Sitting here in the porch, reading, I heard ducks yell-quacking and splashing water out on the pool. What the heck is going on? So I get off the couch, turn off the inside light, turn on the outside flood lights and look out toward the pool. There are 3 [mallard] ducks sitting on the water that has accumulated on the winter pool-cover. But they're not just sitting - they're randomly chasing one another, batting their wings one other and splashing water all over in the process. In the water, onto the ledge, down on the lawn. Rinse and repeat.

There have been ducks visiting our pool on a daily basis since they migrated back this year; they've been around at least a month or so now. There have been 3 males regularly hanging around this season; last year we only had one male and one female. Up until tonight, they have rarely made noise - we only get a few quack-grunts when we actually go into the backyard and then they usually fly away - presumably to another 'pond'. To hear them quacking loudly and splashing the pool water is bizarre! Sounds like duck-territory drama to me!

I watched for a couple minutes, giggle at the crazy birds, go tell my finance what's going on (to which he grunts, unimpressed, and falls back to sleep) and come back to the porch window. This time I notice it's not the 3 males I originally thought it was. Dun dun dun... It's 2 males and a female! The 2 males are the ones who keep 'attacking' the female, following her around and relentlessly bugging her. I guess it is spring-time...

Oh, man. Two guys, one girl... who's going to win?!?! I don't know, but all three of them just flew off, one after the other, into the night.

May the best man-duck win!

 The Female:                            The Male:


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Spring cleaning is serious business! During the last couple of weeks, we've been getting the house/yard/garage out of the dormancy of winter. We had a Spring Clean-Up day on Saturday in our town. We brought two loads of 'crap' from around here to the disposal site. We had old toilets (eww...), old microwave (Hello, the 80's called... they want you back!), yellow-cigarette-smoke-tar-stained mini blinds (gross...), old painted, moldy wooden boards/shelving we tore out of the basement and a butt-load (technical term, you know) of cardboard boxes from when we moved into the house.

It was so nice to finally get all that crap outta the garage and get that space looking nice(r) again. After hauling all that stuff away, we spent a good 3 hours cleaning the garage. I seriously do not think the previous owners cleaned the garage within the last 10 years. We had spiderwebs AND cobwebs (yes, there is a difference) over every surface in that garage. I spend at least a half hour with the broom brushing them off the walls and ceiling. It had been so bad, I was afraid of turning on the light in there for fear of putting my hand into a nasty, old cobweb (*shudder*)!

We still need to clean up the walls and put a new coat of paint on there. It looks like somebody, at one point in time, had used the walls as target practice with a sharp object. Needless to say, there are holes and indents in the walls from... something. Oh, and we replaced 2 of the concrete blocks at the base of one of the walls. Hello grass outside! I guess that's what happens when you don't have gutters on your garage (not connected to the house) - the concrete blocks disintegrate and the concrete slab foundation cracks down the middle. *sigh*

So, my arms are KILLING me from using that broom on the walls/ceiling to get the cobwebs down. Holding an object above my head and forcefully swinging it around for over a half hour is something my arm muscles (biceps, forearms AND hands...) are not used to. Ouch!

Next weekend: Get the water drained from the pool cover (and maybe getting the pool 'opened' with the chemicals). As much as I enjoy the ducks hanging out there, it's not a pond. I think we had 3 ducks on there one day last week. Our cats sit in the four-season porch and stare out the windows at the ducks sitting on the pool ledge. This is what I call a staring contest  haha!