Tag Archives: Goose

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

All is Well!

It seems that I only write when it rains! It is raining and it has been raining all weekend. The last few weeks have been awful…hot, hot, hot and dry and insufferable…during these times, it is best to get out on the farm and work instead of complaining incessantly about the weather. I don’t seem to be writing so much because we are always busy (on the farm, processing food, seeing patients and making products) and there is not enough energy and inspiration left to write a blog post.

So, I will try to do some catch up this time. We have had a terrible drought this year and our November corn crop failed as a result of this dryness. We did however have some voluntary sorghum grow beautifully in this climate and we think that we might be switching over to sorghum during the dry times. Anyway, water has been a major issue because we need it for crop irrigation, animals and our personal consumption. We have been recycling all our grey water for plants and have been conserving water as much as possible. This still wasn’t enough because we were down to about 2 and a half full tanks of rain water to last us through dry season. Because of this, we decided to re-visit the well situation. Last year, we accidentally got a 20 foot piece of plastic pipe stuck down the bottom of our 50 foot well. Gnome tried all kinds of ingenious ways to get the pipe back up but to no avail. We finally abandoned the whole project because we just had too many other things to do on the farm. This year, it became a priority to find an extra water source because of the lack of rain. Guess what Gnome made…this funny grabbing contraption:

Pipe Grabbing Thingy

This weird looking thing took Gnome a few hours to make…he used sandpaper to slope the edge of the pipe and then he drove nails into it like so. You wouldn’t believe that this would work, would you??? Anyway, with hope and prayers, Gnome lowered the contraption down with about 40 feet of thin bamboo attached to it and…CLUNK…it worked!! He managed to grab and lock onto the lost pipe and hoisted everything up. I wasn’t there to witness but I heard a VERY LOUD YAY!!! Gnome had not asked me to come over because he was doing a test run, thinking to himself that it would need adjustment and modification…he was totally amazed when it worked first time round. Well done Gnome!!

Gnome Working.

Alls well that ends well!! We have a slow filling shallow well but it helps to have a secondary source of water. Anyway, that is the major thing that happened on our farm. The rest is the usual Munchkin and Gnome stuff. We had a good harvest of Habanero peppers which I have been drying in the sun:

Drying Habanero Peppers

We went through a sausage making frenzy for about three months. Here are a few pictures; below are sausages made of vegan friendly collagen (the rest of the sausage is not vegan friendly):

More Sausages

We found the collagen hard to manipulate and it was hard to twist the links:

Sausage Making

Since the twisting didn’t work well, we also canned the sausage meat into cylinders…they can then be sliced and eaten..

Sliced Sausage Meat

Oh and last but not least, our lovely goosies are laying beautiful, yummy eggs!! Thank-you Goosies!!

Goosie Eggs!

Belize, Farming

Still Very Wet!

It is still wet and boggy outside; farm work is at a minimum right now with feeding the geese and harvesting of food for daily meals. I know that I shouldn’t be such a big moan but this is also mosquito, bot-fly and noseem time which adds to the difficulties of getting outside. That’s life…and sometimes it can be quite uncomfortable!! Anyway, needless to say, we are waiting for a spot of dry weather to get out there to mow.

Rain!!

Meanwhile, I have been looking after our Ol’ Grandfather Goosie; I am not sure how old he is but I am estimating 18 to 25 years. He has been with us right from the very start and that is the main reason why he is so special to us. He’s getting on a bit and is now blind in one eye; I think that geese can live to about 25 to 30 years…though some literature boasts of geese living for 100 years. His other eye is also giving problems (cataract) so it is hard for him to forage for food. He can see things like big kernels of corn or dog food but it is hard for him to keep up with the rest of the wily geese. These days, I find that he is eating dirt most of the time because of poor sight. A couple of months ago, I found him stuck in a hole, wedged between concrete blocks. It was a good thing that he honked faintly so that I found him…otherwise being stuck out in the sun all day…he would have eventually died of dehydration. Anyway, I have had to keep a close eye on him lately because he tends to lose weight rapidly; he is now getting his own dedicated food and from time to time, he requires “geriatric” admission for food and water.

