Each step takes us a little closer…The twentieth is near…and spring will arrive! When you look at the pictures below, remember that only three days ago I took the first two pictures. Then look at the third one…quite a difference in the property. Yes folks…it happens that fast, even in upstate New York! When you’re this close to spring, it can come in an instant, but it also thaws in the same instant, flooding the streams temporarily and then it is over. Nothing seems to linger here in the north, especially weather.

On Sunday morning...only two days ago.....

We had a good six inches of new, wet snow...

And now two days later, the snow is about gone...

Then we come to Vick’s latest endeavors of rightfully deciding that it was time to change the curtains for spring; thus allowing the room to be more cheerful and bright than before. That alone makes you feel more confident that spring has all but arrived.

The curtains over the picture window in the dining room...

The Valance over the door...

Panels and valance over the sink...

Over the new windows in the living room...

It really makes the room look cozy & comfy, right?

In the next five photos you will see her changes of the curtains over the picture window in the dining area, the valance on the door, did the window over the sink and then…the new windows in the living room. That again, changed the entire look of the living room.Finally, I took to the rear deck to snap pictures of Gladys’s family group that returned home again this year. There were eleven that returned last year and when Gladys broke her wing flying into the pond and could not fly back out with the others…only ten left to fly south. Now, they have returned for spring…and there were eleven. I believe one of them returned with a mate, because two stay separate from the other nine. When the group tries to approach them, the male chases the group away from his female, yet will mingle with the group. This makes me believe a gander in the family chose a female mate and naturally keeps the family away from her.

It is also quite obvious that the mate of Gladys is in this group, for he goes to the bunny brothel and talks to her through the door, recognizing her after being gone all winter. We cannot leave Gladys out until the pond is thawed completely so she can take refuge in the center and predators cannot simply run out onto the ice and grab her. Had we gotten her into the brothel building earlier…she would not have been grabbed and almost killed. Her foot is now pretty well back to normal, as she only displays a very slight limp and her back and wing feathers are growing back in.

I hope when we release her, she spends long days with her family on the water and then comes into the barn with Doodles after the family fly off for the evening. They can resume each and every morning as normal…
Because, life definitely does go on!

The lake is beginning to thaw...

The little duck pond is thawed for good now...

So here they are...back for summer 2013...

For the most part, they get along pretty good...

But they should get along good...After all...They're a family...

Vacating in my presence...they will return...

The odd couple...female on left, male on the right...
They keep their distance from the group...

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