Silly Goose Games...

 

Who hasn't played the childhood party game, Musical Chairs? You know, the game where there is always one less chair than child. When the music stops, you scramble for a seat, or else you are out of the game. We've all been in the situation where we were vying for the last chair with another child and we would BOTH try to squeeze our butts on and squeeze the other butt off.

Well, it appears the girls are playing their own version of this game!

The goose coop pretty much had one nest because the girls had their egg laying so well coordinated that they laid on different days. For the record, geese lay every other day, so it worked out brilliantly. That is, until they both decided they wanted to sit on a nest - sadly, on eggs that will never hatch because there is no male. One nest, two geese...you get the picture.

Solution: Add more straw. They made another nest, and all seemed fine. NOT!

Phoenix, the perfect goose, made the perfect nest. She would greedily reach over and steal straw from Sydney's nest to make hers bigger and better. Poor Syd was left to nest on a pile of straw, but that didn't stop her.

New Problem: When Phoenix gets off the nest, Syd (who apparently covets the perfect nest, too) will get off her meager digs in favor of the other one. Lots of squawking ensues...but they seem to work it out somehow. They either both crowd onto one nest, or Phoenix knocks Syd off her nest -- or, she gives up, lets Syd stay in that spot, but proceeds to steal the straw from the formerly perfect nest and fashions a new perfect one from Syd's straw heap. Back and forth, back and forth...

Other Problem: Not only are they playing musical nests, they are now playing musical eggs, too!

I let them each have an egg, thinking they would share. NOT!

They each would prefer to have both eggs! When I get them off the nests to exercise and eat (if not, they will go lame from sitting too long), whomever goes back to the nest first claims the best nest and will roll the other egg over and sit on both. More squawking ensues when the other goose returns and finds they no longer have an egg.

Solution: Ever the peacemaker between these birds, I must reach under, steal an egg from one girl and give it to the other.

Now, each has their own egg, their own nest...happy geese!

Until tomorrow.

Repeat!

Monday Muse - (Five)

Beyond the Garden Gate (first verse only)

Step into my garden
Step in and you'll see


A measure of peace
And tranquility...
(Anonymous)

Are you kidding me!!!!!

Yes, Sydney and Phoenix looked really calm and composed in this still frame. However, they are anything BUT when it comes to the garden! They couldn't wait to sink their serrated little bills into this romaine that I was tempting them with to get this shot.

In actuality, Phoenix (on the right) has never ventured past the gate into the garden or out of the yard. In fact, she has never even been out of the yard since she came here as a baby last year. She is in some ways the more timid of the two -- although she is the one who will go after someone she doesn't know or doesn't like (she will bite -- not me, of course).

Syd, on the other hand, sees the prize (aka, lettuce) and she will charge her way through the open gate! Before I can grab her (carefully, to avoid those sharp claws of hers that have scratched me to the point where it looks as if I have attempted to slit my wrists!!), she will make mincemeat out of anything green and frilly she can latch her bill onto.

When she was hospitalized last year after swallowing the nail, she learned that her greens were kept in the small refrigerator in the surgery room. I have been told numerous stories of her hanging out (they would let her out to walk around) by it, just so she could make a beeline for those tasty morsels when some unsuspecting vet tech would open it to retrieve their lunch. She had the moves of a pirhanna attacking its prey -- a real feeding frenzy!

It's not that Phoe doesn't enjoy the greens, too...she is just a bit more mannerly!

Assessing My Garden Thus Far...

Today, it is just raining torrentially! It seems to me to be a good day to stay inside while Nature waters the garden for me and take stock of my garden's progress so far...

First, here are some tomato photos that I promised would be forthcoming in Tuesday's post. Without a doubt they are, as usual, the biggest success in my garden. I most definitely have a green thumb as far as raising tomatoes is concerned! The top photo is a long shot of the tomato bed, although it's hard to gauge just how tall they really are from this view! The next photo is my Brandywine and, again, the photo doesn't do it justice in terms of how large it actually is at this early point in the season, topping out at well over three feet tall! The last photo is the Patio tomato, which is not leafing out much and seems to be rather gangly. However, I have already harvested three tomatoes from it.

