Where's my friend?

This gander likes hanging with Mochi, our oldest Billy Goat. Mochi had already left his sleeping area and gone to the front pasture. Mr. Gander was absent during this move and is searching for his friend.

Thick as pea soup

Geese!

The Handlers' friends brought them geese back in April because they were downsizing. Downsizing from an 800 hectares campo (nearly 2000 acres) to something smaller. They had cattle, sheep, chickens, geese, and horses. And one castrated goat. We got the geese. Twenty-two geese in all made the journey in the back of a truck.

Five hectares (12 acres) is a smaller footprint for these waddling fowl. Fence lines, even ones in tact, mean nothing (it is like the Internet --no boundaries--...unless you are in North Korea. Except we're not in North Korea. We are in Uruguay). The geese can tell you exactly what is growing in the neighboring fields, if you understood Geese-Speak. They have tasted it all.

But aside from their propensity to wander, they have been a welcomed addition to the farm. They don't pay much attention to me, although they really need to tone down their berating as I walk by. It sounds like they are giving me a piece of their mind. At least it's not as bad as what they do to the dog. Nostra has to time the exit out of the house to coincide with a Handler's exit if a goose is nearby.

The Handlers decided to let the geese brood out in the open because more than one occasion this group did not return at night to the house. They figured that if the geese were comfortable staying outside the confines of the inner garden with fox, gato montes and other predators on the hunt at night, then they did not have to brood in the chicken pen. It definitely means a wider area to clean up every morning, but that doesn't take long.

We are nearing the end of winter, and so far we have 4 nests surrounding the house. There are now 13 females (we lost two in the past 4 months, causes unknown, but definitely not from their overnight sojourns) so 9 have yet to brood. 7 ganders. Yes, you would be correct to deduce the ratio is not ideal so a goose or two or ten (specifically gander) is on the menu for later on this year depending on what hatches.

Here's a size comparison between a chicken egg and a goose egg:

Here's the goose that is nesting near the mudroom door.

Here's a goose nesting near the chicken pen, but on the outside.

And here's a goose who decided nesting in the agapanthus bed would be ideal.

And here are at least 10 cutting grass...

Heading through the orchard to the lower pond

AFLAC!

The first flower

The first almond flower actually happened two weeks ago today which would make it even earlier than ever (or at least during our tenure tending to almond trees). This might have been spurred by a warm spell, which also brought out the bees. It is the sequence we hope for, but doesn't always happen.

For me, I'm happy we've had a warm spell. I've been nursing a cold, and just hanging here in the sun is really what I need. ...That and maybe to catch one of these chicks.

Early Morning Fog

Yesterday we were socked in with fog.

Everything dripped.

Today just a little low lying fog. Still makes for a good visual.

You are disrupting my peace!

Muñeca, aside from now sharing her pen in the evening with 21 geese, has had her days altered a bit this weekend. Three chicks were acquired a couple of weeks ago and over the weekend during the daylight hours they were introduced to the coop.

She went very vocal about this intrusion and kept giving the eye signal that ….”this was just temporary, right? Like, ‘temporary’ is over NOW, right?”

On this subject, Addis Ababa University has recently found that chickens have the power to protect you from mosquitoes. Four compounds found in chicken feathers, isobutyl butyrate, naphthalene, hexadecane and trans-limonene, are believed to have some sort of repellant effect.

So a couple of options:

1. sleep with a chicken

2. or incorporate feathers into your attire

Me…I’ll just stick to fur as being challenge enough for mosquitoes.