Grandfather Goosie.

Grandfather Goosie has just had a three day admission; he still has a great appetite and will chomp away until his crop looks like a pendulous appendage. He will be wormed today and we will let him out to forage during the day.

Let’s hope that Grandfather Goosie lives to 100 years old!! I will probably write more often since I am stuck indoors with the rains!!

Belize, Farming

Let’S Get Crepuscular!

Last weekend was cloudy and wet. It was quite funny because I had been wingeing about the weather reports being all wrong and they had predicted “precipitation” last weekend. Of course, it was Sod’s law that they were actually correct for once. We were forced to stay in; here is a picture of the grey clouds with a double rainbow. In the picture, you can only see one distinctly…I assure you that I saw two!! It was not because I had double vision!!

Double Rainbow.

Now, everything has abruptly dried up and it is dry, dry, dry. That means the hot, sunny Real Feel 45C (113F) days will be coming. Gnome says that we better get crepuscular soon. Crepuscular animals are those that are active only during the periods of dawn and dusk. That’s right…this means getting up at 4am and running out at 6am to get work down in the coolest part of the day. By 10am, the heat will be unbearable and we will have to run under the shade of a coconut tree to sleep and rest.

The weather was hot and sunny today so we went “off road” and drove to the back area. We collected some more wood to take to the charcoal area. Oh and we have sapodillas too…not so much this year because the sapodilla orchard was partially destroyed by an accidental fire. This will be a project for later in the year: replant sapodilla orchard. Anyway, we probably have enough to make a bucket of wine.

Sapodilla.

What else have we been doing? We have been thinning the coconut palms so we have a whole ton of water coconuts. Gnome emptied the water into a 5 gallon bucket…I think it ended up being about 50 coconuts. This is going to be wine…

Green Coconuts.

Oh and I have good news. My Goosie…you know the first goosie that I looked after as Mama Goosie last year? I am such a proud parent and I don’t care that I am bragging about her…she is the most beautiful, voluptuous goosie on the farm! She has chosen a fine looking boyfriend and is laying eggs for us. I would love to see their goosie babies!! My Goosie is the grey one and the white Chiney goosie is her handsome young chap.

My Goosie and Her Boyfriend.

Okay, have a nice Sunday!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

It’s Goosie Time!!

Hello Everyone!! Yes, it is indeed Goosie Time and they are pecking at our boots, beating our legs with their wings and generally causing mayhem and havoc on the farm. We found our first goosie egg on Chinese New Year and then our second one on Valentines’s Day. Luckily, we had saved up the first one so that we could eat one each. The eggs were huge and the yolks were a beautiful orange colour. Gnome cooked them as a Valentine’s treat Italian-style…slow-cooked in olive oil…this method involves spooning the oil over the egg to cook it. Ooooh…very tasty…each goose egg is equivalent to three chicken eggs.

Fried Goose Eggs.

This morning, we found one of our goosies in the grey water area which Gnome had caged off. He had feasted on all the forbidden peanuts!! He had systematically ripped up all the peanuts around the ditch looking for the nuts to eat. The dastardly goose!! I had to toss him out quite unceremoniously! Whilst I was doing this, other goosies crowded round trying to find the weak spot in the cage. I was soooo mad and I shook my fist at them shouting,

“…and to think that I was going to write a dedicated Blog post on how much I love my goosies!!”

These goosies are up to no good trying to find a way in…look at them..they are plotting. Will they figure it out? They have found the mound of earth…which one is clever enough to jump in!!

Goosies!!

Anyway, I have another goosie story which is a lot more heart-warming. A while ago, we swapped a male goosie (we had far too many and he was being bullied by other males) for some ducks. Well, today the guy who received the goosie hailed us down when we passed by his house. He was awfully excited and beckoned us to follow him,

“…come, come…I must show you something!”