So, back to the focus of this post -- assessing my garden so far.

The other successes:
1) The leaf lettuces, romaine, and chard grown from seedlings have done very well and have fed me and the geese quite well!

2) The fava beans are a pleasant surprise! Twelve seeds, out of thirteen, sprouted to my delight. Flowering is almoist finished and a few pods are forming. Can't wait to harvest these soon!

3) The carrots seem to be doing well and are ready for thinning.

4) Onions, so easy to grow, are doing nicely!

Mixed Review:

1) Greens planted from seed mixes seem to be heavy on the arugula (which I do like), but lean on other types of greens. An aside -- Phoenix actually likes it, but it's too spicy for Syd!

2) The red lettuces and Swiss chard (Lucullus) planted from seed seem to be rather slow-growing -- but, hey, they ARE growing!

3) I think I will go back to growing beets from seedlings purchased from my local nursery. Germination of the Detroit Dark Red seeds has been marginal at best.

4) Some of my pepper plants appear to be stunted by the cold spell we had shortly after they were planted. Overall, though, I think they will thrive and I will have a good harvest as time goes on.

The disappointments:

1) I love fresh peas and before I left on vacation, they seemed to be progressing nicely and I was looking forward to a good harvest upon my return. However, while I was gone, they just seemed to shrivel up to nothing! I'm not quite sure what happened, but I suppose I will need to get my fill of peas from another source. Actually, I can plant a fall crop, but I think I will try something other than 'Alaska'.

2) Only one edamame seed (out of about 15 planted) has sprouted.

3) The Dandelion Ameliore, planted especially for the geese, has not materialized! I bought four packs of seed from The Cook's Garden last fall and the one pack that I planted last year didn't germinate either. So, I called them and they located my order and shipped more seeds out to me. I will plant these shortly and see if they fare any better. Keep your fingers crossed!


Now, I move on to plans for the "Summer Garden"! But that's a whole other post...

Tomato Tuesday!!

How does my garden grow? Very well, thank you -- especially my tomatoes!

Shortly before vacation, I planted Mr. Stripey, a tomato near and dear to my culinary heart. With that addition, the count stands at 15 plants, with two new ones to be added shortly -- hybrids Mountain Pride and Bush Goliath. Then, I think I might be finished. However, I admit that this represents a down-sizing from other years when I often have 20-plus plants in the ground!

Early May in coastal Virginia was NOT conducive to tomato growth! While it was warm enough here to plant them, we literally had nine days when the sun did not shine! Although they were well-watered with all of the rain we had, the plants literally showed no visible growth. When I was on vacation, the weather changed for the better and we had the right combination of rain and warm sun that made my plants thrive (plus great care from my friend Sharon, who tended the garden, geese, and cats while I was away).

Since my return on the 24th, I have harvested 3 tomatoes from my Patio plant, with several more green fruits on the vine. My Japanese Black Trifele also has some green babies poking out from spent blossoms! All of my plants have blooms or buds that should bloom shortly. The plants are lush and green and gorgeous! True to form, my Sweet 100, so small when planted, has grown exponentially (with tons of blooms already) along with the Japanese Black Cherry (absolutely puny when transplanted from a styrofoam cup)!

I've had a bit of help, though, from my geese. Confused??...I'll fill you in. The girls are not too particular about where they poop, including in their watering hole (aka, a fairly large kiddie pool). So, I am certainly not going to let that beautiful, wonderful manure tea go to waste and have put it to good use fertilizing my tomatoes with it. Typically, I change the pool water every other day (it will become a daily event shortly when the weather heats up). With this sandy soil here, I water the base of the plants first to saturate the ground. Then I religiously pour a bucket full of manure tea close to the base of the stem of each plant. This way, the tea ponds a bit on the surface, then sinks in slowly for maximum benefit. I should note that when I planted each tomato, I added in a bucket of goose manure into the surrounding soil.

