Category: geese (Page 2 of 2)

When the offer from Mrs. Judy came for Gary to have a potential mate, as much as it is fun to have him hang around me, I figured it would be great if he could have his own goose; and so, we accepted her offer of bringing one down during this last Fall’s Ranchfest.

At first, we didn’t know what to name her. But I kept calling her “Girlie Goose”, because, well, she sort of is. That led to us thinking about the first initials of that name; and so, we decided to call her Gigi, which also sounds nice with Gary’s name :).

Here is a video of their introduction and other times together. At one point on intro day, they went off into the woods together; and so we had to chaperone them back. The video ends with our nightly walk back to the barn where they spend the night:

This video has Gary bringing me back from work so he can show off for and try to impress his “lady”:

While Gary still follows me around if I am in the area; all of the rest of time, he sits with Gigi, mostly next to the goat pens. I am hoping he makes the switch to her at some point to make her his mate. Mrs. Judy said perhaps this might happen during her “cycle”, perhaps in Spring.

There have been signs of her wanting to be around him as well, shown in a couple of ways. One has been what seems like her sometimes squawking when Gary is not visible to her. Another has been that she is often hesitant to come into the barn at night unless she knows Gary is already in there. Gary will squawk at someone making a coughing noise; and sometimes when she is undecided about whether to enter the barn or not, I will fake-cough enough to get him to squawk several times; and she will turn from where she is going and then come into the barn.

We’re thankful to Mrs. Judy for giving us Gigi, and to the Lord for granting Gary hopefully a mate (even though I’ll miss his company 🙂 ).

— David

I guess Gary must have really been listening to Michael’s latest sermons:

The Biblical Case for the Beard, Part 1:    Audio  :  Sermon Notes
The Biblical Case for the Beard, Part 2:    Audio  :  Sermon Notes

Good job, Gary!

— David

Before we go too much further with things, let us introduce to you Gary the Goose. Gary was originally the Bunkers’ goose from when they lived up north, and they brought he and his mate down with them when they moved. Gary’s mate sadly was taken out by some critter one day or night, and so Gary was left alone at the Bunker pond. Geese apparently mate for life, are protective animals, and often die soon after their mate dies. Well, Gary seemed to have some different ideas, because he appeared soon after to adopt to himself a gasoline engine powered water pump the Bunkers were using to pump water from their pond (we assume because it made noise). However, with the frequent visits from one of the young men working in Michael’s household, Gary moved on to adopting him and slowly made his way up to the Bunker cabin area, following this fellow around wherever he went.

Well, Gary started disrupting the Bunkers’ brooding hens, and Michael was not pleased with that. “Unless circumstances change…to the soup pot with you, Gary!” he declared. We thought, hey, we have room for him and he’s not much maintenance, so we offered to take him. Michael let us have him, and we moved him up to our land.

Here’s moving day:

Since then, Gary has pretty much inserted himself into just about every outside aspect of our lives. He follows David around just about everywhere he goes (apparently David is Gary’s new adoptee). In fact, in order to get away, David has to have someone hold him back, drive a vehicle, or lure Gary into the barn (we’ll get to the barn in a future post, Lord willing) and then exit the back side. We have had to be careful about letting him follow us on hot days because he will start to overheat with that down comforter he’s wearing.

He sticks with David through thick and thin:

Sometimes David will walk him down to our pond and let him swim around and “freshen up” for a while down there. He lets David know when it’s time to go by walking up to him away from the pond.

During Spring and Summer, he pretty much lives on the grasses and the like that grow naturally on the land. Otherwise, we give him chicken scratch. Also, he will let us know when the neighbors are coming by squawking away; he’s something of a pretty good watch-goose.

Gary vs. The Bucket

In this corner, weighing in at 7 pounds…Gary the Goose! And in the other corner, weighing in at 12 ounces, The Bucket!

As you can see, he is not fond of buckets. He appears to have a problem with tools and water containers as well. Sometimes we have to put in him the chicken pen while we work to keep him at bay. We have however recently discovered that tossing him through the air away from the scene seems to snap him out of it a bit.

A Conversation with Gary

The Star of the Show

This following video was supposed to be of our new chicks:

As you can see, we have a lot of fun with him. 🙂

And so there you have Gary the Goose. Keep an eye out for him in future posts, and see if you can spot him when he is in one!

— David & Susan