Wild Asparagus

It's springtime, so yesterday I decided I'd better check the wild asparagus.  If you have asparagus, you know it grows super-fast and needs to be picked before the stalks get too large.

And so, I put on some shorts.

Our asparagus patch is way out back, in the middle of a field.  The field is high with grass, and I wanted to be able to see and remove any ticks that may get on me.  Every day I see deer out in that field; I know they carry deer ticks.  Luckily, I got no ticks on me.  I love my guineas (who eat ticks)!!!

Here I am - almost!  Hi everyone!

Ok, here we go, out into the backyard.  We have to go through that gate and off to the right.  See all the high grass?  We'll walk out of this photo range to the right.

Aww, thanks, Randy.  He's mowed a path through the high grass for us to get to the asparagus patch.  The sun was shining bright, but there are these odd white shadows in this photo below.  I guess it's just the light.  Many people say my historic house and property are haunted...  Could these be ghosts???

Here's the asparagus patch.  Yes, it's just part of the field, covered with grass.  We didn't choose this area, this asparagus has been growing here for many a decade before we came here.  We just found it growing wild.  We also planted some new asparagus in the same area, but it wont be ready to be eaten for many years.

 

Let's look closely.  Right in the center of this photo is an asparagus sprout.

Here's another.

And another.

All in all, there was quite a few asparagus sprouting, but none were ready yet.  A few more good sunny days and they'll be ready for picking.  They grow fast.  I couldn't even find the baby asparagus we planted last year.  The stalks are fine and look like grass.

While I was out in the back fields I couldn't help but notice the iris blooming.  My mother gave us some old dead iris roots.  Well, she thought they were dead.  We planted them all around the fields.  We didn't know if moles or squirrels or woodchucks would eat the roots, but figured we'd try.  Many flowers here are eaten by animals before they have a chance to grow.  But the iris are doing fine - the roots must be too bitter for the wild animal palates.

Out by the asparagus there's a huge active woodchuck hole.

Here's our old horse barn.  We're not using it.  It has a dirt floor, old wooden walls, and a roof that's barely hanging on.  We keep the door open in case any wild animals want to use it for shelter.  Sometimes Jerry, the outside cat, goes in, and once last winter some deer found shelter from the cold here.  Many birds live inside in the roof beams.

The vines just take over every year.  These vines are covering a fence and are moving to a nearby tree.  They need to be cut back again.  When time permits...

And now we're coming back to the house.  Here's the weather vane on the back side of the house.

Happy Easter!

I'll bring you along when I check the asparagus later in the week!

I'm expecting!!!

Yes, I'm gonna have a baby!

31 babies, hopefully!

And I'm due in about two and a half to three weeks!

I collected all these guinea eggs from a nest found in the woods before three of our guineas were killed.  We still have eight adult guineas.  No one else has been killed since.

Last year we hatched guineas, and we learned that only about half the eggs incubated actually hatched into keets, so we are going large - thirty one guinea eggs!  If a dozen hatch I'll be happy.

We have an incubator that someone gave us.  It rotates the eggs and has trays in the bottom where we put water to keep it humid.  There's a thermometer to ensure it's at the right temp.  When I opened it to take this photo and add water the temp quickly started dropping.  We open it real quickly every day to add water and close it back up again. 

The keets are actually due on 27Apr12, but eggs always, always hatch early for me.  So I'm anticipating anywhere between 24 through 28 April will be the hatch days.  I don't want to be caught unprepared.

I'm hoping by then that a chicken hen goes broody and raises the guinea keets for me.  But so far, no broody hens.  I may have to be the mama this time - now I don't know that I'm ready for that job!  We'll see!

I'm always excited to see the colors of keets that hatch, as we have a variety of colors of adult guineas (pearl gray, white, and lavender.  Our guineas also have royal purple and coral blue in their bloodlines).  I hope we get another pure white one to replace the white one that was killed.  We only have one pure white guinea now.

Happy Easter!

Guinea Deaths

Warning - this post contains photos of a dead guinea hen.  Turn away if you don't want to see.

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We are still recovering from losing 3 guineas this week.  It breaks my heart to see my birds dead.  They were such sweet and friendly birds.  They didn't deserve to be killed like this.

This is the remains of one of the gray female guineas.  Just a bunch of gray polka-dotted feathers.  Her body was never found.

The white female guinea girl was killed just feet from our front door.  I loved that guinea girl.

The white guinea girl's body was found in the woods.  Be believe a fox attacked her and she ran from her attacker and managed to hide under brush where the fox couldn't reach.  Smart bird.  She died from the terrible injuries already inflicted on her.

