The Geese Have Spoken

March 2, 201545 Comments

On the advice of my friend Connie the Goose Woman I procured some carrots for Poly and Fredrik.

I washed and scrubbed them with a vegetable brush. I chopped them into bite sized pieces, and put them out for breakfast with the lettuces and broccoli.

They ate everything but the carrots.

Next morning I thought, well, maybe they are to large or too hard, so I grated them and mixed them into the other greens.

They picked out every single bit of orange food and spat it onto the ground!

Geese: 1

Carrots: 0

Point made!

Breakfast is served

February 22, 201526 Comments

This winter has left us without much for goose grazing. This requires me to supplement Polly and Fredrik’s food rations. This morning’s offering was a head of green, leafy lettuce. Bob said that when he entered the goose-yard Fredrik ran up and snatched the plastic bag holding the washed and prepped lettuce. He had to chase him round the yard to get it back!

I guess when you are hungry your manners go out the window.

~click for captions and a closer view~

Fredrik usually waits for Polly. Not this morning!

Snarfing it up!

Grabbing the biggest piece…

and cramming it all in her bill!

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What was on your breakfast menu this Sunday morning?

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Photo Friday: hot babes

August 29, 201439 Comments

Finally, it is the end of summer and we are getting some real heat this past month. Today it’s 91 degrees and strangely the humidity is only at 27%. That is absolutely parched for here!

So, I just glanced out the window and saw something I have never seen before…

Hot babes sleeping in the wading pool!

Polly and Little Dorrit are refusing to get out of the water.

Not even for the mail-carrier and they love to talk with her! They have been best buds since I brought them home, and I often see her stop her truck to get out and share a few honks with them. 🙂

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How hot is it where you are?

What are you doing to stay cool?

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Playing Catch-up: notes on life here and on the mountain

July 11, 201425 Comments

Spring came to the Mountain Farmlet and left.

Summer brought tall grass,

: You can’t tell it, but the grass is almost 4 feet tall in some places

: Trees along the back: gone (this is where you can now see straight through the length of the property.

: I mowed all around the house and the outbuildings

: And lastly I mowed a wide path to the woodland trail.

Insects,

: A Button bush plays host to butterflies…

: Carpenter bees and…

: A blueberry colored Damselfly with jewel green eyes!!

Assorted vining summer flowers,

: Raindrops on wild grapes

: two inch orange tubes of Trumpet creeper (aka: Campsis radicans)

: that open to herald in the nectar lovers

: Bignona: gone

*It may be a Crossvine (aka: Cross-Vine, Trumpet Flower (Bignonia capreolata)) LOOK HERE

mushrooms,

: A chewed red mushroom,

: another golden variety, also chewed,

: and a trail of whites growing under the oaks in the leaves and moss

and too much heat.

While I mowed the day away, Bob kept busy with string trimming, and push mowering the areas I can’t get into with the riding mower. When he was done, he took a rest, ate lunch, and then continued work on our new compost station!

NOTE TO SELF: build a wire cover for the beginning bin if we intend to continue to using if for kitchen scraps! The skunks paid it a visit after the last dump. Or, maybe we should start a wormery?

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Our collective health has taken a blow, and consequently so has our bank account. Not to whine, well OK, I am going to whine: $800.00 for Bob to take an ambulance ride? And of course our new insurance did not cover it! RIDICULOUS! (I want to tell you more about this, but not now.)

All this has us just keeping up with weed abatement and clearing the trail into the woods. Mowing, and by that I mean just around the house, pond and outbuildings, and the paths through to the tall grass to the trail, etc. takes me *6 to 7 hours.

It is hard work and the pastures would be better tended by a flock of goats and my geese, but we are in a holding pattern while we catch up from medical bills.

Fall and Winter will find us back at work on the inside of the little farmhouse. In the meantime we continue to peel away the layers of wallpaper and paneling to prepare for new joists, plumbing , electrical, closing up the walls, and painting.

All things in good time, eh?

*RE: Hours of lawn mowing – Follow this link to a humorous but serious treatise shared on Ruth’s Chickens which contemplates the state of lawns and nature: HERE!