Thursday In My Garden ~ Living Ornaments

 This is what I saw today when I stepped out my front door onto the porch. My geese Ella & Fella resting under one of our Japanese Maple trees.

I never take the simple beauty around me for granted. My silly, frilly geese ~ the living ornaments of my glorious Autumn gardens.

Blue Bottle Garden

 The blue and white anemones are blooming, heralding spring.

 This year I am determined to do a major re-do in my herb garden aptly named 'Blue Bottle Garden' because I have two blue bottle trees in it ( not shown here ) and cobalt blue glass type things all around it. Two of our grandsons helped me with the weeding and digging, and they really were a very great help.

 These two grandsons have fun together while they work, and that makes it fun for me.

 This little guy weeded a good size herb bed ( with help from his big brother ) that had been almost completely taken over by a weed that disguised itself as the sage the bed was planted with. After choking out most of the sage the weed proceeded into the garden paths headed for the oregano & rosemary. It was a big job and I had to dig up the few remaining sage plants so we could get the weeds' roots. In the background you can see the cage my husband built me years ago for some of my doves.

 I moved the doves to another aviary and we now have 5 parakeets happily living here.

 Parakeets are such active and funny birds to watch.

 On the other side of the herb garden fence, under brown fern fronds, one of my ducks is sitting on her clutch of eggs. She is one of the ducks Ella & Fella ( my Sebastapol geese ) hatched out last spring. Her nest is lined with her down. I only saw her because I was weeding the inside of this fence line. She is well hidden and even my dogs haven't found her.

 Ella is also sitting on her own eggs and I am hoping she is successful in hatching her goslings. Fella guards her faithfully , as he did her and the ducklings she hatched out last year.

On the other side of the Blue Bottle Garden , outside the fence, is the fountain my husband & I bought to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary a few years ago. I can hear this fountain burbling from the herb garden. My husband weeded & mulched this flower bed that is under our living room window. From indoors we watch hummingbirds bathe in the water flowing from under the doves, then the busy flying jewels take a break and sit in the bushes in the sunshine to dry themselves.

All this was done and observed in the last week while we had record high temperatures for this time of the year. The Blue Bottle Garden is finally being shaped into the garden I've wanted it to be for a long time now , the flower beds and vegetable garden are being prepared for spring planting. I am so excited to finish the planting and enjoy even more the time to work in the garden while I watch the new life hatch and grow. I am going to post frequent updates on this garden because I have found that blogging about my gardens keeps me on track and motivated to keep up with the weeding & tending. The garden looks sparse right now , but soon it will be full of the sage, thyme, rosemary, blueberries, and so much more that has grown there for years. Hopefully minus the choking weeds.

Ella's First Egg of the Season~ Spring Has Sprung !

The weather here is unseasonably as warm as late spring. The bees are buzzing about looking for pollen and nectar not to be found and they have taken over our poultry feeders eating what ? Not sure about why the bees are abuzz in all my chicken feeders but the chickens are having trouble eating with so many bees in their feed. My Sebastopol goose Ella laid her first egg of the season and this year I am hoping her eggs will successfully hatch. Last year she and Fella were diligent parents , but all they hatched were the duck eggs I placed in her nest along with her own eggs. Several eggs  seemed to have been successfully incubated by Ella only to end with fully developed goslings trapped in their eggs, appearing to be unable to extricate them selves. ( Anyone with any helpful info regarding this , please comment  !)

The first goose eggs, the bees abuzz, and new lambs due any day. Spring is here on Cedar Pond and it has sprung !

All This & Heaven Too

 Ella & Fella, my Sebastopol geese, were enjoying sunshine this past week. Warm sunshine untypical of our usual January weather. But no worries for us, the rain and high winds are back tonight. "It was a dark and stormy night".

 I cleaned out the goat pen on that rare sunny day and rewarded Thorin with his favorite treat after I was done hauling out 3 wheelbarrows full of manure. Something seems amiss here though, I did the work and he got the treat ? Oh well, he is a very old goat, going on 12 years of age.

