Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

Yes, I named the place Gale Oaks farm.  We've got 3 old oaks in the back yard.  Each morning at about 10am, the wind comes up out of the west and over the hill to our house. Hence the name: Gale Oaks. You'd think with 50 animals that are all poultry of some sort it would be one big, happy flock. Oh no....too much jockeying for leadership for that! So let's all go through the flocks: First flock is what I call "Sissy's Posse."  It consists, of Sissy who is in back in the middle, her 5 babies, her mate, Ron (2nd big goose to the left) and the Uncles, Buddy, Ginger, and Sweet Pea.  Sissy is hands-down the leader of this flock. I'm impressed by the amount of parenting that the boys do.  For much of the day, Daddy and the Uncles take care of the babies. Sissy just walks along with them.  Oh she keeps an eye on her babies and they stay close by her, but She'll leave discipline to the boys.  They nudge the babies around with their beaks. Now that the b...

Right now, big storm coming through. I don't know how long I'll have power.  Never fear, we are prepared for just such an occasion. I'm in that phase of knitting that I call ADD. I cannot focus on a project for too long without finding...oh look, another pretty skein of yarn! I shall start another project!  ~facepalm~!  it IS...really like that. So let's see what's On many needles. Deephaven cowl in a lovely blue/gray shade of wool + alpaca.  The yarn itself is from Blue Sky Alpacas and is a super bulky yarn that I've respun smaller.  So spinning and knitting something kinda makes me stay with it longer.  A garter stitch cowl made from handspun small hanks of yarn in teal, brown and white.  It's to match 3 of my Rikke hats and keep me warm this winter. A sock, made from handspun wool.  It's white, it's warm and I still need to spin up enough to finish this one and make another.  They'll be big enough for Dave. I snagged a pou...

They are random and quirky 1. I don't like phones.  I don't call people unless forced to.  I don't like answering phones.  It's as close to a phobia as I can get.  After 10+ years in customer service answering phones with people on the other end yelling that I screwed up something I've never created, packaged nor shipped....well I correlate phones with bad.  You want my attention? Email me. 2. I don't like my cuffs wet.  It's just icky feeling to me. 3. I never cook anything in the microwave in plastic. It's either Pyrex or ceramic. After seeing the plastic melt a few times I had to ask myself, "where was this melted plastic?" most likely in my food. Since the majority of plastic is derived from petroleum...ew! Incidentally, you can put 2 packets of ramen noodles in this loaf pan, fill it 2/3 with water, nuke for 12 minutes and both packets will be cooked.  When it's not in use for that, I usually use the pans to feed juvenile ...

There are just some days where you have to take everything that goes wrong and find the good in it.  Like watching a juvenile female goose suck water out of the leak in the hose.  I've been meaning to fix that hose, but haven't gotten to it.

I wake up every morning and get out between 5 or 6 every morning to 'release the hounds'.  This is the shot of the back 40 this morning as Sissy and her Posse were out grazing. We put the 2 goslings I hatched in the incubator with her 3 babies yesterday afternoon.  I had them out with the ducklings in the pen, but the ducks were beating them up.  So I thought to put them with their own brothers and sisters.  Sissy looked at them, said, "Honk" and led them all away. I guess the adoption is complete then! I've made these little pockets out of wool roving that was on sale as yarn for $1.00 at the fabric store.  When baby ducklings first hatch, they like to burrow under stuff to make them feel like they are under mama's wing. I cannot walk around with baby ducks under my arm, so I invented these little pockets.  In the nursery, I put the pocket on it's side and the ducklings snuggle inside and sleep. It's funny to see naught but a little yello...

Sissy's babies hatched! She's got 3 Uncles and one Daddy who are her Nannies.  It's hilarious to see them all looking after these 3 little ones.  They are little fluff balls that waddle behind Mama where ever she goes.  As soon as I can, I will get a pic of the babies on her back.  It's cute. At times they are under her wing, but if they are sufficiently warm, they just nap on her back. There's still a lot of hissing and charging from the Uncles, but Daddy has calmed down a lot. Sissy's got them out for a tour of the lilac bush in the picture. This is Molly on her nest. She got a late start. After spending most of the spring running away from the guys, she finally decided to let them near her...which led to mating.  She's got 11 eggs under her.  Dave's been building nests to see what is the optimum dimensions for them.  This one is 3' square by about 8" high.  The concrete block in front helps her get in an out better. We're revam...

I'm nice? Well-behaved? Taught better manners?  Ah I don't know. Y'all remember that shortly after Christmas I invited family to our home to celebrate Christmas, right?  Man, I had the best intentions, a good dinner, great family fun...even Skyped Deb in so she can see her family. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  I've saved the photos from this debacle, because up until the moment my BIL intentionally started the fight w/Dave...it was going very well.(I'm deliberately trying to forget my BIL's emotional abuse of me. I'm considering the source) My In-Laws' were talking of this huge get-together in the summer for their 60th Wedding Anniversary.  It was going to be fun. That weekend is here and all the rest of the family are in BRF celebrating.  We got an invite, and discussed it.  After all was discussed, we were pretty sure it was an empty gesture.  We don't go where we're not wanted. There's still a lot of animosity, ...