So, now you know the secret to my beautiful tomatoes! Photos in the next few days...

Make Way for Ducklings!

Here, on Chincoteague Island, ducks rule! They are everywhere -- people even stop their cars to let them cross the road. We coexist with them and as a result, the wild ducks have become semi-tame.

Before I moved to the beach full-time a few years back, I made the house available to vacation renters. Somewhere along the line, someone apparently started feeding the ducks. So, my first spring here, ducks started showing up at my door -- literally! One I named Fiona was so bold that she would bang on it with her beak! Over the years, some have come and gone -- such as the sweet Daisy and Dartagnan, who were such regal older ducks.

This little duck mommy is called Tess and these are her twelve -- yes, twelve -- ducklings who showed up at my house on Wednesday. Tess had been coming here with her mate, Ted. Then, I noticed that they started showing up separately. What that meant was that she was on a nest somewhere. I don't know if the mallard males sit for females when they need to eat or stretch their legs. If so, that would explain why they no longer came together.

In any event, it is now Sunday and all twelve have survived to this point. There are many hazards to these darlings -- snakes, cats, and most of all, gulls. In fact, one gull swooped down while they were feeding that first day, but I let out a scream and it flew away. My cat, Lola, has watched them curiously, but has not made a move toward them. I am hoping the fact that she will soon have kittens is making her maternal in some way toward Tess. I think the reality is that she just feels like a big whale at this point and doesn't have enough energy to do anything more, which is fine by me. In actuality, neither she nor Zane, my other cat, have ever brought home "presents", which I appreciate!

Two other mallards, Dirty and Diana, were recently trying to look for a spot in the backyard to nest. That attempt lasted about two days, thanks (or no thanks, actually) to Syd, now nicknamed "Syd Vicious"! She would have no part of these interlopers and relentlessly chased the two from the yard until they finally gave up. Phoenix was terrified of them and kept her distance! (FYI, poor Dirty, who has been coming here for about three years, got his moniker because his face always appeared to be dirty. When I was finally able to get close enough, I could tell that the "dirt" was actually color variations on his facial feathers. But, by then, the name had stuck!)

Back to Tess...she has been faithfully bringing her babies here several times a day to eat. Then, she travels with them about 200 feet to what I would describe as a marshy glade. In this sheltered spot, the ducklings can swim and are much safer from cats and gulls.

In any event, I will keep everyone posted about their progress!

Foraging for the Geese!

I suppose that we are all trying to be a bit more frugal these days, tightening our spending belts whenever we can. Last summer, when my geese were babies, they foraged on grass and weeds in my yard, supplemented by greens from my garden.

Over the winter, I needed to continue to include greens in their diet, which meant purchasing them from the grocery store. I was lucky enough to have a steady supply of commercial dandelion greens -- their favorite -- for Sydney and Phoenix, brought down from Pennsylvania. This was supplemented with spring mix. Since the grass died back at some point, it turned out to be quite expensive to feed them over the winter!

My lettuces are just beginning to fill out in the garden. The girls get very excited, waiting at the garden gate for me to bring them out little bites of red or oak leaf lettuces as treats! Unfortunately, I am beginning to think that my dandelion ameliore seeds I planted a few weeks ago are not going to germinate -- or else, they are the slowest growing greens I have ever encountered!

Now that the grass and weeds are growing again in the backyard, the girls are quite content to "graze". But, what I have been doing is creatively supplementing Syd and Phoe's diet with "found" objects -- by that, I mean the common, ordinary dandelion that we all love to hate in our yard and the equally dreaded chickweed! With certainty, I am sure to be the only person in the neighborhood who doesn't dig out their dandelions. Instead, I selectively harvest some of the leaves, much like we harvest the outer leaves of lettuce in our gardens! Chickweed (on the right in the photo) is my friend, allowed to run rampant in my front yard!

