The loss of Rosey the Duck

Our hearts took another emotional blow with the loss of one of our ducklings. Rosey the Duck was a little bit of a late bloomer, but she was growing and developing with leaps and bounds and we had such high hopes for her. Her life was cut short by one flaw with her development, it wasn't ready. Her sweet personality and her loving nature weren't enough to slow the progress of nature. Her body wasn't developed enough to start laying eggs, but nature took its course and in the end it too its toll on her little body.


Rosey (L) and Happy (R) 

She had laid three eggs in the last three days before her passing. It isn't normal for this time of year, and her age-four months, but from what we learned, it can happen. Unfortunately for Rosey, her little body wasn't ready for this milestone. She has always been a little behind with development and was never where Happy was with foraging, or water play, so her laying eggs before Happy sort of surprised us. She ended up pushing too many eggs out in too short of time and caused her uterus to prolapse. It isn't a common issue, but it isn't unheard of either. Most of the time the prolapse is either pushed back in and the bird is kept separated in a dark, quiet area to slow egg production until she can heal completely. Well, with Rosey she kept trying to push and with her being abnormal to begin with and not fully developed, she cause small tears inside of her uterus, which lead to a hernia.

We immediately contacted Chintimini Wildlife Center in Corvallis, Oregon, and they told us to bring her in right away. Being that Rosey and Happy are mixed with wild mallard normal veterinarians won't look at them because they are considered a wild animal. Unfortunately, as we crossed the Willamette River Bridge into Corvallis, Rosey passed away. We were not expecting her to die, so we are all completely devastated. The veterinarian at Chintimini Wildlife Center said that Rosey's prolapse couldn't have be helped because her little body wasn't completely ready to produce eggs and her pushing so much caused too much trauma internally. I love that she produced three eggs before she passed and gave us such a fun three months. I hate that she was abnormal when she was born and not fully developed before her little body started the egg production. She always acted differently than Happy, but we loved her just the same. We take comfort in knowing that we gave her the greatest three months of her short life. She was such a neat and beautiful duck. Her breed is considered a Magpie with Mallard traces. We will miss her terribly. For now, we will love on her sister, Happy, and hope her egg-laying is successful.

Rosey's namesake came from a dog that The Mr. and I just adored. It was my parent's dog and she lived to be 17-Her name was Rosebud. She was timid and seemed to just go with the flow. She got startled easily and always sensed the bad in some people. She was a neat, little dog, and I always thought highly of her. She loved to be loved and knew the ones that loved her until her passing. I figured carrying on her name would be a great tribute for us to remember her by. Rosey lived the same way, timid, shy, easily started, and loved to be loved. It pains us to know that she didn't get to live that long with the namesake, but it gives us some comfort knowing she did get to live a fun four months with a lot of love from us, and develop her own little personality.

Rosey the Duck's first egg.

She was such a sweet little duckling from the start. Happy the Duck is so independent, but with Rosey we got to take care of something that really did need us. She was slow to progress and slow to learn, but she was such a delight. We had such hopes for her and we feel like her life was cut short by genetics. It's a confusing world we live in sometimes and with the loss of Baz this past September, another loss was too soon for our loving family. All we can do is be glad that we spent some time, even as short as it was, with a pretty cool little creature that made us laugh and smile every day, and enjoyed our family as much as we enjoyed her. 

"Rosey" the Duck- August 1, 2017-December 14, 2017

"It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal."
―Joaquin Phoenix

"All animals deserve love, even a duck."
―S.B.W.


-If you are considering getting ducks, consider getting a Magpie/Mallard hybrid. Their personality and temperament are perfect for anyone. They work well with other animals and also get along with kids quite easily. They are vocal and love to talk.

-Please consider donating to the Chintimini Wildlife Center in Rosey the Duck's name. The wildlife center does great things for our local wildlife and it's all based on donations. Donating to the center in Rosey the Duck's name would mean a great deal to our family. Thank you!
-Donate here.

Basil/Tomato Chicken Wrap

This recipe is one of the house favorites here. Extremely easy to make and delicious. We normally make this toward the end of the week when we are low on meals for dinner, or lunch. I've even made two batches and placed them in glass lunch containers, so The Mr. can have something to grab and go for lunches for a few days. They are a high-end meal for low effort preparing and baking. 

What you will need:

Two organic, free-range chicken breasts (we like to use Roxy-the organic chicken)

Organic extra virgin olive oil 

Sea salt and organic black pepper

Organic mozzarella (we like to use Organic Valley)

Organic Roma tomatoes-sliced (about two)

Fresh, organic basil leaves

What to do:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and remove any fat from the chicken breast. Lay them out on a flat work surface and begin slicing them length-wise to cut into two equal-sized pieces. Once cut you should have four pieces to work with. Lay a small sheet of parchment paper over each breast and pound flat to about 1/4-inch thickness. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub the salt and pepper into the breasts. Add two slices of tomato, a few leaves of basil, and a thin slice of mozzarella. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add another small drizzle of olive oil. Roll up chicken breasts starting from the larger end and rolling to the narrow end. Place on olive oil drizzled, glass baking dish seam-side down. Drizzle more olive oil on top of each breast and sprinkle with more salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and top each breast with a small slice of mozzarella. Broil five more minutes to melt and lightly brown the cheese. To cut calories with this dish you can leave off the last step with the cheese on top and just sprinkle with salt and pepper before serving (as pictured below).

