Farewell to Ginger

Queen Ginger has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  She lived over 17 years which is a long life span for a goat.  She graced Prairie House with nearly 20 jumping, joyful, entertaining kids in her time here.  Without a doubt Ginger had the best personality of all the goats who have occupied space at Prairie House.  She was an awesome mother, to the point she stole babies from other does and claimed them as her own. 

In her later years, her coat had much less cashmere than in her youth, much the same as my hair is not as lustrous as in the past.  In her last year her joints were obviously stiff on occasion…another thing I can relate to!  Her eyes were bright and her mind was clear until her time to go.  She had lost most of her teeth so she was fed separately from the others and they complained loudly when Ginger was out of the barnyard and allowed to nibble treasures in the yard.  Spring was a great time to be feasting on the young, tender leaves of the crabapple trees.

It seems only fitting that now she is gone, the original Prairie House Saga will come to a close.  This will be the last posting to Prairie House Chronicles while I take a break and ponder life:  its values, its costs, its opportunities and its losses.  Thank you for following the happenings here throughout the years.

I will let you know when life once again brings joy to Prairie House.

Rain! Wonderful rain!

On Thursday and Friday the tri-state region of northwest Kansas, southwest Nebraska, and northeast Colorado saw its first widespread beneficial precipitation event since the middle of January.   Fire danger has been high and frightening.  We had a 300+ acre fire within 5 miles our Prairie House. 

It was wonderful to see the rain falling and making puddles.

The ducks thought it was terrific as well!

Just enjoying some sunshine and taking a bath.  No, he isn't wearing a hat.  He is a crested duck.

Dressed down by a cat.

Apparently Slippers followed me into the shop yesterday after “helping” me gather eggs.  I did not see him in there, but he was obviously resting somewhere.  

Today I had some items to put into storage there and after I opened the door, Slippers scolded me for 3 solid minutes.    As you can se from his scowl, he was not a happy camper.  He told me how terrible he had been treated and continued to harangue me as we walked from the shop to the house.  He entered the house, got a drink of water and is still complaining.  Although I have explained to him it was HIS fault he got left in the shop, he refuses to accept my explanation.  I sure hope he stops griping soon or his next overnight stay might be the barn!

Spring Dance

The three turkeys are dressed up and ready to welcome spring!

Punxsutawney Phil prediction disputed!

Ms. Moscovey duck respectfully disagrees with the groundhog, saying he is a fool.

She knows spring is coming in less than 6 weeks...more like 3.

She started filling her nest with eggs knowing is will be spring before we humans know it:

Days prior to the groundhog's announcement, she started dedicating her time to the incubation process:

The cute little fluffballs are due the first week of March. These were just some of what hatched at Prairie House last year.

Do I know you?

I was with a group of friends the other day and noticed a man at the deli counter who looked like an old acquaintance of mine.  I walked up beside him and put my arm around his shoulders while asking "Are you behaving yourself?"  It was then I realized...I really did NOT know this man--he was not who I originally thought he was.  He looked at me puzzled as he said with some hesitation, "I am".

Not to let my chagrin show to the group, as I removed my arm from his shoulders I told him "Well, you stay out of trouble okay?",  just like I would say to an old friend.  Then I turned and joined my group of friends.  The gentleman finished his order at the deli and went into the dining room to enjoy his sandwich. 

As luck would have it, when I went to pay my bill, no one was at the register so I had to wait a bit for someone to be available.  Guess who was behind me a couple of people back.  You got it!  The mystery man.  He was still looking at me quizzically, undoubtedly trying to figure out when/where we had met before.

He may still be wondering today.  Then again, maybe he wrote it off as being accosted by some unhinged old lady who is obviously senile and he hoped they would get her back into the home soon.

Purple Passion Flower

As I was watering my plants today I discovered this surprise bloom on the Purple Passion Plant.

The White Turkey

Last fall I traded one of the Royal Palm tom turkeys I had for a Broad Breasted white hen turkey.  She fit into the group quite well and in the spring laid a clutch of eggs in a nice nest.  She patiently sat on them until she had about a dozen cute little BRONZE colored turkeys under her wings.  (I suspect she may not have been a purebred as I was told!)  Unfortunately, she lost half of those babies the first night as she took them out into the yard and some got stuck on the wrong side of the fence, couldn't reach their momma to crawl under her for warmth and got too cold overnight.  It was sad to find them the next morning.  Eventually, she lost all of the others as well.  No wonder turkeys have such large broods!

Still determined to be a mother, she again laid a clutch of eggs.  At one time I was sure the coyotes had gotten her as I could never find her in the yard.  Then one day I saw her getting a drink and eating some grain.  She headed back out into the far pasture after getting her fill.  Alas!  I found her nest and it had so many eggs in it I wondered how she could possibly cover them all well enough for them to hatch.  But hatch them she did and another 14 little bronze fuzzy birds appeared.  She kept them together in the barnyard for a couple of days and then each day they wandered farther out.  The last time I saw them they were headed toward the west and did not return that night.  There is a pond over there which I'm sure she thought was a better location than here at Prairie House where it is already crowded with birds.

There are two households to the west of here which is the direction she was headed.  I talked to one of the neighbors a few weeks later and asked her if she had seen the white turkey with the babies; she said she had not.

I saw the neighbor again just the other night while we were both helping out at the food bank.  She said she asked her husband if he had seen the white turkey and he said, "Oh yeah.  The neighbors dogs killed it like they do everything else can get a hold of."  She didn't seem to be very happy with the neighbor's dogs either.

Needless to say I am sad.  I didn't mind so much that she ran away, but I was really hoping she was a survivor and I might see her around again this spring.  Hopefully some of he babies survived.

Thor's buddy Terrible Hank

Meet Terrible Hank.

His name is a misnomer.  He really is a sweetheart.  Just over a year old.  Like Thor, his feet are awfully large for the size of his body.  His tail looks like a feather duster.