My Latest Offering on eBay: a needle felted duckling

The protective coloration of animals has always fascinated me, and wood ducks are one of my favorite ducks. So, for my first needle felted animal that also uses Apoxy Sculpt for the beak and feet, I did a wood duck duckling.

I sent out photos of Woody posing in a bantam hen's nest and some people thought he was real! Ha ha! Maybe I will do a chick next!

Here is a link to the duckling auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330436473374&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Chicks and Goslings in Our Future..maybe

Poor Alex, my Pilgrim goose. In April she would lay an egg a day but something kept getting them, probably a fox. Finally whatever was eating them stopped and she got 4 eggs under her and promptly began incubating. She is in her usual spot, the green house. I still have seedlings to water so I have to step past her, but kindly and patient goose that she is, she doesn't even hiss.

My little English/Serama bantam hen was not on the roost when I locked up the chickens one evening. The next day I looked for her and found her sitting on a nest amongst the honeysuckle. She blends in very well. I have decided to let her take her chances and maybe we will see some wee chicks 20 days from now.

Yesterday I planted more corn seed and also some banana and bell pepper plants. Every time I go to the grocery store the prices scare me to death so hopefully we will have a good crop to put in the freezer this year, and lots of fresh corn on the cob to eat. The Asian melons for the market are growing steadily too, but no blooms yet.

The rat bait in the front garden seems to have done the trick too. I am finding dead rats.

I finished needle felting my blue Lacy dog and shipped it to Texas for an auction. Next up: a needle felted mallard duckling with Apoxy Sculpt feet and beak! Hope I can pull it off!

Kathy

Hooray for drugs!

I have been taking Synthroid, a synthetic T4 thyroid hormone for almost a month now. Except for some occasional heart racing, I feel better and even want to start painting again.

It is raining, so I don't have to water the baby corn plants or the blueberry bushes. I do need to go feed them though.

I think I am going to stop watching TV for a few days, the politics is too upsetting. The oil spill in the gulf is really upsetting. I hope our stock in a company that mines for Lithium goes through the roof as a result...

RATS!!!!

One of my tomato plants disappeared days after I planted it, leaves and all. So I planted another one in its place, a 2 foot tall one that cost some $$$. Not a wimpy seedling. It too disappeared! I sifted through the soil but found no cutworms.

Today I went to the other side of the fence to study the area more closely. That corner of the garden butts up to our metal storage building, and you could see a burrow and well-worn little trail leading from the building to the tomato garden and also into the front yard garden. Walking in the front yard garden I noticed that there were so many burrow holes and tunnels that the ground was collapsing under my feet! I have a major rat problem and never even knew it. I had one block of rat bait left so I stuck it in the hole under the building, and I will get more traps.

I hope they did not get my Jerusalem artichoke roots. There were burrow holes all around last year's dried stalks. I had been wanting to taste the roots which you cook like potatoes. Now I don't know if I will get any or not.

I will definitely have to get rid of all the rats before the corn comes in.

Cur Herding Style

My little Texas Lacy Game Dog likes to herd my pilgrim geese. Imagine, an heirloom dog herding heirloom geese! :) Both animal breeds were created right here in the USA to be good all-round homestead animals. The Pilgrims are a medium sized, hardy breed that lack the heart and arthritis issues of larger goose breeds like the Embden. Texas Lacys are great all round workers with almost no health issues and they commonly live to be 16 or so. My little Pearl has the instincts of both a hunting hound and a herding dog. She loves to hunt rats, rabbits and squirrels. I have already started her blood trailing in anticipation of deer season. She could bay hogs if I let her, her siblings are already doing it. But I would just be undone if she were hurt. She is my baby.

Just today I was out pottering in the vegetable garden and she fetched the goose flock to me, LOL! She is very patient with them and so far (knock on wood) has not used her teeth on them. She just endlessly circles them to keep them bunched up. This is cur herding style. Catahoulas and black mouthed curs also do this.

I hope Alex the goose can successfully raise some babies. I think a fox comes every night to get the eggs.

The best spring in years

So far Spring has been kind to my bees. No late frosts and just the right amount of rain. I have 2 kinds of Asian melons planted for the farmers market. We have some supersweet white corn which maybe the rodents will leave alone. The bees will like the pollen.

I wish I would get over this cold or whatever it is.