Monthly Archives: April 2017

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Kidnapping The Duchess!!

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Officially we are now crepuscular; up at 5am, doing our stuff until it gets too hot to move!!  I just wanted to share with you a funny story that happened about two weeks ago.  This was when we had no idea what to do with our goose eggs; the incubator was unreliable, all the female geese were insisting on nesting in the middle of the bush, there was a lot of pushing and shoving resulting in broken eggs  and there were no reliable broody poultry.  Our first solution was to get Muscovy ducks as they are known to be become broody at the drop of a hat.  These silly little ducks have proven to be duds.  As Gnome says,

“They’re treating this place like a hotel….”

Muscovy Ducks.

These two possess absolutely no broody tendencies.  They just twitter, stuff themselves full of corn and will have nothing to do with us.  Talk about a bunch of free-loaders!!

Anyway, at about the same time, our darling duchess (aka female turkey) had laid a clutch of eggs and was sitting all snug and cosy on top of them.  And then lo and behold, the Overlord (Aka male turkey) came along and smashed up the eggs (we are not sure why he did this) and the poor duchess was left whimpering on top of a bunch of broken eggs, refusing to move.

Overlord and Duchess.

This is when we decided upon Operation: Kidnap the Duchess.  Gnome made a lovely luxury nest cabana-style in the coop.

Deluxe Brooding Cabana.

In the middle of the night, Gnome stealthily grabbed and snatched the duchess and placed her in the new nest  on top of 7 goose eggs.  I assisted with a flash-light to guide the way.  The next morning, we opened up the nest door to find the duchess all quiet and calm,  sitting happily on top of her eggs.  Since then, she has not moved at all and we place food, snacks  (she loves bananas) and water by her side.  We hope that the eggs hatch…we have about another two weeks to go.  We did read on the Internet (although we are now cautious of any information that we read) that when a turkey sits on goose eggs, you actually need to help her move the eggs around on a daily basis and spray warm water to keep them humidified.  Well, the Duchess will have none of that because she won’t  get her off the eggs!  God forbid that we try moving her about; she would probably freak out and we definitely do not want to de-brood her!  Let’s hope and pray that we get a few goosies out of this one…

Sitting Turkey.

Keep on going Duchess!!  You’re a Champion!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

A Very Hot Sunday!

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This morning, we worked on the guinea pig coop,  re-using concrete blocks from the goosie cabana-style nests for it.  Apparently, from our personal observation of geese, they do not seem to like  “sharing walls” so now we have to make single brooding nests.  How funny...no semi-d’s for the geese...semi-detached houses (in the UK and Australia; don’t know if this concept is in Northern America) are houses that share walls.  They are usually two houses stuck together so that the neighbours end up sharing a wall.  The advantage of this housing is that they are usually less expensive than a single house.  There are also many disadvantages like hearing the television next door!  Anyway, I digress…my point is that we can’t be cheap with our geese and make them share walls!!

So these got taken apart…

Cabana Style Nests.

We left a single one which incidentally has three brand new goose eggs in it.  We are not sure who the girl is so we are taking bets for the next broody goose.

The guinea pig complex has been expanded upwards by one concrete block to give our duckies more head room:

Piggie Extension.

Panda came to the farm this morning.  He’s doing fine by the way for all you guys who are following the blog to read about his exploits.  You guys must be thinking, “Oh no…not another silly Munchkin and Gnome post!  Where’s Panda??”

Panda came over to help us get a pick up load of sawdust.  Gnome and Panda got all red-faced and sweaty from the heat (not actually the work) whilst I brought goosie along for the ride.  I was on light duty today!

After midday, Panda went off to do his own thing.  We decided to have a break at the pond today.  It is actually soooo hot that you have no choice but to sit around.  We had crumpets and tea together sans the geese.

Cacao butter crumpets!  Scrumptious!

Crumpets and Tea.

Apparently the geese have forgotten that there is a pond (what short memories they have) and are dizzily swimming about in little 5 gallon basins around the house.  Oh, well we can’t tell them what to do otherwise they will try to pick a fight with us!  What hot-headed Geese we have…

Hope y’all had a nice Sunday sitting around in the inferno heat!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Pets, Philosophy, Plants

We Have A Happy Gnome!

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Yes, indeed, we have a happy Gnome so that really means that we also have a happy Munchkin!  When we tell you what makes us satisfied with life, you’ll probably giggle and guffaw at the simplicity of our wants.  Yes, indeed this ascetic life-style  has made us put our lives into perspective (as there is time for quiet contemplation) and you realise that life can be fulfilled with very simple things.  The meaningful things to us might not be everyone’s cup of tea!  But, we do think that it’s good to develop new interests and passions all the time.

Yes, firstly…the worms…the worms…of course.  Special thanks to Graham and Joyce for their assistance and friendship.  Here we are:

Red Wiggler Worms.

Lovely, lovely…this stuff makes Gnome very happy:

More Worms.

Gnome has set up a wormery to increase his population.  Once he is satisfied that he has enough worms, he will start his worm tower empire.

Worm Bin.

The next thing…aubergines…aubergines.  We are growing the Black Beauty variety.  Look at the lovely flower on this plant:

Eggplant Flower.

What’s next…ooooh Baby Goosie is a bundle of joy.  We are certainly enjoying being Mama Munchkin and Papa Gnome.  We even phoned up Gnome’s Mum to talk about the “baby” and how well it was eating and putting on weight. Gnome’s dad laughed at our conversation and said at last, we have a grand-child!

Goosie!!

Oh, last but not least…Gnome’s beloved tomatoes.  We did experience quite a set-back from the pesky birds.  I can’t look at a Montezuma oropendola without feeling self-righteous indignation!  Look at what they did to our lovely tomato:

Pecked Tomato.

Anyway, Gnome’s ingenuity has out-witted them…so far, so good!  Let’s give a show of hands to Gnome for his new “Hello Birdie…there’s nothing here to eat…so go away”  decoy.

Tomato Protectors.

The last picture has to be these: our very own Krim tomatoes.  Beautifully sweet and succulent.  We just sliced them and dipped them in salt.  Ahhhh…wonderful….

First Tomatoes.