This morning I had a "first". It's always fun to experience something for the first time, isn't it? Well, sometimes it is. And other times, it's a trial of ones mettle. I got woke up this morning by a rooster for the first time in my life. My friend in Saint George isn't a farmer but he has a big yard and his house is isolated enough that he can raise some poultry without bothering the neighbors too much.
Roosters were the standard alarm clock for centuries. Analog alarm clocks came along and replaced roosters and then digital ones replaced them. Now it's smart phones that are probably going to take over as the morning wake up callers. But roosters still wake people up just fine. I'm not sure when they started crowing this morning but I noticed them at around 5:15. p.m. I never got back too sleep.
It's not their effectiveness in waking people up that's in question. It's getting them to shut up that's the problem. There is no snooze button on these creatures. They don't stop when they think everyone is finally awake and now their job is done. They stop whenever they dang well feel like it.
The crowing went for well over any hour before it became obvious that my nights sleep was over. If nothing else, I was curious to see the obnoxious creatures. So I got out of bed, threw some cloths on and went outside to meet them.
The black ones are the male cocks and they are the ones who crow. The females are in the cage. Their job is just to lay the eggs. Here are the results of one of my friends daily egg gatherings.
Not a bad take. As you can see, all the eggs are of differing sizes and colors. But they all taste just like normal eggs. It must be nice not having to buy eggs especially if you've get four kids to feed. For breakfast that morning I ate eggs and pancakes with my friend and his family. Having farm fresh eggs for breakfast was probably another first for me. That's the kind of 'first' I like and it's worth writing about.
I also greeted their turkey. They've only got one of those.
I then walked over to greet the geese. The geese aren't owned for any special purpose. They're just pets. Here, the grey goose is giving the white goose a little kissy kissy through the fence. They seemed docile enough. It was almost like I could walk up and give them a friendly scratch behind the ears if I wanted to.
I didn't even have to walk up and greet them. The grey one came walking up to greet me.
The goose so far looks pretty casual in his approach. I wasn't worried at all. But I should have been. This goose was not coming up to make friend but I wasn't seeing that. I didn't realize that I was invading his territory and he was coming up to take care of the intruder.
He then started coming in low, pointing his beak right at me. This is what many creatures do when they are about to attack. But, for some reason, I still wasn't seeing the danger.
I was not able to get a photo of what happened next because I was too busy trying to protect myself. The goose went into attack mode and I had to flee for my safety. As far as what the goose actually looked like is hard to explain but it spread out it's wings and the whole bird seemed to be engulfed by fire. I felt like Gandolf facing down Balrog. And that's pretty close to what it looked like, too.
I did manage to escape with my life. I was very lucky. I'll have to be more careful next time a seemingly tame and unassuming goose comes strolling up to me.
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