Finding Joy in Small Things

Now that winter is here at Mezzacello, I’m having to waterproof and winter-proof everything. I do this every year. And every year it seems like I have to redo everything. Nature and its entropy. But I knew this was going to be the case when I started. The animals at Mezzacello do their best to keep it interesting.Take the ducks. The duck coop extension that I added to the chicken coop is working beautifully. It was designed and built by a student intern I had from Metro Early College High School. She did a lot of research on the habits of ducks and what their needs were. It has streamlined my chores in the morning. When the city health department came out for my duck inspection they were very impressed with her solutions to keeping ducks. The ducks seem to like it too.The cold weather affects them in strange ways. For the most part they do well with the cold but when I go out in the morning to let them out of the coop, they get so excited and just start quacking and running back-and-forth through the coop. One of the hens came running out and laid an egg right in front of me. She just dropped that egg and kept on running for the food and water. Newsflash: it was just pellet feed and scratch grains. But she is young and excitable. She left a wet and steaming egg right there in the middle of the chicken yard. That’s a first; I’ve never seen that before. I wonder how they’ll react to to the dried mealworms?That’s the interesting thing about living on an urban farm with poultry and rabbits. You’re going to see things you’ve never seen before. Life is a journey filled with a million little surprises. Take joy in the little things and you’ll always find joy.