Tag Archives: geese

Checking In

Today I am tired.

Some days are like this.

A tired that goes so far beyond the normal wish for an extra hour of sleep or another cup of tea that I don’t know what I can relate it to.

And I am too tired to try.

Suffice it to say that a brain out of energy is a different tired.

It’s a – I tried to walk the dogs but found myself lying in the sun in the orchard on a 20 degree day- tired.

It’s the kind of tired I hope you don’t know.

But if you do.

I hope your feathered and furred friends check in on you, like mine did.

Blue Skies and Bath Time

Despite the popular misconception that geese, and ganders in particular, are jerks, I am here to report that of my veritable menagerie of animals this guy is the only one that wasn’t causing problems today.

Of course if you have a bath to yourself under beautiful blue skies on an unseasonably warm day, what do you have to be grumpy about?

Top Secret

Sweet Pea the goose is laying eggs. While she is doing her best to keep the location secret we have been penning the geese in the yard for just that reason and we found her and her eggs deep in the gooseberry patch.

Perhaps once we make some delicious goose egg custard, a few giant omelettes and the next cold snap passes, we will let her try and hatch out a few of her own. Until then she’s going to have to try harder to keep the location secret!

I’m participating in the April Square hosted by The Life of B!

What’s Good for the Goose…

Last week we had an ice storm. 

No, that’s overly dramatic and not very accurate.

Last week we had lots of nice beautiful snow.  Then the temperature did un-winter like things and the precipitation that fell was not snow. One morning I woke up to discover that we no longer had snow. Instead we had white ground covering what looked like snow but was actually ice and it was still raining/sleeting/hailing/anything-but-snowing.

It’s like snow, but instead ice with hail frozen to it’s surface between the puddles of water. Notice the dog isn’t even running- it was that slippery.

I headed out to do the chores and while ice was glistening on all the branches making a beautiful sight it took me an unprecedented amount of time to haul my buckets of water across the ice that was masquerading as a snowy yard to the birds. 

I let my birds out and the geese walked down their ramp and tried to walk across the snow-ice to their water pan but their big ol’ feet kept slipping in old ruts and they fell on their faces.  I would have taken a video but they don’t like me laughing at them and if they found out I had done that they would have held a grudge. You don’t want a goose with a grudge.

Instead, I slipped and slid and swore my way over to the brooder house with it’s winter supply of straw and then slipped and slid and swore my way back over to the poultry and spread them a nice layer of straw so they could stand and walk without slipping. Satisfied they’d be fine for the day I started back toward the house doing my now second-nature awkward penguin shuffle with the tiny steps as slipped in and out of every old foot print I ever made, occasionally flapping my arms like a dancing ostrich to keep my balance.

Then I stopped the insanity, looked back at the geese happily walking on their straw and headed back to the brooder house.

You know what they say, What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.

And me and the dogs…

Happy with my straw trails, I shortcuted through the non-slippery house to the front to see what sort of beautiful ice coatings I could find and to check out the driveway.

The ice was indeed beautiful.

The driveway was indeed ice.

But what’s good for the goose…

… it looked odd, it was a bit unorthodox but it worked!

 

 

April Snow Woes

It’s that problem you have when the day before the ground was solid mud but today it’s all snow covered and frozen.

When you are accustomed to being a glorious white but the mud has lingered and you are are hardly fit to be seen.

When all the puddles and ponds have frozen and all you have left is a water bowl.

And it’s just too small for a decent bath.

 

 

Getting My Ducks in a Row

I’m getting all my ducks in a row.*

In the upstairs of the garage I’ve got a single duckling (and the four impulse-buy chicks) – except for nice days when I put them outside.

There are 10 ducks and the two geese locked up in their brand new (Thank you Dad!!!) coop for the next few days until they learn to call it home. I think it’s going well but it’s hard to say.  Every time I open the door to check on them chickens try to jump in and I have to go get them back out without letting the ducks and geese out. This upsets everyone.

The remaining five ducks are all sitting on eggs in what is now once again the brooder house. And now that the other ducks and geese are out of the way, I’ve been able to close their small fenced-in yard so that the chickens stop dumping eggs in their nests.

The chickens are, of course, everywhere.

At least they all know how to go back to the proper coop at night. Well, except for the one that’s been sitting on eggs next to the house…

Yes, I’m getting my ducks all in a row, the chickens however refuse to line up properly.**

*Literally.

** Ok fine, figuratively too.

 

The March of Dandelion

He marches through the orchard at a slow and stately pace. Head held high, he rocks sternly from side to side as he passes by. Often covered in mud but too proud to acknowledge that he may be anything less than feathered perfection, he carries on. Occasionally he trips over something that didn’t bow to his greatness and move out of his way. Sometimes that thing is a stick, or a log, sometimes it’s a duck. No matter, he marches on, ignoring anything rude enough to get in his path and expressing his disdain for them by refusing to acknowledge anything that creates a bump in his road and simply walks through it. Occasionally he falls down, but his head never bows, and I wouldn’t dare laugh for I suspect he thinks he’s the king of the orchard.

But, I have news for him, I’m the queen. And while he’s been an exemplary gander, he would do well to remind all his subjects that when I say “Off with their head!” nobody gets a trial.

Our pair of geese are just about a year old and we are hoping to hatch babies this spring. They have such different personality and attitudes than the chickens or ducks and I am so glad I was finally convinced to add them to our place. Don’t worry, I truly have no intention of getting rid of my gander. However my orders were carried out this past weekend on a few extra male ducks… It’s advisable to be on your best behavior when you are living under the reign of The Queen of Hearts.