He told us that his female goose had laid 2 eggs and set them successfully. Sure enough, we peered into his cage and there were two little-big goosies peeping up at us. Awwwwh!!!! The guy was so over-joyed and we were very pleased to see that our male goosie had done his job well. Apparently, he is guarding his female partner valiantly whilst she is setting again. He thanked us profusely for such a stud of a goose! When Gnome and I got back into the truck, we both said in unison:

“…we want more babies!!” (meaning of course, goosie babies!!)

Goosie Fever has started….

Amusing, Belize

All About The Goosie…

We have a (pet) goosie now that follows me everywhere I go (a bit like Mary and her lamb).  She was the first egg of the year laid auspiciously on New Year’s Day all by itself, plonk just outside our house.  We incubated the single egg and our little goosie hatched 28 days later.  Since she was all by herself, I was designated “mother goosie” and I taught her how to eat and forage.  Thinking about it now, I actually spent a substantial amount of time with her as she was growing up; an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.  She always had supervised walks and I would place her up on the vegetable bed whilst I was harvesting for the day.  Aha…that is why she likes bitter greens like rocket.

Rocket.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that she always pecked at things that I was collecting; for instance, she always watched me harvesting from the suriname cherry and has now got into the habit of eating the leaves from this plant (not a normal leafy green that geese go for).  The eggplant proved to a bit of a problem because she de-nuded the whole plant!

Here is my little goosie; she is a joy to have on the farm.  She is about 4 months old and doing all the normal goosie things despite having a Munchkin Mama. 🙂

Goosie.

Belize, Farming

A Lesson.

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It is soooo hot and extremely uncomfortable; yip, it’s dry season, and it is really awful.  That was a complaint and it still doesn’t make me feel better to say it.  I want to be sealed in a cool bubble during this season! 😉

Anyway, this post is about geese again; about a week ago, an egg pipped and we awaited the hatching of a brand new gosling.  From past experience, it takes between 24 to 48 hours for a goosie to peck through the entire circumference of the shell in order to emerge.  We waited a fair bit…probably about 36 hours and we observed that it had only pecked through about a quarter of the whole round.  He was stuck in the shell because the gelatin had congealed and dried out (from the hot weather) preventing him from breaking out of the shell.  He was exhausted and could not move at all.

Well what did we do?  We performed an emergency goosie shell evacuation (late at night no less!!  Emergencies are always late night!!).  Gnome performed the calculated incision into the shell and removed the stuck goosie; we then had to bathe it in a 40C bath to try to rub all the stuck gelatin that was all over its eyes, wings and feet.  The goose was an Embden…this is our first white feathered goosie so all the more reason to save the baby!!

For five days, we attended to this little one hoping that it will stay alive.  It caught pneumonia and I had to hand feed it the last few days.  It was so weak that it couldn’t stand but we persisted because he continuously tried to stand up and mobilise which showed he possessed the will to live.  Anyway, the last few days, he started going downhill and was no longer able to swallow.  Alas, the poor thing passed away yesterday.

Well, what is the lesson?  In the books and the Internet, the writers usually state that the independent emergence of a hatchling out of a shell should be the first test of a healthy, strong individual.  The in-ability of a goosie (or any other bird) to get out of its shell is an indication of physical weakness and possibly ongoing health problems into adult-hood.  That’s not a good start!  So, we had a philosophical talk about it afterwards and decided that we are not going to do any-more emergency hatching manoeuvres.  We should be practical and our time is better spent raising healthy, strong birds.  🙂  Anyway, Rest in Peace little one.

New Goosie.

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Goosie News & Misc.

Our two month old goosie has reached adolescence and is starting to feather.  She has stopped calling for Mama Munchkin and is starting to make new twittering noises with the occasional Chinese goose Qwack (not quite quack, there are finer nuances to goosie language).   She is out during the day and she is back in her cage at night.

