Peony

Our frontgarden was a mess - I got fed up with weeds enshrouding all plants so today I dug it all under. Only two lovely Peony shrubs survived my "plantslaughter".

Brook

Although still no rain, water in our little brook keeps running. Our geese love to get their feet wet in it.

Weather forecast: Tomorrow rain!

Since the beginning of May the weather forecast predicts rain for tomorrow. Every day has a tomorrow and at the end of the day tomorrow becomes today. And today it doesn’t rain, because it will (eventually) rain tomorrow. We start to wonder when it finally will be tomorrow since we really really need rain today (or tomorrow)!

Feeding geese

It's is dinner time!

How to feed fifty young geese; Take one wheel- barrow of stinging nettles (+/- 5 kg), one big bundel of comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) and two scoops of 20% CP gosling starter ration without any medication against coccidiosis. Cop the greens in small pieces, mix all ingredients with some water and you have the perfect geese grower ration. They will love it. In addition they should have free access to good quality pasture during the day.
Hogging down food as much and as fast as they can

Rain

We still live in the Sahel like we did last ten years. Watering five thousand precious trees with a motorpump and garden hose is a lot of work. Our neighbour deepened our watering hole with a digger so we do not have any water shortage. However a nice shower would be very welcome.

Livestock

Mum

Although being rather dry without rains for weeks and weeks, most plants including weeds in our vegetable garden are doing rather well. Our geese love spinach, peas etc so weeding has to be done with other means.
You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she still will hurry back.
Horace (65-8 BC)

Friends

Budding!

Biological grass-mowers

Our weeding team has arrived. They are supposed to keep our Christmas tree plantation free of undesired greens. At present they are doing a big grass-mowing job in our courtyard. Although just two weeks old – fifty geese eat a lot and produce loads of droppings!

Drought

Weeks without rain. Our field starts to look like the Sahara. We are watering our trees who try to keep their heads up withstanding the burning sun. Today the meteo predicts rain in the whole of Slovakia except in a tiny, beautiful southern part of the country......

Composition in yellow and purple

Planting

We got them planted. All five thousand. In our very dry loamy-clay soil with loads of stones, within four and a half very hot days. The trees absolutely got a temperature shock, we hope they will survive.