Listen to the Goslings Snore

Goslings 1 and 2.

I'm writing this with two snoring goslings in my lap. Wfooo...eeeeep.....Wfooo....eeep.

Steve has been dying to have livestock of his own for a year or so. He wants goats, but settled for geese after making plans with the Guild's resident potter to build a duck hut by the Guild pond. Geese will, evidently, act as guard dogs for ducks, which is my only excuse for cuddling with them like puppies.

I didn't plan on getting attached, but who can resist baby geese who want to sleep in your lap, preferably with a hand over them. Needless to say, we aren't planning on eating these geese. They will produced some eggs, perhaps 40 per year, assuming at least one of them is female, but in reality they will be pets. I have a feeling that we will forever have difficulty raising our own meat, which  why I cut back sharply on meat consumption a year or so ago.

Still, over the winter I watched the last of the Guild chickens suffer through the cold, only to get eaten by coyotes. In that case, it would have been better in my book to have butchered them in the fall, since they were past their prime egg laying days. Would I have thought the same if I had raised those chickens from chicks?

Socializing the geese in the bus.