Finnie- Finally A Journal

[Finnie]

It was like Utopia for African Violets.

That must have been so cool! I can only imagine!

 

[Finnie]

Hard to believe we went from 65 and sunny two days ago to this! We’re expected to have low overnights in the 20’s and highs during the day in the 30’s this week, and then back to sunny and 67 on Saturday!

 

[farmerjan]

Glad I didn't bring that home with me... it stayed west in WV after I came through.....

How does little Toby like the snow????

Is that a summer chicken raising pen?

Our forecast is like yours, only not with that much snow... a few flurries were forecast but they didn't happen... Cold then back to 50's and 60's this weekend.
Glad you got home before you had to deal with driving in that. The first snow of the year is always the worst for "STOOPID People"......

 

[Finnie]

How does little Toby like the snow????

He likes it ok. But he sure is ready to come in as soon as he’s done with his business instead of sniffing all around for rabbit poop.

Is that a summer chicken raising pen?

You can’t really see it in the photo, but that run is attached to the coop (shed building) with wire and it’s their year round run. Before I got that run, I was forced to free range them every day. I would lose the odd bird to a hawk or a fox once in a while, but one fall I lost several to hawks in one week. So I ordered that. It’s pretty flimsy, but it keeps them in and the hawks out. So now I just let them free range once in a while if I think there are no hawks around.

That’s what I call the “front coop” (or main coop). About half my birds are in there. Then I have 8 more coops/pens (9 but one is unusable anymore) going back further to the south where the rest of the birds are. It’s hard to see those from the angle of that shot.

Glad you got home before you had to deal with driving in that. The first snow of the year is always the worst for "STOOPID People"......

I know you meant STOOPID other drivers! But I just had to laugh because the first snow of the year is the worst for me doing my chores out in it, so that’s where my mind went. I would be smarter if my snow boots weren’t covered in a layer of dust! I’m just using my short clogs in the snow for today.

 

[Finnie]

I can’t remember if I wrote this in my journal last year, but in late October I lost most of my geese because I got complacent about locking them up at night. Everything was perfectly fine until it wasn’t. It was probably coyotes. I found bodies in many directions and the survivors were wandering around confused in the neighborhood next to me and the neighborhood across the street. (And one gander was hiding in the goose pen.)

So I was left with 3 males and 1 female and I have been trying to find more females ever since. I hatched a few in the spring, but only 1 lived. Thankfully it’s a female. I also wanted more white geese, because I think the white ones live up to the name “Chinese Swan Geese”. They look so beautiful out in the grass.

As of early November when I met @farmerjan at the Ohio Nationals, my flock consisted of 3 brown and 1 white. We looked all around at the sale area of the show but we only found brown Chinese geese for sale. (We did find some “buff” Chinese being exhibited. Those were quite pretty. We got the contact info of the exhibitor, who actually lives about an hour’s drive from me, so I am going to look into them. I’ve always thought Chinese only came in brown and white. So I’m interested to know about these new genetics.)

So I didn’t buy any birds at all at the show. Then, last week I expanded my search on Craigslist to include more than 2 hours away, because in a year I have not found any that were under 2 hours. And I found some! The guy said he had 3 females and I said I would take them! So we set an appointment for Sunday at noon. The weather cooperated and I spent just about all of Sunday driving to get them. The town was actually almost all the way back to Columbus, Ohio where the nationals were. So just under 3 hours there, and then I took my time going home and stopped at 4 Goodwill stores along my route. (Because I like to hunt for yarn, mugs and Nancy Drew books, and because I like to visit Goodwills that I’ve never been to before. 2 stores had yarn but I didn’t find any mugs or books I wanted.)

So without further ado, here are my 3 new geese:

Two are 2024 hatched and the other is 3-4 years old. The older one has a much bigger knob and she was walking around the guy’s barnyard in a gander posture, so I almost didn’t buy her. But I am super glad I took the chance, because she is definitely a female. She is not walking around in gander posture here. And she did not fight with my 2 ganders like a new male would have.