She’s bigger than this now; about 4lbs (2kg).

Growing Goosie.

I thought that she would be “lonely” but now I think that this is perhaps a human concept; she is perfectly content to sit by herself, twitter and preen…sleep…look for water, wander around at her leisure and eat grass whenever it takes her fancy.  Animals are rather resilient little things and can face the world with such braveness and independence.  It has been a great pleasure to see my goosie grow up into an adult…more so because of the short length of time!   🙂

Oh, and look at these two!!  Two more to fulfil my mothering instincts.  Double Easter Goosies…Very Auspicious…

Double Goosie.

The miscellaneous subject of today is suriname cherries.  Last year, we had an awful time with the thieving black-birds and brown jays.  Despite putting up all sorts of silvery, glittery things;  the usual Internet silliness…you know…when they say, “…here’s another great idea for old CDs and aluminium cans…recycle your garbage to scare birdies away…”

Oh, and the big eyes drawn on pieces of card-board didn’t work either…it just ended up being an arts and crafts afternoon for Munchkin and Gnome…much to Gnome’s chagrin.   A word of caution: Gnomes do not do Arts and Crafts!!  They only want to tinker around with useful things that can make life better in some way.

Anyway(s), I am collecting a pound in weight of suriname cherries each day right now.  I have started harvesting them un-ripe (yellow-reddish) EARLY morning (before the early bird) and I place the un-ripe cherries in dry season room temperature (40C/104F) during the day.  Viola…they all turn plump red and ripen up very nicely by the end of the day.  By the way, I didn’t get this information on the Internet…I just experimented since I was soooo mad at the birdies for eating up all my cherries.  🙂

Suriname Cherry.

Amusing, Belize, Farming

The Life and Trials of Mark Goosie.

Mark Goosie (I am with-holding his real name since people might think that I named  him after some-one real) was one (of a pair) of  geese that we first introduced into our farm back in the good old days.

Mark Goosie.

Unbeknown to us, at the time, we were ruthlessly sold two boys.  So, we had asked for a breeding pair but did not get what we asked for!  Anyway, the two of them paired up (as geese do) and seemed quite happy together.  We tried to introduce female geese later on in the game but the two remained inseparable.  One female goose was found un-expectantly dead (there’s been a murder!!) under the house and we decided to put it down to a crime of passion.  The two original geese would  not let anything get in the way of their relationship.

After a while, Mark’s partner went to Great Goosie Heaven and we observed Mark Goosie mourning for a long time.  At that time we couldn’t find a new companion goosie so we introduced a white duck in the hope that he would accept him as a friend.  And he did; for a long time they walked through the farm together side by side like old buddies.  White duck died a few years later and again, Mark was left all by himself.  Five more years went by and he wondered around the farm alone occasionally honking in unison with passing honking trucks.

Goosie and Duckie.

Last year, we managed to procure some female geese and finally Mark accepted a “she” goose companion into his life.  They were really lovely  together and it was as if Mark had found a new lease of life.  During breeding season, he located a nice nesting spot for his companion and filled it with his own feather down.  He stood guard by her side, day and night, whilst she was setting.  They always walked proudly together and did not appear to mingle with the other goosie groups.

Well, a few weeks ago, we found his female companion dead in amongst a pile of rocks behind the duck coop.  We weren’t sure what had happened (a snake perhaps??).  He was so distraught…honking madly and flapping his wings.  He was in such an emotional state that we had to place him in the confinement of the duck coop; he wouldn’t leave the spot where he lost his girl.  Whilst in the coop, he continued to place feather down on the ground to make a nesting spot.  When we saw this, we felt such sadness for his loss.  Awwwhhhh!!!

Anyway, what to do with Mark Goosie??

