Mama Muscovy

Mama Muscovy has been sitting on the goose eggs I purchased for about 20 days now. Geese take 38-35 days to hatch. In addition to the 8 goose eggs she also had a couple of Saxony duck eggs. Over the last two days she has kicked out 4 goose eggs and the two Saxony eggs. All the eggs were infertile. 

She had not left her clutch for a four days so we had not been able to check on how things were going. Today she left to get a drink and some food. We quickly candled the 4 goose eggs that are left. One looks like it should hatch in about a week, while the other three are further behind.To our surprise there was also about 8 Muscovy eggs in the clutch! Obviously mama has been laying and our other Muscovy Figgy has also been laying and Mama has been taking her eggs too!

You have to look carefully (as I'm a twit and used a yellow bowl). The yolk in the bowl is a goose egg. It's huge! Its one of the infertile goose eggs.  

A very kind friend bought me an incubator for my Birthday last month. It showed up in the mail yesterday:) It's not big, but it's perfect for emergencies!

Wally the Rooster Calling the Sun

Discount Code for Memoirs

If you have been wanting to purchase my Memoirs (or my children's book) and haven't yet, here's a 25% off code! It ends at midnight

25% Off Print and Photo Books
Use code LULU25 | Expires April 27th at 11:59 PM

http://www.lulu.com/shop/patricia-cartwright-and-stephanie-mitchener/memoirs-of-an-exotic-dancer/paperback/product-23148147.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/written-and-illustrated-by-patricia-cartwright/animal-abcs/paperback/product-22169601.html

Yard Work

Now that spring is finally here, I've been busy, busy, busy doing yard work. This week we've cleaned up Turtle Lane and fixed up the fire pit. We are hosting a Beltane Celebration on Sunday, so we are now ready to go :)

We had some guests at the back pond. Canadian geese are super cute, but can be quite aggressive. They only stayed a few hours and then traveled  on.

Videos

Here's some videos from the last week :)

Memoirs of an Exotic Dancer

My book is officially published and ready to buy! Very exciting and very scary! It`s really scary to open up your heart and soul for others to read and judge. I`m a little freaked, worrying that people are going to read it and hate me. I`m taking a big breath and hoping for the best!

Price: $15.99
 Prints in 3-5 business days

 The story starts in 1987, back when the beer in the strip clubs was only $2.85 a bottle and table dances were $5 each. “Memoirs of an Exotic Dancer” is a journey of mistakes made, lessons learned, wisdom gained and growing up in the strip clubs. It is almost 30 years of adventures with ups and downs, and tears and laughter. From table dancing to lap dancing to private dancing at home, “Memoirs of an Exotic Dancer” is an open and honest view of being an exotic dancer in Ontario, Canada.

+15 and Sunny

It is a beautiful day here in Nova Scotia today. +15 and Sunny! My major chore of the day was cleaning the front porch. Mama Muscovy has a clutch of eggs (including four goose eggs) in the dog house on the porch so I fenced off the area for her so she would have some privacy from the other critters.

My front pond, Kappa cove, is 90% unfrozen now! The ducks have been really enjoying it!

My three Saxony ladies swimming at the pond- Martha, Merkel and Ethel.

And I forgot to show you the goose eggs! Here's a pic of the eight in the box when they came home.

And here's a pic to show their size. The brown egg is a large chicken egg, the white egg is a duck egg and the big white egg with the 3 on it is the goose egg.

Hugs and Love!

Enjoying the Pond

Spring has finally sprung! the snow has melted and the ponds are quickly unfreezing. The small front pond, Kappa Cove, is now about half unfrozen. The ducks have been really enjoying it.

This is a pic of my Saxony Drake, Goobels and the three Indian Runners, Yacko, Wacko and Dot.

Here's a pic of all the ducks (but the Muscovies) enjoying the pond. As you can see there is still ice on some of it

Us humans decided to enjoy the pond too! My son and I took the new inflatable raft out for a trial float. We were learning how to paddle. 

And of course my Chihuahua Taco had to come with us too! He is excellent in the raft.

The ducks were not impressed with us invading their pond, but didn't get aggressive or anything. Once my son and I get the whole paddling thing down, we'll try the big back pond!

It is so awesome having ponds less than a minute from the house!

Goose Eggs

I am off to get seven fertilized goose eggs today! Very excited! I have to go to Shubenacadie, which is about an hour or so away. Shubenacadie is where Nova Scotia's weather forecasting groundhog lives; Shubenacadie Sam. He was obviously very wrong this year, I'm gonna give him a dirty look when i drive by!

The goose eggs I'm getting are Buff Goose. They will look like this when full grown:

Fingers crossed they actually hatch! I plan on putting them under mama Muscovy.

I would love to get an incubator for back up (in case Mama Muscovy won't sit them), but just don't have the extra cash at the moment. If anyone is looking for a great Birthday present for me (my Birthday is on Friday), Amazon has one for $40!

https://www.amazon.ca/niceEshop-Automatic-Temperature-Control-Incubator/dp/B01GYFM6NI/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1491399074&sr=8-46&keywords=egg+incubator

Have a great day everyone! hugs and love!!

Hen Saddles

Hen saddles to keep the ladies' back feathers from being ripped out by the horny roosters. Made by my sweet friend Tracy.

They went on super easy and once on, the chicken didn't seem to notice it at all. We only left it on a few minutes so will have to use it for a few days to give a full review on how well they work.

Buffy (the white hen) and Wally (our Silkie Rooster) were the models

Hugs and Love!

Inflatable Raft and a Clutch of Eggs

I was in New Glasgow a couple of days ago and stopped at a new clearance store and found this awesome inflatable boat on sale for $30. Yay! It's two person and can take 520 pounds :)

My Muscovy ducks are of course looking adorable!

Muscovy mom has started a nice clutch of eggs. I have added a couple of Saxony and Indian Runner eggs to her clutch and a couple of chickens have added eggs to it! Muscovies are great moms and can hatch up to four clutches of eggs each year. I've been wanting to add a couple of geese to my flock and had a very exciting offer this morning of seven fertilized goose eggs! I'm a little short on $$ right now (still recovering from having to take the pug to the emergency vet), but if I can make some in the next day or two, I'm going to get them and put them in Mama Muscovy's nest. Muscovy ducks are often used to hatch geese eggs. Fingers crossed it all works out! I'd really love a couple of Buff Geese!!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Hugs and love!