First the gulleywasher.
We've had a lot of rain in the past week- three substantial downpours.
No more questions about the origins of our gulley. This is the river running through it.
When there is a blockage of the drain pipe, it pools but eventually drains through.
That brown color is our soil eroding away- not good.
Tim is working with the soil and water conservation people to try to develop strategies to prevent further erosion.
It's going to take us a couple years but hopefully, eventually, it will get better.
Tim and the kids hiked down to see it up close and took a chicken on a field trip, too.
Today I realized that I haven't included much on the most effortless of our poultry- the guineas.
The guinea guys are a strange mix-
beautiful polka dot feathers and a hideous face,
lavender neck ruffle and bright salmon wattles,
hard working tick eaters and gratingly loud shriekers,
lousy brooders and wonderfully independent foragers.
They love to be together and most often when they start squawking,
it's because they've gotten separated.
The bad news- they can be ridiculously loud.
The good news- these guys are only loud about 5 minutes per day and
are super, crazy mind-numbingly loud only about 5 minutes per week.
And never at night.
Their favorite food is wood ticks so they are
near and dear to my heart.
Females are louder than males so we have 3 males and one female.
A 4H friend is incubating 20 eggs for us since the female laid them but wouldn't sit on them.
She even tried to lay some in Mama Muscovy's nest, the scammer.
Once we have a broody hen, we'll sneak guinea eggs into her nest and have regular crops of babies.
Females prefer males with large waddles, those bright red flaps hanging down by their beaks.
There's no accounting for taste.
Our three males have different sizes-
one small, one medium, and one large,
while the female has very small ones.
They look sort of like a lady dressed for a masquerade ball-
fancy polka dot dresses and this hideous death's head mask.
Super easy, the guineas.
I'd recommend them.
And now, for the gratuitous chicken picture.
Here's Sir Regal, our dominant rooster with a band-aid stick to his foot!
How undignified, Sire!
He shook it off seconds after I shot this.
Those grating paparazzi!
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