This Post Brought to You by the Letter P

I'd hoped to tell you all about an upcoming gig pig-sitting ... but alas, it is not to be. 

The first meeting was not a success. Kenya desperately wanted to play with her, but Olive, the potbellied piglet, rooted about in her crate scream-grunting imprecations at Kenya. 

They both started out just sniffing the air and then Kenya tentatively stretched her long nose toward the wire separating the flattened piggy snout from her own moist, black one.  As Olive became more and more upset about the intruder near her space, Kenya became increasingly excited about the prospect of really playing with her.

I have seen the same behaviour with cats.  Cats that are perfectly comfortable with dogs either in a friendly or dominant way seem to keep Kenya calm.  Cats that are fearful excite her.  She never fails to chase the feral cats on the lake, but she is perfectly comfortable with Oberon and other cats she has lived with.

When it became plain that these two animals were not likely to relax with each other any time soon, I said I thought we could not pig-sit; that three days of running interference would be just too harrowing for me ... to say nothing of the emotional well being of the animals involved.

So Kenya went out to the car and I had lunch with Olive's human. 

While we ate, Olive rooted around under the table, cleaning up crumbs and nibbling on my toes.  She is a dear little piglet ... black with wiry hair, a wagging tail, squashed up snout, and delicately sculpted feet.  Have you ever seen live  pigs'  feet?  They are lovely ... and incongruous on such a rotund little animal.  Reminded me of Petunia Pig and her high heeled pumps.

Right now Olive is about the size of two footballs, but she will double in size by the time she is full grown.  She is litter trained (most of the time) and is a vegetarian.  I guess the most endearing thing about her is that she is always in motion, always close to human activity,  and always vocal.  I like animals that talk to me ... and she is even more communicative than Kenya is.

Later in the day, good friends arrived with dinner ... pasta and salad with a Christmas stollen for dessert.  Yummy.  They had a bit of a time getting up my road ... started to slide off the road and were saved by Peter, my friend, neighbour and carpenter.  They parked about ½ kilometre from the house and walked (or skated) the rest of the way.

Leonard who does my plowing had called earlier to ask if he should sand the road.  I said blithely that it wasn't necessary; that I had got out and in  that morning with no trouble once I spent 3/4 hour scraping the windows.  Big mistake.  And then when I tried later to reach him I discovered that the number I had was not correct.  So my first job today will be finding Leonard and straightening everything out.

My second will be painting the Muskoka chair. I  have decided to play with rainbow colours and publishers' logos.  Photos will follow when the work begins to progress.  It has been long enough since I last painted that I am a little fearful; have to keep reminding myself that nothing is ever permanent ... neither glory days nor screw-ups.

And my third job will be to plan for next Wednesday's class with Pauline, Azra and Diane.  I am finding myself looking forward to these classes because I like being with these women.  We spend as much time laughing as we do working.

A Modest Proposal

Loons are black and white but the problem of the Canada Geese is not as simple ... and it seems to be one that has the potential to split apart our little lake community.

This lake is a beautiful spot for wildlife and, as a result, for humans too.

Most of the lake is very natural with grasses and bushes near the water line and forest behind that.  At one end of the lake is Betsy's beach with its manicured lawn that could rival a golf course's greens.  This is where all the community parties take place, where the bonfire is built, the barbecues happen, and horse shoes are pitched.  Betsy is generous to the community and she takes great pride in keeping her property beautiful ... and manicured.

And therein lies the problem.

Geese are not like the merganser ducks or the loons or the giant snapping turtles which thrive in secluded spots among reeds and near forested shores.  Geese love lawns.  Not because they offer them superlative food, but because geese feel secure only where they have a clear line of sight so that they can see the approach of enemies.

Betsy's beach is a Canada Goose magnet.

The other day Samuel shot one or two of the Canada Geese leaving only a single mother with about a dozen goslings.  (The exact number changes daily as the mergansers like to nibble on the webby toes of the babies, and pull them under.)

Walter was very upset.  He feels we should share our planet with animals, and he was also concerned because the shooting took place very close to his home.

When I heard about it from Walter, I went on-line to find out about the federal laws governing the hunting of Canada Geese.  One story in particular concerned me.  Last year, an Ontario man was fined $4500 for shooting a migratory bird out of season and within a mile of houses.  I was also concerned by the fact that Natural Resources posts a snitch line number on their site.

Samuel has been living on this lake longer than any of us.  All of us value him as a neighbour, a friend, and a source of local natural wisdom.  No one on the lake would want to see Samuel face that kind of fine for doing a favour for a neighbour.  He had shot the goose or geese at Betsy's request.  She was tired of stepping in goose poop.

I don't like goose poop much either, to be honest.  A grown goose poops about a pound of loose green stool every day in shots that happen every 7 or 8 minutes.  A couple of geese can make an awfully big mess in a very short time.

I guess what bothers me is not that people don't want to have the geese around in their neighbourhood.   That is understandable.  I don't think anyone on the lake would be happy to have a colony of geese living here and polluting the lake.

No.  What bothers me is the automatic assumption that the only way to solve the problem is to kill the geese.

I have asked the secretary of the lake association to bring this matter up at our annual meeting.  She has spoken to the three people concerned ... wisely and openly.  They are investigating the possibility of getting a special licence from the Ministry of Natural Resources to shoot the geese out of season because they are destroying property.  That would solve the problem of Samuel doing something illegal, and would rid Betsy's lawn of goose poop.  Seems like the best solution, right?

I don't think so.  I would rather see us, as a lake association, find an alternative solution, one that protects the cleanliness of the lake, the sensibilities of all lake residents, and the geese.

We are people who love living this close to nature.  Our grandchildren are lucky enough to still be able to hear and see wild life.  We should be protecting wildlife, not killing it simply because it is a nuisance.

Although I just read that goose poop is a wonderful natural fertilizer that could be used in our gardens and placed in our compost bins, I don't think that we should encourage Canada Geese to choose this lake as their new home.

So how do we rid ourselves of Canada Geese in an environmentally sensible, humane way?

We discourage the geese.  We make the lake unattractive as a nesting area.

Geese would find Betsy's lawn far less attractive if she grew some tall grasses close to shore, or if she planted shrubs or anything that would block their view of predators.  She could put flags or other waving things on the lawn if she really needed to keep it manicured.  She could put a sprinkler on the lawn. They hate being sprayed.  Geese also hate coyotes, border collies and other herding dogs, and swans.  We could do what they have done elsewhere where they have twenty or thirty unwanted Canada Goose visitors; we could use decoys.  The coyote ones seem a little over the top to me, but I wouldn't mind a couple of swan decoys floating around the lake.

Kenya keeps the geese away from my shoreline.   I would be willing to take her on a wild goose chase a couple of times a day.

But really the two simplest ways to solve the problem without shooting the geese would be to:
a)     discourage them by making Betsy's beach area less perfect for them by planting shrubs
               and
b)    install a couple of swan decoys in the lake.

Every year we each put $25 in the Lake Association pot and use it for stocking the lake and buying hotdogs and corn for the annual corn roast.  No one ever catches the fish.  We are feeding the loons, mergansers and turtles.  For one year we could buy decoys and shrubs instead of hatchlings.  And for one year we could bring our own food to barbecue together.  And while we are together we could plant the shrubs and grasses.

It is not a problem that should split a community.  It is not a problem that requires rocket scientists to solve.  With a little give and take we could keep our lake Canada Goose poop-free and help preserve a part of a very important natural heritage.