Emma's Family Farm in Maine

Just this morning, Gertie the goose laid her first egg of the season. She is one of our "up front" residents here, Gertie along with her mate Henry live where they are visible from both the road and the driveway. Henry has been with us since Rose came home to farm, Gertie came soon afterwards --- I'll write more about Henry sometime; he's the goose that went to college. Gertie has hatched and brooded goslings each spring with great success: she and Henry have excellent lineage to make great Toulouse goslings. Her goslings often hatch right around Mother's Day. This past year, however, was a bit of a different story. Gertie had nested, as usual, and all was well. Suddenly, on a perfectly clear and warm April day, a dust devil came up. Dust devils are weather phenomena that appear to be tornado-like, their winds swirl and they appear similar in shape to a tornado when they form. The dust devil came, at great speed, across the neighbor's pasture, across the road and yard, and into the goose pasture. It picked up the little nesting shelter, the nest, and Gertie, smashing the shelter and nest into a row of small trees, and dropping Gertie to the ground. Gertie has a condition called "angel wing". This condition is caused by overly nutritious feed eaten while a mother is laying and hatching eggs. It does not effect her offspring because we're careful with her feeding regime. However, because of this "angel wing" Gertie's wings are twisted and she can't fly. What do you suppose she thought as the wind flung her 12 to 15 feet into the air? Anyway, she tried to nest again and, in fact, laid some more eggs, but she was unsuccessful. So last year, Gertie and Henry were not parenting. Gertie seemed depressed about it. So good luck Gertie, the dust devil seemed to begin a year that didn't work out well in many ways for our farm. I'll tell you this: Gertie has begun laying right on schedule and even though the winter weather here has been a little strange, maybe we're heading for a more normal year. I'll bet Gertie hopes so.