It feels like fall! We had such a hot, dry summer that I'm not ashamed to say that I was glad to see it go.
I'd love to tell you that so much has happened in the last month, but really it's nothing too exciting. We lost a duck, one of the girls from the spring hatch. She disappeared one evening without a trace and we still have not seen any sign of her. She may have went broody and we'll see her later this month with a bunch of ducklings of her own. She may have been picked up by a predator, however this theory puzzles me since the only airborne predator I've seen lately is too small to carry away a duck of her size.
Which brings me to the airborne predator in question, the Cooper's hawk. For a few days we had a Cooper's hawk scoping out our flock and our African geese were so kind as to alert every living creature around that it was nearby. I believe that hawk has moved on and I don't think it caught a meal here. Have I mentioned how much I love our geese? Low maintenance, easy keepers, hearty flock protection. I can't wait to see the goslings next year. We've never had goose meat but we are looking forward to trying it. I was browsing around for prices on goose...wow! I mean the low end I found was $8/lb and the high end nearing $12/lb for whole goose. If we weren't raising it, I can't imagine we'd ever afford it.
The goats. Well, they stink to high heaven right now. Sonny is in rutt and if we are lucky they he didn't just pee all over his head just before we have to handle him. Boy goats are gross!
The human kids are doing great. The new baby was 10lbs, 9.5 oz today at the doc's office :) My son has taken a liking to jigsaw puzzles. I have no idea what skill level he should be at with puzzles but the last couple puzzles were probably too easy at 24 pcs.
With all these animals we raise for meat, it had me thinking about our menu. If we grew all of our own meats our menu would include: chicken, duck, turkey, goose, goat, with rabbit and pork as later additions. I don't know about you but I grew up with the typical beef, pork, chicken, fish, turkey diet....none of which were grown on pasture like we're doing here. So it really is going to require me to branch out my cooking skills. I've never cooked goat or goose or rabbit.
I'd love to tell you that so much has happened in the last month, but really it's nothing too exciting. We lost a duck, one of the girls from the spring hatch. She disappeared one evening without a trace and we still have not seen any sign of her. She may have went broody and we'll see her later this month with a bunch of ducklings of her own. She may have been picked up by a predator, however this theory puzzles me since the only airborne predator I've seen lately is too small to carry away a duck of her size.
Which brings me to the airborne predator in question, the Cooper's hawk. For a few days we had a Cooper's hawk scoping out our flock and our African geese were so kind as to alert every living creature around that it was nearby. I believe that hawk has moved on and I don't think it caught a meal here. Have I mentioned how much I love our geese? Low maintenance, easy keepers, hearty flock protection. I can't wait to see the goslings next year. We've never had goose meat but we are looking forward to trying it. I was browsing around for prices on goose...wow! I mean the low end I found was $8/lb and the high end nearing $12/lb for whole goose. If we weren't raising it, I can't imagine we'd ever afford it.
The goats. Well, they stink to high heaven right now. Sonny is in rutt and if we are lucky they he didn't just pee all over his head just before we have to handle him. Boy goats are gross!
The human kids are doing great. The new baby was 10lbs, 9.5 oz today at the doc's office :) My son has taken a liking to jigsaw puzzles. I have no idea what skill level he should be at with puzzles but the last couple puzzles were probably too easy at 24 pcs.
With all these animals we raise for meat, it had me thinking about our menu. If we grew all of our own meats our menu would include: chicken, duck, turkey, goose, goat, with rabbit and pork as later additions. I don't know about you but I grew up with the typical beef, pork, chicken, fish, turkey diet....none of which were grown on pasture like we're doing here. So it really is going to require me to branch out my cooking skills. I've never cooked goat or goose or rabbit.
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