Junuary (No This is Not a Misprint)

Once again I wake up to the sound of rain. I ask myself why I live here on days like this. It's June and the beginning of strawberry season and I was hoping to be able to pick a few flats at a local farm to put by for the winter. Every year it rains on the strawberries and every year it seems you hear a story or two about strawberry farmers worried about their crops rotting before they can harvest.  I put my rain coat on and grudgingly pull the hood up as I trudge out the door to do morning animal chores. Lucy, my golden retriever and Want a Be guardian dog, faithfully follows in my footsteps until we clear the porch then runs along the property line of my farm yard barking and searching for the interlopers that she is sure are lurking in the bushes around the perimeter of her kingdom. Most of the chickens are huddled outside their coop under the small roof covering one corner of their fenced run, the ducks happily play in the slick combination of mud and pools of water covering the rest of the run.  I am always happy that I had the fore thought to provide the chickens with that dry corner on days like today and always kick myself for not making it larger. I enter the coop and turn on the overhead light for the hens to help make up for the dreary day and open the door to the other half of the coop giving the girls access to more nesting boxes and dry room to roam among the stored feed and equipment. Outside again I empty and refill water containers in the adjoining fenced pasture and prepare to let the ducks out of the chicken run where I had tucked them in the night before to sleep in relative safety. Standing there in the quiet of the morning it occurs to me that the rain sounds like a river or creek tumbling over the leaves of the trees like a stream rushing over smooth rocks. I look up into the dripping canopy of green surrounding our property and marvel at the different shades of green mother nature has provided on this small acreage. This is the norm for this time of year in this part of the country. I look across the property to the garden fenced with the best fencing the man could get to keep the deer out and I fret about the fact that I don't have the beans planted yet. It's still a little cool and I don't want them to just rot in the ground. The bean patch has been weeded and tilled for two weeks waiting for the soil to warm.  Perhaps I will install the bean trellises today in anticipation of a warming trend. Pumpkins and cucumbers also need to be planted and in this area that means buying started plants from a nursery. We have talked about building a green house and weighed the pros and cons of the expense. I guess the $10 or $20 that I spend on started plants every year always out weighs the green house expense but oh how wonderful it would be to spend a rainy afternoon tucked away in the warmth potting up seeds and cuttings and maybe fussing with a few tomato plants. We don't intend to stay on this property so putting in a green house means leaving it for the next owner. The house will be too big when the girls go off to school and we want to build something smaller and more efficient. The  man loves to fuss with technical stuff and wants to install solar and wind power on

our fantasy property. He dreams of finding a piece of property with a stream or small river so he can build a small hydroelectric plant. Property that includes a river or stream can be expensive so that may just be part of the dream that we have to give up. Standing in the rain and watching the seasonal stream running through our property, a ditch really, I imagine a picturesque  farm with a mill wheel turning in a pond with cool dark pools of water deep enough to hide huge trout.  It's a far cry from what I am looking at but the sound of the rain helps with the fantasy.

I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and I know there is no place more beautiful. Summers here are warm but not agonizingly so.  We are surrounded by snow capped mountains painted against a backdrop of  azure blue sky and accented with mounds of cottony white clouds and the sea is but a short walk or ride away. Winters are mild and what snow we get doesn't usually last

long. Spring is filled with blooming fruit trees accented with tulips and daffodils....and rain. My favorite season is fall. I love the harvest and the leaves turning brilliant colors against a backdrop of sky and low slung sun. Everything has a golden glow and a peace that only comes at the end of a hectic summer.
Chores finished I turn my steps and thoughts to the house.Waiting for me inside is a hot cup of coffee, the first of the day. I will make a list of things to do inside today. Bake bread, clean the forever dirty "mud room" do a load or two of laundry. All the things families need on an ongoing basis. Today I will also expand on a homesteading skill or learn a new one.

After all. Rain was invented so gardeners could do house work.

My Buddy, My Pal.

I have had one or two pictures of one of my best buddies on this blog but never really introduced her. This is Lucy. I got her when she was just a pup and she is now 10 this spring. Some times she is a royal pain but for the most part she is one of the best dogs, friend, and helper I have ever had. She wasn't always that way and in fact when she was about a year old I was seriously thinking of getting rid of her. She chased the chickens, chased the kids and nipped them, harassed the goats, peed on the carpet and would take off to see her "boy friend" Booker or her other human friend, Felix, down the road when I let her out the front door. I would get the phone call that she was visiting and they would bring her back in an hour or so. Today she is a watch dog that lets me know when someone has driven on the property, or when there is a bird fight or fright in the yard. She chases the hawks and breaks up squabbles between the geese and the chickens and keeps a watch on the whole yard. In case you didn't notice Lucy is getting a little white around the eyes and muzzle.

