September 1 - For the last several days the ducks have been practicing flying by flapping their wings until they simply stood on their tippy-toes. Sometimes they would even leave the ground for a second or two. Yesterday, they actually began to fly. They would take short flights from the waterfall across the pond and land on the far side. Today they were practice flying from one end of the pond to the other. The visiting mom had flown in two days ago, so there were five ducks in the pond. Just after dinner tonight, while john and joyce were entertaining company, the visiting mom and the three "babies" flew off together. The real mom became very upset at not finding her babies and was crying loudly for them. She is sitting in the pond alone tonight. Maybe the four will return in the morning. joyce and john are sad, but this is a time to remember that nothing is permanent and should always be enjoyed fully for the time it exists. It is very quiet at zenpond tonight.

September 3 - There is a debate about whether the remaining duck is "mom" or one of the babies that just hasn't learned how to fly yet. john thinks it is one of the babies. joyce thinks it is mom. Yesterday evening (6:30 PM) two new visiting female ducks flew in. Was the remaining duck ever happy to see them. They played together, ate cracked corn and just stood around for about an hour. Then the two visitors decided it was time to go and they flew away, leaving the remaining duck by herself yet again.

September 4 - This evening (6:45 PM) three female ducks flew in. Two looked like the ones here yesterday and one looked like mom. Needless-to-say, the remaining duck was very happy to see them. They repeated the actions of the evening before and then the two visitors flew off, leaving mom and baby. About an hour later, mom flew off leaving baby. The baby is still here this morning and probably will be until she "gets" the concept of flight. She doesn't seem too interested in flapping wings much, so it may be a very long time.

john received two videos from ezyrock on making artificial rocks. john was impressed with these and recommends anyone interested in learning how to make artificial rocks look at www.ezyrock.com. They are located in Australia, so if you order a video make sure that they know to send you the NTSC formatted video, which is the format used in the United States.

September 5 - Last evening five ducks flew in at 7:00 PM for dinner with remaining duck. They stayed about an hour, had a great time, and then four of them flew off, leaving remaining duck and one that john thinks is either mom or one of the original babies. The two ducks were together all night and this morning until about 11:30 AM when mom left. It will be interesting to see if the ducks fly in for dinner tonight. They seem to be arriving 15 minutes later each evening.

September 7 - Mom and another female duck has arrived at 6:30 PM for the last two days. In addition, the same two come in the mornings also. They stay about an hour and then fly off again. Mom also is here now (2:20 PM) to keep her baby company. She will make short flights to try to encourage her baby to fly. The baby still doesn't seem too interested in learning however. john goes out when the baby is by herself and give her some treats of fish food. She, of course, has plenty of cracked corn whenever she is hungry. Maybe that is the reason she isn't interested in learning to fly, she has everything she would ever want right here at zenpond.

john went to a local hunting/fishing store to find something to discourage the green heron from eating more fish. He doesn't want to hurt the heron, just keep it away from the $20 - $70 koi. He found slingshots and BB guns, but knew they would seriously hurt the heron, so kept looking. What he finally found was a paint ball gun. It is CO2 driven and has soft paint balls about 3/8 inches in diameter. john reasoned that if people shoot the paint balls directly at each other, they probably are not going to hurt the heron. Unfortunately, there are no clear paint balls. So when john fires one of these, they will leave a color temporarily. john chose a dark purple to match the darker colors of the waterfall. The paint is environmentally safe for fish and green herons and washes away quickly. Now you know, of course, what happened when john got home with the paint ball gun. That's right ... he has not seen the heron once since the purchase! Now that is a powerful discourager!

john has been re-watching the www.ezyrock.com videos about making artifical rocks and he has been emailing others who earlier emailed him asking about how to make artifical rocks. john is more impressed with the videos each time he watches them! john recommends everyone to go to the web site and taking a look. john reminds everyone he has no ties with this company, he just likes their product.

September 11 - Five ducks having a quiet dinner of cracked corn as shock waves circle the human world.

September 16 - this morning 7 ducks flew in for a breakfast of cracked corn. joyce observed that their food dish (a saucer from a large flower pot ) was nearly empty. john went out to refill it and the ducks did not fly away. In fact, john recognized all of them except one: all the babies (3), both moms (2), Eider duck (1) and one new one. They were all female as usual. For the last several days ducks would just drop in and stay about an hour and then fly off again. Today was no exception. Six of the seven flew off. The saucer was empty when they left!