This is the white guinea girl.  It doesn't bother me to autopsy a bird after it's dead.  It's very sad to know that she suffered before dieing.

Anyway, this is her back.  The feathers were ripped out, and a big hole was ripped into her back.  Ribs were broken.  A bite, or multiple bites, with strong jaws did this damage.

This is her belly.  Feathers were ripped out.  Multiple small bite marks and sharp teeth marks.  A bite mark from a small jaw can be seen, leading us to believe it was a fox.  Lots of subdermal bleeding.

We've setup a radio playing a talk-radio station outside where the guineas sleep and hang out.  We are going to setup live traps.  It's tough because we live in the woods.  There are other animals here.  We can't get rid of all the wild animals.  If a fox doesn't kill the guineas, a great horned owl could, or the raccoons that visit us every night.  This happens every year here. 

On a good note, we still have all those eggs that we collected from our guinea girls...

Three less guineas than last week

Last Monday I blogged about a missing gray female guinea.  She was never found. We assume she was killed and her body taken away.

Monday night another of the gray female guineas was killed.  Feathers were found.  Her body was never found.

Today (Thursday) one of the two white guineas was killed right in our front yard during the day.  We came home from work and found a crime scene.  Sadly, we found the body.  We believe it was the slow white female guinea.  She fought and ran and hid herself under bushes and brush.  She died from the injuries she sustained before running and hiding.  She suffered a terrible and slow death.  Tomorrow we will see for sure which one of the white guineas is still alive and safe in the tree.

An autopsy was performed on the dead bird and we believe determined what is killing the guineas.

More to follow on this horrible breaking news front.  Stay tuned.

Results of Missing Guinea Hen Search

The search for the missing guinea hen started yesterday and continued today. 

And look what was found - A guinea nest full of guinea eggs!

It was in a stick pile not too far from the house.

Sadly, the missing guinea hen was not sitting on her nest.  She probably is gone.  Surprisingly, whatever took her didn't disturb the eggs.  Maybe she's off sitting on another nest?  I'm hoping she'll turn up, although it's not likely. 

And now the big question - what to do with all the eggs?  Incubate them? 

Maybe...

Stay tuned!



Missing Guinea Hen

We are missing a guinea hen.  One of the light gray females.  She was a shy bird, she was best friends with the white"slow" female guinea.

White slow guinea female

As background- The "slow" female had a problem at birth, she was slow and didn't act right, started having leg problems, not walking well.  We had a baby guinea like that in our last batch a year before, and it died while still a keet.  After some research we learned it was a vitamin E deficiency!  It was as simple as that!  We fed the white female guinea keet one Vit E capsule a night - cut it open and squirted it into the bird's beak.  She immediately started acting chipper and perky and lived, even though just a few days before we didn't think she would live another day.  However, she didn't gain back her sense that she lost - she still acts slow and not quite there mentally.  None of the other guineas accept her, and she's not mated now that spring is here and all the other guineas have chosen mates.

The missing gray female and the slow white female guinea were inseparable friends, until the gray female chose a mate and the white female didn't choose a mate.  Right now the guineas are all paired up (I call it mated) and first thing every morning the mates go off by themselves in the woods and she lays an egg.  Then  they all meet back up in a group in our front yard and hang as a flock for the rest of the day.  When the female feels there's enough eggs in her nest in the woods, then she'll go sit on them for a month, never leaving, until they hatch.  And it's during that time that life is very dangerous for her.  A fox or raccoon or hawk can easily kill her when she's an easy target, alone, sitting quietly in the woods.  We have never let our guineas raise their own keets, instead we collect their eggs and let a broody chicken hen raise them.  It's dangerous enough for the guineas, I don't want to risk letting a female die like that.

And so this morning I decided to go looking for the missing female guinea hen.  I figured maybe she's alive, sitting, or maybe I'd find a sign that she had been killed, such as a clump of gray feathers or a destroyed nest with broken eggs, or something.  Come along and check out what I saw this morning.

The woods were all wet, it's been a wet couple of days. 

I love this tree - it reminds me of a watercolor painting!  What kind of tree is it?

I continue to look for the guinea, although I notice lots of interesting things to photograph!

This is a field of tiger lilies. They will bloom in the summer.

I did find ONE guinea feather in the woods, but it was from a different colored guinea- one of the darker ones, not the light gray female.  And this was just one feather, not a big deal.