She is 10 years old this spring and I can't help but wonder what I am going to do without her someday. In fact thinking about it is something I can't do for very long. I have thought about getting another dog so she would have a buddy or maybe teach it to do what she does but I just can't go there. She is the princess and that's all there is to it.

I will end this post with a stranger than fiction item. Name this thing. I told the kids it was a chicken ovary.

GROSS!

Another Example of

Remember Ferry Morse Seed Company? Well remember well because that is all it is going to be is a distant reminder. Ferry Morse Sold It has been gobbled up by the same company that gobbled Plantation Products. They are both now owned by an investment corporation called RFE Investments.  Although I can't say they were a great company that only uses organic non-GMO seed they have been around for decades and the people that worked for them got booted in a very inhumane way. (Plus their seed packets were beautiful enough for framing.)

So I am asking my readers to pass this information on. I am passing it on from the Never Done Farm blog with added information. Check out the links in this post.

I am also passing on this interesting link to you. http://www.garden-of-eatin.com/how-to-avoid-monsanto/

Say Cheese! (a book review)

First off I noticed that Blogger is going to force us all to use the new interface. I hate change. Guess you could say I would be one of the species on this earth that would disappear because I refuse to change to meet the new environment but Blogger is a pain and just when you get it set up they change it. ARRRRGGGGG!

Second I am on a roll in the garden so my post are going to be even fewer and farther between. Between that and changing my blogger I could disappear completely. However since I have to change the interface I may take the opportunity to change the look of the whole blog. That said here is my new post.

I have been making mozzarella cheese for about a year now and decided it was time to branch out so I bought this book featured at Mother Earth News. I was so excited! It had 3 recipes for mozzarella which I thought would be a good place to start because the recipe that I had been making didn't really taste the way I thought it should and was not as soft as the store bought variety. I found a cheese supply store and bought some supplies and started in. I made the first mozzarella. It was just ok and very similar to what I had already done which works great on pizza but I wanted the kind you can layer with tomatoes and basil leaves so on to the next. Same results. More work. The third recipe took me about 4 hours, was difficult to follow and turned out worse than the first two. At that point I just put the book away and gave up for awhile.

Now because I use to raise Kinder goats I have always been on Hoegger Supply's email and blog list. Just so happens they sent me a link to a couple videos that I watched on making cheese. They are trying to sell a cheese making book by Mary Jane Toth and because I already had a cheese book I resisted thinking one book  is as good as another and Mother Earth had recommended the one I have. Well to make a long story short I watched the video on making sour cream. I am now a convert. This granny looking lady doesn't mess around with fancy equipment and starters. She just does it. The sour cream couldn't have been any easier so I am going to get the book. Her recipe was 3 Tablespoons of cultured buttermilk in a pint jar of cream or half and half, put a lid on it and shake. Set on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. VOILA! The best sour cream ever!

I immediately ran out and got some strawberries and then made baked potatoes for dinner. Yummm!

 I compared this to the recipe in my book. The recipe wanted you to go buy a direct set sour cream starter, heat the cream to 86 degrees, add the starter, and let set undisturbed for 12 hours.  Now I have two gripes with this. First I have to go buy the starter ($$$) heat the cream (work, time, and dish washing) and the recipe doesn't even say whether you should stir the starter in or let it float. My biggest gripe is while making the cheese I found the directions to be unclear.
http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/the-farmyard/cheese-making/ So if you are looking for a book on making dairy products try A Cheese Makers Journey first, or better yet try the videos. They are free and there are quite a few of them. Here is another link with some recipes. Looks like it is older and it is from Countryside magazine. http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/83/83-3/Mary_Jane_Toth.html

So here are some pics from making that cheese recipe from Home Cheese Making.

Looks good doesn't it? My oldest daughter ate some of this and politely told me it was yummy but it wasn't.
If anyone has experience with this book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll, give me a shout. I would like to know your opinion.

Canning and the Stupidest Person on the Planet

Canning and preserving season is going to be upon us before you know it. Those of you in the south are probably already putting by. Preserving healthy chemical free food for your family and feeling pretty darn good about it. Right? Canning for healthy food is exactly why I do it. It isn't because it is cheaper because other than the garden most of the stuff I can I purchase. I do wait until I find a killer deal and the food taste better than the canned stuff you get at the grocery store and usually canning a quart of something even if purchased is cheaper than buying a 14 oz. can of something if you don't count your labor.  (have you noticed the cans are smaller than they use to be?)

