26.
The Wild Geese Story
I walked past this planter this morning and the whole geese story popped into my head.
I bought this to remember them by about ten years ago.



We were living in a remote part of Oregon...big ranch country. We had a few acres carved out of all their acres.
Our nearest neighbors were Denny and Laura....Denny worked for one of the ranches.
One day while cutting a field he had to destroy a Canadian goose nest.
Only four eggs remained intact, and Denny brought them home to Laura.
After that I was over there every day so curious and delighted to be able to watch wild geese grow.

Hatching




Swimming in an old tub out in the shed.
They are two weeks old in this picture.


At four weeks they follow Laura because she was imprinted on them


Four weeks...pestering Midge who tolerated them


Four weeks...outside pool



A handful at four weeks


Six weeks...gangly...fluffy, but with emerging wing and tail feathers.
They were named now...and could be told apart by little differences.
Spring, April, May and Sunny


Eight weeks and stretching those wing


Eight weeks...all four can't fit in one pool anymore.


At maturity they were beautiful birds





Preening



Laura and I were dreading the day our children would fly away. All four were loving individuals with different personalities.

We could tell they were getting ready...they used to race across the yard,
flapping their wings...

and one day they just lifted out of the yard into the air.

It was as thrilling as when one of your children takes their first step.

From then on they flew every day, but kept in circles over their yard.

One day a hired hand drove in to the yard. In the back of his pickup was a cowdog who jumped out and somehow got in to the back yard. He lit into the startled geese and began snapping at them. Three rose into the air but poor Spring was trapped against the fence.

By this time Laura ran screaming into the back yard chasing the dog away but Spring had a broken wing.

Thoroughly traumatized, she refused to move, eat or drink for a long time....

The other three left for a year.

The season went by and then Laura and I began searching the skies for our three to return. So many things could have happened to them. They were so tame maybe they landed somewhere and someone shot them.

But...they came back! We were so thrilled. But it was just a brief visit. We'd see them circling the small valley but finally they left.

Then Laura and Denny bought a small ranch of their own, and we moved too. Laura wrote and said she never saw her babies again.

Spring lived out her days with the barnyard geese.



I painted this little oil painting for Laura before we moved.

Spring, April, May and Sunny