I did not find the missing guinea hen.  The search will have to continue another day...

Bee Attack!

Today's Saturday, the day to clean and do chores and run errands and get everything done that doesn't get done during the week.  And Springtime is here, the bugs and the bees have arrived.  I suddenly have watery eyes, I assume it's an allergy to pollen or flowers or something, even though my allergist tells me I have NO ALLERGIES whatsoever.  Whatever, I've been taking Zytec and my eyes are not crying uncontrollably all the time. 

Stinkbug

This morning while brushing my teeth in the bathroom, with my eyes closed, I heard a buzzing.  I assumed it was an annoying little stinkbug.  We've been plagued by stinkbugs for the past few years, I'm always vacuuming them up off the floors.  They're not scary, just annoying.  I really hate it when they fly into my face.  They Stink!  They make me grumble and curse the old house.  I have no idea how they get into the old house, but they are everywhere.  First this morning Randy saw Bob, the cat, eating a stinkbug.  Bob's not too smart. 

camel cricket

Anyway, back to the story...I was in the bathroom, leaning over the sink, toothbrush in mouth, I open my eyes, and inches away from my face is the largest bumblebee I've ever seen.  I semi-scream, choke on toothpaste, and run out of the bathroom.  Ok, ok, it was probably a carpenter bee, they don't sting, but it doesn't matter.  There was a monster, fat, black creature walking inches from my face.  It was as big as my fingers are long.  Bees are my weakness.  I don't mind snakes, lizards, crickets, even camel crickets.  I've gotten used to spiders and mice, but bees - no.  I hate them.  I hate that they fly.  I hate that they sting.  They scare me because I can't do either of those things.

Carpenter bees

I hightailed it out of the bee room, closing the door behind me, finished brushing my teeth in another bathroom, and then braved a return.  Sadly, I left my iPod playing an audiobook in the bee-room, and my mouthwash bottle was in there, too.  So, I armed myself with a towel, and opened the door.  The monster bee was flying all around the room.  Goodness, maybe there was more than one?  I quickly closed the door again.  I wasn't ready for flying monster bees, I expected them to be stationary.  I gathered my strength, readied the towel in front of me, and opened the door again.  Silence.  No bees.  I entered the room.  Nothing, no bees, no wings buzzing, only the iPod playing the audiobook.  It was like the scary part of a horror movie before the monster attacks the person.  I grabbed the iPod, turned it off, shoved it in my pocket, and looked around.  Nothing.  I couldn't find a bee anywhere.  Hmmm.  I know it's in there.  I grabbed the mouthwash bottle and left the room, closing the door and turning out the light behind me.

I planned on cleaning that bathroom this morning.  Maybe I'll save that chore till last today...  

New Blogger Interface???

OMG, have any of you gone to the new blogger interface?  What do you think of it?  I tried it for a minute and hated every second!  I can't find anything!!!  I guess the page it displayed was the dashboard.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just returned to blogging from a short hiatus, and I'm not ready for a major change right now.  I need to know how to navigate around my blog, I don't have time to figure this out.  Please tell me what you think, is it that bad?  Have you made the change?  Are we all going to be forced to jump to the dark side eventually? Should I just suck it up and take the plunge and deal?  Or can I stay old fashioned in my old blogger interface, where comfort abides and all is known and friendly?  Help me before I jump! 

 

The Legend of the Little House in the Woods

I love this picture of our cat Shadow. Her name suits her.

Last year we adopted Bobby, another stray cat who appeared outside. He has a tipped her, meaning he came from a feral community. He was cold and hungry, covered in ticks; it was obvious no one was taking care of him. Shadow has the same story, except she had a twin brother, Smoky, with her, and they didn't have tipped ears.  And now, in the past couple weeks, another cat has arrived outside. We believe it's a large female, with a tipped ear. It might be a fixed male, not too sure. But it's a large cat, with big feet. I call her Brindle, to describe her color.  She has a sweet meow.  I'm working on getting her to accept pets from me; right now she's wild and won't come near unless there's food, and even then she stays a few feet away.

Where in the world are all these cats coming from????? Who is dumping them here??? We guess that maybe one of the other farms in the area pick up stray cats from a feral community and dump them in their barns, wanting the cats to be "barn cats" to control mice. Evidently, they don't feed them, and the cats wander away, starving, and find our little house in the middle of the woods, and I'm a kind soul who can't turn away a hungry mouth.