My white hen has a black leg ring, so I put a blue and a yellow ring on two of the new ones and left one with no ring so I will be able to tell them apart. I will probably name them. I used to name my geese. Then my flock got huge and I didn’t bother. The only two right now that have names are the two brown ganders. Günther and Günther Jr. (because he was the only one of Günther’s sons to survive the coyote attack last year.)

Here is the whole flock now:

 

[Baymule]

Yay for more geese!!!

 

[SageHill]

Your new geese look great!

 

[fuzzi]

I can’t remember if I wrote this in my journal last year, but in late October I lost most of my geese because I got complacent about locking them up at night. Everything was perfectly fine until it wasn’t. It was probably coyotes. I found bodies in many directions and the survivors were wandering around confused in the neighborhood next to me and the neighborhood across the street. (And one gander was hiding in the goose pen.)

So I was left with 3 males and 1 female and I have been trying to find more females ever since. I hatched a few in the spring, but only 1 lived. Thankfully it’s a female. I also wanted more white geese, because I think the white ones live up to the name “Chinese Swan Geese”. They look so beautiful out in the grass.

As of early November when I met @farmerjan at the Ohio Nationals, my flock consisted of 3 brown and 1 white. We looked all around at the sale area of the show but we only found brown Chinese geese for sale. (We did find some “buff” Chinese being exhibited. Those were quite pretty. We got the contact info of the exhibitor, who actually lives about an hour’s drive from me, so I am going to look into them. I’ve always thought Chinese only came in brown and white. So I’m interested to know about these new genetics.)

So I didn’t buy any birds at all at the show. Then, last week I expanded my search on Craigslist to include more than 2 hours away, because in a year I have not found any that were under 2 hours. And I found some! The guy said he had 3 females and I said I would take them! So we set an appointment for Sunday at noon. The weather cooperated and I spent just about all of Sunday driving to get them. The town was actually almost all the way back to Columbus, Ohio where the nationals were. So just under 3 hours there, and then I took my time going home and stopped at 4 Goodwill stores along my route. (Because I like to hunt for yarn, mugs and Nancy Drew books, and because I like to visit Goodwills that I’ve never been to before. 2 stores had yarn but I didn’t find any mugs or books I wanted.)

So without further ado, here are my 3 new geese:
View attachment 123882

Two are 2024 hatched and the other is 3-4 years old. The older one has a much bigger knob and she was walking around the guy’s barnyard in a gander posture, so I almost didn’t buy her. But I am super glad I took the chance, because she is definitely a female. She is not walking around in gander posture here. And she did not fight with my 2 ganders like a new male would have.

My white hen has a black leg ring, so I put a blue and a yellow ring on two of the new ones and left one with no ring so I will be able to tell them apart. I will probably name them. I used to name my geese. Then my flock got huge and I didn’t bother. The only two right now that have names are the two brown ganders. Günther and Günther Jr. (because he was the only one of Günther’s sons to survive the coyote attack last year.)

Here is the whole flock now:
View attachment 123883

Nice!

And I also stop at thrift stores whenever I travel, because I find neat stuff that can't be found locally. I came home from Connecticut with a ash rose hoodie that fits me!

 

[farmerjan]

Yay for finding some white ones... I know that's what you wanted. They are pretty. The buff colored ones might be a neat addition... maybe you can get some eggs to hatch....
Yep, I am all for "enabling"...
I should have bought the pair of NH bantams I had been looking at, at the Columbus show...... the guy here in VA did not hatch but a few this year due to health problems... so none to sell... hoping I can get some hatching eggs come spring...
I am very happy with the 2 trios of the standard NH's I brought home... they are very calm and quiet to work around... looking forward to hatching a bunch out...

 

[Finnie]

I am very happy with the 2 trios of the standard NH's I brought home... they are very calm and quiet to work around... looking forward to hatching a bunch out...

I’m so glad that your “lost” pullet was alive after all!