Even the weeds are sorted and carted off to this animal or that animal or this group of birds. Manu is still a little mystified by real food. But Naomi is doing well at eating her vegetables and weeds and of course Poppy eats everything being a breast feeding mother and all. And all the chickens love their greens.
The girls had a lovely day weeding, it was not too hot. 
But I was in bed early – because I have a deep hacking cough. And it is exhausting. I so seldom get sick that I find myself bad tempered and frustrated with myself when I am a bit poorly. Plus this computer has decided not to accept any photographs sent from my new phone or upload anything from Camera House. So it might be time to buy a new card.
I will call the computer man today and Amanda took some photos with her phone and after a few tries my computer was able to receive them in an email. I know we are very lucky to even have this kind of technology but goodness it is frustrating when it does not work. Without all this we would not even have this blog. I should be more grateful but I am sick!
This is Geraldine. The little lone peahen. We don’t know if she is a peahen or a peacock but she is a feisty one. She is presently ruling the roost in the Turkey House. And doing very well.
I hope you have a lovely day. Do not be worried if I do not post tomorrow, it is possible that the computer needs work. And I need work. Thank goodness I have Amanda and her Mum to help out while I recover my health.
Amanda’s Grandmother puts goldfish in her water barrels to eat the mosquito larvae. And we have millions of mosquitoes this year. So tomorrow I might get some goldfish (when I am out getting a new card for Camera House and some cough mixture for these bloody lungs) and I am going to try this out. It sounds like a delightful idea. Though I will have to bring them in for the winter.
Oh and I almost forgot. Now that the calf is weaned from Lady Astor, we are getting PILES of delicious cream. So tonight we are making my favourite Russian meatballs with PILES of cream sauce.
Maybe I will put a few goldfish in the frog garden too. Hmm. We cannot get near that garden for the mosquitoes.
All is well on the farm except for my head.
Love your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
60 responses to “Selective Weeding.”
Gold fish in the water barrel….sounds interesting.
I heard that if you have ducks then you will never have mosquito problem. Maybe you can try that plus you don’t have to bring them in in the winter time, unless you put them in the freezer 😉
Hope you feel better tomorrow 🌻
Look after yourself. Amanda’s photos are great. Nice to see a pic of you in action… with Tina steaming ahead 🙂
Sorry to hear you are not well C, get better soon. We haven’t seen the turkeys since they hatched and they are so big. Cute little Geraldine. I know you have harsh winters, but I have Koi and I just stop feeding them fish food and turn off their waterfall and they survive winter just fine. Koi in Japan have to cope with frozen ponds and they all survive too. Laura
I’d love to send you some of our barking geckos, who can eat their own weight in mozzies in a day. Not much against your mozzie population, but it sounds as if you need to attack it from several fronts. And that cough, Celi, do please, please take care of yourself…. You work so hard, you’re out in all weathers, wet and cold, and I find it miraculous that you aren’t sick more often.
Feel better soon.
I hope you are better soon. That is a lovely little peachick.
I think goldfish are a wonderful idea. How deep is the frog pond? It might just work for that too! All that moisture might be growing some weird molds or pollens that got into the air. Take care of that cough.
Maybe I’ll put a few Mexican free-tailed bats in the mail for you. They love mossies!
I think the wet has something to do with it too. I will ask the pharmacist for an expectorant – I don’t know what is best here.
I put mosquito dunks in my water barrels and water garden. I’m pretty resistant to “treatments” of either synthetic or natural kinds, but I have a horrible mosquito problem and from everything I’ve read, they are really safe for every living thing but mosquitos. They are pretty cheap, too.
What is a mosquito dunk?
If you give in ‘mosquito dunk’ on Amazon you will get some Information, Celi. – Never heard of it before, either.
And I found this:
Biological mosquito control prevents your water garden from becoming a mosquito breeding ground. Used by professionals for more than a decade to effectively kill mosquito larvae before they mature into biting adult pests. Slowly released Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti), a biological mosquito larvicide, works for 30 days or more. Works fast on mosquito populations (within 24 hours) to treat up to 100 square feet of surface water, regardless of depth. 2″ diameter dunks can be easily broken up to treat small areas. Unused Dunks retain their potency indefinitely, so you can store them without waste.
Recommended usage: Place one Mosquito Dunk in pond for every 100 square feet of water surface, every 30 days.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=7487
Lots of Love, Irmi
Also, here is all you’d ever want to know about mosquitoes, forms of mosquito control…: anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8158.pdf
Get well soon!
Celi, when you upload photos from Camera House, do you delete them from the camera or on the computer. My cards died quickly and I was told it was because I cleared it while in the computer and not on the camera. Since I developed the habit of returning the card to the camera before deleting them, there has been no problem.
Do take care and rest as much as you can. I give you permission the have a hot toddy before bedtime!
I hope you feel better! Summer colds are the most miserable!
So sorry you are not feeling well…I wonder if it is a side effect of all the rain. It is good you have help. We have been revisiting the piggy videos today. They are so darling those wee piglets. In the first video, there is a moment where one of them narrowly escapes being squished under a flopping-down Poppy. I am sort of amazed by that near miss. They must happen all the time…Poppy is huge compared to them. But she does seem to be a very attentive Mum. I love the noises on the farm. All the birdsong. I think I would go into a sort of happy trance there. Take good care of yourself.
Nice, nice photos! Beautiful shot of the piggy kindergarten. And nice to see you – from very far – with your dogs and talking to one of the kune kunes. Is it Tane? With you in this photo I have a glance and imagination how big your barn is!
Oh for the cream! I love cream so much. And the butter made out of fresh cream…. mmmmh!
Take care of you, give you some rest! You need it. It’s great that you’ve got help. – And get well soon!
Honey and lemon and bourbon…… might not make you feel better – but it does taste very good. 😉
My livelihood is earned by fixing computer problems. Actually fixing software problems. And I even get very frustrated and ungrateful when they act up. So – you get a pass on your angst with the technology.
Yes – always format your card with your camera and not on your computer. When the computer says ‘Delete Photos from card?’ say NO….. My cannon owners manual went into a huge discussion on the why. I just saw “only clear the card by formatting it with your camera or deleting via the camera”, stopped there and said oh okay. I have a flash drive that is going on 8 years old now.
Would the frogs eat the gold fish?
That’s interesting, I obviously never read my camera manual properly! I have always cleared my card on my computer, and my card is coming up 3 years old now, so I wouldn’t complain too much if it did die. I wonder if it is just certain programs that kill cards or certain cards that don’t last as long? Or maybe I just got lucky with a good card. Who knows with computers!
I’m not surprised you’ve got the crud, mucking around in all that wet. You must be patient with yourself–the body is telling you something.
We always had goldfish in the big cement water tank. It was always fun to watch them clean the cows’ mouths when they would come to get a drink after being let out of the parlor. Some of those fish were well over 6 inches long. We had a tank heater in the winter so they stayed put. Some summers we would have hundreds of baby goldfish. Once in awhile we had to fish out a catfish. One of the cats would go fishing and fall in. Generally it was the same cat who never seem to learn its lesson about water, narrow ledges and curious cows. Love those little piglet pictures and videos.
The youngest and I were in Pontiac 2 weeks ago today. Stopped at Taco Bell for lunch after a quick trip to Chicago to collect his passport so he could go to Canada with the Boy Scouts the next day. Kept thinking about you and your passport adventure and that I should have paid closer attention at the time,