Serve them hot along side some French baguette slices!

(As with any recipe, be sure to use quality, non-gmo, organic ingredients) 

Five simple things

Hello.

Well, this is the week of mending-physically and emotionally. For the physical part, I've been getting around a lot better since my fall, but have been depending on my cane a lot to help me stay balanced. I have been having a lot of cabin fever lately, so we took a drive up to the Cascades to see how much snowfall has come. There wasn't a lot, but enough to get out in and let The Bean and Hardy play. We are really looking forward to a good snowfall this year and my persimmon weather forecasting tells me it we be a lot! For the emotional part, we suffered a loss Thursday morning. Our sweet Rosey Duck passed away. I will post more on this in another post later explaining what happened, but for now her death was so sudden and we are all completely devastated. So that this week's "Friday things" doesn't turn sad, here are five simple things, that otherwise made the week good.

1. Our trees.

Our trees are great this year. Not too big, not too small, but just right. The smaller one is The Bean's tree and the larger one is the family tree. We have simple decorations this year and they are perfect. Interesting facts about the Christmas/Holiday tree here.

2. This bell.

For helping to call for help when I needed while being injured. My boys took great care of Mama Bear and I love them for it.

3. This picture.

The Build Lebanon Trails (BLT) program here in Lebanon, Oregon, hosted a photo contest recently. They wanted to find the best shot of the trail system here and the winner of the contest would have their picture used for the header of their new site starting 2018. This is the picture I entered. I wasn't the winner, but this picture just makes me smile. The Mr. and The Bean sitting on a donated park bench along the trail system. The trails here are all created by donations and it's great to know that there is always a safe place, off the main road, to ride our bicycles, or walk without worrying about being hit, or worse. You can read more about the photo contest and the trail system through BLT here.

4. Cascade snow.

The snow is getting thicker on the Cascade Mountains. We are hoping that some comes out way soon.

5. December's book.

This month's reading selection is worth a read. Women Who Run with the Wolves is about the women who don't fit the stereotypes set out to silence them. Find out more about it here. Other selections for this month are below.

Have a great weekend!

Christmas cards 2017-William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge

This year we did our Christmas card shoot at the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge in Benton County. If you don't have this place on your bucket list, you need to add it. It's protected land in the Willamette Valley near Corvallis, Oregon. We've been here a few times over the past year and there's always something to see each time we go. We've seen a lot of wildlife up close and it's a great opportunity to see them in their natural habitat. This year is the first year that we've decided to blog about our Christmas card shoot and it's also the first year that we have decided to use our Christmas cards as an outlet to talk about all of these great places we visit too.

There are several buildings on the refuge land, but we chose the John Fiechter House to use for our Christmas photos this year.

The house was built in 1855 by John Fiechter. He used Douglas Firs from his own land claim to build the house and carriage house that sits off to the right of the house. In 1860 an addition was added onto the back of the house to accommodate the growing family-seven children-and John Fiechter's father-in-law, Abiathar Newton supervised the construction of this addition to the house. Bricks for the fireplace and foundation for the home were made of clays found on the property and actually fired and hardened on site as the home was being built. John Fiechter's success in the California gold fields helped finance the materials and labor to build the home and it was the first lumber and brick home built in the area.

Picture of the house as it were-(circa-late 1800s)

We took all of our animals-minus our goldfish, Berry-to the refuge with us to be in the picture this year. We were looking for a serious picture, but one with a slight be of humor to it. Ducks are just funny. It doesn't matter how serious we tried to be, Rosey and Happy-the ducks, made it humorous. -Side note on Berry-the goldfish: The Bean won Berry at this year's Strawberry Festival that took place this past June. The festival is in celebration of the abundant harvest of strawberries here in the Valley. Hence the name "Berry," as in straw-"berry."

The Bean dressed in his Berdan's Sharpshooter Uniform from the Civil War era, but of course his black Converse don't quite fit the scene.

The Mr. went with dark pants, a collared white shirt, period jacket, and a top hat. He also used a period cane and a silver pocket watch to get into character.

Straight-faces were common in older photos. Higher class families would keep a straight face because it was said that if you smiled you were poor, lewd, or just plain drunk. So in that time period if you wanted to be seen as upper class and as a person of good character you just didn't smile. 

Trying to capture just the right photo. Hardy (PITA) looking left...

...Looking right. And then we noticed the leash was showing the whole time. 

Once we had a good poition, people started watching us as if we were putting on a living history moment.

This is the photo we took for the cards, but decided it deserves to be framed instead.

We all agreed that this picture was the one for the Christmas cards. We even fit in a hidden "easter egg" into the picture. Do you see it? 

What is an "easter egg?"

By the time we had a good shot Rosey and Happy were ready to stretch their wings.

We took a few photos of just the house and the land that it sits on. 

The carriage house.

William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1964 to help protect the Dusky Canada Goose winter habitat. Parts of the refuge are closed at certain times during the year when the Canada goose flies in. We saw at least three groups of 100 in a flock during our photo shoot. We were hoping for a glimpse of an elk, but not this trip. 

Dusky Canada Geese taking flight at the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge viewing stage.

You can read more about the William L. Finley NWR here.