Wonderful New Year's Wishes To You All!

Have a happy New Year's Day

And then when it is through

Have a lot of happy days

All through the new year, too. 

I found this New Year's wish when looking for a greeting to include with this post.

Then I found the following by Helen Keller which I think I'll adopt as my own personal "resolution" for 2016 to help implement the above.

Your success and happiness lies in you.

Resolve to keep happy,

and your joy and you 

shall form an invincible host

against difficulties.

Such great words to live by from a remarkable woman!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Only A Little Late . . .

In the days before the holidays, I've been spending time (here and there) making a new quilted table runner for our coffee table in the living room.

Yesterday was December 28th, and I finished it.  Just a little bit late.

Now that I see it on the coffee table, I'm thinking it coulda/shoulda been made a little bit bigger.  (Who measured for it anyway?)

I cut the poinsettias from a piece of material that was given to me.

The sashing and border were made from scraps of coordinating fabric in my stash.

In the future, I'll probably use this particular runner in another spot where it will look better.  I guess that means it's back to the ol' drawing board to plan and make another holiday runner for this spot.

That's fine.  Gives me more time I must spend in my quilt room!

Merry Christmas!

Hold the joy and love

of the season

deep in your heart.

Happy Holidays!

Why Geese?

One of my readers, Rain who makes her home in Canada, left a comment on my last post asking a few questions about our newly acquired geese.  So here we go, Rain.  I hope this will explain why we deiced to make geese part of our homestead agin.

The above photo isn't of our new

geese but rather some of the ones

we've raised in the past.

Over the years we've found geese to be easy keepers and have had a few different breeds of them.  The last ones we had were Shetlands, and we were very happy with them . . . for a few years.  We kept a male and female and raised their offspring for our freezer.  Out of the last batch of eggs this mama goose hatched out, we got only one gosling, a male.  The remainder of the eggs she was sitting on didn't hatch for one reason or another. 

Then the gander of the pair suddenly turned very nasty.  We don't know why this happened as this pair of Shetlands (and all of the offspring they raised) had always been quite tame and inquisitive whenever we entered the poultry yard.  Father Goose's bad temper "did him in", so to speak, when one day he took a chunk out of the back of Papa Pea's calf leaving a scar that's till visible today.

Occasionally we have small children visiting and, of course, they are always interested in the livestock.  We didn't want to ever take the chance of Father Goose attacking a child or anyone else for that matter.

We considered putting Father Goose into the freezer and keeping the female goose and her son, but didn't care for the kind of inbreeding that would bring about.  So, all three geese went to Freezer Camp.

That was two years ago and we've found we really, really missed seeing the geese grazing out in the pasture and watching their antics on the pond.

Our good neighbor whose property adjoins ours grew up on a farm where his family raised ducks and geese.  They processed the meat in their homemade smoker and D says he remembers the smoked meat, especially the duck meat, as being some of the best he's ever tasted.  If we wanted to obtain some breeding geese and ducks, he'd be glad to share the expense with us plus do the smoking of any meat we wanted.

That gave us the nudge needed to get back into water fowl.

So the two main reasons we wanted to have geese and ducks again are 1) for their meat, and 2) for the enjoyment and liveliness they add to the homestead.  

We have a very large fenced in poultry pasture (the pond is within the fencing also) that will easily accommodate our current flock of chickens, our new ducks and geese and any offspring they may hatch out and raise over the summers.  We certainly won't be against using any "extra" duck or goose eggs for cooking and baking if they become available.

Like our chickens, the water fowl need protection because of the number of predators living in our area.  Year 'round they are all locked up at night, but happily roam about the pasture and on the pond during the day in the spring, summer and fall knowing they can hurry-scurry back into their enclosure or thick cover of shrubs and trees should the need arise.  The water fowl will generally swim to the center of the pond when they feel threatened.

For this winter (although we have plans for better housing to be built in the spring), the chickens live in their chicken house and attached 8 x 8' "solarium."  The four Pilgrim geese are in an 8 x 8' secure pen, the four Muscovy ducks in a 4 x 8' secure pen and the four Cayuga ducks in another.  They all have covered shelter and access to sun on sunny days.  If we ever see the sun again.

 

A Tale of Four Geese and Eight Ducks

Way last winter we ordered some Pilgrim geese goslings from a breeder in southern Minnesota.  The goslings were to be shipped as day old hatchlings to us in April.  The month of April came and went but we never received notification of the goslings being shipping nor did they show up.

