Week Sixteen: Prairie Schooler Chicks

Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick chick! This week I stitched another egg-shaped pattern from The Prairie Schooler's "Just Hatched" leaflet using 18-count ivory aida and DMC floss. It was a fun and very quick stitch-- good for this past week with Easter, work, doctor's and hair appointments...

I can never look at a baby chick without thinking of our "near disaster" with some newly hatched ducklings. Our pond, which lies at the far end of our property, is a magnet for wildlife of every kind. We have visits from deer, hawks, squirrels, herons, groundhogs, Canadian geese, and of course, ducks. About 15 years ago, the ducks had hatched some darling fluffy babies who, after a few days of "waking up" decided to learn to swim in our pond. We all enjoyed watching them happily paddling on the water, but one day we looked out and there was not a single duckling to be found. Walking back to the pond to explore further, we could hear them peeping like crazy, but not one was in sight. We traced the peeping to the pond's drain pipe--the poor things had swum right over it and had been washed down! With some quick thinking on my husband's part, he ran next door, borrowed the neighbor's golf ball retriever and rescued the scared little things--our hero! Needless to say, from that point on, the drain has been covered with a screen of some sort to prevent further mishaps. There is a new duck couple enjoying the pond this spring so hopefully we'll have some baby chicks to enjoy very soon...