Hatching Goslings
This story originates in the house in the farm yard of my adolescence. My mother had not had the privilege of attending school beyond Grade 9, but she was brilliant as a woman on the farm. One of her areas of expertise was raising geese. Like many families of eastern European origin, our celebratory meals centred around a goose, rather than the turkey that has become commonplace in today’s North America. The rule on the farm, was: if you’re going to eat it, you’re going to raise it. We bought almost no groceries, but we ate very well; everything was born, nurtured, fed, raised and then slaughtered and prepared for eating by us. So, back to the geese. We always had at least three female geese and one gander. They had their own room, the goose barn, in the chicken barn. The goose barn sheltered them from both the elements and the wild predators and helped them to understand that...