Well, I will sheepishly say that I don’t have a great excuse why I haven’t written much this year! Except, that we have been really, really, really busy (and that I forgot to write??) . This month, I had to renew the website fees, which was a chunk of money and thought to myself:

Oh dear! Eeeek!! I have only written about 2 blog posts and it is September already??

For Munchkin standards, this is absolutely abysmal and I apologise profusely for my lack of consistency!! Wahhhh!! (I find that a big Wahhh after an apology usually drives the message home and also, makes me feel better).

Anyway, enough with the lamenting Munchkin and let’s talk about What’s Happening. To follow-up on my last post where I had some lovely goosie hatchlings on Easter Sunday, my babies have grown up a fair bit. They are about 5 to 6 months now and I have divided them into two flocks. The first flock are vigorous and healthy: the ‘ruff tuff’ group that can weather through a stormy night in Belize without a single feather getting out of place. As soon as they could start eating grass, they were out in the pasture eating like there was no tomorrow. They are delightful and friendly and I always get a unanimous ‘WEEEEEEEeeeeee!!!’ when I get close to them. I love being cheered by a gaggle of geese in the morning…a good start to a busy day on the farm. These ones eat grass 24 hours a day so I have to move them around with a moveable fence. I get yelps and cheers every time I move the fence line and usually one of them gets his silly head jammed between the bars as the excitement ensues!!

So, one of the first jobs of the day is to move the fence around amidst a cacophony of squeaks and sqwacks (not a word according to my spell check but that is the exact noise that they make) and occasional wolf whistle!

The second flock needed a little bit of help right from the get go. They are sillier (or just plain stupid??) but nevertheless adorable. They didn’t get the grass thing at all. I would plonk them in a grassy pasture and there would be puzzled looks all around!! Seriously…I thought that goosies knew by instinct to eat grass!! My goosie whispering wasn’t really up to scratch so I couldn’t find a way to say: Eat the Grass!!!

I am not sure what to call this group...The Silly Goosie Group?? Anyway, they got themselves into all manner of troubles because they didn’t eat grass and had trouble gaining weight. As a result, after any heavy rain they were shivering and bedraggled. We had an emergency goosie hospital set up in the house (we have NO more space in the house!!) where we had to put wet silly goosies in individual plastic boxes with individual feeding bowls and water. They would over-night in the house and then they would be released back into pasture. Some required more care and needed daycare also. I was bussing wounded goosies back and forth for a couple of months and we had one busy night were we had 4 admissions…I had to improvise with an extra fish tank and a cardboard box! After a while, they started getting used to seeing me bring out a box and they would all be vying to get in!! They loved the overnights with Munchkin and Gnome watching vintage ’80’s movies!! It was like a sleepover with a bunch of rowdy kids! Once they started making too much noise, we knew that they were getting better and so out to pasture they went again…

Everything has settled down now and the Silly Goosie Group are out and about…they pick at the grass dis-interestingly all day until evening time when they gorge themselves on the poultry feed that I give them. They are fattening up and at this stage, it’s important for them to get to an optimum size. Don’t worry, I am not priming them up to eat…I think these are a bunch of females so they may be my future egg layers.

And so here ends my latest blog post. I did enjoy writing it so I hope that I get into writing on a regular basis.

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