The Quest for Moby Trout Ends

Moby prior to a short stay on the grill.

My granddaughter caught the big one this morning in our first fishing outing of the year. Moby came in at 17 inches and 283 lbs. We bought a second freezer to freeze all the extra meat. My son also caught a good sized trout, 16 inches, and for a moment today the $382,596.76 we've spent stocking the pond and feeding the fish seemed like a wise investment. The fish were grilled and Moby (minus 280 lbs put away in the freezer) was eaten tonight. I must say, he tasted pretty good.

A Tattle of Turtles

Tilly in a recent photo.

Tommy, the "Mother of All Snappers". At least around our pond.

We now officially have three snapping turtles living in our pond and/or river. I stumbled on Tiny, the smallest of the bunch, down by the river yesterday. Of course, I didn't have the camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Tiny, as his name implies, is considerably smaller than Tommy or Tilly. He was only about 12 inches long from head to tail. Tommy on the other hand is a real monster. His head is about 4 inches wide and 6 inches long, and his overall length, head to tail, is probably 24 inches. Tilly is somewhere in between. Our three turtles could come straight out of Goldilocks except that they are turtles instead of bears. A small detail. What is the word for a group of turtles? We all know about a herd of cows, a swarm of bees, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows (what's up with that?), a school of fish (also very odd), and a pack of wolves. You get the idea. Animal groups are supposed to have names. But what's the name for a group of turtles such as Tommy, Tilly and Tiny? I didn't know, so I made up a name to use for the title of this post. I'm hoping it catches on ... as are the turtles. They've been discriminated against long enough.

A Couple of Odd Ducks

The hybridized male Mallard / Black Duck

The happy multi-ethnic couple.

This couple of ducks spent the better portion of the afternoon napping and resting on the big log that's stranded along one stretch of our river. I haven't been able to make a positive I.D., but I think that the female is an American Black Duck and the male is a cross between a black duck and a mallard. From what my birding guide says, there's a possibility of hanky-panky between black ducks and mallards, and the resulting offspring have coloring that borrows from both parents. In any case, they were a pretty pair and I was glad to get a chance to snap some pictures. For some reason seeing these two visitors got me to thinking about all of the slang expressions that employ the word duck, and there are quite a few. He's a dead duck; like a sitting duck; like water off a duck's back; she's a lame duck; like duck soup: ducky (british for darling); and so on and so forth. I'm not sure what it is about ducks that inspires such linguistic gymnastics and tangential references. Is it their endearing waddle? The heart-rending "Quack!"? That odd beak? I really couldn't say. What I do know however is that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. . . well, then chances are it's a duck.

Chateau Poulet se construit dans le Vermont

Le Chateau with the formal gardens in the foreground.

A closer view of Chateau Poulet.

Chateau Poulet from across le plan d'eau.

Rambouillet, the inspiration for Chateau Poulet.

The work has been arduous, but no great edifice is built without sacrifice, struggle and suffering. In the case of Chateau Poulet, the future abode of our chicken flock, the sacrifice, struggle and suffering has been all mine so far. I've been working on the chateau for 10 days straight and I'm pretty sore, very tired and my hands are full of splinters. As the French would say, "Je suis creve!" (Literal translation, "I'm punctured!" With all the splinters in my hands that's literally true.) The chickens will be coming in two weeks, so there's really no time to lose getting their digs done. I'm pretty happy with progress so far. The lines of Chateau Poulet are inspiring without being ostentatious. The whole seems to me to be quite harmonious and balanced. I'm sure all of you readers immediately spotted the uncanny similarities between Rambouillet, ancien chateau de chasse des Rois de France, and Chateau Poulet. They both have walls, windows and doors for example. Despite the obvious resemblance, I did not simply copy Rambouillet as some have accused me of doing. Let us just say that I was inspired by that other great work of architecture. Move over Frank Lloyd Wright!

Spring and a young man's fancy turns to...

Our connection to civilized behavior hangs by the thin cable of the well repairman.

In the Spring a young man's fancy turns to well pump repair of course. Some of my readers may object that I'm not a young man anymore, so how can I judge what young men might be dwelling on in the Spring. A reasonable objection, but I can guarantee you that up here in the North Country when you live out in the country and you have a well pump problem, that's what your fancy turns to, be you young, old, infant, adolescent, tweener (whatever that is) or centenarian. You can even become quite obsessive about it. That's because a well pump failure means no water and no water means, among other things, no functioning toilets. Now even though bears can and do take care of their "business" in the woods, and I have been persuaded by necessity to do the same on occasion, it's not something I relish. Catherine I can assure you relishes it even less. So it's Spring, our well pump has been on its last legs for some time and today we got it replaced. They're not actually done with the repair as I write this. There were some "complications". I'm confident they'll be done by nightfall, however. If not . . . I guess I'll be going out to say Hi to Bruno the bear. Wish us luck.