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*Go here* to find other CC posts!
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OK-I'm late but maybe not too late to add my CC post!
It's one of my very early posts about some geese we had in the past!
It involves
a story
a poem
and a picture!
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OK-I'm late but maybe not too late to add my CC post!
It's one of my very early posts about some geese we had in the past!
It involves
a story
a poem
and a picture!
~ some of my geese ~
I was (finally) persuaded to sell our 13 geese... which, truth be told, served no purpose except to annoy and terrorize anyone who came near them!
To feed the unpredictable (Ungrateful-foul) fowl, I had to walk with a big stick to keep them away from me!
One memorable day I was holding them back as I tried to turn on the water to freshen their kiddie pool I had set up for them. I was walking backward, keeping them back with the small branch I had picked up.
Suddenly, the flimsy tree limb broke and I fell backward, and 'Granddaddy' and another of his flock were on me, in a flash! I had to grab them by the neck and fling them off, but not before getting bruised by their sharp row of Teeth, along my arms-and even through my jeans! TEETH?? (If not teeth-they certainly passed for such!) I had bruises for days, after this event!
Lol- too bad no one was handy with a video camera! I might have become a STAR of ‘Funniest Home Videos or whatever that show was…Silliest old Goose Lady, more like it!
For a moment I felt like 'My goose was cooked!' :) But I 'Took the Bull By the Horns', so to speak; grabbing them around their long and scrawny necks and flinging them with all my might!
To add 'insult to injury' I had a minor hospital procedure scheduled soon after this day of my Geese Attack!
As I lay drugged, defenseless and naked on the table, I was being questioned about the bruises! The last thing I recall, before I was completely out, was explaining that my GEESE had attacked me! They probably doubted my story... :)
... This event didn't prompt the sale of my geese ... I still felt
responsible for them and they were happy in their domain which I
had created for them!
Hadn’t I rescued some of these very birds as helpless babies- dug them out of the mud after those torrential rains…, as they lay helpless on their backs-unable to turn over?
True- so I loved them- as mean as they were!
I just got a bigger stick! :)
... But after another couple years I was offered a good price for the
whole flock, and with my husband's urging, finally made the decision to let them go!
...Another weird twist to this geese story... the original buyers paid the whole amount in cash...took 2 geese and were to come back for the rest of them! ($100) Two months passed and they never returned...I had no way to reach them - not even their name!!
Meanwhile-I had another lady wanting to buy the remainder of my geese...Finally, we decided the original buyers were not going to return and my husband convinced me to let the lady have the remaining geese! So I DID -but not happily! :(
I got a combined price of over $200.00 for those geese!
LOL! But I had earned it - over the years I had them!
NOTE:
The original buyers never DID come back!
WEIRD!
To feed the unpredictable (Ungrateful-foul) fowl, I had to walk with a big stick to keep them away from me!
One memorable day I was holding them back as I tried to turn on the water to freshen their kiddie pool I had set up for them. I was walking backward, keeping them back with the small branch I had picked up.
Suddenly, the flimsy tree limb broke and I fell backward, and 'Granddaddy' and another of his flock were on me, in a flash! I had to grab them by the neck and fling them off, but not before getting bruised by their sharp row of Teeth, along my arms-and even through my jeans! TEETH?? (If not teeth-they certainly passed for such!) I had bruises for days, after this event!
Lol- too bad no one was handy with a video camera! I might have become a STAR of ‘Funniest Home Videos or whatever that show was…Silliest old Goose Lady, more like it!
For a moment I felt like 'My goose was cooked!' :) But I 'Took the Bull By the Horns', so to speak; grabbing them around their long and scrawny necks and flinging them with all my might!
To add 'insult to injury' I had a minor hospital procedure scheduled soon after this day of my Geese Attack!
As I lay drugged, defenseless and naked on the table, I was being questioned about the bruises! The last thing I recall, before I was completely out, was explaining that my GEESE had attacked me! They probably doubted my story... :)
... This event didn't prompt the sale of my geese ... I still felt
responsible for them and they were happy in their domain which I
had created for them!
Hadn’t I rescued some of these very birds as helpless babies- dug them out of the mud after those torrential rains…, as they lay helpless on their backs-unable to turn over?
