We Bought a Farm: The Geese arrive!

Today was a big day at the Baurenhof. Today, our geese arrived!

Did you know that the yolk surrounding a goose gives it enough time to be shipped across country? It doesn't need to eat or drink for the first days of its life, giving time for them to arrive at the local post office.

JB and his dad had been working for the last few days to make brooders for these guys and gals. They used almost entirely, things we already had, making the brooders basically free.

JB ordered 12 geese -- 6 of one kind and 6 of another. Thirteen actually arrived. We think this was sort of a "throw in" as the 13th goose was in really bad shape. The mailers probably knew this and thought they'd give the little gal a chance, but she died by the evening.

It was really difficult for me to watch this one little goose die. I think the circle of life will prove to be a huge challenge for me. I kept checking on her all day long, willing her to change her destiny, but it was quickly obvious that it was only a matter of time before she died.

The plan is that these geese will be breeders for us. They will also really help with eating our grasses around the house property. They will most likely not need their wings clipped as they will simply choose to stay on our property and swim in our ponds. One of the kinds (I'll have to have JB tell us more about this later) is actually too fat to even fly much at all. The geese that are not aggressive will most likely survive the cut and stick around longer than those that aren't as kind to people and kiddos!

We continue to work hard with Scrubs to get used to all these new creatures. The poor dog simply collapses when he comes in the house after dinner each evening -- life is completely full for him here.