((((Tracy)))) good on you...I would have loved that quiet experience and you painted the picture so very well although my experience isn't as balanced and serene.  I did take these two back to their mother when I heard that 2 more had come along and they were being well cared for.  After I got them back I got a call that the mother was abandoning them and they abusing them and one was really small...so back I went and I got them and I got all of the uncertainty and humor that comes with them.  At times, for me they are not ducklings...they are PIGS!! They have the weirdest way of eating and bathing and standing in their water all at the same time and yet they are little.  They can muddy up a bowl of water faster than a water buffalo and tonight I changed their pool water...dang I gotta review my expectations several times a day to refocus on what these little fuzz buckets really are.  Names yes they now have name.   The teeniest I call "Pinch" because it isn't much of a full duckling even...just a "Pinch" of one.  The other one got it's name a couple days later when I thought that "Rudy" would fit fine...So now the littlest one is "Pinch" and together they make up "Pinch and Rudy"...kinda "Punch and Judy-ish" don't you know.   I cannot help but think of my former sponsors lesson on getting rid of denial and using acceptance that my wife then was alcoholic.  "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...its my alcoholics"   LOL  God it fits.  They're growing up...love cooked rice mashed up and cooked corn grits also...you can't imagine what they can do with their food.  Don't even try.  I ain't keepin them till their ready for college.   ((((hugs))))