The Summer of the Goslings

On an unassuming day in mid- June, Gracie and I snuggled up on the white couch in our living room to complete another lesson in her  Good and The Beautiful homeschool language arts curriculum. I love this curriculum, but that is beside the point. The point is, we read Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling. I had never read this tale in it's original unabridged form.  It left us longing to have a baby duck or swan to put in our koi pond in the backyard. 

Wanting to fulfill this desire in our hearts, it lead the kids and I on a trip across town to Kingman Stock and Feed.  When we arrived, we were told they didn't currently have ducks for sale, which was good, because the Dr didn't approve of pet ducks, but they did had something far better------goslings!!

If ducks were a definite no, how was I going to get the Dr to approve of pet geese?  Just as the girls were holding, and cooing over the darlings, in walked a stout, friendly woman.  She talked to the girls and wondered if they were there for some geese.  I told her we couldn't have any, and that we were just there looking. Upon conversing for a minute longer-we discovered we had some similarities: she had a farm!  I wanted a farm!  She home-schools her 13 kids!  I  home-school my 3 kids! I had a pond, she had a pond--we both needed goslings!  

She came up with a solution-she would let me take 2 of her goslings and foster them for the summer. Brilliant!!

I ran her idea past the DR--he approved!!--with the condition they go to Pam's farm at the end of the summer.  It was a deal and I came home with 2 darlings in a cardboard box. 

We were entranced.  They brought so much life to the yard. We love our tortoises, but they want us to ignore them, and tend to be on the quiet side. These babies were needy and noisy. They cried if we left their side.  How endearing! We had to take shifts baby- sitting them. 

They'd go for swims, and walks,

and then hallelujah for nap time. By then we were exhausted keeping the babies happy.

With all things cancelled for the summer of COVID-this was the perfect pastime. 

At first they slept in a large Rubber made bin in the garage and swam in this water fountain during the day . But everyday, they were noticeably larger. 

It was only a matter of time before they ended up in the pool! Now swimming with geese is fun!  Potty training them to poop before getting in- is a challenge.

Within 4 weeks they had outgrown the waterfall on the side of the house, and needed something larger to help cool them from the beating July heat.

So, the kind Dr, who didn't, and doesn't want geese, lent us his strength to help us lift rock and dig a large hole.

Yes, it was another pond.  Because they are so stinking scared of the koi in the koi pond, they won't go in it, so now they have one that is fish free-----but not kid free.

And now they are huge, and so is my boy.  How did this happen?  Time is so fleeting.....

And just like that the sun sets on childhood, and all we have left are the memories. And what lasting memories I hope to create in the wake of my childrens' childhoods.