True- so I loved them- as mean as they were!
I just got a bigger stick! :)
... But after another couple years I was offered a good price for the
whole flock, and with my husband's urging, finally made the decision to let them go!
...Another weird twist to this geese story... the original buyers paid the whole amount in cash...took 2 geese and were to come back for the rest of them! ($100) Two months passed and they never returned...I had no way to reach them - not even their name!!
Meanwhile-I had another lady wanting to buy the remainder of my geese...Finally, we decided the original buyers were not going to return and my husband convinced me to let the lady have the remaining geese! So I DID -but not happily! :(
I got a combined price of over $200.00 for those geese!
LOL! But I had earned it - over the years I had them!
NOTE:
The original buyers never DID come back!
WEIRD!
The poem below resulted after these events took place.
The Absence of Geese
The absence of geese
improves the landscape
not at all, as far as I can see!
Sold- to rid us of the aggravation -
the care and feeding - to set us free!
Well, it didn’t happen!
(Or is it only me?)
The pasture now seems sad, forlorn, so empty,
with the profound absence of familiar
barnyard sounds!
Yet, with, traces still of, feathers floating ‘round!
They’re picked up, randomly,
by gusts of winter wind!
They flutter, briefly, silently,
then once again they settle on the ground.
June Kellum
Junie
The absence of geese
improves the landscape
not at all, as far as I can see!
Sold- to rid us of the aggravation -
the care and feeding - to set us free!
Well, it didn’t happen!
(Or is it only me?)
The pasture now seems sad, forlorn, so empty,
with the profound absence of familiar
barnyard sounds!
Yet, with, traces still of, feathers floating ‘round!
They’re picked up, randomly,
by gusts of winter wind!
They flutter, briefly, silently,
then once again they settle on the ground.
June Kellum
Junie
What a funny story. I would be afraid of them, too. I remember going to a halloween carnival one time and they had an event called "ring the neck of the goose". You got three tries to do this. Well, the goose got loose and was running through the crowd in the school gym biting everyone there! I have been scared of them ever since. Love the poem, too.
ReplyDeleteI imagine they believed that story in the OR. Who would make it up? :)
ReplyDeleteI love your story and poem Junie!! I certainly understand your compassion when you found them and the months of caring for them we become so attached! I also understand the mean side of geese. When I was a girl we had a gander that got it's jolly's by attacking me every time I went outside. He didn't go after anyone else, just me.
ReplyDeleteWhen dad butchered him and mom roasted him I was so relieved, and I never tasted a better bird. I actually enjoyed biting his flesh. LOL
haha-Bev!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't think I could have eaten our geese! (silly old lady that I am...we never even ate our chickens!!) Anyway-I bet my old granddaddy would have been too tough to eat- mean as he was!! :)
Hugs))
Junie
Hi Judy,
ReplyDeleteI guess most geese are just mean natured like that!
I have wondered, though, if things might have been different if I had just got rid of the old big 'granddaddy!' He was huge and seemed to be the ring-leader! AHH-well-I don't expect I'll ever have geese again- although they ARE very pretty !
Junie
:)
ReplyDeleteAC-I was afraid they'd think my husband had put the bruises on me-LOL-It WAS an outlandish way to get beat up!!
Junie
3:27 PM
Junie, that is such a postcard picture until you read the story - they weren't as innocent as they looked.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine. I would have sold them at the first sign of aggression. :)
I love that story Junie...and yes, I've heard that geese can be pretty nasty. My husband had a bunch of them living near a pond where he worked years ago, and he said they actually go after and attack people.
ReplyDeleteI loved your poem...as always.
Love and hugs to you sweetie... ~Joy
You certainly put a new face on the phrase getting goosed Junie. I imagine it was a scary few moments for you.
ReplyDelete:) Mary! Funny!
ReplyDeleteOh yah, I got goosed real good-and it was scary! It HURT too- enough to leave bruises that lasted about a week!
Joy,
ReplyDeleteYes- they are mean. They would chase our dogs and fight them-also they would chase us on the golf cart!
I don't know why I kept them so long!!
Carletta,
ReplyDeleteLOL- yes- they are 'pretty in pictures!':)