Ducks at last

 
In mid March I placed an order for 23 baby Ducks. My hope was that they would arrive in late April or early May. Baby ducks make excellent show and tell at the local elementary school I work at. I made all the appropriate consideration for our expectant family. I cleaned out the old chicken coop, notified my mail man of the incoming stork ( as our duck breeds are flightless the stork is, I am sure, delivering our babies in cooperation with the postal service) I made sure to check the post office daily, day after day after day. Finally the postmaster just took my phone number and said she would call if I actually did receive anything.  As April folded into May and May gave way to June I began to be suspicious that we were not getting ducks this Spring. July arrived with a letter from the hatchery. INCUBATOR FAIlURE, no birds this year. I was devastated. My wife and I are both allergic to chicken eggs ( but not duck eggs) and the ducks had been our hope of omelet salvation as well as fluffy baked goods. I sulked for the month of July but by August I found new vigor to find ducks.

The great duck hunt reminds me of my early years playing nintendo's game Duck Hunt. Mostly the correlation was in reference to the the dog in the game. With every miss the dog would stand up on two legs and giggle at my failure. I felt like the with every dead end craigslist call or lead the nintendo dog of my past was laughing. Missed another opportunity to buy ducks, "just sold." "Had ducks last year sold them all." The story was different each time but the result was the same, no ducks.

Our fortune changed on a swimming trip to a river about an hour away. We stopped in to a local farm stand run by old order Menonites. As we left for our swim I asked the man at the register if he knew where I might find some ducks for sale. Following a wild goose chase through the entire Mennonite community during which we met numerous folks that all pointed us to other folks that might have some but never actually did, we arrived. Mr. Martin had ducks a large good looking flock. We are now the proud owners of 3 khaki campbell ducks and 2 welsh harlequins. Eggs expected within a month, as they are late in there teen years and are yet to lay.