Goose Palace...or is it Goose Jail?

I'll let the geese be the judge - I intended for it to be a palace of sorts, but I am sure they think they are in jail. Until today, I had been locking them up in a tractor at night (for safety's sake) and letting them roam about during the day.  Which is all fine and dandy except for a few minor issues...

The geese have to be put up when company comes over - they don't attack people, but they DO make stupid choices. Like walking in front of tires - ON MOVING VEHICLES! And my all time favorite is how they flap up into truck beds and poop - A LOT! Yeah, no, can't be having that happen to my company.

Then, last night, they decided they wanted to lead a merry round of chase through the property instead of be put up.  Yeah, once again, NO I said! That's it, enough with the niceness, they had to go on lock down!

So up I got bright and early and off to Home Depot I headed - I had almost everything I needed EXCEPT a little bit of cheapy plastic fencing....

Part of a tank of gas in the lawn mower (had to clear the way since I am over due for a date with Murray), 15 t-posts later, 2 50 foot rolls of cheap plastic fencing, 98 out of 100 zip ties, an old table and slightly holey tarp, one of my old step in posts for electric fencing, and 2 bungee cords scrounged up from the depths of the shed and VOILA! Goose Lockdown Facility is complete!

Of course, in the midst of my morning of outdoorsy fun, up wanders and stranger....apparently, my moat only stops vehicular traffic, but bold morons on foot will wander past it...bless his heart, he was lost looking for the neighbors house....and he found me. In all my glory, sweaty, nasty, smelling rank and ripe, fighting with a t-post....bet that's the last time he braves a driveway like mine on foot to ask for directions! Come on people, there is a REASON for the moat! All I need is an alligator or 2.....

Anyways, geese all got a wing clipped this afternoon - and tossed out into their new jail, with their pool freshly filled and everything. So far, they haven't figured out their little lean to shelter thing, but they HAVE figured out where the gate is....and they have spent most of the day standing there and waiting for me to open it...yeah, NO I said! There they are and there they shall stay! The goats were glad to see them on lock down I think - I bet they were tired of being harassed by them, and I KNOW the horses were glad to have their bossy goose antics locked up...

Let's hope they stay put - I love my geese, but they have to do geese things in goose territory and leave the other critters and visitors alone!

Conquering the Jungle - Part 1

I know, no one has to tell me, I let stuff get away from me at times. Take for example the Jungle right outside of the front door:

This little patch of my own personal hell started out with good intentions - and was actually useful for the purposes it was intended for, for a short while.  The very first year here it held a SMALL and barely successful "winter garden". I got ONE SMALL "crop" of turnip greens out of it. Then, being the bad gardener I am, I gave up on that. But there was already a bit of (weak) fencing in place. At that point it became a holding area for poultry soon bound on a voyage to Camp Kenmore. Turkeys, chickens, ducks - anything meant to live a short (but full life) was housed there until it was large enough to roam a bit, then allowed to sleep there and be out in the day time. Often times, I have a few friends who send me extra birds after their kids are done showing them. They would be brought home, placed in lock down right there, and then the next day taken off to camp....freezer camp....but still..

You can see the last of the fence still standing here:

I never intended for it to be "long term" as far as the fence goes - it was just cheap plastic stuff put up with the intent to keep rabbits (and that freaking armadillo!) out when I had my tiny garden there.  Being as it was just zip tied on u-posts, it sagged over time, then the rains came....and being less than vigilant, with an ever present meaning to clean it up but lacking the get up and go I needed, it grew over into the mess in the first picture.  And the farmer was sad :(

I knew last year it was going to be a pain to clean it up. I DOUBLE knew this year I had to get it out of there and looking good if only because I was going nuts looking at it! THEN I saw a little snake crawl into it and I had enough! I seriously was well over having a wild life sanctuary right by the front door! There's enough woods around this place - they need to stay in the damn woods I said! So I woke up yesterday not sure what I wanted to get done, until I walked outside and saw my own little piece of hell waiting on me....

