Farm life

I write this column from my farm in eastern Montana near Malta. This is my first trip of the year to my farm.

First, I must apologize to my wife for calling this my farm. She likes to point out that this is “our” farm since the deed includes both our names. Anyway, I am here alone, enjoying a spring vacation of farm work.

One of my favorite spring farm activities is really a non-activity since it involves taking my morning cup of coffee and a lawn chair and sitting by my — or “our” — pond and watching the ducks in their bright spring coloration. Normally there are four species of ducks on the farm pond, including mallards, pintails, American wigeon and shoveler or spoonbills. It is interesting to see how these duck species all tend to stay near or with their own duck species groups. The mallards are in one tight group and the pintails are in their own species group. They generally don’t seem to integrate with other duck species. Perhaps this explains why human efforts to integrate all aspects of human life is difficult.