There has been one duck here all day. john thinks she is the original mom. She did come over to john and begged for a fish food treat which john gave her. She was only six inches from john's feet and listened to john talk to her as she kept begging for more treats. It sort of reminded john of some banquet dinners he has attended. She just nodded her head at the speaker and kept eating. Finally, she was full and spent a long time splashing in the small pond. She is currently sleeping on one of the stepping stones in the big pond.

john spent some of the day on the deck just reading and listening to the sounds of falling water. He just wanted to be very quiet after the events of the last several days. joyce spent most of the day grading papers for her fourth grade class. tucka spent the day in the open window watching birds, squirrels, chipmucks, hummingbirds, mom duck and john. Right now, tucka is beside john's chair reminding john that john is a full nine minutes late with tucka's dinner. tucka likes dinner promptly at 4:30 PM without exception, so john must sign off for now.

September 20 - first john would like to share a picture he took of a duck taking off from zenpond:

Next john would like to share an email from a good friend (see Gary.html):

"Hi John, The events of the last several days have given us much more to think about. Although I try to stay on top of the latest developments, the news coverage gets overwhelming at times. I visit zenpond.com often to take refuge from all of the depressing news. While visiting zenpond.com to read up on the latest, I thought about you installing an outdoor webcam on the house overlooking zenpond as a possible, new feature to your website that would give visitors first-hand glimpses at the pond in action during anytime of the day. This would also allow visitors to watch the maturing process of zenpond as construction and landscaping continue. With your DSL connection, this could be very possible. What are your thoughts? Gary"

John's reply to Gary was:

"Hi Gary, You aren't the first to think of this. Several people have asked me to do so. I will do this, but I am so busy finishing up the real zenpond, I find I haven't been keeping up with the virtual one. I'll try to do better, especially now that we have colder weather coming soon. The fellow I helped design web sites for (www.net2business.com) is an expert at things like webcams, so I have an inside track. I just want everything to look good when I do that. I have a great picture of a duck taking off ... a real action shot. I'll try to get it on the site today. I'm glad you come to zenpond for refuge. lovingkindness, john"

john is already having second thoughts about waiting until zenpond is finished before installing a webcam. It was quite a coincidence that after john read Gary's email and was clicking off, Netscape had an ad for a webcam. john made a bookmark of it to look at soon.

john feels this is certainly a time for calm, reflection and meditation.

September 25 - Fall is definitely in the air. The mornings are quite cool (43 degrees F) and the days are "Indian Summer". For the last two days, a huge, beautiful, male Eider duck and a female Mallard have been coming for dinner. This morning, with fog rising from the pond, four female Mallards (definitely our babies and Mom) were drifting idly like boats anchored in a misty harbor. Finally, john noticed they were eating cracked corn and later they took off together going almost straight up in vertical flight.

There was an emergency yesterday at zenpond. john had gone to the basement for some tools when he heard what sounded like a kitty meowing. He and Eddie isolated the crying to a screened vent in the far side of the basement. john looked through the vent opening and could see two paws and a tiny gray face of a baby kitty looking back at him. He broke out the grill work and reached in to see if he could dislodge the kitten. The kitten was so scared it bit john on the end of his finger. The kitten was caught between a massive planter box and the outside of the house and could not be budged through the vent opening.

john and Eddie went outside and around to the planter box and a gray mother kitty ran away quickly. john and Eddie could see a tiny black kitty at the corner of the planter box and they knew there was the gray one somewhere in the middle of the planter.

They began removing three evergreen bushes from the planter and john began cutting the 4 x 4 beams with a reciprocating saw. john said it reminded him of an auto accident where they have to cut people out of the vehicle. Eddie began prying the beams away from the house as not to injure the kittens. john took time to call Animal Control to see if they could help in the rescue mission.

About 2 1/2 hours later, the two Animal Control officers, john and Eddie could just see the kittens down there. There was the black kitty and three grays ones with white paws. The kittens were two or three weeks old and scared to death, of course. Finally, the kitties were freed and the one that had bitten john was isolated for rabies testing. The kittens will probably be adopted after they are 8 weeks old. They are very cute, so they will certainly find homes.

john went for a tetanus shot this morning and quickly found out that there is a national tetanus vacine shortage. The sole supplier quit making the vacine after children had trouble with the shot. john was only able to get a tetanus shot by becoming part of a study comparing the old type of vacine to a new type "using a new preservative", which he did become a part of.

Sadly, john could hear the mother kitty crying for her babies in the middle of the night. She was still coming this morning looking for them. What a bittersweet ending to the emergency at zenpond!