Mad Duck Disease

Certainly you've all heard of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy? No ? Where are you living? Under a rock?  Mad Cow Disease people, I'm talking about mad cow disease. But, worry not. The Bovines and their spongiforms are all doing well here.

In fact we all are doing well, with the exception of a couple ticked off ducks. This one in particular.

Apparently he did not get the memo about himself being the trade off for a felting lesson. Farm friend Kiyoshimino agreed to give me some pointers on felting (such as: if I don't jam the felting needle into the soap bar with the force of a construction worker using a jack hammer, I might avoid a few more breaking needles) in trade for a few ducks. Seems that I have decided to expand my soaping business into a felted soap business while Kiyoshi and his wife Emma decided to expand their egg business to include duck eggs.

We had ducks and Kiyoshi had talent so trades were made and a few feathers were ruffled.

Other events on the farm today were not so unhappy. Our weekly Stewards of The Land Farmers Market which started 3 weeks ago was FABULOUS ! The six farmers selling product this morning almost sold out, the weather was super with the exception of a few wind gusts that sent us scrambling for tents to keep them from liftoff, a local news reporter came by to do a story and the number of repeat customers was really encouraging. Yes, even the jokester who loves to yell out his window "Any tomatoes yet?"was amusing.

I think his name was Calvin.

Keith held down the farm while I was at the Farmers Market and he had 12 customers before noon and we had a combined 16 customers by the end of the day. This included our faithful Saturday regulars and several new raw milk customers. In between these much appreciated sales, I was able to do some gardening which was also a source of glee being as we had rain finally and the soil was heaven to work with.

Veggie seeds are sprouting and a flat of annuals were added to the secret garden.

This evening I banged out (literally as our keyboard requires some serious key pounding to work) an article for The Small Farmers Journal about Red Wattle Hogs which left Mad Max in a good mood. All in all a great day.

And now the link to Kiyoshi's Web Site for his beyond talented Felted Wool Art. I couldn't give it to you earlier because you once you see it you'll never come back to me, I just know it.