 My husband finished the 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle we received as a Christmas present. Do you see that all the pieces are in varying shades of black & white ? The puzzle became an obsession with him. He would drink his morning coffee while working on it, eat dinner while working on it , and go to bed way too late because he could not let it go. The puzzle dominated our home for a little over 2 weeks. But look, it is done ! I am now declaring we will only have jigsaw puzzles to work on over the Thanksgiving through Christmas season. ( He finished a 1,000 piece Christmas puzzle on Christmas day,then quickly began this one.)

 

 I cleaned two sheep pens last week during sunny and rainy weather , after I cleaned the goat's pen.

I finished weaving 2 rugs ( not shown ) and spun up several skeins of yarn. This is some of my hand-dyed Jacob Sheep wool. I also spun up a few skeins of natural color Jacob Sheep wool, then set the ply . Maybe I'll sell this wool yarn, maybe not. I can think of a few weaving projects this wool might be perfect for.

January has thus far been both restful and hard work. I love the feeling I get after a very hard day of physical work, even if I do smell like sheep and I hurt all over. I love seeing my baskets and bins fill up with the yarn I spin up from the wool of the sheep I love. I love seeing the rugs I weave especially after I cut them off the loom and finish the ends. I love having work to do that is not really work because I still count it all a blessing and a privilege to be able to do these things. And I really love a hot bath after a day of working here on Cedar Pond, and then spinning up yarn on my spinning wheel as I spend a quiet evening with my husband, watching our favorite shows and simply being together. I love my husband. Thank-you God for all these blessings. " All this and Heaven too." au

"The sleep of the working man is pleasant whether he eats little or much." Proverbs 5:12

Just Another Huge Windstorm

 The weather forecast and local news was warning us of a huge storm coming our way. Yeah, yeah... thus far we had not received any of the strong winds and drenching rains predicted and it was sunny outside. I went out to feed my sheep. To feed my sheep I take the wheelbarrow through the gate shown above to get hay from the hay shed. Just minutes after I went through the gate the winds picked up to a horrifying speed causing this branch to come down where I had been less than 5 minutes before. The branch broke on the roof and was stuck firmly under the sheep shed, and also left debris all over the other side of the shed. Meanwhile, I was in the hay shed and  hearing loud roaring of the wind and seeing huge branches flying horizontally across the sky, and hearing loud noises of large branches hitting the roof of the hay shed. I stayed put under cover until the wind subsided for a moment, then I ran with the wheelbarrow full of hay to the sheep shelter, fed them quickly and ran for the house. Good thing too, things got very dangerous , very quickly.

 We lost electrical power before the 6:00 news. For the next few hours my husband & I listened to raging winds outside, heard large things being blown against the house, saw our porch furniture being blown around the porch, and we were glad to be safe indoors. We read by candlelight, I wrote in and addressed many Christmas cards , and we went to bed knowing we were safe & sound, even without electricity.( Above, a tiny bit of the devastation around our pond... a tree top laying over our fire pit. )

 We had a lot of storm debris and tree tops fall into our pond, and over our fire pit ,

 but the morning after the storm the sun shone bright, the power came back on before noon, and the ducks and geese were swimming & bathing in the pond.

Life goes on. The storms rage , wreaking devastation , but the sun will eventually come out and calm returns. Through so many storms in my life I have finally learned , storms do end... and I need to simply hang in there for the sunshine , it's worth it ! " He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow, " Psalm 147:18  ~

Summer Time & The Living Is Busy !

Ella & Fella my Sebastapol geese enjoy the long hours of summer by eating grass , swimming in our pond, and following me around as I tend my flocks and weed the gardens. When I sit on the porch and spin my wool into yarn they sit under the bleeding hearts plants nearby and watch me , sometimes poking their bills through the porch rails just to make sure I am still there.

Hawk, our Viszla is afraid of Ella & Fella. I'm not sure when they taught him to run away from them , but they did a very good job of it. He sits on the porch with me, but when he spies the geese he runs to the opposite side of the porch. The geese are not allowed on the porch and at least Hawk can count on it being safe , but he makes sure he is as far away as he can get from them. We seem to have our own little comedy show here on our front porch , but Hawk probably thinks it is not so funny.

My Jacob sheep lambs are growing up quickly and some are already stretching their necks for the trees and bushes growing overhead.

