As expected, 9 goslings hatched over the course of Wednesday and Thursday. Eight are fit and active, but one has a defective foot, and needed assistance getting out of the egg. It seems to be gaining strength, though, and the others accept it as one of the gang.

I had my mobile by the incubator whilst one of the goslings was going through the final stages of hatching (the whole process, from the first crack in the eggshell, can take up to 2 days), and took a series of videos of it actually struggling free of the shell. I’ve edited these into one film which can be seen to the left.

Sorry about the quality – it’s a very cheap phone!

One of the criteria when we were looking to move to Devon, was finding somewhere with enough land to “play with”. Welle House has 1½ acres, and the back part had previously been separated off into a paddock. We ploughed a section of this up for vegetables, but this still left a large area unused. We put a few chickens on this (more on these in a later post), but these didn’t keep the grass down, and cutting the lawns proper was taking enough time, without having to do the paddock as well.

After much thought and debate, we settled on geese, and last spring

bought 12 goslings from a breeder near Exeter. Over the course of the year, we lost one, but this was replaced by a gander owned by a friend in the village. Come Christmas, 7 of the original 12 became Christmas dinners for ourselves and others, and we were left with 2 ganders and 3 geese.

The day after Valentines day, the geese started producing eggs, and 7 of these were placed in an incubator. 28 days later and the 3 citizens shown in the photograph duly appeared. At the time of the photo (early April) they were less than a week old. They are now on grass, still looking cute, but not nearly as cute as this

And the real thrill (or frightening part) is that, after these 3 hatched, I put another 13 eggs in the incubator, and having checked last night, on Tuesday or Wednesday, we should have another 9 goslings to join these 3. AND I’m putting more eggs aside to incubate after they hatch.

The question is, when will I find time for the Bed & Breakfast!

Ok. The first two attempts sucked. Trouble was, I hadn’t really decided what I wanted to do. I now have.

This blog will be what I think a blog should be – a journal of my thoughts of the life I lead. And the first rule should be that it is for my benefit – something I can look back on in future years – and if others find it of interest, so much the better.

To start, however, I should probably put down some background.

I gave up office life in London about 3½ years ago, the plan being to sell up there, and buy a place in the South Hams of Devon – somewhere we could make a living income from, and somewhere we could enjoy a real quality of life. We found this house – 10 bedrooms, 3 (plus a bathroom) for the family, 4 (all en suite) for bed & breakfast, and 3 (plus 2 bathrooms and a 30 foot through kitchen lounge) self catering holiday accommodation. In addition, Welle House (this place) had 1½ acres of land – more than enough for ignorant city exiles to play with.

What we hadn’t budgeted for was where the house was – East Prawle. East Prawle is a small village of about 200 souls (not including the holiday home owners) in the southernmost point of Devon. That’s what the guide books will tell you. What you cannot appreciate until you live here is the depth of the community spirit, and how warmly we were absorbed (and that is the best word for it) into that spirit. Within 1 month of moving in, we knew we were home.

And it has only got better.

My plan is to use this to mix in our history here since we moved in with observations demonstrating why we have really found the “good life”.

The hedgerows remain weighed down with fruit. Several gallons of blackberry and sloe wine have already been started, and it will soon be time to gather the rosehips, which make a superb rosé. Our friends Rod & Poppy have let us into their orchard, and as a result we have about 2 cwt of apples, which should make enough apple wine and cider to see us through the winter. Local lore says that the abundant berries mean a hard winter!

Our holiday cottage is now let through Christmas and New Year, so Welle House should be jumping this December!

If it doesn’t work, no harm, but I think it may work.

Time will tell.