The Great Wall of Vermont

The local masons pose in front of their handiwork.

Some of you readers are well enough read and travelled to be familiar with the so-called "Great Wall of China". Even though that wall can apparently be seen from space, I'm not convinced that China's "great" wall is all that great or can even come close to comparing to the wall we have recently completed in our yard. There are similarities however. The chinese built their wall to protect them from the ravaging barbarian hordes of Mongol horsemen. We have built our wall to protect us from the ravaging barbarian hordes from outside Vermont (New Hampshire comes to mind for example). It will also serve as a retaining wall for some flowers and shrubbery. Eventually we hope to extend the wall all around our property and then build a moat. That will be followed by the guard towers complete with catapults equipped to hurl copious quantities of Greek Fire. When it comes to home security, no excess is excessive. I'm not sure what that means but it's a motto I try and live by.

As Dumb as a Duck

The piercingly unintelligent gaze of our drake.

The ducks at their little hideaway on the brook.

The expression "as dumb as a duck" is not a colloquialism in the English language as far as I know. That is a great pity because ducks are some of the dumbest animals I have ever encountered. Cute perhaps, but their overriding quality seems to be dumbness. Our ducks, for example, refuse to go out on our 1/2 acre pond. The same pond that was the main motivation for us to get ducks. We imagined seeing the cute little creatures serenely cruising across the pond, lending a wonderful touch to our little bucolic paradise. The 4 Rouen ducks we have, unfortunately, appear to be hydrophobes. O.K., that's a little harsh. They're not afraid of all water. For example, they will splash around all day in the 2 gallon kitchen basin we used to leave out as drinking water. The million gallon pond? Not so much. They have also found a secluded spot along the brook where they like to hang out, and of course the brook is made up primarily of water. They can even float for 2 or 3 whole feet along this stretch of brook if they tuck their feet up real tight. In another sign of limited IQ, the ducks also appear to believe they are chickens. They don't sleep with the chickens, they don't look like chickens and they don't hang out with the chickens all day. But leave the chickens closed up in their run and the ducks will hang out by the gate wondering why their compadres have been singled out for such harsh treatment. If they knew what has already happened to a couple of the chickens (eaten by yours truly) they might not be so anxious to hang out with them. Anyway, we've got the darn things now and I admit they are much too cute to, how can I say this delicately, turn into 'canard a l'orange', so we'll just have to put up with them. For the time being anyway.