A call to the water fowl breeder produced apologies from him along with the explanation of difficulties he'd been having with the Pilgrim geese not hatching out eggs.  He assured us he would get our goslings on their way to us as soon as he possibly could.

Spring turned into summer, more calls to southern Minnesota were made and we learned of more problems that had befallen the breeder.

I was losing faith and suggested we ask for our money back, but my dear husband said he still had a good feeling about this guy and felt he would stay true to his word and deliver when he could.

Lots more back and forthing ensued until about a month ago when the breeder asked if we would accept full-grown geese rather than goslings.  He even offered to drive more than halfway to meet us and deliver the geese.  Plus, because he was grateful that we had been so patient, he would bring some ducks along, too, since we had expressed an interest in getting some Muscovy and Cayuga ducks.

So a week ago last Saturday, Papa Pea loaded three cages in the back of the Suburban (after first lining the floor with a big tarp) and drove to meet the breeder and receive our geese and ducks.

Their meeting was a very pleasant one and they took time to visit for a while.  Papa Pea's intuition that this was a good man was reinforced.

We now have two adult pairs of Pilgrim geese, one young pair and one a few years old, plus two pairs of Muscovy and two pairs of Cayuga ducks.  All the birds seem to be very healthy and hardy.  And what eager eaters!  They see us coming with the green chop we made this past summer and a little whole grain and they start jumping up and down and clapping.  (Well, almost.)

After keeping them penned up for a week to get used to us and their new home, we let them out today in a small enclosed space so they could explore a bit more of their area.

First we had to do some judicious wing clipping of the Muscovy ducks as they are definitely "flyers" and we didn't want to chance them taking off into the woods or other parts unknown.  Although we've never clipped wings before, it was an easy job and neither ducks nor humans suffered.

We haven't come up with names for our new livestock yet; it's easy to tell the pairs of geese apart, but until we have time to scrutinize the ducks more . . . well, they all look pretty much the same to me.

No pictures yet either but I hope to be able to get some soon to post.  I can hardly wait for spring time to see them all splashing and swimming in the pond. 

I Am So Proud

I am so proud of myself.  This year I am totally organized and ready for the holidays.  Just look at the list of what I have accomplished.

Early in 2015, I made a month by month list of all the handmade gifts I wanted to make and got each one done in the allotted time.  Such a satisfying feeling.

I had all my shopping done by Halloween.  Christmas gifts were wrapped within an hour of bringing them home.  No last minute rush of wrapping for me, oh-no.  And the carefully arranged display of the masterfully wrapped presents under the tree has been a sight to behold. 

I've baked an amazing assortment of luscious holiday cookies, candies and confections that have been packaged and sent off to relatives in various far-flung parts of the country.  I was so wise to have all the doughs made and in the freezer well before Thanksgiving.

I shopped months ago for some new holiday clothes for myself.  I bought red, I bought green, I splurged.  I bought several floor length skirts with matching festive tops and a lovely green brocade suit.  What a nice change from my usual navy and black turtlenecks and jeans.  Yes, I needed some new holiday clothes, and these will make me feel and look appropriate for the season.

For special friends, I hand crafted elaborate remembrances.  I have them all wrapped and ready for presentation.

I made two new wreaths with freshly gathered boughs and decorated them with ribbon, pine cones and berries.  The smaller is hung on the front door and the very impressive larger one is on the outside wall of the house you see when coming into our yard.  They look so lovely and professionally done.

Before putting up our Christmas tree and house decorations (immediately after Thanksgiving), I spent a week deep-cleaning the whole house, top to bottom.  Now when I take the decorations down after January 1st, the house will already be clean and ready for the New Year.

I purchased and/or made new decorations for my home replacing all those that were looking shabby and past their prime.  This gave my holiday decorating a sparkling new look and everyone asks if I hired an interior decorator.

In the coming weeks, I have a full calendar of dinner dates and casual get-togethers scheduled.  Invitations were sent out weeks ago.  (I made them myself, of course).  Menus are printed, foods have been prepared ahead and are in the freezer, holiday napkins and tablecloths are washed and ironed.  It will be no-hassle entertaining for me this year.

Oh, I am so proud.

* * * * * * * *

Ah, yes.  Sometimes reality necessitates we escape into our own little made-up fantasy world.  The truth is I've been operating under the influence of heavy brain fog for about a month now.

I read that extra doses of Ginkgo Biloba help clear your head.  I'd take some, but I can't remember where I put the bottle.