Ducklings!

No, not dumplings, ducklings. Do you remember the hen mallard I took a picture of at my Mom’s a while back?

Here are the proud Mama and Papa hanging out by the back door. These are “wild mallards” by the way.

You can see her here with her 8 or 9 babies, they move too quick to count!

Those ducks better watch out. If you look closely on that crossbeam in the center of the picture, you can see a big ole fat cottonmouth sunning himself. He would love to have one of those ducklings for his lunch. Be careful!

Bug-Out Location

I’ll bet you thought I was going to tell you where it is didn’t you? Not a chance. Actually our Bug-Out location is our homestead, so I will call it our Bug-In location. So the safety essentials I keep with me are not a Get-Out-Of-Dodge bag but a Get-Back-Home-Bag! We just came back from a visit with my parents, that will be our back-up Bug-Out location. They live on a large lake which would be ideal for a back-up water supply as well as a source for fish and game, such as these ducks.

This is their fishing shack built on the water. You can see the two Mallard Drakes sitting on the rail just resting. Let’s see if I can slip up on them and get closer.

Yes! I got close enough to use a slingshot to take one of them if I had to.

This is the hen right outside the back door mooching for a biscuit or stale bread. Mama said she is looking around in the flower beds for a place to build her nest. Last year a hen hatched out 8 ducklings in the flower bed.

This is Millie the wonder dog helping me check out the ducks. She probably thought I was going fishing. When Dad hooks a fish, he just pulls it up close to the bank where Millie can see it flopping around. She will dive into the water and grab the fish, and pull it up on the bank and stand there barking at it until dad unhooks it. I suggested they get a big, mean dog for protection. They said if anyone tried to mess with them Millie would be all over them, even if it was a grizzly bear!

  This is Toby calmly gazing out over the lake. He once sat on a stump right by the lake with a cane pole in his hands. A storm came up one night and caused huge waves to crash the shore. The waves washed Toby into the lake so he had to move back away from the edge. Have you got your bug-out plans in place? Be prepared!

Chocolate Lab

I finally got a few days of dry weather to work in, so I went out to the fields to pull some soil samples. While I was riding my ATV near a farm-house this fine-looking Chocolate Lab came out to see what I was doing.

Then he started talking to me. Hey what ya doing? Are you going huntin’? I like to go huntin’. You have that long metal tube in your hand, that looks like a gun to me.

Here, I’ll just climb up on the back of the ATV with you and we’ll  go huntin’. You can shoot the ducks and I’ll run out and get them and bring them back to you. I like fetching ducks, it’s my favorite thing in the whole world, it’s what I was born to do. So I said no I don’t have time to go huntin’. I have to work so just go home and leave me alone. I didn’t want to be out here working in the first place, now you’ve got me thinking about going duck hunting. Stupid Dog!

 

Then a little later in the day, this little fellow came out and tried to climb up in my truck. No, go home! You’re not the type of dog I need on the homestead. I need one big and mean, not cute and cuddly.

Peabody Hotel, Memphis TN

Sweet Thing and I just returned from spending a lovely weekend in Memphis, while staying at the historic Peabody Hotel. The hotel is billed as the South’s Grand Hotel, and it is very old and eloquent. It was built at the present location in 1925 using Italian Renaissance Revival architecture. The Peabody Ducks are a famous feature of the hotel, so the duck motif is featured everywhere.

This is a little welcoming gift of Peabody logo ducks and soap.

A good shot of the duck soap in the bathroom.

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We really enjoy being at the Peabody this time of year while it is decorated for Christmas. This tree in the lobby is at least 25 feet tall!

Of course, with a huge oversized tree, you also need huge ornaments.

This is a picture of some of the ornate woodwork on the ceiling of the lobby. Check out that stained glass. I have been in the lobby at 3 a.m. and watched workers standing on hydraulic lift scaffolding, cleaning and polishing this woodwork 25 feet off of the floor! ( Don’t ask why I was in the lobby at 3 a.m., that was in my younger days )

This is a piano in the lobby, often there will be someone playing it during the day. But when no one is there it plays itself! You can stand there and watch the keys and pedals moving like some ghost is playing. This time of year groups of people from area schools and churches come to the lobby and sing Christmas carols for the guests.

There is a huge fountain in the lobby, and during the day you can see the famous Peabody Ducks swimming around.

The ducks live in the duck palace on the roof of the hotel, but the Duckmaster marches them in and out of the lobby with great pomp and ceremony!

People line up on each side of the red carpet to watch the ducks march from the elevator to the fountain, accompanied with the music of John Phillip Sousa! It is quite an event each and every day!

That is why everything has the duck logo, even the butter on the dinner table is shaped in the duck pattern!

The Peabody lobby is known as the place to meet and mingle in Memphis. The Peabody is where all of us beautiful people stay, don’t ya know. We have stayed at the Peabody about 30 times in the last 15 years, and occasionally you get to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. We have spotted author Alex Haley, NFL quarterback John Elway, NBA player Lebron James, then governor Bill Clinton, actor Stephen Segal, and now this lady. You can’t tell from this crappy cell phone picture, but the red-haired lady seated right in front of the Christmas tree is…..

….that’s right, Priscilla Presley!

We had an enjoyable weekend, tomorrow I’ll tell you what else we did while we were there.