Yesterday I hosted my annual February brunch potluck featuring many fine local foods.  This is an extremely simple affair where folks can just hang out and shake off the winter blah's.  35 or so  of my neighbors were in attendance and the weather was lovely!  Special thanks to my friends Jackie and Patrise for taking all these great photos since I was just a little bit busy that morning :)

Some of the local foods featured included an assortment of Moose Manor's own Roasted Muscovy Duck (this 8.5 lb bird was polished off in about 8.5 seconds!), Hickory Smoked Cornish Chicken, and a simple plate of plain but pleasant hard boiled duck eggs. 

I also put out a medley of wonderful goat cheeses from the local Amish goat dairy, Locust Grove Farm in Mechanicsville, MD. 

The goat mistress there, Katie Byler, makes wonderful cheeses: Regular, Garlic, Hot Pepper, and Colby were the selections of the day.

My guests also brought a scrumptious array of homecooked victuals.  There was just a smorgasbord of casseroles, cookies, cakes, and coffee!  Oh My!

That last ambrosial brew was provided by my friend Elaine who is the proprietor-ess of Wooded Bliss hand roasted coffee.  "Cup of Bliss" is organic, shade grown, and fair trade... and very, very tasty.

It's been a while since I posted about farm going's on.  With a whirl-wind wedding for my brother to help with (and one for my mom next month!) plus a busy time in the office and mad-dash prepping for spring breeding season it's non-stop running!  I've been in a busy-busy-busy organization mode just lately in preparation for lots of babies on the farm soon.  There are so many things that need to be straightened or cataloged or cleaned or stacked... you get the picture.  It's a never ending job but sometimes it requires a determined focus to keep moving forward when you really just want to abandon all hope of ever getting it done!

Coupled with very un-newsworthy chores, the cold weather keeps me inside next to the woodstove more than outside communing with livestock.  But we do have a lot of sunny (if bitterly cold) days to enjoy in the National Capitol Region.  I can take the cold in stride (well almost... I DO hail from the Mojave Desert after all!) as long as there's bright sunshine to help me forget the extra crisp air.  Lucky for me, this week is supposed to be GORGEOUS!  I feel spring fever coming on...

This weekend I grabbed the camera and caught a couple of nap-time shots out in the duckyard.  The chickens were off doing very important chicken things so I'll have to catch you up on them some other time.

Rusty Goosey-Goose does the old "one-footed-nap" thing... I would just topple right over!  I'm not even good at these poses when I'm very purposefully practicing yoga... I wonder how a fat goose is so good at it?
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Rusty is now grumpy that I've disturbed nap-time: "Listen here crazy camera lady with all your fancy snip-snap-snap... we're CLEARLY trying to get some beauty rest here.  You don't think this majesty before you just happens by magic do you?"
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Cindy-Lou and Daisy-Lou, my little runner babies.  These girls are my ditzy blondes of the bunch... they're so funny to watch running around being silly!  These little sweeties just started laying eggs.
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This is Shadow, my Black Cayuga drake.  Isn't he a pretty boy? When he was just a little fuzzy thing he was a "house duck" and lived in Bethesda with a nice gal named Gina.  She called me to find out if I'd adopt him because she had to move and couldn't take Shadow with her.  When he first got here he followed me everywhere talk-talk-talking away.  Then, when it came time to integrate him with the flock, he discovered he was a duck and that he liked living with the other ducks and that I was simply no longer cool anymore.  I was sad the first time he didn't come to sit in my lap when I called him but I knew it was for the best and that he was happy.  He has 3 Cayuga girls to cover now anyway, so he's a busy boy these days.
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Here's Shadow with one of his pretty little Cayuga girls. 

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See how big Shadow is compared to my American Goose? And while he's much lighter than my Muscovy drake (9lbs vs 14lbs) he's similarly sized.  He's also still very talkative with his deep and raspy drake voice.
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There's a special place in my heart for Khaki Campbell ducks.  Don't tell the other ducks, but these gals are my favorite :)  I only have two, this is pretty little Faith.  She's always the first of the group to come up to me when I have treats.  All the ducks are fairly shy (compared to my chickens who'll peck at my feet to get me to throw the greens their way!) and hang back a bit.  But this little gal isn't afraid to step up and ask nicely for her kale treat.  I don't mind so much that I'm just the "food lady", they are ducks after all, but it always makes me smile that she's happy to see me and runs over to see what kind of "salad" I have to hand out today.

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