Meet the Flockers

If you check out an aerial map of Route 4 in Vermont before and after Tropical Storm Irene, you'll find in the before snapshot a road, a river and the green mountains, each element in perfect accord with the other.

Of course, the after photo shows no such thing.  The river ran rampant and left behind silt, destruction and very little else.

Freegrace survived; she's on a hill.  But our neighbors below couldn't say the same.  The village just minutes away was gutted.  Farms and residences stretching for miles destroyed.

One neighboring farm, a home to over a thousand chickens, sheep, a few pigs, a flock of ducks and a gaggle of geese (and of course lovely humans) was just one of the victims of Irene.  My neighbor Julie and I drove the few miles, along stretches of caved roads, to wrangle a few chickens into cages to take home.

Gesine Fosters Geese from Raymond Prado on Vimeo.

I also brought a few more boxes to round up the geese and Indian Runner ducks.  Unlike the hens, I won't be keeping the water fowl.  I'm simply the lucky foster mom who gets to enjoy their gentle antics until Suzy and her family have set their family and farm life to rights and can take them in again.  I'm also enjoying their eggs.  And don't think it hasn't occurred to me to incubate a few (or 10) so I might have a few fowl of my very own. In the meantime, I'm baking up a storm with this lovely new addition to my larder.  For a wonderful duck egg cake recipe, come visit me here.