Tag Archives: Goose

Munchkin & Gnome Crèche!

February 24, 2018 Munchkin

Hey everyone!! We don’t have a guinea pig creche any-more for our young’uns so Munchkin and Gnome are running a temporary creche in the house (as-well as doing a multitude of things including cleaning up the farm, cooking up possum, making stuff to sell and of course, doctoring). Since we have to baby-sit them we have spent a lot more time with new goosie and duckie. Look at goosie…she likes to sit at the table with us; cuteness goes a long way!!

Duckie likes to sit in front of my computer monitor and keep me company. Here is duckie in our temporary crèche facilities watching a film with me:

There is a huge size difference between the two of them; Goosie-zilla is a monster next to the little one…we have to watch her carefully so that she does not trample over the little one…she’s a bit of a cute clutz.

Sometimes we have to hid the duckie in a box so that she can stay safe:

It’s all fun (mostly) but the tremendous amount of poop does get in the way of the fun. They will have to go outside soon and meet the rest of the gang. There are no more new ones since the possums have stolen all our eggs…hopefully with possum control, we can get a few more…

Amusing, Belize, Food, Plants

Vegetable Pictures!

January 17, 2018 Munchkin

It is still really cold at about 20C/68F; you know when it gets to this temperature because the coconut oil in the bottles solidify! Anyway, still hats, woolly scarves and home-made charcoal burner at our feet in the morning and at night. So glad Gnome is making charcoal!

We are still taming the chaos…does not happen over-night and I suspect it might take us a while to get back on top of things. The other thing is that the geese are getting badder (I like baaad english!! Pushing passed the barriers of expression) and I got a huge bruise on my thigh from a full throttle head-on attack. I had to sumo wrestle the head goosie and boy, did he have fun! When I let him win, he was honking like crazy and puffing out his chest as he weaved in and out of his goosie crowd, doing the goosie dance (a bit like a chicken dancing but with no head bobbing…head up in the air in the splendour of victory). I let him win, of course, since I have the unfair advantage of being bigger and cleverer and being human. 🙂

Anyway, back to the serious Munchkin and Gnome stuff. Growing vegetables, ogling at our vegetables, eating them and (taking pictures when we remember). We don’t grow vegetables or do our lifestyle in order to Blog about it!! Somebody asked us if we chose our lifestyle in order to talk (Blog) about it…what a very weird way of looking at things!!

To clarify: we grow vegetables to eat them because they taste good.

Vegetable and Fruit Gallery:

Endives grow very well; they are quite drought resistant so we might be able to take them through the dry season.

The fennel looks spectacular right now:

Kale grows well here too:

Spring onions:

Oh had to sneak in last New Year yum-yum picture. Smoked salmon (my favourite), prosciutto, salami and parmesan.

Barbados gooseberry (Ora pro nobis) time again:

Time to make more jam and preserves!

Amusing, Belize

Goosie Bump Done Gone!!

December 2, 2017 Munchkin

So. did the bump go first or after? Our Chiney Goose (Chiney White) had an enormous bump (knob) at the top of the beak, which is characteristic of a Chinese goose, and the bump is slowly shrinking…

The former “second in command” goosie has been ostracised by the rest of the group and he has been forced to swim in circles on the pond all by his lonesome self. What happened??

So, the big question is:

“Did the bump go first which led to the bullying…or did the bullying come first leading to poor self-esteem and then the loss of the bump.”

Gnome’s response:

“Munchkin, maybe you should get out a bit more…”

Okay, so Gnome isn’t interested in goosie psychology (nor goosie psychotherapy or rehabilitation) so let’s move swiftly onto our usual farm pictures.

Here is a picture of our first sorrel (roselle) flower which means that we will have a Christmas harvest. This is a picture for Joanna (you know who you are!!).

This is a wild plant…it looks like a Christmas decoration, don’t you think?

Ooooh and an owl butterfly that wondered into our house. Aren’t they pretty…

Have a great Saturday!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Catching Up!

September 24, 2017 Munchkin 1 Comment

With the equinox, Goosie Wars have begun; the shorter day lengths have caused an immediate switch in temperament. Goose breeding season is starting and they will lay sometime in February. This is what happened a few days ago: Gnome went out into the yard and was immediately pecked at by big bossie goosie on the big toe! Then another male goose lunged at him side-ways. It was a close call and Gnome was rather taken aback by the fray.

Gnome shouted out to me,

“Watch out Munchkin!! Goosie wars have started!”