I have four hens raising chicks they've hatched out and two batches of chicks brooding in the garage. They are my future laying flock , plus some bantam chicks I am adding to my Silkie and Cochin breeding program. ( Yes, I have a plan and a program ! ) The chicks shown here with their mama are Porcelain D'Uccles my grandson gave me. The father of these  chicks did very well in an open poultry show recently and we have high hopes for the chicks.

Here Ella & Fella are walking their babies around the gardens. Their babies are actually ducklings Ella hatched out. The ducklings have been well tended by their adoptive parents but bit by bit they are becoming ducks . Waddling, quacking, and eating like ducks ...not geese. Poor Ella & Fella try and try to keep the ducklings with them but the ducklings are spending more and more time with my other ducks, leaving the geese to forlornly follow me without them. I hope next year Ella & Fella are able to successfully hatch out their own goslings , they're good and devoted parents.

We had the last Thursday Ladies Bible Study of the season last week. We won't meet again until the fall . This Bible study has had a tremendous impact on me and I am so thankful for the ladies God has brought into my life. It was an eventful year for all of us and all the ladies involved have had life altering events . One of the ladies became a widow, another happily remarried. One of our members has moved to the east coast to live happily ( yes ! ) with her daughter and daughter's family & to spend much time with 4 of her beloved grandchildren. There are other big events not to be shared publicly, but all the more a blessing we have been able to meet, study the Bible, pray with and for each other and always bring it back to the One who knows and loves us perfectly.

This must seem a long post, but the days are long and the hours I need to be working outdoors in the summer seem to stretch from very early to very late and when I come indoors there is little time for me to spend on my computer, so I am summing up my thus-far summer days in one post . Weeding, tending my herd & flocks, spinning wool when I have time , training my dog, playing with the old dogs, keeping my home neat & clean, and as I get older, I am working on taking the time to sit and appreciate the bounty of my blessings. The best part of all is sitting on the porch with my husband, sipping coffee as we watch the birds at the feeders and enjoying each others' company. Summer time and the living is busy, but not too busy to enjoy !

Spring Has Sprung , New Lambs & Flowers !

 Spring has sprung ! I am holding the third Jacob sheep lamb born within the last 24 hours. If you're interested in seeing more about my sheep and their lambs check out my other blog ~ Red Dog Spotted Sheep * . I am expecting 5 more ewes to lamb in a very short time. I am so excited !

 Ella & Fella have decided to nest in the pen we put up for them in the veggie garden . They have settled in to life by the pond very well. Ella built her nest of straw and although I took her eggs and gave them to friends to incubate , I put duck eggs under her. I want to be sure she will incubate and tend them successfully. Since duck eggs require pretty much the same care and time it takes to hatch goose eggs, plus, raising and tending ducklings is very similar, I thought this would be a good test of Ella's mama instincts. If all goes well she can tend her own eggs next year. To read more about Ella & Fella check out my poultry site. *

 Miss Marple is our only outdoor cat. We have a routine, she & I. We let her outdoors around midnight so she can stalk and kill vermin, and she usually comes back indoors before 2:00 a.m. This week I think she hankered for some sunshine outdoors and she hid in the upper part of our woodshed over- night where the squirrels hang out. The only reason I knew she was there because of the angry squirrel hovering in branches over her head, swearing at her. She looked pretty content in spite of the squirrel's harassment. ( Probably thinking of how yummy that squirrel would taste. )

There are not too many flowers blooming for our honeybees, but the hellebores, primroses, daffodils , and some native blooming bushes are buzzing with bees . I even have honeybees in my chicken food , carrying bits of the feed that is powdered. Anyone else find honeybees in the chicken food ?

This is the time of year I have trouble focusing on my indoor stuff and blogging because I want to be outdoors until dark. I am also spending a lot of time cleaning out animal pens and simply watching my animals. It is so hard to tear myself away from such excitement , I might miss something ! Lambing comes only once a year and knowing there is probably a time in the near future when I'll not be able to keep so many sheep and poultry I intend to capture and put to memory as much as possible. In case of failing memory, my camera is put to good use too. I hope your spring is bursting with good and wondrous things . ~