Lately I have been hearing a lot more about BPA contained in the white lining of commercial cans and plastic containers. It is suppose to protect the steel can from corroding especially in high acid foods like tomatoes and pineapple. It is very difficult to limit your exposure to BPA since most everything is made with plastic or has BPA in it. Even most of the cash register receipts that are handed to you at the store are made with BPA if they are the thermally printed type. (Not the ink type)
abcnews story BPA (please excuse the ad)
BPA is linked to cancer, obesity, hormone disruption in both men and women, early maturation in kids, and heart disease. (Especially in men) Now I don't know about you but that is not something I want for my kids and I would like to have the man hang around a little longer. BPA has been banned in Canada, and Europe but not here. I suspect big money has something to do with that. Long ago I took a look at the plastics in my house. Especially the cheap plastics with the number 3 or 7 on the recycle symbol. I have known for years that you shouldn't micro wave food in plastic. I had a co-worker that was poisoned by doing that and when is the last time you read directions that said "cover with plastic wrap and microwave..."? So I got rid of plastic milk containers when my kids were much younger. If I don't buy milk in glass I get it in paper cartons. I have got rid of all or most plastic containers that hold left over food and switched to Pyrex. It is more expensive initially, cheaper in the long run, re-usable and doesn't eventually fill up the land fills. I am canning more and more of the foods we eat including oranges. Ya oranges. When they are on sale. Pineapple not so much but I limit how much canned pineapple we use and prefer fresh. (ya I know it is shipped in using that stuff called petroleum but in truth we don't eat a lot of that either).

So now why am I feeling like one of the stupidest people on the planet?


Take a look at my canning lids. I love a good sale on lids and buy them when I find them. It never occurred to me that they would contain BPA but there it is in all its glory. Take a look.

The ubiquitous white lining on the inside of my canning lids and golly gee guess what I do with these things? Exactly what you aren't suppose to do.  Expose them to heat. Especially pressure cooking! I don't have a whole lot of lids left thankfully because it is the beginning of the season right now and the stuff in my pantry is low so I am looking for and finding an alternative. They are out there and here is one.
Lehman's reusable BPA free canning lids
This is just one company and you may find some that are less expensive. Just Google BPA free canning lids and a lot of resources come up including some for prepping. The best part of these lids is that they are reusable and can be used with the screw band that you already have. You also wont be throwing them away, filling up your local land fill or polluting the environment when it eventually breaks down.

I'm sure some of you already know about this but for those who don't give me a shout out. I really need to know that I am not the last person on the planet that didn't know about this.

P.S.- I have been looking around about lids since I published this post. Do your homework. Some re-usable canning lids have problems with sealing failure and contain formaldehyde. They seem to be the one piece lids so far.

Cold Frame and Garden Update With a Splash of Goat Milk

Remember the cold frame that the man built for me? We are finally getting greens and they are great! No bugs or slugs and easy as pie to wash which makes me want to make more salads. You in southern climes probably can't relate because you are already getting tomatoes and your squash plants are huge. We up here are waiting for peas, and it hasn't been that long since our last frost. (April first-ish?) Our last bout with snow was March 17th even though it didn't stick it wasn't what you would call gardening weather. Since then it has been windy and almost constantly rainy (really cold and wet rain that lasts all day) with just a few days of reprieve so our growing season doesn't really start until May. You still have to get the stuff in the ground in order to get anything out so gardeners here are a tough breed. Temperatures here can be as low as mid forties upper 30's. The highest so far have been barely 60. This is great for lettuce, peas, potatoes, and cabbage type stuff but not beans and tomatoes. So that is why the cold frame. I need fresh greens before June! My potatoes are in and coming up although I still have a few I haven't put in. Mainly the russets.

