Tag Archives: possum

Munchkin And Gnome On The Farm!

October 23, 2018 Munchkin 2 Comments

I am writing today because I seem to have a bit more time and I also feel like writing. This morning started off with very dark and ominous clouds; despite the warning signs, I pushed ahead and made the decision to work outside. Panda came with a pick-up truck of sawdust and emptied it in record time. It started bucketing down at about 9am and I had never seen Panda run so quickly to get out of the rain…but he forgot his shovel in his haste! Anyway, thanks Panda for the sawdust which we are putting around the house to raise the ground up. The rains and big, flat goosie feet have caused so much erosion that we have lost about a foot of dirt all around the house!

We are officially on Possum Alert right now. A couple of nights ago, we awoke to the din of goosie squawking and Gnome ran outside immediately. He managed to spy a predator and with the aid of a flash-light, he could make out the silhouette of a possum. Yes, they are back: Back with a Vengeance! The traps are out and we have warned the goosies to stay close to the house and not to go out in the dark alone after 9pm…fat chance they will actually listen!! We haven’t caught anything yet but are already talking about having a nice possum curry.

The big rain this morning lasted about an hour and now it is sunny again. Gnome has been doing a spot of plumbing because we would like to move the sink out of the house and onto the veranda. I was going to take some pictures but then I stopped and wondered if anyone actually wanted to see a picture of pipes! Ha-Ha!!

Well, here is a prettier picture for you! I never thought that I would be so happy with dandelions…but, aren’t they lovely…Dandelions in Belize.

We have been enjoying dandelion greens in our salads. We plan on growing a whole bed of dandelions for roots and greens and are collecting the seeds right now in preparation for this project.

That’s all for now folks!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Cleaning Up!!

March 3, 2018 Munchkin

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.

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…

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!

Belize, Farming

Goosies, Duckies and Possums.

February 26, 2018 Munchkin 2 Comments

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!!

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…

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!!

Belize, Farming

Gotcha!!

February 20, 2018 Munchkin 4 Comments

If anyone has been following our posts, they will know that we were absolutely devastated over Christmas because we lost our whole guinea pig community to pesky possums. They were practically wiped out over-night; not a single piggie was left; some were eaten up and the rest were just killed. Anyway, the story continued with Gnome trying the bait the possum(s) with a bucket of food at night which involved sitting in the dark with a pellet gun. Well, that didn’t work and all we caught was our cat rummaging about in the bucket looking for a midnight snack.

Oh, but look what we have here: Gotcha!! We’ve got the little blighter…had to trap it in the end.

And you won’t believe it!! We found a shrubby, dense area scattered with egg shells (yes, we have lost a whole tonne of goose and duck eggs to them!) so we decided to put a trap out every night and we have caught a possum every time. We have three in total and can’t catch any-more because we have run out of traps. Now, I am feeding the three possums with rice for a week, to clean them out in preparation for possum curry at the weekend. I have mixed feelings about having to dispatch these little blighters (they kinda look cute in a possum kinda way) but I realise that they have devastated our farm and we do need to get rid of them. 🙂

Amusing, Belize, Farming

A Sunny Day…

January 10, 2018 Munchkin 2 Comments

Another bright sunny day and so we keep on going with our dream farm which is always “in progress” or “in process.” Arrrgh…but when you look outside, everything is getting bushy because we can’t get the grass done (walk behind brush-mower is no longer working -RIP). We are attracting a lot of toucans, light blue birdies and bright red coloured birdies because of the semi-bushy state. A bird spotter would cringe at my lack of birdie knowledge…ha-ha!!

Very Bushy:

Anyway, I kind of mentioned that we had lost all our guinea pigs to a rogue possum. Yes I know…Paradise Piggies are no more and have passed onto become Heavenly Piggies.

We love you piggies!! Miss you!!

So, every night, for the last 5 nights, we have been baiting the possum with an enticing bucket of scraps that we place in full veranda-view on the nearest vegetable bed. Sure enough, every night something has been knocking it over and slurping out of the bucket. They never finish it because it is too much and every night I set the bucket up straight for it.

A few days ago, we decided that it was time “to get the possum.” During our much-loved sleeping time, we donned our long sleeves, long trousers and woolly hats and sat in the darkness of the veranda waiting quietly for the possum. Gnome had his pellet gun ready (for full destruction) and I had lights ready to switch on to dazzle. I also had a bucket of brine ready to dunk the cleaned carcass in preparation of a possum dutch oven/curry for the day after.

Anyway, we waited and waited and waited. The stars were pretty!! And when I got accustomed to the darkness, I could see different shades of blackness…kind of poetic and meditative if you ignore the biting mosquitoes!!

(Meanwhile the cat was in the house sleeping…usually by now he would have been kicked out for his usual night duty).

Okay, so nothing happened…and no possum came…not much of a story, right?

Oh but what happened when we finally got the cat out of the house in the wee hours of the night? The bucket turned over…

We’ve been baiting the cat??!! Oops…upside down picture…not upside down cat!!

Where is that darn possum?? I really want my possum curry. Yes we have declared war on all possums in the vicinity…

Casa Mascia Apothecary