The porch swing, relocated since that is where the hay now goes, was not relocated to a spot to swing in, but hurriedly tossed aside one day. Many a string from a bale of hay found it's way down there. Before I located a trash can for the hay strings, let's just say many a string found it's way ANYWHERE it wanted to go - BUT where it belonged (in the trash!). There was even the tarp, which once protected poultry from sun and rain, buried under all that green weedy bits! No seriously, look VERY closely in both pics above, and tell me: DO YOU see a TARP??? No, really? Well look...it was there:

Note all the dirt and weeds still stuck to it....I'm still shaking my head about it, I had almost forgotten that was there too!

So, yesterday afternoon, I tackled it SLOWLY - it's hot you know! I pulled all of the old fencing, dug out a MILLION hay strings, found a few toys left over by the previous owners (I SWEAR that wasn't my Spiderman  action figure in there!), raked out the hay which had fallen off of the porch, and mowed it down!

It took all afternoon, and a short little bit of effort this morning even, but, drum roll please...

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! I had 2 giant spiders come flying up at me - they got squished, a mouse tried to escape my pile of raked up hay - by flying out at me! But Snowball II got it and saved it for me:

And some small snake, no positive ID but I am fairly certain it was nothing major, got brave enough to slither out to see what was happening. I did threaten to introduce him to the sharp end of a shovel, and he headed back under the house!

So, with that all done, off I go to finish mowing. Trying to keep the place looking good this summer - I let it get away too many times last year and I am fairly determined not to allow it this year... It just looks so much nicer when it is all manicured and pretty!

Don't worry...I have a few more jungle spots to tackle up around the house before I feel like I am done....a few more spots where I am sure mother nature will send her minions to try my nerves. UGH! I can't stand bugs tot ouch me, I don't appreciate freaked out mice and snakes headed my way at faster than light speed, and I really don't like not being able to see in the jungle while I am watching for all that stuff!

So...off I go to complete my mowing. Stay tuned as always...

Hooray For Fencing!

Actually....building fencing kinda sucks.  No matter what, the weather will be NOT in my favor, there's all sorts of biting, stinging, angry bugs looking to accost me the minute I walk out the door with a project in mind, and many a time a hammer will miss a nail and find, instead, my tender fingers.....Yes, the act of fencing is NOT one of my favorite jobs!

I will admit, cheerfully no less, that I DO enjoy seeing it completed! I haven't built anything outside in a LONG time plus I really wanted to be able to be gone on the weekends and not feel bad about not walking the goats those days! I enjoy seeing my less than perfect little fence job - remember, city girl here :P I'm not a master fence builder by any means - I'm just capable of building things strong enough (once the goats show me where they are weak) to keep the goats in!

Fifty feet long by 25 feet wide - no, it's not the most amazing biggest longest fence built ever - BUT IT FEELS LIKE IT haha! Eventually I will expand - slowly - to include more of the "yard" for them....maybe one day I will be brave enough to run them an adjoining pasture through those woods in the background. The girls would REALLY love that! Goats are browsers - not grazers - and they prefer to eat weeds, brushy things, and trees nor grass.  But they get plenty of hay and feed - so the grassy area is really more for them to be able to run and move around in.

Yes, we will still go on grazing walks - or "property grooming excursions" so they can eat all the poison oak, ivy and sumac they want around here (and we have a TON of it out here!) but at least now I can leave them on lock down and not feel bad about it.  When I have to leave, when company comes and we need to keep their cars safe, any time they should be on lockdown I don't feel bad any more :)

I don't know what I want my next project to be....I have several in mind....do I want to relocate the pig housing and build her a nice little spot right up here by the house? Do I want to renovate the chicken coop? I keep saying we are going to fence in the front of the property and get that done so the horses can be loose more...do I want to tackle that? I dunno....I think I want to get all of the little stuff out of the way first and that last one is a BIG job that will involve more than just myself! Oh yes....I got the neighbors son to help me unroll the fence along the posts, and I conned my husband into putting the clips on at the t-posts as I always spend way too long fighting with those stupid things - but everything else there was all me :) Took the better part of the last 5 days too LOL - but remember I start and end my days with a few hours of work so my days are not ALL fence related!

