300 per duck. That’s not possible, so I am going to hope and pray they just stop trying to lay. However, I did read that one thing you can do is supplement their diet with Vitamin D. I always thought soft-shelled eggs came from lack of calcium, which made no sense to me because they have a high calcium food. Interestingly, according to what I read, as the ducks age, their bodies stop processing Vitamin D very well, so they need extra. I hope that’s true because I started adding a vitamin mix to their water that has a lot of Vitamin D.

Please cross your fingers for little Anna Maria and Luna and Anna Sophie, our cello-loving duck.

Ron has been busy all week building a brood box for the turkeys. Turkeys! That’s right, I have an incubator full of chicken eggs, and now I have an incubator full of turkey eggs. I’m terrified I am going to mess this up, as I have never hatched turkeys, but I’ll write more about that later.

Mainly, I have to tell you about the brood box. Ron is a person who, if he is going to do something, it is going to be magnificent. You should see the grape arbor he built last year. A tornado could come through here, and that thing will stand. It’s also beautiful because he also has to make things beautiful. It’s the poet in him, I think. The brood box is a masterpiece, and it’s giant. I think, if I can get the eggs to hatch, the babies will do well there.

Ron has also planted some seeds, so it’s all upon us. It’s the transition time, and there is so much to do. It’s a bad time to get sick for sure, but I am thankful to be getting better.

I also have one more little side note that I thought would surely make you smile.

I wrote before about how I try to bring different treats every night for dinner to our rescued deer mouse, Jeremiah, and his friend and roommate, Cynthia. Well, lately, Jeremiah doesn’t want anything different. He only wants pecans. I know he’s stashing them though, so last night, I told him there would be no pecans. I made homemade popcorn because it’s Cynthia’s favorite. Jeremiah likes it too, but he was sad because there were no pecans. I started with the popcorn, and he took it at first but then dropped it. He looked back at me. I had some fresh blueberries, so I gave him a blueberry next. It’s from the grocery store, so he only eats those when there’s nothing better, I guess, so he wouldn’t even take that.

“That’s all there is tonight,” I told him. He looked around at my hands, and I went on about my business of trying to pet Cynthia. Jeremiah gets the “zoomies” at night, so there’s no catching him to pet him.

Anyway, I talked to Cynthia a bit and then looked over to see that Jeremiah had a pecan in his mouth. I knew he had a stash! I guess he was saving them in case I failed to show up with them at some point. He is well prepared I guess.

I hope we are all as good at preparing as Jeremiah. It seems like an important skill to have right now.

Ratatouille

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

This is not a post about the dish, Ratatouille, and it’s only sort of related to the Disney film, Ratatouille, but there is a connection. I think it will make you smile, and I feel like we could all use a smile.

I was so sick today that I just barely got by today. Apparently, I really can’t people anymore, but I also got some really bad news about my brother yesterday. I thought we were going to lose him. He’s a survivor though, and he is a little better today and awaits surgery. I am thankful, And, thankfully, I have so many good things in my life that I am feeling better this evening. One of those good things in my life may be a bit of a surprise–it’s a mouse.

In May, I wrote about the little deer mouse my teen son rescued after a bad rain storm. The mouse was tiny and didn’t have his eyes open yet. I told my son not to rescue it, but when I went to bed that night, I heard my son in the kitchen banging around. When I went downstairs to see what he was doing, I found him making a “mouse formula” recipe he had found on the internet. And, there, in a shoe box, was a little mouse–barely alive.

My son set his alarm and fed that baby mouse every two hours. When I woke up the next morning, I went to check on things, couldn’t believe that mouse was still alive, and told my son to rest, that I would take over for a shift so my son could sleep. I fell in love with that little mouse immediately. My son named him Jeremiah. Jeremiah and I have been very good friends since May.

At first, I got creeped out every time Jeremiah ran up my arm. His little feet are like velcro, and he moves oh-so quickly. Now, I am used to him, though I still panic a bit if he tries to get into my sleeve. Thankfully, he doesn’t do that very often. He knows me well, and I know him well. We seem to have an agreement about what I am comfortable with and what he’s comfortable with.

Over the summer, we realized that Jeremiah was just too lonely, even though we carried him in a travel crate every time we took a long trip, and we got him a friend from Petco. We now have Cynthia, who is a fancy mouse, meant to be food, I suppose, but living her best life with Jeremiah, who adores her.

This is where the movie Ratatouille comes in. I really knew very little about mice,, but between my research and my son’s research, we gradually figured out how to be good mouse caretakers. However, I think I have learned the most by observing Jeremiah. The first time I saw that little mouse fall asleep with a piece of homemade wheat bread in one hand and a strawberry from our garden in another, I knew Jeremiah was a foodie–and my mind immediately went to Ratatouille. I remember that rat in the movie always wanted good food.

So one of my missions every evening is to deliver some delicous food to Jeremiah and Cynthia. Jeremiah is a fruit man. He loves all the berries. Like me, he has a hard time with store bought berries unless they are just a really good batch. He grew up on the garden, so he’s pretty picky. Right now, he’s very happy with pomegranate though. Cynthia is more of a carbs girl. She loves homemade bread more than I can say. She will take a piece of bread right out of Jeremiah’s little hands.

I have learned they don’t really like carrots. And cheese. They don’t like cheese. So much for what I learned on Tom & Jerry growing up. Apples are “mid,” as my son says, but sunflower seeds are a favorite. Tonight, I had fresh bread Ron had made and some leftover pomegranate seeds.

It had been such a rough day that I just pulled up a stool and sat and watched those mice for a long time. They are so sweet and so loving to each other. Of course, I don’t want our home overrun with mice, and I am always thankful for the owls and our kitties (we have to be super careful, by the way with the kitties). Still, I am also thankful to get to know these tiny creatures, especially Jeremiah. He’s very expressive and so full of personality. I had no idea!