Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[goatgurl]

sad but true, i am so afraid of geese that i won't have one on my place. when i was a kid my mom had geese and they would chase me honking with wings flapping and pinch/twist chunks out of the back of my legs. nope no geese for me... but i do love my muscovie ducks. congrats on the big honkers

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh GG - investigate Pilgrim Geese - they are so docile that even while they are nesting the worst thing they do is hiss at me when I walk by. My first female that grew up and raised babies would let me reach under her and check eggs while she was nesting and she didn't care if I picked up her babies. They are truly a unique breed. And, BONUS, they can be sexed at birth (or is that at hatch)!

I've had other breeds of geese (Chinese) and I agree with you - they are SCARY! When my daughter was a youngster she wouldn't even go outside she was so afraid of them. So, I decided to get rid of them and had a guy come to look at them. He asked me if they were aggressive and I told the truth. I told him they would chase you but they had never (at that time) bitten anyone. And the gander promptly walked up to the guy and bit him in his ... ummmm... tender spot!

 

[Britesea]

My husband's family had Muscovies, and the big drake used to go out on the pasture and pick fights with the ganders. He didn't take on one at a time either; he would go after the whole group... and WIN!

 

[goatgurl]

@frustratedearthmother i'll have to check them out but pardon me if i remain a skeptic. and @Britesea my drakes fight with the roosters all the time. they all free range together so i can't pen one or the other up. sometimes worry there will be a death in the family the way they go at but so far so good. if i break up the fight they wait till my back is turned and go at it some more. i have yet to see either a drake make advances on a laying hen or a rooster make eyes at one of the mama ducks. to much testosterone in the yard me thinks.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The baby geese seem to grow every single day! They are so cute and personable. They like to nibble fingers and even cuddle, lol! Who woulda thunk it?

I've got squash plants coming up! Woo hoo - so exciting to see the first plants of the season break through.

And - will wonders never cease? I bought some miniature mulberry tree/bushes. One of 'em broke a couple weeks ago when it was really windy, so I stuck the broken off piece of tree into the soil beside the main trunk. It withered up and looked dead as a door knob - but when I actually looked at it today it had some fresh new leaves on it. It rooted, lol. I didn't do anything but stick it in the dirt and voila!

Hope the little horses didn't commit hari-kari on themselves. I've been keeping them up off of the fresh spring grass because they have a tendency to totally over do it and kill their feet... I've been trying to ease them back onto the grass by keeping their bellies full of hay and then giving them a short time on grass. Well - the stooooopid little stinkers managed to break out of their pen. My bad - left the gate half latched and they like to prove that they can undo it - and they did. The little $hit$ were out all night and all day. When I got home two of the three were laying down in front of the barn and my stomach just sank - but they hopped up and marched off just fine. Stayed right out of my reach...grrrrr. We've had rain, rain, rain since Saturday so the ground is wet and cool - first time I've been thankful for wet ground! At least, if they are going to be prone to foundering the cool wet ground will help. Geeze - critters! Seems sometimes like they're all trying to commit suicide. Still reeling from losing both my Westies.

Red is due soon...maybe tomorrow...maybe the next day. NEW BABIES! Hoping to get some nice moon-spotted doelings.

Stay tuned...

 

[Denim Deb]

You've really had it rough. Hope the minis are OK. That's one worry I don't have. I don't have a big enough field for my horses to worry about founder and it's also one reason why I want to move in the winter.

I don't know what kind of geese RU has, but she has a pair of them. Something happened to the gander, so she went out and bought another one. I hate them. The gander will attack, and while they have the whole farm to roam, they like the parking area.

And as for ducks, RU has a ton of muscovies that she doesn't do anything with. A few of them have found my chicken feeder so I have to take it out during the day. Otherwise, they go in and gobble up all my feed. And they've decided they like my stock tank. Plus, they're crapping all around my tack shed. Hubby keeps saying we should get ducks. That will happen only if we move, if they have their wings clipped and if they have their own area.

 

[Britesea]

You won't need to get wings clipped if you get something other than Muscovies or Runner Ducks. Most of the others are too heavy to fly- the best mine can do is about 2 feet off the ground and about 6 feet.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Still waiting on Red to deliver... silly girl! I've been waiting all week for her ligaments to totally go way - they've been soft and mushy for days now - but tonight they're gone, gone, gone! So, within the next 24 hours it should happen. And, of course, we've got MAJOR storms in the forecast for the next 3 days. UGH - I'm so sick of rain!

I'm trying to stop myself from getting a new puppy. Certainly can't get one until after next weekend anyway because we'll be out of town for my DD's wedding Soooo, we'll see if my will power holds out after that.

Not much news right now and I like it like that...a boring life is something I've been hoping for for about 7 or 8 months now. Finally, I hope we've got it.

 

[goatgurl]

new puppy? what kind of new puppy? of course you need a new puppy. and you know that whoever has them will hold one till you get finished with DD's wedding. goat math, chicken math, puppy math... you figure it all out the same way BaaaaaHaaaaa

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm not sure what kind of new puppy I'm NOT gonna get, lol. But, I'm leaning towards one of those cute designer puppies like maybe a shih-poo (shih Tzu x poodle) or a snorkie (schnauzer x yorkie). My neighbor has a snorkie and he is cute, cute, cute and smart too. I just dunno...

Red is STILL holding out on babies. I just checked on her and she's definitely uncomfortable, but doing nothing but standing out there with her legs crossed! She'll do it when she gets good and ready I guess. But, OMG, her udder is gonna blow up and when it does she's gonna go flying around the barn like a balloon that's losing all it's air!

We're on the verge of some really bad weather... fingers crossed that it stays north of us.