I dunno....I have a few things to think on and a day off (or two) to take AND I need to clean this house - I let it go 2 weeks ago when we had a flood (story to follow)....so while I rest and recover from my outside duties I will think on it and plot and plan....But I am happy to finally see the goats able to run and play and use their cable spool thing I brought home a year ago!

Shoulda gone for it....

This morning, I woke up to this outside my bedroom window:

That is not OUR bull...and I'm still not really sure who he belongs too or if he found his way home yet.  I made a few calls, couldn't get any of the neighbors on the phone and the one guy I talked to swore they weren't his cattle...

They all wandered off to the back of the property and a few hours later here they come again! They circled around and came back through and my first thought was: "Beef, it's what's for dinner"  But I didn't do it, I couldn't.  They aren't mine and I would be mad as hell if someone did that to me....so I didn't...but i REALLY wanted to put just one tasty cow in the freezer.  Course all three freezers are pretty full right now anyways...so like I said I didn't...

See...there they go...no one would miss just one right?

I don't know what it is with the jail breaks lately...maybe it's something in the air perhaps? But if I see these guys tomorrow I might change my mind. ...beef may be on the menu if they return uninvited!

Jail breaks and phone calls slowing my roll.....

Let me start this off by saying I am first a milkmaid, then a soaper, a cook, a house cleaner...if there is anything NOT on the list or at least near the very very very bottom of it, the answer there is "fence builder".  Sure, I can build something strong and sturdy enough to keep a sick kitten in...but that's about it.  It takes MONTHS of redoing, re-stapling and nailing, propping up other sturdy heavy bits of stuff, for me to get a secure fence.  Ask the horses, who often have my truck parked in front of something that needs repair to keep them out of my feed room and in their enclosure! So....

I start my day off with a phone call from a fellow goat herder...she has an emergency at 5am!  She needs colostrum for new born kids and somehow found me...at 5am I said....so out I go to dig in the freezer and wrench my neck JUST RIGHT so it hurts horribly to move my head, woo fun yeah? So...she finally gets here and we get that settled...off she goes crisis evaded and I just want some coffee, but something tells me to head outside first right?

At this point it is about 9 am I head out to feed and milk my gang...only to discover JAILBREAK!!! Here comes Champagne, airplane ears bobbing as she darts my way all excited to see me - a look she only has when she has been bad.  Charyzma is next...also WAY too happy to be running my way. I march over to their pen and TC is MISSING!  Then, I look to my left, slowly, so as not to mess up my neck anymore...oh no!  I have all of my yearlings just destroying the fodder area, going to town on it...really?  Seriously?  They couldn't wait for breakfast, I may just one day out of the blue decide not to feed them, so they handled it themselves I guess...Because I already wrenched my neck this morning and have been up WAY too long and still have NOT had any coffee...what I needed was a jail break right?

 This means that I finally end up doing the shuffle of the herd I have been meaning to get around to - girls go where boys are and vice versa - like I have been meaning to do I say, like I should have done a month ago really...now I am at the point where I have to do it.  I don't know why, but my bucks are EXCEPTIONALLY well behaved when it comes to fences and crappy gates!  I even once left their gate unlocked for a few days (or maybe longer) and they never once pushed out of it and went on walkabout and they were in RUT!!!  The does however, view my attempts at carpentry and fence work as a joke - a puzzle to be worked on and figured out - and if there is a weakness then they simply MUST show me where it is...they have to...it would be unkind of them not to be anything less then 100% honest in their ability to foil my plans to keep them out of things right? Gotta love the smart ones....

So, now, goats shuffled and on lock down, everyone fed except the milkers who are CRYING for me to come relieve them of last nights milk, this farmer is plum worn out from all this AND with a crummy spazzing neck issue...off I go to tackle the rest of my day...Jail breaks and phone calls are slowing my roll today ya'll...and I haven't even had any coffee yet!