Up in arms

On Sunday the geese got there first outing. Matt set up a small pen for then outside around the raspberry patch. We picked them up one by one and moved in are arms, which was met with lots of chirping and a few hisses. They spent the afternoon eating the tall grass around the berry plants and were more then happy to follow me back into the porch that night with no more then calls from me. Every morning since they eagerly walk through the backyard and eat there fill of the ever growing grass.

Its been a very busy week on the farm, it feels like so much has happened since my last post. My sister has come to stay for awhile and help get some stuff on my To Do list done. The weather has not been cooperating with us, we have had 100km winds and rain for several days now. On Friday one of the trees near our house split in half and fell 10 feet from our front door, i am very thankful it was not closer. But even though it has been less then nice outside many things continue to flourish: The geese are now larger then our rooster and show no sign of stopping. They have almost eating they way though a 12kg bag of food in 3 1/2 weeks along with a big basket of cut grass everyday. There true feathers are coming now so by the end of the week i hope to be moving them outside into the pen i have yet to finish, but hope to.
Our cat Sadie had her kittens in the barn this week. Two are caramel coloured, and one is black. We moved them into the sun room with the geese once the weather turned nasty and they are nomming away happily on their momma .
I put up a proper clothes line all by myself this week. Its really satisfying to see all the clean diapers lined up in the sun and they smell so good. My home made laundry soap is working great and is something like $.05 per load instead of $.50 for Nature Clean, which I used to buy( i use Nature Clean's stain remover soap bar instead of Zote) There are all kinds of flowers coming up all over the place, the old owners planted a lot of bulbs that are now everywhere. There is a big field of dandelions that i am planing on making into wine in the coming week. I will post more about wine as i do it.

I got creative this week and painted some chairs. i have had them for about a year but was not a fan of the colour (they were forest green). Now they are set up on our deck with with a salvaged teak table so i can see them from the kitchen sink when i do dishes.

10 Chickens

1 Rooster

5 Cats

3 Kittens

6 Geese

3 Humans

Nifty threads

This week i thought i would have a hand at embroidery. I had some plain undershirts of Liam's that i thought would look nice with a little something on the front of them. It took a little bit to get the hang of it, but once i had it it was a lot of fun. I can't wait for it to be warm enough for him to ware.

New pen

Over the weekend Matthew and I put our heads together and built a new pen for the baby geese. We decided to move them in to the sun room at the back of the house, because I was tired of the small from there pen. We wanted to make it big enough so it would last them until they get moved outside. After the geese are moved i am planing to clean it and then put day old meat chicks under the heat lamp in there.

New homes for geeses

Over the weekend Matthew and I put our heads together and built a new pen for the baby geese. We decided to move them to the sunny room at the back of the house, because I had become tired of the small from there pen.

One week old

Our six French Toulouse goslings are now one week old and growing like weeds! We have 4 "tufted" and 2 plain. At the present they are hanging out under a heat lamp in our laundry room. I have to start working on their outside house very soon as they are out growing their little box.The plan is to raise them till the fall, keep 1-2 breading pairs for next summer and put the rest in the freezer (which will be hard because they are very cute right now, though i guess it will be easier when they are grown and i am hungry). With any luck we will be able to keep a cycle going for years to come.

Oat bread

I have started making a new kind of bread that has been a big hit around here. Its called Country white bread and it is from Whole grain breads by machine or hand, by Beatrice Ojakangas. I have been using a local, organic unbleached hard white flour (wow what a mouth full) and organic brown sugar. I also like to brush the top of the loaves with water and press on some flaked oats for a nice finish.

Makes 1 loaf

1 c warm water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/3 c oat flour

2 2/3 c bread flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

Put water and yeast in a bowl and let sit for 15min. Add salt, sugar, oat flour and half the bread flour. Beat and then let sit another 15min. Slowly add the remaining flour until you're happy with the consistence. Knead about 5 min. Put dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise about an hour. Punch down, shape into loaves and put into a greased pan. Slice top of dough and put oats on top. Proof bread then bake in a preheated oven at 375* for 30-35 min.

-Enjoy