This means six months of goosie bullying, severe hooliganism and general chaos on the farm. When I go down to the yard every morning, I will have to be armed with a broom. Watch out Panda too…goosies are really brutal with him!!

As a follow-up to the “mechanical failure” of the weed-wacker, the carburetor needed adjustment; Gnome’s comment:

“I messed around with the screws that the manual said that shouldn’t be messed around with…”

So, we are clearing bush right now…sorry, I wish I had more exciting “catching up” news for you but it can be a bit mundane at times!

Amusing, Belize, Construction, Farming

The Usual…

July 19, 2017 Munchkin

So, what’s the usual for us? Gnome put it quite succinctly today,

“I spend most of my time just fixing things and nothing gets done!”

So, the freezer is on its last legs and we are systematically going through all the food to preserve them. So far, we have canned the fruit and we have made miso out of the canistel (it’s bright orange, by the way). Next are the chicken feet (I know, you are probably wondering what I am doing with 50lbs of chicken feet…I’m not quite sure either). No, that was a joke…I know exactly what to use chicken feet for…they actually make the best soup.

Gnome is still working on his construction and yesterday it nearly all ground to a standstill again. The circular saw stopped working! Luckily it started working again once the brushes were cleaned out.

Oh, and the washing machine…that stopped too last week and I had to hand wash a whole load. I was really annoyed because I had chucked in a load of towels and sheets! Anyway, Gnome had a good look at it and it appears that the water sensor for medium wash is broken. Well that’s actually okay because I just need to set it to a small wash instead and it works. So, we managed to bypass that problem. Gnome says that washing machines should last forever…you just need all the replacement parts for the sensors and the capacitor. We are going to keep our washing machine going no matter what!!

Just as an aside, Gnome took the outer cover:

and gave it to a goose as cover around a nest (a while back). The goose actually snubbed the gift and moved all her eggs to a different area. Talk about being difficult!!

“No I don’t want the washing machine cover around my nest!!”

I want to end with something nice. So here it is: this is a huge 4 lb (2kg) mango given to us by the Taiwanese. The seed is really thin and tiny so most of the weight is the flesh. Oh, and the best thing about it is that it tastes so sweet and divine. We are definitely planting the seed!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

New Goosies On The Block!!

June 26, 2017 Munchkin

This one is an update on our gosling (goosie) situation. Yes, I know that every-one has been waiting with bated breath for the next thrilling instalment (Ha-Ha!!). Our L’il Spaddled Goosie with the spaddled legs didn’t make it…it may have had other problems and it just keeled over one day and wouldn’t get up again. Rest in Peace my l’il sweet one in Goosie Heaven!!

We now have five goosies on the block and they are doing great. They are at the ugly stage at the moment (but I still think they are really adorable). Since they were getting bigger, there were over-crowding problems in piggie metropolis, so they are finally out with the duckies in the Zen coop.

The Piggies: “Phew…we can hear ourselves think again!! Yay!!”

I think the piggies are relieved now that there is some peace and quiet in their living quarters. The goosies were getting a bit too chatty and noisy…

The goosies are having a lovely time. Here are some pictures…

I am getting them used to eating all sorts of things so that they can forage once they get out into the “real world” of the farm. Right now, I am throwing succulent mombassa grass, mango peels and food scraps at them. They also get protein rations in the form of puppy food.

This is an old picture when they were all wee…

Now look at them….

They are starting to feather:

Goosies by the pond:

Once they are fully feathered we will let them out. Meanwhile we will keep them safe inside the coop.

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Fun On The Farm!

June 8, 2017 Munchkin

Hello!! It’s hot , hot, hot (roasting, in fact) and then it’s raining intermittently in the afternoon and at night. I talk about the weather a lot because we are dependent on the weather in order to get projects done or not!! Anyway, here are a few photos to make you smile:

We have a little “spaddled goose.” If you are wondering what spaddle means, look at this photo. His legs are splayed out thus:

This may be a deformity or due to a vitamin deficiency. Anyway…another Google search on “how to fix a spaddle” and we came up with the solution of tying the legs together with dental floss. Another Accident & Emergency fix-up for Dr. Gnome!!

Observation is now required to see if fixing a deformity with dental floss works. We will keep you posted:

The rest of the goslings are thriving and doing well. They share their living quarters with the guinea pigs. They eat the same food: freshly cut grass and sorghum. In the mornings, we put the geese out to pasture by putting them in a movable wire cage. At night, back to the dorms with the piggies!

