Our muscovy ducks ♫ ☠Do the ducky dance ☠♫

We just recently picked up a trio of Muscovy ducks and its really starting to feel like a farm around here. With 2 chickens, 2 goats, 3 ducks, 6 barn cats and a caboodle of kittens We are on our way!.

The one thing I can tell you is, out of all the animals we have so far, the ducks are a delight to take care of. They waddle around, with no big hurry, feasting through bugs in the air and grasses on the ground. Corralling them to a certain location is beyond easy, just walk behind, helping guide them in the right direction, and off they go!. The only slight gripe I have is, sometimes, if Im a little forgetful and leave the goat pen door open, the ducks get in and start eating all the left-over seed on the ground, THEN POOP.

Muscovy ducks cleaning themselves

Muscovy duck closeup ( male )

Our male Muscovy has a wonderful demeanor, he shows no bother to our two goats, even going as far as to compete with them over snacks on the ground. When he flaps his wings, you can feel the air move all around you, freaks my goats right out!, Hes also one snazzy dancer, If you walk up and bob your head slightly, he does his little dance and shakes his tale.

One of our female Muscovys has blue eyes and is the more timid of the bunch. The other female seems to like de-feathering her, it was only a big issue when we first got them, everything has seemed to calm down now, Thankfully.

Muscovy closeup

 Our other female is in the background and has been laying eggs quite voraciously.

 Im not sure what these are, if anyone has an idea please chime in!

I dont know too much about flowers but I sure can appreciate them! From what I understand, this is an iris. It grows wild under our maple trees in our front yard and what I find interesting is, How similar in looks it is to a vanilla vine

Our rhubarb has started to flower and I figured I would collect some seeds and see what comes of it.
I understand quite well the complexities of growing plants whose seeds pop out like the roulette effect. Yes, it will not be like the parent plant but thats the whole point!. When it comes to these things, the more genetic variety the better, after all, I would hate to see what happened to the banana happen to rhubarb, I couldnt go on with out my pies and strawberry rhubarb deserts.
I swear on that giant spaghetti monster in the sky!

Are these prickly poppies?

Now, Ive grown poppies before, mainly for leaning about the medical aspects and how theyre grown but I never got that into all the other varieties. They look vary similar, the flower pod, the stem, the spikes on the flower bud, but the leaves are soooooOOOOOO covered in thorns it just didnt look like what I know. Ive only grown papaver somniferum, some Hawaiian blue poppy and a few others I piked up from Richters herbs.

If anyone out there knows what this is please let us know!

Its certainly something living out in eastern Ontario. The amount of wildlife here is extraordinary.
BUT! I feel there is a warning I must give to future property investors,
The one thing that might wreck it for SOME people is......
THE BUGS.

Man OOOO man are there bugs.

Ive never experienced anything like the bug population here. If you breath in to heavily, youve just consumed you protein for the day. The black flies will dive bomb your eyes and the mosquitoes will suck you inside out. Now, there is a benefit to all this chaos. The ecosystem is THRIVING. The amount of bird species here is unlike anything else in Ontario, the butterflies are everywhere, the parasitoid wasps are around in apocalyptic droves. Bees and wasps are a plenty here, at least on the organic farms that is.
So, if you can put up with a mouth full of bugs, you will do fine down here. lol.

Cheers!

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Finding wild gooseberries ✉ rare plant shipment ✉ ␘PAWPAWS SASSAFRAS!!!!␘

Pawpaw - fairchild/zimmerman

 What a looker.... lol

Ahh well, theyre alive.

We just received our order of 5 pawpaws, 1 Cornelian cherry and 1 Sassafras tree. All seem to be alive but time will tell. While we are in the agriculture business to sell food, we are also collectors of rare species, efficiency and economics be damned.

Variety is the spice of life so they say, and I tend to agree withem.
The sassafras tree is something Ive always thought about since I started gardening. When you enjoy cooking and growing your own food, you inevitably start wandering down the path of potential, and for some reason its always those plants with such a troubled history I crave to own so badly. Im not sure if its the allure or just our nightmarish history of how we treat plants (/things) plaguing me, putting my bulldog determination into high gear, trying to order/acquire every species possible before its gone or screwed up with genetic modification.

The Pawpaws we managed to get our hands on were as follows.

1. P.A Golden
2. Fairchild-Zimmermin
3. O Taytoo
4. Davis
5. Green river

Pawpaw Canada

Rare plants Ontario

Wild gooseberry

I thought I would take a trip around the property and see what I can find since spring is in the air and its never to early for a curious mind. Ive already come across some fossils of bone turning into quartz, dragon fly fossils, ancient crinoid blooms stuck in carboniferous limestone, a massive boulder with a rainbow-like quartz vein some 5 inches in width and 8 feet in length. There are heirloom apples on the hill and beach plums separating the pastures. Chaga lay on the fallen birch tree in the back, and heritage raspberry bushes fill every nook and cranny. An absolute smorgasbord of taste, history and experience.

Red gooseberry - poormans

 (poormans gooseberry potted last year)

You can see on the lower part of the plant where the old growth has weathered and turned a dark brown/maroon. This area will be filled with thorns.

( unless you have a newer variety that is semi-thorn less e.g "captivator")

 

Red gooseberry Ontario Canada

 ? This is a red gooseberry ( poor mans ) that I potted up last year.?

Wild gooseberry leaves

The leaves have almost a maple leaf like appearance and once you know the plant you will be seeing it everywhere. They have a strong stem and will hold the weight of the berries. Sometimes the plant can look intimidating, covered in thorns from stem to berry, but even then the fruit is still edible.... with proper preparation.

Wild raspberry canes

Old raspberry bushes by a drive shed, we will see what they have to offer after all these years.

Wild gooseberry stalk - old growth

 Wild goosebery bottom/middle stem.

Raspberry cane ( heritage )

Gooseberry plant identification

Wild gooseberry bush hidden. By the time the fruit is ready no-one would know where this bush is. Spring is probably the best time to go hunting for things like this

Gooseberry patch hidden

 Gooseberry patch

Gooseberry wild variety

I shot this with my iPhone as I didnt have my camera at the time, but I just wanted to show how mixed in these gooseberries actually are. This is right in the lawn, If I didnt know any better I would just be running this thing over with the mower or letting the goats nibble at it. 

( its the blurry plant in the middle)

Old 1850s double barn

Spring flowers

Purple spring flowers

 SPRING!

mini Rockhound dig Ontario

Old rock pile Ive been going through, found some outstanding specimens but Ive packed them all for now, more on this with another blog.

Catnip

Your cats favorite pastime, The infamous,...... CATNIP!.

strangely, some people find it smells funny, I kinda like it. Ive yet to make a tea from it, curious, as  Ive heard that certain concentrations, in certain people, will actually give experiences similar to marijuana. I have not had the time to experiment with this but since its just outback it seems a good a time as any.

Here goes......

 BOTTOMS UP!

catmint

gooseberries hidden

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