I am (as usual) experimenting with a technique for the peas. I love fresh sugar snap peas. I hate trellising them. It's a pain in the a$$ and the string type trellis just seems to be flimsy and falling over all the time. Not only that we have birds (robins I think) that love sprouting peas. They come down in the garden and peck out the newly emerging pea plant so that the next time I go down to the garden I find neat little holes exactly where my plants were, all in a neat little row as if they just went down the line and plucked them out one by one. So this year I think I have foiled the little buggers. Like last year for the broccoli and cauliflower plants I covered the ground with nylon netting from the fabric store. bug covers for cool weather gardens This stuff is cheap, reusable, lets in all the light and water, and the birds don't like it. heheheh. I simply spread the netting over the planted area and put in a garden stake to hold it in place so the wind couldn't blow it off. You only need to do this until the plants are about an inch tall. The birds leave them alone after that. Then you can remove them so the peas don't grow up through them.  For trellises I am trying upside down tomato cages. I'm not sure if the pea plants will be able to grip the metal on the cages but if not I will figure out what to do about that but I am hoping for pea tee pees. I wrapped the fabric around the bottom of the cages and held it in place with clothes pins. It has worked like a charm. I removed the fabric and I have lots of peas coming up. In case you noticed that some are planted in rows and some in tee pees it is because I didn't think of the cage idea until I was half way done. So this will be a real experiment with a control group. Ha!

 So here are the results!



Other than that I have been very busy baking, teaching a class last weekend and making cheese. I don't have goats anymore but I still go over to my breeders farm and buy goats milk from her. She has Kinder Goats which is what I had. http://www.kindergoatbreeders.com/ They are the best little goat ever. They are great milkers, easy kidders, and a good size for meat. They also seem to be less trouble than the bigger goats as far as escaping and taking care of in general. I guess I will have to dig out some of my old pictures and do a special blog on them. I do miss the babies and she had a ton of them. All of them friendly. I even had one that jumped into my arms. At any rate I have been making simple cheese with the fresh milk and a chocolate goat milk ice cream that my kids ate up as fast as they could get it in their mouths. Come to think of it the cheese is gone too. Guess I better go make some. I'll take pictures this time.

Remember Me?

Hard to believe that these are the cute little ducks hatched less than two months ago. Fully feathered but no drake feathers to let me know which may be boys. I suspect the one at the top of this picture is a boy. He is the biggest.  These not so little ducks are so friendly that I have to be extremely careful to not step on them. They are constantly under foot looking for a hand out. They follow me every where and love to walk down to the pond with me but rarely go by themselves. Guess they are still just babies even though they look grown up. They pretty much just hang out with the chickens. I can't tell which one is the one that almost didn't make it. They are all very healthy duckys. Good job silky moma!

Recipes and Pictures...As promised

So today was just one of those days when nothing gets done on your list because you are too busy doing other stuff that isn't on the list. I found a good deal on local asparagus yesterday and bought a few pounds. I love pickled asparagus in the middle of winter. I use it on salads, or in relish trays, and (ahem!) Bloody Mary's. You know the kind that are loaded with horseradish and Tabasco? A definite staple in the dead of winter. So today I pickled and canned the stuff using a recipe I got for pickled beans from Andree'. She made the best dilly beans ever, loaded with garlic, dill, and red pepper. I just use the same recipe for the asparagus but with dried dill and dill seed. Worked great last year. I also discovered that I had enough rhubarb ready in the garden so I made a rhubarb pie. This link will take you to the post with that recipe. 

If you are interested in the pickle recipe just send me a request. I am glad to share. In the mean time here is the promised recipe for the bread that I will be using to teach a class in a series of sustainability classes next week.

Light Oat Bread

1¼ cup warm water

1½ tsp. yeast

2 Tbsp. Brown sugar

2 Tbsp. butter melted and cooled

1 tsp. salt (preferably not iodized)

½ cup rolled oats

3 cups all-purpose flour pre-measured in separate container.

Place water in a pre-warmed mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on water and let set about 2 minutes. Add sugar and let sit an additional 2 minutes. Add cooled, melted butter, salt, and oats. Let sit another minute. Give a quick stir or start your mixer if using one using a dough hook. Begin adding your pre-measured flour one cup at a time. Mix until all flour is incorporated.

By Hand: Turn out onto a floured board and kneaded until smooth and elastic adding more flour 1 tablespoon at a time if needed. When dough is at right consistency, let rest while you wash, dry, and grease the bowl. Place ball of dough upside down in bowl and turn to coat all sides with grease.

By mixer: Add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until dough pulls cleanly away from bottom and sides of bowl. Prepare a pottery type bowl by warming with hot water. Dump out water, dry, and grease bowl. Place ball of dough upside down in bowl and turn to coat all sides with grease.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap or clean dry dish towel and place in warm spot to rise until double in size. (Approx. 2 hours)

Grease a standard loaf pan. Gently press dough with fingers. Remove from bowl and reshape into loaf or rolls. Cover and let rise once more. (About 1 hour) Dough should roundly fill pan but not deflate when lightly pressed with finger.  

