"A ray of morning sun caught the bits of detritus of homesteading life, nudged to the edge of the walkway - a stray feather, a flake of bedding, a tuft of cat hair. It was time to vacuum again. Cleaning wasn't my favorite, but oh, wouldn't life without messes be boring."

As I sit here typing, I have a cardboard box next to me with four rowdy baby duckies in it. They alternate between doing their best to empty their water bottle into the basin below it and nibbling everything in site, and napping snuggled under towels wrapped around a hot water bottle (or on my lap, tucked under my shirt for warmth).

Miss Blue 2/Too, one of our ducky ladies, hatched her babies this week. Blue's a first time momma, and we had hoped she'd take to tending her little ones well, as she was extremely protective while she was nesting. Unfortunately, she was a little too focused on nesting, and wore herself out by not taking breaks. She also lost a lot of weight, because she prefers foraging over duck chow.

When we put her in the poultry tractor with the babies yesterday morning, she seemed a little loopy. Then, she started nipping at the babies - hard enough to make them peep in protest. We ended up taking Blue to the pond, where she joined her mate, Roy, in ecstatic splashing, and brought the babies inside for ducky day care. It rained most of the day yesterday afternoon and evening, and Blue did laps of the yard with Roy, finding all the buggies she could.

Last night, we put the babies back with her in the coop, and she took them right in. We had hopes that things would settle down - but this morning when we tried the poultry tractor again, she started pacing wildly, running back and forth to try and get out. Since the ducklings are much too young to safely free range (we had a Great Blue Heron land right in the garden the other day, and they will snack on ducklings), they're back in ducky daycare.

It seems fitting that I end up with ducklings now, on the anniversary of my late mother's birthday. She and I raised many, many little feathered babies together, making some wonderful memories. They are certainly a bit messy, but absolutely adorable. We'll keep working to see if we can reunite them with their mom, but I suspect we may end up sharing parenting duties, with duck time at night and human time during the day, until they can safely spend more time outside.

Think back: what’s one ‘messy’ moment that turned into a favorite memory? Take a photo of something messy-but-joyful this week (kids’ crafts, garden dirt, flour all over the counter) and enjoy it for what it is - because most of the best things don't happen when life is super tidy.

All our best to you and yours,

Laurie (and August IV, August V, and Duncan)

This weeks' featured articles...

Our elderberries started to ripen this week, so I figured it was a good time to put together an article on one of the simplest elderberry remedies - elderberry tea. We have a basic elderberry tea recipe, as well as an apple elderberry wellness blend.

The cucumber bonanza continues, so I'm sharing our current favorite recipes for fresh eating - creamy cucumber salad and cucumber onion salad.

Canning season is ramping up, letting us stock the pantry so we're ready for winter. (I've seen some predictions saying it's going to be another snowy one for us, but we'll see. Last winter started mild, and then didn't know when to quit.)

Home canned tomatoes are a great addition to (or foundation for) any number of recipes, and pretty straightforward to make. We explain how to can tomatoes step by step, with video.

Our home canned tomato soup recipe is also very popular. If you're not a canner, you can freeze this recipe for later use.