Graduates With Honors

With this many animals on the farm, 
we have learned to be flexible...
especially with our expectations.


You can make all the plans in the world...
think them through...
carefully mull them over...
and when presented to animals...
well...
they can come back to you looking totally different!


After raising several broods of guineas, we finally have a flock
that meets our expectations.
They are the first flock to graduate from Birdbrain U. with honors.


I am happy to say that these 20 young guineas and their two elders 
(left from a previous batch)
are completely trained.
They know where they live and they return there every afternoon as the sun sets in the west.


Their days are spent doing what guineas do...
searching for ticks and insects and doing their best to annoy
all of the neighbors.


Luckily, we have neighbors who love guinea fowl and who think ours are fun.
It's a win-win situation, because those guineas will comb through our grass and our
neighbors' as well...so we all benefit from their hunting forays.

We were socked in with rain all day yesterday.
We made it through morning chores before the rain began and had about an hour's extra time...
so I used that hour to finish tucking in my garden for the winter.
There is nothing left to use... except a few Rosemary bushes.


It's stark in comparison to just a few short months ago.
 To me, though, it's beautiful...austere, but full of promise.
It's a necessary time.
Time for the soil to rest and rejuvenate beneath a thick blanket of compost.
These boxes will be fertile and ready to nourish next year's bounty when
the warming winds of Spring arrive.

I have found an amazing world by looking beyond the obvious.
For instance, walking by this tree outside the pasture... 


one may notice that it is barren of leaves...dormant for the winter.

But, look a little closer and you will realize that this tree
is the host for an entire world unto itself.


So many organisms call this tree home... mosses, lichens, countless insects,
and even more micro-organisms.


This is an amazing world... sometimes we just need to look beyond the surface!!

Comments

GeorgiaHoneyBee said…
We are super excited - tonight we are going to bake cookies! Do you have a really good gingerbread recipe? My recipe is kind of soft and makes for headless ginger people... Thank you so much for sharing the cookie video. :-). My 5-year old sat and watched it TWICE!
Louise Stopford said…
Those guineas are great - what fun they are having and how well behaved (long may it last). Yes it makes sense to look beyond the surface - scratch it a little and you never know what you might find.

I'd love to have a flock of guineas here - the neighbors had a flock and coyotes and traffic took them out. So.. I'll settle for my chickens.

You've reminded me we need to throw some compost over our two raised garden beds in the back yard.

Happy Holiday Season to you and yours!