I like to believe in the legend of the little house in the woods.  I think that all the wild animals in the forest tell the cat to find the little old house in the clearing in the woods, that's where the nice people live. They will be fed and if they're lucky, taken in, once they find the little house in the woods. The birds and the woodchucks and the deer and the fox and the coons all know about the little house in the woods and pass on the legend to the lost, alone, and wandering cat.

And so the lost cat wanders in the forest for days, sometimes in the freezing cold.  He eats mice and bugs during his search, some days he eats nothing at all.  The vultures watch him from above, telling him to hurry up and die.  The coons encourage him, telling him to follow the coon paths through the thickest and darkest part of the woods to the house.  All coon paths eventually lead to the little house. 

The cat searches for days and finally comes upon the back barn, haggard and starving, with a matted coat and ticks drinking his blood, too exhausted to bother with cleaning himself. Then he has to make it past Jerry, the guard cat, who according to the legend, lives outside the house but travels sometimes.  Jerry is rumored to love to fight and will defend his property. But sometimes he's not there at the house, he's out fighting in other areas of the woods, and the lost cat is lucky enough to make it to the yard of the little house. 

The fnal test of courage are the guineas who patrol the yard surounding the house.  According to legend, they are a strange dinosaur bird that walks the earth even now, with bony horns on their heads.  They chase everything that moves, they move in a large flock, making them hard to avoid, and they have a horrible cry that may make the lost cat deaf.  The legend says that many animals, even the largest horned deer and the quietest woodchuck, have been chased away by the screaming, charging guineas. 

When the lost cat makes it past all the obsticles and finally arrives at the back porch of the little house in the woods, he is fed and gets milk and praise and love and never wants to leave. And he finds out Jerry isn't that bad after all, he's a little grumpy but actually he just wants a friend to play with, not to fight with. 

I wish I knew the real story behind all the strays, but for now, I'm sticking with the legend of the little house in the woods.

I'm baaack!

Sorry everyone, I needed a break from the blogging world!  But now I'm back!  And it's gonna be great!  Spring is here, the weather is great so much is going on, my only problem will be finding the time to write it all all!  So get ready and hold onto your seats, it's gonna be an awesome year!

Our winter egg production was down to 7 or 8 eggs a day, from 16 hens.  Still more than I'll ever eat!  Thanks ladies!!!!  Egg production is already starting to rise since the weather's been so nice.










Muffin the rooster has been feeling his oats and has started chasing me and attacking me when I enter the chicken pen.  Silly boy.  I remember from my lessons learned in the past to carry a broom, and he remembers getting swatted with the broom a few times, so he leaves me alone as long as I carry my broom friend.  It's funny that he looks to see if I have the broom or now.  He's too smart...

A baby deer spent a few months in our back yard this winter.  I assume her mother was killed by hunters.  This seems to happen every year.  I guess the mothers bring their babies to our backyard before hunting season a lot.  We have good grass and brush for deers to eat and provide a salt block.  When the mother's are killed, the babies seem to come back here, where they remember.  Luckily, a large number of deer travel through, and the babies join another herd.  If they're lucky, there's another baby deer in that herd so they have a playmate.

This little deer spent a few months with us, she was wasn't afraid to come up to the house, as long as we were inside.  Herds passed through, some even spending a few days out back with her, but she refused to go with them and leave the backyard.  Guess she was waiting for her mother.  Too sad!  Eventually she left with a herd, and we haven't seen her since.

The guineas have been feeling their oats, too.  They've been chasing each other and are pairing up and going off alone in pairs to make nests and lay eggs.  The only prob is that we don't have enough females to go around, so quite a few males don't have mates, and they aren't happy about that.  It seems that each female picks a mate for that season (maybe longer) and they stay together as a couple.  When the weather gets cold again then they all stay together as one flock to deal with winter.  We have a group of guineas that we raised from eggs from the last parent guinea flock.  The parent guineas, all except for 2 males, were killed off by a monster that lived in the woods.  I don't know about these guineas mating, because they all may be related, father and daughter, brother and sister, and these ones aren't that bright, so I can only imagine their children will really not be too bright.  Or maybe it doesn't matter if birds inbreed???  Let me know! 

The guineas are very friendly to us, and greet us every time we are outside.  They hate and attack chickens.  If a chicken gets outside the chicken pen they will eventually kill it by pecking it to death.  Even if I'm out there with it, beside it, they still attack it.  They don't attack cats or people. They love people, people sometimes have treats.  They do attack deer and woodchuck and especially love to chase cars.  Strange birds, these guineas are.  But I love them still.

I could go on and on, but theis is getting long, so I'll save the rest for later!