Phoenix also favors a favorite childhood weed of mine. The father of the family who lived next door to me growing up introduced us to eating a wild sorrel that grew in the yard. He was Bulgarian and I am not sure of the exact spelling in that language, but phonetically, we pronounced it "kee-sah-lits". They have a taste that I can only describe as somewhere between bitter and tart. Syd doesn't seem to care for it at all, but Phoenix gobbles it up! Both girls crave what I think is wild parsnip, which is supposedly toxic to many animals -- but apparently not to geese!

It's free, it's plentiful, it's healthy -- and it will get me over the hump until my garden greens can feed my geese (and me!)!

Worm Wars!!!

Quite suddenly, my geese have developed a taste for protein! Their favorite meal du jour?


Earthworms.

Yes, EARTHWORMS!!!!!

Let the battle begin! This might get ugly!

How did it start? I will tell you...Ordinarily, the geese swim in a large plastic kiddie pool. However, once it got colder and the water began to freeze, the pool was likely to crack. So, instead, I picked up two large rubber basins to use during the winter months. They proved to be low maintenance and they had an added benefit...their wet bottoms attracted worms. Beautiful, fat worms for me -- or, I should say, for my garden!

Now it seems that the goose girls are on to me. When they see me changing their water, it's as if I have sign hanging over my head that says "FREE LUNCH!!!"

It's unfair! It's two against one! They can wolf them down faster than I can pick them! However, I would not be a good goose mom if I didn't let them have a FEW, right? They need a balanced diet and if that includes protein...

I have a solution! To paraphrase Marie Antoinette..."LET THEM EAT SLUGS!!"

Planting for Us -- And Our Animals!

While I plant the majority of vegetables in my garden for myself, I admit to planting with my pets in mind as well!

The geese are so curious about what I do in the garden and are usually right by the fence, hoping that I am bringing some tasty tidbit out for them to sample. They don't always wait for me, however! Last fall, Syd stuck her head right through the fence and ate my chard plants down to the ground! They never did recover, but she certainly enjoyed herself in the process!

Obviously, the geese enjoy greens of all kinds. In particular, I have noticed that Phoenix prefers red, curly leafed varieties, while Sydney prefers hers green. Neither likes spinach. But, their hands down favorite is -- drum roll, please -- dandelion greens! I am not talking about the common yard variety with the yellow flowers, although they enjoy these, too. What I am referring to are the commercial varieties that are still cut-leafed but much larger than the nuisance variety dandelion. My girls will literally drop what they are doing and run -- even fly over to me -- to get to these morsels as if they were the ambrosia of the gods or something!

My choice of seeds is called Dandelion Ameliore, ordered from The Cook's Garden out of Warminster, PA. I should be able to start planting this and other greens next week!

While my cats are not big fans of vegetables, my dogs are! In fact, my garden will take on greater significance for them, as I recently started feeding them a home-made diet. They had been eating a commercial food, Royal Canin's Venison and Potato, because they have had dietary issues. About two months ago, my vet informed me it would not be available for a while. So, following guidelines from The Whole Dog Journal, I began to cook for them. I rotate their proteins between lean beef, chicken, fish, or lamb, have continued to use potatoes rather than grains as their starch, and add in a variety of vegetables (no onions, though, which are toxic for dogs). Both dogs are doing very well with this lifestyle change!

Dallas and Riley will definitely share many of my vegetables with me, but in particular, I am planting a type of bush bean, Contender, for them. Green beans are not necessarily one of my favorites, but they like them. So, I will plant them...

I know I am not alone in planting for my animals...so, I want to hear everyone's stories in that regard! What do you plant for your pets? What do they seem to like?

(P.S. -- The photo above is Sydney the Goose, with the early spring skeleton of my garden in the background!)