Tales from Wannabea Farm

Walking around the Flea Market one day last spring I spotted some geese and with a closer look I saw some beautiful, fuzzy goslings. No feathers yet, just a downy fuzz all over and stubby little nubbins that would later become wings. It was love at first sight. I had wanted some geese for quite a while but they were so expensive in all the poultry catalogs that I just didn't feel that I could afford them. But these were like $20 for a pair. Now that I could afford.

Now the only problem was how to tell which was female and which was male. The man selling them didn't know. The men sitting around gossiping with him didn't know. And I certainly didn't know. Finally I settled on the biggest one and the smallest one, paid my $20, stuck them in a box and headed for home.

"Hi Honey", I smilingly called to Mr. Wonderful on arriving back at the WannaBeaFarm. "Oh no" he replied, "you're back awfully early and what’s with that guilty looking grin on your face. What have you done now?"

"Oh Honey" I gushed, "you should see the cute little pigs they had at the Flea Market. They are just so cute. Just one wouldn't be a problem, would it?"

He must have turned seven shades of white. He hated pigs. "You didn't" he gasped, turning another couple of shades lighter.

Dragging the box out of the truck I said "Of course not, but I've got the cutest little goslings you've ever seen." He was so relieved that he didn't have to deal with a pig that I could have handed him a box of snakes and he wouldn't have cared.

They were so cute, still just baby fuzz on them. I fixed them up with their own suite (stall) in the barn, and their own private swimming hole (wading pool). The old cat couldn't figure them out. She just laid there watching them, swinging her tail back and forth, and wondering if they were edible or not. I named them Romeo and Juliet hoping that they were not both the same sex and that the cat didn't get them.

Two days later I was wondering how to get that nasty wading pool out of there and emptied without flooding the whole barn. Couldn't do it, flooded the barn, got it all over me, and it STUNK! How on earth could two such beautiful little bundles of fluff stink so bad? And now I stunk too! I finally got the wading pond out and replaced with smaller water containers that the nasty little things fouled immediately but at least they were easier to empty and refill.

A few weeks later it was time to turn them out. The goats were all standing around, watching me, hoping I would give them some corn. Opening the gate, I stood back and watched, wondering how they would get along with the chickens, guineas and goats. They ignored the chickens and guineas, hissed at the cat and scared her half to death, and then the most astonishing thing happened.

They went up to each goat and stretching out their necks they reached up and touched every one of them on the nose with their bill as if they were introducing themselves. After they had all been properly introduced they all went out to the pasture, Romeo and Juliet right in the middle of the goats.

Now that my little bundles of fluff are grown they are the ones to lead the goats out to the pasture and back to the barn every day. I’m not sure that they know they are geese. I sometimes wonder if they think that they are swimming goats.