Something different

We have neighbours who have geese.  And, as everyone knows, geese produce eggs LOL

Apparently, they only lay from late August to the end of October.  Goose Lady told me that apparently last year they had to throw away over 60 eggs.  Me - with my way back Grant clan Scottish roots, and my frugal nature - I'd probably have frozen them...

Why?

Because goose eggs are not small.  It would appear that one goose egg equals three to four hens eggs.  And judging from the pic below that fact is correct. I must say though, the yolk of a goose egg is huge - there is far more yolk than albumen.  That is probably what accounts for the high cholesterol content of goose eggs

Jumbo (66gms +) brown chicken eggs versus
white goose eggs.  Unfortunately my kitchen
scale is still packed in the moving boxes, so I
couldn't weigh the goose egg.

Calories and Fat

If you stick to one chicken egg as part of your meal, you'll consume just 72 calories, but one goose egg contains 266 calories. There is also more fat in a goose egg than a chicken egg, including more saturated fat. One large chicken egg contains 4.75 g of total fat, with 1.56 g of that being saturated. One goose egg contains 19.11 g of total fat, with 5.1 g being saturated. If you are trying to reduce your intake of saturated fat, a chicken egg may be the healthier choice for you.

Cholesterol

A high cholesterol diet may increase your risk of heart disease so it is important to limit your intake. Eggs are one of the most well-known sources of cholesterol, and both chicken and goose eggs contain cholesterol. If you are on a low-cholesterol diet, speak with your doctor about whether or not any kind of egg has a place in your diet. One large chicken egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol, and one goose eggs contains 1,227 mg of cholesterol.

(Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/528020-nutritional-stats-on-chicken-eggs-vs-goose-eggs/#ixzz26LvPSYRH)

Cracking a goose egg in the frying pan results in half the pan being covered.

For scale, that is a dessert spoon next
to the frying pan.

But, I always try and crack all chickens eggs (and now goose eggs) as close to the pointy end as possible, so that I can use the empty egg shells as seedling propagators.  However, Goose Lady heroically offered to blow any eggs they used.  And she gave me the empty shells.

White goose eggs

I feel a craft, or two, coming on...

...and...

...I have been told there is a chance of a baby gosling or two...  RMan is ecstatic!

Keeping busy

Hmmm - I mean keeping busy once we are on the farm :)

Until then I still have lots of packing to do LOL

But - once we are there, I need to have loads to fill my days - apart from building phase 2 of our home, unpacking the loads of boxes, and re-arranging the furniture and planting trees or tending to the veggie patch.

Obviously I am not going to be mixing lime and cement and laying bricks, nor will I be applying a high lime render.  And I will not be clambering up a half-finished building to assist with the installation of the roof beans or recycled resin roof tiles.  But, I will be helping RMan to paint the walls both inside and out with an eco-friendlier low VOC paint :)

So - I can foresee quite a bit of hurry up and wait time.  And I can't start planting seeds until August, with the majority going into the seed trays / ground in September.

Providing the sun shines, to fill my time I have my solar oven.  If it doesn't, I have my pewter work.  And, thanks to a lesson from DD, I now have a new hobby...

... mosaic-ing.  Perfect!

I came across some numbers which would be perfect for such a beginners project.  And they will provide easy future identification and location of our property.  To try out this new past time, I purchased the tile cutter, relevant numbers and some special mosaic tiles.

The parts required

After deciding on my pattern, I got to work.

Progress shot

A bit of grout, and - Voilà!  We have our property number all ready to be installed on the soon to be purchased farm gate.

Complete, and all ready to place on our
soon-to-be new farm gate

But - that gave me an idea.  We were given a trolley - many, many years ago - as a wedding present.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with the trolley, apart from a broken tray.

Surely this is salvageable

Why could I not join the broken pieces with some mosaics - as long as I don't load that tray too heavily, or remove it from the trolley, it should work perfectly...?

A bit of glue should do the trick...

So - that is what I am going to do.  Why discard a perfectly serviceable item when we can probably still get a good few years use out of it?  And it will function perfectly as a side table on our patio.

The broken tray can go on the lower section :)

Want not, waste not.  After 18-odd years of living in the same home, and completing loads of renovation projects, we have plenty of leftover "spare tiles".  They will be perfect as mosaic tiles.  I'm even considering how to use the glass from RMan's beer bottles...

I have plenty of ideas - and all of them are eco-friendly and involve recycling :)  Bloody marvellous mate :)

As I progress I'll share my finished items with you all - if you'd like to see?

Now - to convince RMan that left over tiles are valuable (to me) and should be schlepped along with us on the move.

"Clutter, clutter, clutter", I can hear him mutter...