At this point you can sprinkle a few oats on top or brush with an egg wash (for a shiny finish) and sprinkle with a few oats.

Egg wash: Lightly beat one egg with a spoonful of water. Lightly brush the top of the bread dough with the wash using a pastry brush.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.  About 30-35 minutes.

Tip: This recipe can be doubled for two loaves!

Tip: Shape rolls, let rise about a hour and bake 20 min. 

Happy baking!

The Ultimate Prepping Tool

The man surprised me with this. He has surprised me with little gifts before. Flowers, candy, the usual stuff. I was never that excited about flowers that were going to die and candy that would make me fat but I always appreciated them. I think he has finally figured out that I get excited about weird stuff like this. YA! buy me a new bird or a pressure cooker, or a great book or take me for a ride on the Harley. THAT I can relate to. Now I know his idea of the ultimate prepping tool is a motor home but that is a lot more money than a cooker and now that the kids are older we don't use that as often. So we sold ours. We will probably buy another smaller one for our selves since we like to go and we will be able to use it on what ever property we end up with after selling this one. But that will be after the girls leave for college.

I was going to can chicken soup this weekend but the directions are so confusing that I think I will look for a cook book that is a little more helpful than the manual that came with it. Braeburn apples are on deep discount at the store this week and my kids will only eat home made chunky apple sauce so I will probably start with that. Maybe even make some pie filling. What I really wanted it for was to can salmon. I have salmon in the freezer that we haven't eaten and I would like to get it out of there. It is an All American pressure cooker/canner (made and manufactured in the US) so anyone with any tips, please leave me a comment.

Speaking of new birds here is an update on the geese. The second batch of eggs were also not fertile. As I suspected both the duck boy and the goose boys are done for the year. Although the duck will occasionally perform. So both my girl geese are still trying to sit on the nest. I have done everything I can think of to discourage them but as soon as I open their gate at night they go right back and they spend the day walking around the fence line trying to figure out how to get back in to the non-existent eggs. Being the chump I am I felt sorry for them so the other day after the man had gone to work I crept down to the feed store knowing they were getting a new shipment of ducks that morning. I thought I would get some Black Cayugas because I really loved the one I had years ago. The hatchery had only sent one in their order and she was tiny. My intent was to put them under the geese but she was so small I was afraid she would get hurt or worse. So I got two Rouen because they were bigger and two more Khaki Campbell (because they are exceptional egg layers) and took them home. I tried putting them under the girls. The ladies were willing but those little ducks kept popping out from under and would have none of it. I tried until the little bugs got cold and finally decided I was going to have to raise them.

Rouen are stripped 

click to enlarge

So meet Lola and the crew. She is absolutely ADORABLE! The rest are just cute. For those who don't know what a Rouen is it is a mallard derivative and looks a lot like a mallard. I don't know what I am going to do with them yet but will probably sell them or just find them good homes since they will be pets.

I will be teaching a class at the end of the month for an organization that is putting together classes on old fashion life skills for people that want to be more self sufficient so I am teaching "Basic bread and cheese making." Because I have been asked for another recipe from a reader I will include the recipe in my next blog.  Here is the picture.

Happy Easter.....Eggs and Nesting Goose Update.

I finally got access to the goose nest and was able to candle those eggs. No babies inside. So I took the eggs into the house. This didn't set well with the geese. The girls went out yelling at the boys and they all walked around for awhile being very noisy talking about it. The girls eventually went back in looking for their eggs. Although I had pulled all the nesting material out of  the dog crate they were using (there were two) one of them went back inside, sat down and started pulling all the stuff back in. After sitting on the empty nest for a day  I decided I better go empty the nesting material out of the dog crate they were using and remove it. That didn't stop them. It just upset them. This morning and for the last two days they have been sitting in the nesting material together out in the open where the chickens can see them. They are determined.......and I feel bad for them. Although I haven't seen the ducks doing the tango lately I went ahead and placed two fresh duck eggs in front of the geese which they promptly tucked under their downy breast. Guess I will candle them in a couple days.

In the mean time in the house I scrubbed the goose eggs using soap and a plastic kitchen scrubby. They were so stained that they wouldn't come clean so I used a little vinegar with the scrubby and that took it off. My plan was to blow out the eggs, rinse them and then dye them with natural dyes made from stuff in the kitchen. I was afraid they would be stinky so I took precautions to empty the eggs into a zip lock back for disposal. To my surprise they weren't. So here is how I did it.

