Just because I don’t feel like taking an outdoors bath in these dropping temperatures doesn’t mean my little ducklings don’t want their traditional water setting. Out came the pickax last week, and into the ground went a hole. Thinking aesthetically, I lined it with heavy duty plastic, and nestled rocks along the edges to hold it in place. As it turns out, these bouts of rock work and digging, while quick and pleasing in the short term, are not the most efficient way to meat the duckie’s needs.
Ducks are messy. Slappily swaying their way around the yard, they manage to bring a fair amount of dirt into the water as they dip in for drinking and primping. I made it rather shallow, so their still-small bodies could easily manage entrance and exit. However, a larger and deeper pond, such as a naturally occurring lake, would have created a dynamic of depth to allow the dirt to sink off of the surface, and away from their drinking area. So, back to the drawing board.
In the meantime, I’m pouring in a couple buckets of clean water a day, and rinsing the whole get-up every 4 to 5 days. Not as fast as rinsing out a tray, and certainly not geared up to remain unfrozen come the approaching harder frosts. Looks like I’ll be either buying a heat stand and water tray or swinging away like Paul Bunyan to make a deeper setup. 
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