Before I get into story telling about my recent misadventures let's play a game...

Where in this picture are my pet ducks Smokey, Bandit, Sammy, and Reese?

Having a hard time seeing them? That's because they escaped our yard and went mountain climbing. The above picture was from day 2 of their escapes and mountain climbing adventures. The first day was on the coldest, wettest day we've had this year.

Up close shot of their location in the above picture

You see here in northeastern Tennessee we had crazy rainstorms last week. I've never seen so much rain fall. Since we have a river across the street and a stream at the bottom of the mountain our house sits on, the main road got flooded and downhill was just a mess. Our crappy roof couldn't handle all the water and started leaking in two new spots. There was so much water coming down that it began to pool in the roof of the laundry room which burst when my husband barely touched it. We had a waterfall in the laundry room and a huge mess to clean up.

So yeah...the rain was horrible.

But ducks love water! So my friends Sammy, Smokey, Bandit, and Reese had a grand time in the monsoon rains. It was with all this rain that those little ducks realized how close the lived to a big water source: the streams. In severe rains the little tiny stream which goes dry in summer turns into a full fledged river and overflows. My duck friends spied this new river and had to try it out. Crafty beasts they are, they figured out how to escape our yard and head down for a swim.

Of course raccoons and possums are an issue and at 5 PM right before it gets dark I went looking for them to put them up for the night. I couldn't find them. I looked all over and couldn't find them. It was raining but the rain had turned to snow. Panic set in and I was scared something happened...Then, I heard happy quacking in the distance. I found the ducks down the mountain happily swimming in all the flood waters.

They of course saw me and were like "nope, we're not going home" and headed away from me. The went towards the abandoned property next door which was flooded. My feet kept slipping into ankle deep waters trying to get in front of the ducks to turn them around towards home. My shoes filled with water and it was cold out. The snow/rain hit my glasses leaving drops so I couldn't see. We reached the neighbor's ancient barn and shed and I could hear the rush of water underneath. I could see a sinkhole had opened up underneath the corner of the shed and underneath a strong river of water was gushing as the rain from the mountain above flowed down. I felt like I was in danger. Someone could easily drown in that sinkhole.

The neighbor's abandoned property once the rain stopped

Their flooded out barn and shed

Eventually, I had to hop over a flooded part of the driveway where a river of water was flowing and was able to cut around in front of the ducks and that turned them to run towards home. It was a hard and long walk up the mountain. Poor Sammy the white duck got exhausted and laid down trying to climb the mountain back up to the house. She was so tired I gathered her in my arms and carried her back to their pen. When I finally got all of them tucked in for the night I was soaked and freezing.

Of course the rain stopped and the sun came out the next day and the ducks knowing where that fun new water source was escaped again. And again. So far three escapes have been made even though I keep blocking potential exists. Ducks are smart creatures. I'm not sure what to do. Living on a mountain with un-level terrain makes it hard to put up fencing. I'm not sure how they are getting out but I'm thinking they are managing to climb a steep hill which allows them to go around where our fencing and shed barriers are at.

Escape #3

Down the mountain they are out in the woods and far from my view where any sort of animal could kill them. Keeping these ducks alive and safe is hard when they outsmart me to explore. It's been a hard winter so far just keeping the ducks happy. Free ranging is hard when all the plants and bugs are gone. Animals go where the food is and the ducks want to expand their territory. The only bad part is they can't fly meaning a predator could kill them easily. I can't wait until spring. The ducks will be much happier in spring when all the plants and bugs come back.

All photos are my own.