Gus

 He celebrated his fourth birthday last month, man has the time flown. You know what they say about dogs, three years a puppy, three years a good dog, and three years and old dog. We are in our three years of good dog, well except when he gets in the trash! But don't worry Gus and I discussed it and he is going to live forever.

Check out that lip!! He has the best expressions for photos! You should see his under-bite-tong-hanging-out-on-the-side grin.

Garden Guest

We found this little guy hanging in the drive way. Mr. B rescued him from the threat of being run over by a car and placed him safely in my garden. I think he makes a nice addition. Check out the antennae on this moth!! Not sure what he is but he is huge and  neat to look at. 

New Arrivals

With Bernie's elopement and Patty's disappearance it was down to just Thelma in our gaggle. Now Thelma probably would have been content just hanging with the ducks and ruling the flock. Not this mama goose! As I told Mr. B, we can't just have one. 
Craig's List is an amazing place. I was able to find someone an hour away selling Toulouse goslings. We took a drive on Saturday and pick up five more. Let me telling you I was glad it was nice out and we were able to have the window rolled down. Nothing like five goslings in the back of the Jeep to stank things up. 
We did think about ordering them from the hatchery again, but it would have been expensive with the shipping cost and then you have to order a minimum of ten birds. I would have been happy having ten more geese to run around the acres but Mr. B had to put the kabosh on that. 
It seems like everyone is adjusting nicely to the new additions. They are a week or two younger than the birds we have so smaller than Thelma and about the size of the ducks. The pecking order is still being established. It is kinda humorous watching the ducks try and boss the geese around. Little do they know that it won't be long and they will be way bigger than them, and bigger than Thelma. A Toulouse goose is one of the heavier breeds of geese, we are talking between 13 and 20 pounds of goose! When we picked them up you should have seen the gander on their farm. Ginormous!! 
We are not sure on names just yet. Mr. B has decided that we need a Bruce, Bruce the Toulouse goose. And I think we need an Olga. We shall see. 

The Disappearance of Patty

Patrice is gone. Unlike Bernie I don't think that she meet some nice gander and ran away with him. This time I know for sure it was murder. She was taken off her nest sometime in the night. There were signs of a struggle, feathers on the ground near her nest. These feathers weren't the fluffy down that she has been using to keep her "egg" warm, but her big flight feathers. Further down the yard there were more piles of feathers as she was dragged off into the woods.

I am thinking from the lack of a body and the trail of feathers that she was taken by a fox. This mama goose is not happy. I hope that Mr. B and I are able to take care of this problem before he has a chance to take any of the little one. I do feel better knowing the babies are locked up at night, but we have had a fox come in broad daylight and take ducks before. 

It will be sad pulling into the driveway tonight. No silly geese to sass the car as I pull up the drive and waddle to the car to greet me. I will miss Patty and Bernie's silly antics. The way the "help" in the garden, how they would ninja up to Gus to get him, and how they would surround visitors cars. My poor silly birdie wordies are no more.  

Bernice Eloped

Bernice has been missing since last night. We were gone all day and she didn't come and great the car as usual when we got home. I was a bit worried but figured she was around and would be back in the morning. Still nothing when I left for work this morning. When I got home I walked the yard hoping that she was just late to build a nest and was hunkered down some were. Nothing. Called the neighbors, nothing. I am going to give it a few more days but my heart is telling me she is not coming home. I would like to believe that she met a nice gander and they entered a whirlwind romance and she decided to elope with him. Most likely  her fate was far worse than that. I had distanced myself all last fall and winter and was just starting to let my self bond. She was starting to let me pick her up and put her on my lap. We live in the country and let our geese free range so things like this are inevitable, but it still sucks every time. 

A Quilt Showcase

A few years ago I made a quilt for one of Mr. B's cousin's baby. We were still living in the apartment and I was looking for something to do. I wanted to give the baby a nice present that was meaningful for her baptism. I've known how to sew since I was in middle school and had finished one quilt that my grandmother had started. A hand made quilt would be a perfect present for a new baby. Ever since then I have been making a quilt for all the new additions to the families of our friends and relatives.

This particular quilt I started with no one particular in mind. Just wanted to make a bright quilt and try this tutorial, Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts is my hero. Seriously, this woman is amazing! The tutorial was supper easy to follow; I made some size modifications. But making a zig-zag quilt with out piecing oodles of half square triangles was pure awesomeness. Like I do with most of my baby quilts this puppy was hand quilted. I mirrored the zig-zag only in the white fabric.

 This quilt represents my first attempt at machine quilting. I was not brave enough to try any free motion quilting,instead i opted to quilt a quarter inch from the seams, making a grid. There are a few wavy spots, but over all it turned out fabulous and I will be using that quilting technique again.

The last one I made using purely fabric I had on hand. I found the cute animal print on mega clearance and Joanne's months ago and just had to snatch it up. I would be perfect in a baby quilt. I went back to hand quilting on this one, you can see some of the detail in the second picture. (Also the one spot were my corners did not match up, please ignore that)

These beauties will be going to their new homes in the next few weeks. It seems that the babies come in spurts, this time around four boys!! I am currently finishing the fourth one, pictures of that to come soon.

Shady Acres Take Out

Living in the sticks like we do our restaurant selections is rather limited, just a handful in a 15 mile radius of the house. The majority of those would be supper clubs, you know steak, chicken, and Friday night fish. We live in a very much meat and potatoes area. And out of these handful of restaurants not one delivers to us. No movie night with delivery pizza. No lazy Sunday afternoons watching old movies with Chinese take out.

We had to get creative. One area we have been working on is pizza. Frozen Digiorno, meh, it's alright. But remember that Mr. B and I are trying to make more of our food from scratch. That way we have more of a say as to what goes in it. We are getting there with our pizza. Still room for improvement but defiantly yummy! We found this crust recipe. Simple, easy, delicious, and freezes well. We are still tweaking the sauce part but its getting there. When we have it down I promise to share.

When Mr. B was in high school he worked at a mom and pop's pizza place. We have that working to our advantage. This is one meal were he takes over the cooking, he can be a perfectionist some times. I guess I don't spread the sauce quite right. Oh well we all can't be perfect at everything.