{"id":172,"date":"2022-07-19T03:56:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T03:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/?p=172"},"modified":"2022-07-19T16:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:17:20","slug":"the-search-for-peas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/19\/the-search-for-peas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Search For Peas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supply chain issues! First it was toilet paper. Next it was baby formula. Now it\u2019s green peas!<\/p>\n

We learned early on that ducks love<\/span> green peas \u2013 no, that\u2019s too mild. They ADORE<\/span> green peas. It\u2019s like crack for ducks. They will waddle over burning coals to get peas. So it became part of our routine each evening to bring a pound of peas out as their treat as we put them away in their pen. They are pretty good about coming home as it gets dark, but once in a while one of theme will be off down the creek looking for worms, and won\u2019t come \u2013 until they hear the call, \u201cAnyone want some peas?\u201d Then they come quacking.<\/p>\n

And they can be picky! One duck would only eat whole peas \u2013 she would spit out half peas or pea skins. We named her \u201cMarie,\u201d after Marie Antoinette. W e soon found that Food Lion peas were the best, and the price was right.\u00a0 Once a week I’d stop there and buy four 2-pound bags.\u00a0 Once in a while the checkout person would raise an eyebrow and say, “Boy, you really like peas!”\u00a0 I figure that over the years we have gone through a little more than two tons of peas.\u00a0 Two TONS.\u00a0 No joke!<\/p>\n

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Empty freezer shelf at Walmart!<\/p><\/div>\n

The Tragic Pea Shortage<\/h3>\n

But lately we\u2019ve had a hard time finding these green globes of deliciousness! Week after week, I would make my regular stop at Food Lion to buy four two-pound bags for the week \u2013 and they wouldn\u2019t have any! The freezer shelf would be empty. I spoke to the manager, who said \u201cWell, I guess they didn\u2019t have any on the truck.\u201d Another shrugged his shoulders: \u201cSupply chain issues!\u201d<\/p>\n

So I\u2019d have to scramble and go to Lowes\u2019 Foods, and generally they\u2019d have them. All was fine \u2013 until last month, when a sign showed up on their freezer shelf: \u201cItem temporarily out of stock.\u201d I jumped in the Jag and drove five miles to Harris Teeter. You know what happened next! No peas there, either. The final straw came last week when there were no peas at Walmart! WALMART was out of peas! Supply chain issues had completely disrupted my babies\u2019 favorite evening snack!<\/p>\n

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Carrots left on the bottom of the duck pool.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Carrot Experiment<\/h3>\n

What was odd is that all the stores had frozen peas and carrots. So I though maybe the ducks would go for that. After all, even Forrest Gump thought they went together.\u00a0 \u00a0No such luck. They would snarf down the mixture, swallow the peas, and every<\/span> carrot would fall out of the side of their beaks. Every. Single. Carrot. I don\u2019t know how they do it.\u00a0 Pretty sure that every pea was swallowed, but not a single cube of carrot.<\/p>\n

So the ducks had to make do with mealworms, their second favorite thing, or cat kibble, their third favorite thing. I know, get out the tiny violins. They still have it better than 99.9% of ducks anywhere, spoiled silly. But I wanted to take care of our duckies, so The Search for Peas<\/strong><\/em> continued.<\/p>\n

I found some! Aldi had tiny bags (12 oz) and I found that Super Compare, a local Latino grocery chain, had two pound bags frozen peas. So we\u2019ve found a supply! But don\u2019t hold your breath — we\u2019ll see how long that lasts.<\/p>\n

The Ultimate First World Problem<\/h3>\n

Isn\u2019t this the ultimate First World Problem? \u201cI can\u2019t find my spoiled pet\u2019s favorite snack!\u201d Whine, whine. Meanwhile people starve in Somalia, are bombed by Russian rockets in Ukraine, and go homeless and hungry right here in Forsyth County.<\/p>\n

But here at Duck Manor, I want to take care of the babies!<\/p>\n

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The current Duck Squad: Marie, Esther, Annie, Groose, Vegita, and Sybil.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supply chain issues! First it was toilet paper. Next it was baby formula. Now it\u2019s green peas! We learned early on that ducks love green peas \u2013 no, that\u2019s too mild. They ADORE green peas. It\u2019s like crack for ducks. They will waddle over burning coals to get peas. So it became part of ourContinue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grapevinecreekducks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}