Cleaned and scrubbed eggs

Using a straw colored with ink I marked
a circle on both ends of the egg.

Using a dremmel I gently
drilled a hole in both ends the
same size as the straw. 

I used a bamboo skewer to break up
the yolk inside then using the straw
I blew out the insides into the bag.

Once the eggs were empty, rinsed and dried I started to color them. My favorite was the boiled onion skins which made a lovely orange. I also used curry and mustard mixed with water for yellow (I didn't have any turmeric but mustard has that in it) sweet cherry juice for a purple/blue, and beet juice for a pink. All mixed with water and a little white vinegar.










This morning my youngest (16)  informed me that she was expecting an Easter basket. I thought my girls were past that. Hmmmmm....but apparently not. She got down the Easter decorations and pulled out these eggs made some years ago when I lived on Lummi Island. They are made with tissue paper and a mixture of Elmer's glue and water. Kind of like paper mache' only on real eggs that were blown out.

Easy and fun project for the kids

I will keep you posted on the geese and their quest for a family. In the mean time have a great Easter!

Another Example of "It Takes A Village"

So call me crazy. Call me anthropomorphic. Maybe I am just reading too much into this but....

Bella, one of the female Sebastapol geese decided to set on eggs. Up to this point I have been collecting the eggs as they were laid because I read that if you got goslings the first year just count yourself as lucky since the boys are usually not up to the job. It just doesn't usually happen. It's not that they don't try. They're just not fertile yet which is probably true because I had two under a broody hen for 5 days and nothing was happening with them.  But Bella had two eggs and I had one that had not been refrigerated yet so I put that one in the nest too.

The two big ganders are standing guard just outside the gate when it's open and inside the run when they are locked up. Nothing too unusual about that other than the fact that they are working together to "kill" anything that comes near. The weird thing is that the other female, Mimi, seems to be helping Bella set on the eggs. She gets in the nest and sits then Bella gets off to go eat and walk around a bit. Sometimes for up to an hour. Then she goes back and Mimi gets off the nest and hangs with the boys or takes a bath in the pond.

This evening I went out to put the birds away for the night and feed them their usual rations. Normally they hog down the whole thing in 15 minutes. I tried to get Bella to come out and eat too but she would have non of that nonsense. About an hour later I happened to go out there and there was still food in the dishes. This alarmed me because to have food left usually means someone doesn't feel well. Then I looked in the nest. Mimi was on the nest again and Bella was eating while the boys watched. It was as if they saved it for her. Now, I know that geese have strong family ties and wild ones will cooperate when migrating by switching off flying the lead. A couple of geese will even leave a migrating flock to keep a sick or exhausted goose company until it either recovers or dies before migrating on and catching up with the pack. But this is really weird. Like I said call me crazy but this has been going on for two days so far. I don't think the eggs are viable and I would like to get in there to candle them but I will have to get past at least one of them (mom) to do that and although I have no doubt that I could but I would hate to disturb her and have her desert the nest if she had any good eggs. Guess I will just see if I get up the nerve. It would also help if it would quit raining so I didn't have to kneel in the mud!

(two days later)....
Yesterday Bella didn't leave the nest all day so when it was time to feed the geese I moved the feed dishes and water over to within about 5 feet of the nest to try and get her to come out and eat. The others ate but she stayed on the nest. She did stand up to check her eggs giving me the opportunity to see what was in there. She has 6 or 7 eggs that I can see!

I went back in to the house to continue making dinner and about 10 minutes later noticed that Bella was walking around the pen. So I went out to see where Mimi was and as I suspected she was on the nest. Ten minutes or so later Bella went back to the nest and Mimi was out with the boys again. I swear they are all doing the tag team parenting thing. This morning I noticed Mimi has made herself a sitting area just outside the nest box and is sitting with Bella. Gotta kinda wonder if she has eggs under there. I'll keep ya posted. Who knows maybe we will end up with baby Sebastapols!

Update on the baby ducks. They are growing so fast. Mother hen still fusses with them and bosses them around but they are at least as big as she is now. She finally gave up trying to get them to perch and she just perches next to the box where they spend the night. Because it is still pretty cold here I have been bringing the ducklings into the house for swimming lessons. (Alright, someone has to do it) They seem to take to it like a duck to water. Oh ya.....they are ducks. I gave my oldest the job of making sure they were good and dry before taking them back out to the coop.

Lucy was very interested in the bathing ducks