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| Early morning fog shrouds the forest and trees with a blanket of mist. |
This morning I arose before sunrise and looked out my windows to see the area covered in a thick blanket of midst. Stepping outside was not unlike a slow bath of water encircling me; unfortunately I had just taken a shower though. A few minutes later, I went out on the golf course and found myself within seconds, drenched in dew and perspiration.
As I traveled around the golf course early this morning, I came upon a Canada goose that was injured; it had a broken leg. Unfortunately, it will soon fall prey to the mink or other local predators in the area. This made me feel sad over its inevitable fate. God creates a way for all of His creation to survive, and sometimes that means the loss of one animal to the fate of another.
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| Sunrise breakfast. Doe and twin fawns eating an early morning meal under our plum tree. |
Our local geese population has increased quite a bit in the area over the last 20 years. One person was given a task of goose relocation into our area and that fell to my uncle. He was a game warden in charge of southeast Minnesota at one time. He once told me that many people in Rochester and Winona, Minnesota either hated him or loved him due to the implantation of the geese into the communities. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had started with a few geese and now it has grown to very large numbers of geese within the cities themselves. Since both communities have lakes within city limits, the geese thrive in these locations. Unfortunately, the geese do become prey to mink, coyotes, and fox, as well as other predators such as golfers with lousy aims, like myself.
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| Abby dressed in her Williamsburg outfit, ready for church. |
The other day when I was golfing, I hit a grounder that skipped across the pond on the golf course. The ball unfortunately hit an adult goose, but did not injure it. It was quiet upset with me for taking it out of its tranquil state. The whole incident reminded me once when I was golfing in the country near Milford, Iowa. I accidently hit a goose with one of my golf balls. (The golf course surrounds a slough, which is in the middle of the course.) The goose I accidently hit felt quite indignant about the whole incident as it shuffled its tail feathers on the ground heading back to the slough. I am sure it wished it could have rubbed its bruised area with its beak, if it could have reached the distressed area. My cousin was standing next to me watching the incident unfold at the moment I accidently bumped the goose with my ball. (Geese have thick down that protects them from injuries.) He found the whole thing quite amusing, as did I. He told me that another golfer lost his golf ball to a goose in the same area earlier that day. It appeared that the goose was hit by the golfer’s ball, and what happened next surprised everyone present. The goose picked up the golfer’s ball and carried it over to its nest. When my cousin told me of the funny incident, all I could think of was a very devout goose still sitting on it’s nest several months later, with snow drifts encircling it, wondering why that stubborn egg had not hatched yet. Obviously, the mother goose would have to regretfully abandon the egg when the weather started to turn cold, and its migration instinct took over. But, never the less, the thought still makes me chuckle when I occasionally think of that day.
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| Swallowtail butterfly drinking water from our driveway. |
I believe that God created animals not only for our livelihood, but also for our amusement at times as well. I also have to remind myself sometimes that I can choose to see the humor in events throughout the day, if my eyes are focused on seeing the lighter side of things. Have a great day!