Oh, and last but not least we have 9 turkey eggs under the turkey. No mix and match this time with geese eggs…we are letting her hatch her own kind this time! Countdown: 30 days!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Philosophy

Work is Never-Ending!

May 14, 2017 Munchkin

It’s Sunday and we’ve still working on a million and one things. Gnome asked, “…where’s the fun??”

Oops, these blog posts are supposed to inspire other people to live a farming lifestyle like us.

Gnome’s working on the veranda, pulling out posts and putting them into holes. I tended to the animals (goosies and guinea pigs mostly) this morning and watered the 40 or so buckets in our garden. After that I potted some sage and tobacco plants. I’ve just been clearing a big mess in the old plant nursery where the old posts were located. There are all sorts of crap: some of the stuff is destined for the dump but I have to pick through it all to save the useful stuff…like buckets and planting bags. I stopped to make lunch (shitake and bitter gourd soup with lentils….still have to eat well despite being busy). And Gnome’s still sweating away outside knocking things together.

And now I have to pack some soap and products and….oh, and then there is the Chocolate Festival to prepare for next weekend….

So, I think that it’s time for an afternoon break. I have to keep in mind that life on a farm comes in cycles of busy and quiet and there’s no in-between!! The important thing is to pull yourself out of it once in while and remember, we’re supposed to be having fun!!

Okay, goosie time!! Look, the yellow wellies work…the goosies think that we are one of them!!

Goosie Pile Up:

Hope y’all out there are having a lovely Sunday!!

Amusing, Belize, Pets

Goosie Tales!

May 4, 2017 Munchkin

Oh what a relief! We had a really lovely heavy rain early this morning and a nice sleep in until 7am because it was so cool. The last few weeks we have been getting up at 4am to start at 6am which is the coolest time of the morning. It’s been really exhausting and the heat has been relentless.

Anyway, our goosie with the broken leg is recovering. It is actually able to weight bear and managing to limp around goosie hospital. It’s getting a bit lonely so I am allowing 1 to 2 hour visits from fellow goslings (one at a time). It gets a bit over-crowded with all of them twittering , messing around with food and pooping. Over-night stays are not allowed…way too much carrying on…Munchkin and Gnome don’t take kindly to interrupted sleep!

Operation: Get broody turkey sitting on goose eggs unfortunately failed. The Duchess (aka Female turkey) was a champion and sat the thirty days (and more) but none of the eggs hatched. We’ve read that goose eggs need to be turned on a daily basis (by the goose or by human) but once the duchess was sitting, there was no budging her. We thought that it was just best to let her do her Mama thing and wait it out. So in conclusion, it doesn’t look like turkeys can set goose eggs because they are too heavy for them to be turned. Oh well, we tried!

The other baby goslings are doing normal baby gosling things like twittering, pecking at each other, eating grass and pooping. We take them for supervised walks at the pond area and sit with them while they do their goosie thing. The other day, Gnome’s mum phoned us and said,

“How are my grand-children?”

The grand-kids are doing very well:

Home schooling has started because we want to make them into proper little scholars…unfortunately they keep on falling asleep every-time we open the book…perhaps we should review the goosie curriculum?

Belize, Farming, Pets

Giving Goosie A Chance!

May 2, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

About a week ago we found one of our goslings, 3 days old at the time, sitting immobile and unable to stand. It was twittering away to itself and appeared unperturbed. On closer examination, it appeared to have broken its right leg. We are not sure what happened because he was fine before; maybe a guinea pig had accidentally trod on its leg or a clumsy gosling had sat on him…who knows?

Since it was unable to move, it was not eating or drinking.

Gnome, accident and emergency specialist said that it would probably take 4 to 6 weeks for the leg to completely heal. He further explained that this would mean that we had to open up a 24 hour hospital care unit for the little one. In other words, this meant one to one care, attention and feeding. He asked me:

“I know that we are both very busy right now. Munchkin, do you want to look after the goosie?”

I thought about it carefully because there are plenty of things to do on the farm and many other things that we do including seeing patients and making products. Do I really want to use up my time looking after one goosie when there are many healthy goosies to give the time and attention to?

Oh well, this one was too cute for me to say “No.”

As Gnome says,

“Cuteness goes a long way…”

Goosie Hospital is officially open; run by Matron Munchkin!!

Casa Mascia Apothecary