Tag Archives: Geese

Amusing, Belize, Feedback

Morning Wake Up!!

I woke up this morning at the usual time 6am and then dived under the covers, covering my ears.  I pretended that I was snoozing.  Gnome was tossing and turning and huffing and puffing because he knew what was about to come:  the usual 6am DIN.  The goosies go off like nothing on earth…shrieking and honking like there is no tomorrow right at our doorstep:  HONK –WAKEUP–HONK!!!!  RISE AND SHINE MUNCHKIN AND GNOME–HONK HONK!!!.  This has been our wake up call for the last two weeks and it has been gradually driving us potty!  Gnome shouted into my little cave under the blankets,

“…can you sleep through that??”

No I couldn’t but I was insisting on not getting up!!  Right now we are having early morning rains which is the perfect reason for sleeping in…but the geese are making it impossible.  Anyway,  as we got up, the noise rose to a fever pitch and when I opened the front door to peak through a crack, they cackled and shrieked with gusto… and when I finally opened the door wide, they suddenly stopped like nothing had happened.  They were shuffling about on the yard minding their own business.

I swear, they are doing this on purpose!!  The goosies are out to get us with their evil goosie taunts…

Mean and Tough!!

Anyway, last night we decided that we can’t stand the noisy geese during breeding season which happens to be 6 months of the year!  An executive decision has been made to: “fence them out.”  We are going to have a fence around our house to protect us from the noise pollution .  We can’t however do it this year because any changes bang in the middle of breeding season will probably incite a riot and we might be over-thrown in the power struggle.

The original plan was to “Fence Goosies In” to protect them from critters and possums.  The new plan is to “Fence Goosies out” to protect us from them…

“Fence Goosies Out.” is going to be job#586: we will get to it hopefully by the end of the year.  Meanwhile, we have to get up at 6am every morning, rain or shine…

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, Pets

Cold And Miserable Out Here!!

munchkin-amazed

The weather starts off kinda sunny and cheery in the morning and then by about early afternoon, black clouds move in and there is a huge downpour.  At least that has been the weather pattern for the last few days.  It ends up being really cold and miserable…reminds of good old Scottish weather!

Anyway, we all need to keep on going despite the greyness.  Here are some pictures from the farm taken on better sunnier days.  This one looks a bit startled but honestly, this is a happy, gurgling guinea pig:

Cheery Guinea Pig.
Cheery Guinea Pig.

Geese are fine with the rains and don’t really know what all the fuss is about:

Who Are You Looking At?
Who Are You Looking At?

Duckies: What’s Munchkin upset about?  This is Paradise….

Duckies.
Duckies.
Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

The Wart of Evil Part II.

Gnome.SmilingIts been a few days now since we tied off the Wart of Evil.  As we predicted, it has dried up and our Gander can see from that side of his face a lot better…

The Wart of Evil Has Been Removed!!
The Wart of Evil Has Been Removed!!

We think that he is a lot happier because he cooperated fully without honking or biting while we cut it off…

The Wart of Evil.
The Wart of Evil.

It is all supposed to be a bit of a joke but I swear to you that our goosie has had a personality transformation and has turned into a happy-go-lucky, loveble sort of fellow.  He now hangs out with our duckies and acts as a body guard to them, there is no more pecking and bossing around.

I’ve put the Wart of Evil into a vial and am in the process of pickling it in alcohol.  The transformation into the Wart Against Evil (TM) has begun.  I will update you once it is ready and make it available for your personal use (probably in the New Year, once I get the Shop finally going)!

In the mean time, be safe from Evil!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

The Wart of Evil.

Gnome.Straight.Smile

Our pet Gander has, over the past year, been growing a pedunculated polyp from the side of its face, just above its beak.  It looks like so…

Our Gander Growing a Wart of Evil.
Our Gander Growing a Wart of Evil.

Over this period, we have found him to have become more bossy, angry and violent, pecking and honking at the dogs, the cat, the ducks, stray children…everybody actually!  As a result, we affectionately called his growing protrusion the “Wart of Evil,” and invented a little ritual where we would rub the wart three times with our left thumb and then with our right thumb whenever we had one of those days that didn’t seem to go right (you know, those crappy days when no matter what you try and do everything goes to pot!).

Well, today we decided to start the process of removal for this evil emanation and with one of us holding the gander, the other used some dental floss to tie it off so that it will dry up and drop off in a few days.  We used the same technique which is used to castrate animals with a strong rubber band.  It is much nicer and less painful than trying to snip it off with scissors or a knife as once the circulation is cut off it goes numb and starts to drop off.

In a few days the “Wart of Evil” should be in such a condition that we should be able to cut it off without hurting the goose.  Our plan is to pickle it in rum and turn it into the well known protective charm called “The Wart Against Evil (TM)!”   It will be available for purchase in the Talismonger section of our shop once it has been tested and we are sure of its effectiveness.

Be safe from Evil!