March, 2003

I find it hard to believe the weather forecasters telling us that February was one of the sunniest on record... but for this month it rings true. This has been a month of surprises, delight and being out in the fresh air.

At the beginning of March we were concerned about the state of our geese. They were not laying eggs, seemed rather unsettled and in our wanderings came up with the thought that perhaps they were all geese who might be unsettled because there is no gander. Now, we can't tell the difference between the two, but one of the last ones to be lost to the fox had a dewlap, a woggly flap of skin under it's chin, and I'm pretty sure he was a gander (into scientific identification here!). So, in our wish to keep happy animals here, we located a gander from a local breeder and introduced him to the flock. They were NOT impressed, in fact there were several days of feathers flying and night time squawking which gave us cause for concern. There's a lady in one of Lorraine's classes this term, who is a keen goose keeper. She suggested that the behaviour was much more that of ganders than of geese... so we resigned ourselves to the fact that our identification methods were lacking and in fact, the reason they were so unsettled and not laying eggs was in fact that they are all ganders and were looking for a goose! Just as we were considering whether to go and buy another bird, we found a nest and much to our surprise, 5 beautiful white goose eggs in it! From observation we see that there are 2 groups of 3 geese. We have two grey ones, I think the goose and the gander who are making the nest, and fiver, who's our gosling from last year, who should have been Christmas dinner for someone, but Jules got sentimental about him being the only one to survive so he just didn't quite get there! And the second group is the new gander, "Grace" a goose (or gander) who was given to us by a neighbour farmer, and another grey one who seems to be the loner of the group. So, there you have it. The in's and out's of the goose community as we see it at the end of March. Who knows, next month we might be able to report some goslings.

Nicky came with me to collect the gander. Whilst there she mentioned that she'd always wanted some ducks. As she was on holiday that week, she made use of some of the large amount of wood we have been given to make a little duck house and by the end of that week, there were 3 little ducks settling into Vowley Farm. They have gifted us with two eggs so far (!). The first I saw one morning and thought I'd leave it for Nicky to collect... but by the time she got here, it had disappeared... most mysterious. The second, I collected on first sighting. Have you ever seen duck eggs? Lovely clear white shell that feels like porcelain, seems a shame to crack and eat them! Since then, she's either taken to laying elsewhere, or she's just given up for the time being. Perhaps she's a little disappointed with the lack of large expanse of water. It's been so warm and dry here that even the puddles have dried completely. We did dig a mini pond, but that's also water-less right now.

Plans are coming together for reed and willow filtration system for the dirty water off the yard. This will flow down to a pond for the ducks and geese. We have recently been introduced to a young man who seems interested in building a wind turbine which we're hoping might work the pump to get the water from the pit to the reed bed... well... watch this space.

I have enrolled on a workshop at the Hockerton Housing Project in Nottingham. This group of houses is based on sustainable living with energy efficient homes, recycling water and using alternative energy sources. I've got to wait until June, but I hope that will give us some ideas of how to put the theories into practice here.

It has been an interesting month with the horses. Monterrey, our new arrival last month, has been having a tough time physically. His feet are in a poor way and he's been rather sore in his body. Mark's been walking him regularly and he's had a Bowen treatment but he's not rideable as we'd hoped. And we have another new horse, a lovely paint called Millie has arrived under Sarah's care. She's young and "green" but we're hoping that her life here will be a good learning experience for her. She's certainly having a good time learning about herd relationships right now!

And finally, the veggie patch is coming along nicely, the greenhouse is operational with little seedlings poking their tips above the compost... we're about to get the tractor out on the fields to do some harrowing and rolling before turning the cows out. It's all looking very summery.