Last night, after settling in for the evening after a few stormy weather days (Winter is coming), I saw a message from our neighbourhood chat group. There was a break in the rain, and some of our neighbours had heard the mother duck crying out and went to see what had happened. 5 ducklings were stuck down a drain in the road not far from home. I grabbed a crowbar and ran out to help.
On arriving, there was lots of action, trying to lift the grate from over the drain. It hadn’t been opened in a few months, so was quite rusted over. One of our neighbours is a plumber, and had brought out a mallet and chisel to open the grate. We spent some time opening on various sides, discussing where we could chisel to get the most leverage.
One of our other neighbours, also a plumber, arrived shortly after. He took one look at this thing, put the chisel in, and started hammering this thing as if his life depended on it. At one point, he hit the chisel so hard that the mallet almost bounced right back into his face.
We started seeing movement. Before we knew it, the grate was lifted out, and we were able to climb in. Using a toddler-sized fishing net, we lifted out all 5 ducklings and promptly handed them back to their mother. We grabbed some mesh cloth and put it under the drain grate to prevent further unplanned entry by ducklings.
Of course, this was an exhilarating experience. Also, ducklings are really soft and sweet. What stands out most, though, is how much time we spent discussing approaches, relative to the (shorter) time our neighbour spent hammering the living daylights out of that chisel, which got the grate open in about 5 minutes.
A wonderful reminder that we often take ourselves around the block, when all we need to do is cross the street.
There is time for thought, and time for action. It is important to know when to deploy which approach.
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