My friends, Shannon and Tim went to England. Shannon and I both have an interest in Archeology. On her trip she stopped at an active dig in Hexham, UK. It was Vindolanda, which was a Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. Shannon bought me a duck pin, since I raise ducks for eggs.

Ilean came on May 1st as a 2 month old Pekin duck. With her was Bertha, who became Bert when it was obvious he was a male. They were a comical pair. Ilean was loud. I was told that’s not a duck, that’s a goose because her quack was more like a honk.

We had to bury Ilean today. She was killed by a predator last night. It was sad. Bert is lonely.

I got Pepper in May of 2019 from the 4 H. My friend’s son had found a newly hatched chick in the trash. Since I had a flock we adopted it and named it Kathy, because she was chatty. Chatty Kathy was a doll from my youth. She needed chicks her age so I picked up Bob and Pepper from the 4 H.

Bob was white speckled and as an adult hatched our rooster, Chicklet. Kathy was rust colored and Pepper was black. They formed a sub flock and hung together. After Kathy (killed by a bobcat) and Bob (died in her sleep) died, the flock turned on Pepper and attacked her. I separated her and found her new friends – Adeline and Bobette, who were bantam ( small breed ) chickens. I built them their own hoop coop.

Adeline was much older than I thought and had a happy retirement with space to roam. Bobette was a good companion for Pepper who was half blind from a previous flock attack. They had many years together. When Pepper died I got Red as a companion chicken. They had their own space and lived in the coop I built for Pepper.

Pepper passed today. She was lethargic at breakfast and passed after lunch. We buried her along the tree line on the East of the property.