Leonard the Embden Goose

When Lenny was not yet a week old.

When we decided to raise some chicks we also decided to follow the Justin Rhodes model of getting a goose as a guardian. What I had hoped for was a gosling that wasn't too young and would grow up with the chicks. Well, as it turns out, this guy (and his buddy) were two almost three weeks younger than the chicks and the chicks had already grown quite a bit and were already a bit aggressive with each other. To introduce a young fuzzy gosling and his duckling buddy would not have been the best idea. 

Right now this guy is nine and half months old (almost) and is very much a protector. Example, he does not like it when Thor (cockerel) approaches one of the little ladies for a little special time. Lenny is not a fan of any kind of commotion - and if anything goes on he will investigate AND reprimand the offending party, in this case Thor. I think he feels like he needs to look out for the girls. Which is kind of nice since the Australorps are little girl chickens. Another thing he doesn't like - when his pal, Shelly, is playing/racing Tom up and down the driveway. The first thing he'll do is run after them and then "scream" at Tom. Then the next thing is making sure that Shelly knows that what he is doing is unacceptable. The crazy thing is that I am the one person who is allowed to do whatever I please without any sort of repercussion. I guess I'm not that much of a threat.

Lenny does like the hens though and when the girls and Thor go in for the night Lenny and Shelly will often times hang out at the rear of the chicken RV to be close to them. They never got used to going into the coop at night so they just stand behind it. Things might change once we get some friends for Shelly, but that is a future problem.

Overall, he is a little more reserved, except when snacks are coming from the neighbors or from a friend of ours. Those times are the BEST if you are a resident of the Hen Pen. When the snacks are coming he sounds the alarm and he can be LOUD!! The squawk is the same, but he has two volumes, loud or LOUDER. At least we know if something is amiss.

Other breed information:

Main use:  Utility - Meat
Eggs:  10 to 30 per year.
Weight:  Gander 26 to 33 pounds(!); Goose 22 to 28 pounds.
Temperment:  Calm (except when snacks are coming)

Lenny turned 9 months on January 26.

Life on the Hoeve would be fine without this dude, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Homesteading...

Homesteading...seems like there are all sorts of people homesteading. It became evident while watching video after video after video on the Great American Farm Tour where the Rhodes family traveled the entire United States - including Alaska & Hawaii to visit farms...many of them being homesteads. There were a few that were farms, but too many claiming to be homesteaders.

Here is the bottom line. I don't like the term homesteading...that's not to say that I don't like the idea of homesteading. There just seems to be as many different definitions of homesteading as there are homesteaders. Well, maybe not...I don't know. Go HERE for a more coherent explanation.

ANYWAY - I have decided to find another term to use for our own situation. We live on a small portion of what was a farm years ago. Our property actually has the old house and outbuildings of the old farm. So, after a little bit of research came across:

Farmstead:  a farm with its buildings. 

Okay, that's better, I guess. However it still feels too close to Homesteading. Yes, I guess I do have a problem with that word...hmmm...

Over the weekend I decided to search for a word in the language that was spoken at home all through my growing up years, Dutch. A quick search and voila! I have the name of our non-homestead.

Hoeve (HOO-vuh): simple put, Farmstead.

Somehow this just feels right. I still feel a connection to my Dutch-Indonesian roots. Since the Netherlands has quite a farming history check that out HERE I wanted to use a word that reflects that. With all of that reclaimed land from the sea and cows how could farming NOT be a thing? Let's not forget the tulips and other related bulbs.

Now that I have found a term that I can be happy with and connect with I'll be changing my blog name soon. The Hoeve...I like it. The other term I found was boerderij (farmhouse, homestead, farmstead etc). I understand it and also know how to pronounce it, but no one else would get it and it would take too much to explain. We will keep it simple.

From the Google - Schinvelder Hoeve

Yeah, this was just a rambling post, but hey - if you made it this far, it must have been okay!

Imperfect Part 2

Yesterday was delivery day! I was hoping that the box would have been delivered before I went home, but it wasn't. The delivery window was quite wide... 3pm to 11pm.

Okaaaay...got home and we sat down to eat dinner and I kinda hoped that the box would be delivered while we were in the kitchen...NOPE.

So we just went about our regular evening routine which included watching the videos that we follow on YouTube and watching something on Amazon Prime Video. Around 8pm Tom went to bed I stayed downstairs and thought maybe the box would be delivered sooner than later.

A little before 9pm I received a text that said that my box was approximately 4 minutes away. And to watch the driver's progress all I had to do was follow the link. That was pretty fun! Watching the dot heading down one street in our general direction. I continued to watch until they were getting close to our house and I went to a different room to watch them arrive.

They went past our house! To be honest, I don't think that many of the homes on our street have their house numbers visible - although our address is on the mailbox. So I went back to the app on my phone and watched as the dot hovered down by the private road then it made its way to our driveway.

This is where it got funny or a little creepy...our goose was sounding the alarm and he was so, So, SO LOUD!! It was almost as if someone was being killed or something. I kinda feel bad for the driver...that really is no way to be welcomed.

Once they left I got the box and proceeded to open it up...

What a cute assortment of fruits and veggies!

Really, the only thing that I would consider flawed with these fruits & veggies is that they are on the small side, not much in the way of scarring. The descriptions offered on the order site was accurate.

I have no problem with this first box. I feel like the red onions might be shallots or maybe they are onions...hard to say. I already have a plan for the sweet potato and the potatoes will be mashed for a side dish sometime in the next week. The apples look good...no bruising that I could see. One of the lemons had a blemish on one end, but that won't affect the inside of it.

The Heart Shaped Potato logo

Whaaat?! Food to a local Food Bank?

Fun story!

Click HERE to try a box for yourself - and save $10 in the process!

Throwback Thursday - February 1, 2018

Before Tom chewed up the front yard in 2016

Another good size garden space.

Evidently, my February from a year ago was not very interesting...or creative since I have few posts from then. So we are going to jump back to the beginning of this blog...April 2016! My "thinking out loud" post.

I'm still not sure where we are heading with this farm endeavor, but the plan is to add more laying hens as I have all sorts of people who want farm fresh, no funky stuff eggs. With the days steadily getting longer the girls are starting to lay more eggs.

We are also going to add a breeding pair of American Guinea Hogs. To grow meat for ourselves and sell the piglets or offer grown hogs for meat. We'll see - that is an idea in progress. All I know is that I LOVE the American Guinea Hog!

The other thing that is in the works...inviting the neighbors across the street to grow a garden of their own on our property.

Everything is a work in progress. When I get ready to leave my job behind I am hoping that there will be more of a plan to work with and not just ideas.