A little cultural treat

Ill have to see about getting something like this. Im afraid that , if we started raising a goose as a grass goose, wed wind up making it a pet and itd be living with us for the next 20 years.
We sometimes have a problem with dsipatching animals (even the beef cattle).

When i was a very little boy, my grandparents still kept geese. They are a sufficiently obnoxious critter that no one at our house ever had a problem with seeing them slaughtered. I think my grandparents finally gave them up because they were always attempting to attack us. They had a healthy respect for full grown humans, but if it were a stranger, they'd sometimes go after them, too.

ya grab one by the neck in full view of the others and suddenly you become alpha goose. Geese will only attack when they sense they are incharge.

We had two once and the idea was that they would be fattened up for Chrsitmas. Well, by the time the kids got done decorating em with ribbons and such , they were indeed honored guests at the christmas ham dinner.
We never ate the damn things and the kids were gone before the fuckin things died.

I was more annoyed by goose **** around the paddocks and pastures.
They also had an annoying habit of claiming the nearby public road as their territory. Theyd begin honking at any car , tractor, or AMish buggy that went by. This evoking responses by the buggy and car passengers.

People who raise livestock will recognize how, people, when driving by a field with cows sheep or chickens, will begin to emit sounds in imitation of the animal they see.
Ill bet theres some science in there somehwere.

The geese we feed at the park must be exceptions to the rule. There used to be five of them, but, two vanished about the time I discovered a four foot alligator in the water. The gone geese were brown. These days, the remaining three are relatively docile. They are all white, and one has a bump on top of its head. When we arrive with our sunflower seeds and cracked corn, the ducks come swimming and flying, all nineteen of them. As they chow down, always being ravenous, it seems, the geese casually amble over the peninsula in the lake and then slowly swim over to our bank and elegantly waddle up. The one with a knot on top always pauses to hiss at us, then they stake out a perimeter against the ducks and begin eating. One has developed a habit of stopping and staring at me occasionally. We always continue our walk around the lake and leave all the birds hungrily pecking away. A brown crane has lost its fear of us and now stands tolerantly by as we conduct our business with the waddlers. - I only saw the gator one time, but, about two months later, it was sighted off in the brush, beyond the normal visitors area.

The Canada goose has become a real problem in North America. At the beach in Toronto, people complained and complained about the dogs and the dog ****, and now there are pretty severe restrictions about the leash regulations and the off-leash areas. I don't really have a problem with that because there are any number of idiots out there who own dogs who shouldn't be allowed to keep gold fish. But the anti-dog whiners complained about dog **** in the lake, and that's just nonsense. The dogs don't poop in the water. The real problem with water down at the lake are the Canada geese. Where they tend to congregate not only is the water full of goose ****, but nasty green weeds grow up in the water to the point where no one would want to wade there, never mind swim.

we have a similar problem in our area ponds and beaver dam areas. Big flocks of wintering canadas will turn those water pools into sludge ponds that set up big algae blooms in the earliest spring. My one neighbor puts a big airator in his big pond to act as a water treatment mechanism. He raises tilapia in there and the tilapia arent very fastidious fish to begin with. Apparently they can **** their weight in a day.

We also now have a huuuuge problem with SNOW GEESE. These are more terrestrial roaming huge flocks of are the goosey equivalent of locust plagies. They will fly into a field of newly planted winter wheat and just dig up and eat the sprouts. This also imparts a dirty flavor to their meat and so, weven though there is no bag limit on shooting them, nobody around here does killing for sport. All the hunters around here are meat harvesters and snow geese dont serve any food purpose.

I can't see holding the dogs responsible. I do think the owners ought to pick up after them, when it's practical. It would be nice if somebody could devise a non lethal way of keeping the geese out of certain areas.

Advent Dates for 2011

• November 27 - First Sunday of Advent
• December 4 - Second Sunday of Advent
• December 11 - Third Sunday of Advent
• December 18 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

In Western Christianity, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas Day, or the Sunday which falls closest to November 30, and lasts through Christmas Eve, or December 24. When Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, it is the last, or fourth Sunday of Advent.

In Eastern Orthodox churches which use the Julian calendar, Advent begins earlier, on November 15, and lasts 40 days, rather than 4 weeks.

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wow! Advent just seems so early this year. I am NOT prepared. I need to get my candles ready.

online Bengal Cat Advent Calendar

(come back on December 1st!)

http://www.hdw-inc.com/advent.htm

Today is the 1. Advent - we just lit the first candle....

It was not only windy, but stormy and the big Christmas tree on the city square blew down, no trains are running, many people have no electricity, what a 1st of advent for some people.

Sounds kind of gloomy, alright. Are you getting much sunlight up there at this time of year?

Why is the calendar showing Christmas on a THursday? did I miss a meeting?

That thing's all screwed up.

Sun is shining to-day from 08:17 to 15:37.

Probably because it is two years old....2009 Christmas Eve was on a Thursday
Or it is from 2008 when Christmas Day fell on a Thursday.

Well, I'd though it really is because
That's why I'd copied/pasted it from the website.

uhhhh because I put that note .... come back on December 1st

cJane, that is beautiful!