DocAndersen
Many years ago, when I was 10 to well I never really stopped, I used to go to my grandparent’s house. As I got older, it was for less time. But when I was 10, it was often for a month. My grandparents lived on a Lake in Wisconsin. One year when I was about 12 or so, I saw a Candian Goose (in the pictures) for the first time. I had seen them in the air before, but this was geese actually on the ground. They were, or they had landed on the beach area my grandfather had built for people that stayed in the cottages behind my grandparent’s house. I remember the mistake I made, I suspect in retrospect, and now being a parent myself that I lost before I opened my mouth.
“wow, that is a beautiful bird,” I said.
My grandfather looked at me, “Then you won’t mind cleaning up after them?”
I said, “sure.”
I mind! There were little greenish piles of leftovers all over the yard and the beach. Every morning that summer, I had to go and clean up the area of the yard where the geese were. They were, within two days, not as beautiful as they were when I first saw them. I remember going to the bird feeder and taking all the bird feeders out of the feeder (I am very sorry, Carol, I was a young person when I transgressed!). I reduced the pleasant nature of the yard by mowing that area twice a week. By the end of the 2nd week, the geese were gone. The next year I showed them away. But that first year, I learned a valuable lesson about just how messy Geese are.
Oh yeah, I also learned not to poke my grandfather. Or as he always said: when you are in a cage with a sleeping bear, DON’T POKE THE BEAR with a stick to see if it is awake.” I still love to see Geese, but now I prefer to see them at a distance!
Such a lovely photo! He seems proud to be a goose.
i think if I remember correctly mama goose was on the other side of the pool. He was making sure I didn’t leave the porch!
MMM, yes, an evil monster. Okay, it is pretty too.
they were pretty at a distance