Well I never!!  We thought that he would not recover from this last bereavement.  But, he has re-emerged like a phoenix from the ashes- and has become head bossie (sensei) for the young’uns (the five brand new geese from last year).  He acts as their sentinel, guard and teaches them “the way of the goosie.”  Every morning, we see him proudly leading his troop to the pond in an orderly straight line.  What a Champion…we love a happy ending, don’t you!!  Go Goosie Go!!

Here’s a picture of Mark Goosie leading his team of youngsters:

Head Goosie.

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Cleaning Up!!

Gnome is boldly going where no Gnome has gone before (well, he has been there before but it was a very, very long time ago).  He is re-claiming the farm territory and expanding into the unknown.  Phew…we have never, ever been able to clear up the farm in one go so here’s hoping that all goes well this time!

So, more silly tales from Munchkin and Gnome: Grey goosie (aka  April Jones of the Jonesey sisters…yes, you have to keep up with our goosie soap opera!) went missing a few days ago.  We searched high and low for her but to no avail since it was still very bushy at that time.  We figured that she was laying eggs in the back of beyond (somewhere!) and was most likely sitting on a clutch of eggs.  Anyway, Gnome stumbled across her in some dense bush yesterday…she was hissing and carrying on and was none too pleased with the disturbance of noisy machinery and grass flying every-where.

Grey Goosie.

So, Gnome called me over and asked what we should do.  This is what we ended up doing: we mowed around her and left her a little island of dense bush!!  I think that we love our goosies too much and are catering to their whims…don’t you think?  This is not how you run a farm!!

Anyway, at the beginning of the year we had decided to put out nesting boxes for the geese.  There are many of these washing machine coverings filled up with nesting material and smooth rocks scattered around the farm designed to entice the discerning, broody goose.  Any takers??  Of course not…the goosies didn’t come to our “lay your eggs in our lovely nesting boxes made out of white goods” meeting.  They would much rather go au naturel…

Nesting Boxes.

Oh well, that’s the usual kinda stuff that happens on the farm.  Oh and we caught this funny looking possum which was the size of a rat.  Gnome’s immediate response was that it wasn’t big enough to eat!  I think that the bigger variety that we caught first time round was a Virginia Opossum (the ones that can “play dead”).  This scary looking thing is a Grey Four-Eyed Possum.  Anyway, since we raged war against the possums they seem to have vacated the area quick smart.  No more possums to be found…that’s a good thing!

Possum.

Belize, Farming

Goosies, Duckies and Possums.

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With Goosies, Duckies and Possums we are being kept busy; on top of all that, Gnome has mowed all the grass to the pond area.  It’s really helpful because we (the animals and I can move about more)!!  Anyway, little big goosie was getting a tad too big for the house creche so we had to put her outside; in the daytime she grazes on perennial peanut under a wire cage and at night, we place her in  a possum trap( by herself) with a water dish, plenty of doggy biscuits and a bunch of grass.  On the first night she kept on calling for us (we are Mum and Dad to her) so we went downstairs to try to calm her down.  As soon as she saw our familiar wellies (because at her height all that she sees are two pairs of walking wellies) she immediately started her happy noise.  That was when I realised that if I stuck a pair of wellies outside her cage she would feel safe…and it worked!  We have a happy goosie…Goosie ‘n” Boots!!

Goosie with Wellie Boots.

Little duckie is getting bigger and still in the house creche…which is essentially just  a big glass fish tank.  She is still small enough to handle but I anticipate that she will be going out soon in a weeks time.  Every night we spend two hours quality time with duckie…

Duckie.

Oh yes the possums.  I spent three days making my special Bengali curry…the sauce is made of twenty medium onions very, very thinly sliced (by yours truly) with ginger, cardamom, cumin seed, yellow ginger, star anise, cinnamon and little bird peppers.  The meat was soaked in brine for 24 hours, simmered in curry for 8 hours and left over-night for all flavours to do their thing.  Phew, it was a lot of work but totally worth it.  We had it with sliced green jackfruit.  Very Good!!

Possum Curry.