On Being a Farm Wife (and other hazards) Joyce Bupp Every morning, as the sun was rising, you could count on it. Every evening, as the sun was setting, you could count on it. Again. A honking sound would echo across the meadow. Moments later, the honking would sound overhead, as the pair of geese soared over the yard. Once they cleared the house, the big birds would begin “braking” and then descend into one of the con toured strips of cropland that circle around our north hillside. There, the pair would graze for some length of time on the early grasses pushing up in the fields. Before the sun shinnied up too high in the sky, or complete darkness settled over the mead ow, the pair of Canada geese would again take off, make a quick circle overhead and glide back down to the pond. This went on for several weeks, with such dependability one could almost set a clock by their intra-farm flights. In between their dawn/dusk field qraft-bilt CONSTRUCTION, INC. 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But the warm, balmy, early April came and went. But the geese showed little interest in anything but gorging on grass. We began to wonder. Was there some problem here? Did the geese know something about the season we didn’t? I glanced at the pond fre quently during those early days of the month. Nothing. Finally, one morning the goose returned from their flight to begin rooting around the dry grasses on the platform, while the gander patrolled the sur- (onlact I s For 1 .iliTiiUirr Or I IU I K'illlT Nearest \on! 880 SERIES rounding water. Next day, same performance. And again, the next. But, a week later, the nest was still unoccupied. By then, pretty chilly weath er had returned. If the goose was laying eggs, at least they were staying well-chilled. Late last week, on a trip around the ponds to check out the growth progress of the shrubs and trees he had planted a year earlier in the pond-wet lands area, The Farmer made a surprise find. “We have a goose nesting,” he announced one evening last week. “Down in the Frog Pond.” The Frog Pond is a shallow, swampy area, where we often walk at dusk on warm evenings to hear the frog chorus sing. (“Singing” is a polite word for high-decibel croaking racket.) A few years ago, he had added a tire-nest site for our wild water fowl, but got no takers. Now, unexpectedly, it was occupied by a stranger. And by what we have reason to believe is a long-awaited mate Why Pasture Mat? 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Several times a day, splashing water, flapping wings, and irate honkings announce aerial attacks from one side against the other. If nothing else, the territorial defenses are a source of irritation to the great blue heron which dines here almost daily (or did before the nest squabbles) on our fish and frogs. That oughta’ give those frogs something to croak about. PasturefM The Golden Standard In Cow Comfort The Rewards • Better Cow Health »Reduced Leg Injury • Reduced Swollen Hocks • More Lactation Per Cow - More Milk • Reduced Bedding Costs • Pasture Mats Often Pay For Themselves Within 6 Months Ask For Merrill or Sam