Just before sunrise today at little Gobbler's Knob, Pennsylvania's Prognosticating Punxsutawney Phil emerged bleary-eyed from his subterranean lair to be spooked right back below by his very own shadow.  This, dear reader, indicates that our  timid marmot meteorologist is predicting six more weeks of winter...

meh *shrug* it might not be so bad at this rate.

This is our favorite whistle-pig's 126th Groundhog Day celebration.  Thanks, Phil... you're adorable.

Next up, stock picks by Georgia's Gorgeous Grubstaking Giraffe Gertrude!

My garden is growing like gangbusters!  I would describe it as "profuse and delightful" :~)

I have glorious golden blossoms on everything and many of the climbing plants have grown into a serious jungle.  My cucumbers are an enormous mountain of green and gold vines, gourds that I never imagined would need trellising have cascaded over the fence in a colossal drift of squash leaves and tricky sticky tendrils threatening to overtake the nearby shrubs, and the melons have also escaped their corral like wild horses striking fast for the hills.  I love the jumble of cosmos that I planted to line the garden path with cheerful orange flowers to attract pollinators - but have promptly become an exuberent pile of honey colored surge spilling over the lane.  

I've really got to take the time out of my already packed schedule to get out there...

Things around here have been crazy... breeding yards to manage, baby ducks and chickens hatching out every day, an upcoming meat harvest to prepare for and, of course, the market garden to tend (oh, yeah... and that pesky full time job that pays the mortgage).  If I had actually been able to wedge in the time, I probably should have put my beans, peas, and beets in the ground in March instead of April but, other than the peas, everthing seems to be doing well anyway.

June slammed down on Southern Maryland with August temperatures...

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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This was a very stressful week here at Moose Manor.  I had an awful predator problem and lost 7 ducks in 3 days!  I figured that it was a bird of prey, likely a hawk, and though many of my sources said that the signs didn’t point to a raptor issue I pursued that line of prevention anyway.  It got worse as time progressed and I lost 4 ducks in one day.  I won’t go into great detail about the injuries but many of those sweet little birds were not killed by the predator, they were instead left terribly maimed and traumatized, still capable of walking but totally beyond medical attention.  I did the right thing by all of them, which was incredibly emotionally taxing for me and I’m still sad.  Especially since I lost both of my juvenile Khaki Campbell girls in one day – they were my little incubator babies and my favorites.  Little Hardee Campbell and Messie Campbell are gone now and poor, sweet Hardee hung in there until I got home that evening.  I cried and cried when I saw her but knew what I had to do.  The KC drake, Splashie Campbell, just seemed so lost without the girls as he wandered back and forth in the enclosure with the Harlequin.  

I couldn’t keep them all locked in their barns with 100 degree heat so I only gave them a relatively small outdoor area and, other than stretching bird netting over an acre of woods, I tried every trick and crazy suggestion in the book over the several days my ducks were being attacked - most of the “tried and true” methods were completely ineffective.  The one thing that worked was creating a giant web of 20lb test fishing line about 7 feet above the ground over their enclosures and play areas.  I wish I had found this solution the first day!  The night after I put a section of web up I came home feeling very anxious… it worked!!  Over the next few days I spent hours stringing webs of fishing line over the back acre of my property so the ducks could safely free-range.  This has been tremendously effective.

On a happy note, over the last few days little Splash has found his place with the Harlequin.  They’ve finally accepted him as one of their own and a few times this weekend I saw him “leading the pack” as they waddled across the barnyard, which made me smile for him.  All the ducks are enjoying their freedom and with the high heat index I put out several small pools for them to splash in and they seem to be having a rompin’ good time.

The chickens, baby chicks, and baby ducks were unaffected by the hawk.  Apparently, this raptor had her mind set on grown duck for dinner so – thankfully – I had no losses in that area.  In fact, the baby ducks are growing by leaps and bounds!  They’re mostly feathered out and the girls have found their quackers.  No little budgie sounds from their play pen anymore…they’re a pretty noisy bunch these days – LOL!  

They have 2 litter pan pools and a bigger 36-inch tub to splash around in.  They just love the water so much I can’t imagine depriving them of a proper pond!  There are two little Khaki Campbell ducklings in this bunch and they had me cracking up this weekend.  I sit out there and have a beer with them most evenings after my chores are done and all 13 of them were trying to cram themselves into the 2 litter pans then they would all run over to the bigger tub and jump in there for a while, then back to the pans.  They’re just making this huge mess, chasing each other back and forth, flapping their wings and quack-quack-quacking… basically having a ball.  I noticed these baby Campbell’s just seemed so extra excited about their little game and one of the girls was dipping her head into the water, splashing it all over, then loudly stamping her feet in the puddle she was making.  It was just so funny!  She would make this excited little qUAck, then DipSplash, DribbleDribble, then do this little dance… SplatSpatSplat! Made me think of a kid in his little gumboots… too cute!

It was miserably hot this weekend and in the middle of the day the geese would hog up a whole litter pan just sitting in it to cool off.  I was jealous that I didn’t have a tub of water to sit in myself!   And up until this weekend the Harlequin only thought of me as the crazy lady who stuffed them into a big dog kennel and drove them across town in a hot car.  When I was in their line of sight they boogied it on out of the area.  But over the last few days we’ve become very good friends.  They heard me filling one of the kiddie pools this weekend and ran right over to see what that wonderful noise was.  They stood off at a “safe” distance panting in the heat and watching me fill the pool with cold water and while I chatted away they inched closer and closer.  I turned the hose sprayer to mist and aimed it at them and they were just in heaven!  They came right up to within about a foot of me and the boys aimed their big chests into the spray while the girls tried to catch the bigger drops with their beaks.  Now any time I turn on the hose they run over and want to be showered!  I guess I’m no longer the crazy lady because now they tend to congregate wherever I’m hanging out in the yard.  They probably don't want to miss an opportunity to get a cool dousing!

This last is completely unrelated to ducks: if you enjoy reading about my farm please check out this gals blog.  She and I have a lot in common and her posts usually make me laugh which was a much needed antidote for last week!