The Minnesota Farm Woman

I have often talked about how quiet it is in the country, but truthfully, it can be quite noisy at times. The Canada geese are back, and they have got to be among the noisiest of God’s creatures.   Some people think they are a nuisance, but I think geese are the first true sign of spring.  There is always a gaggle of geese who choose the banks of our little creek as their nesting spot every year.  Geese mate for life, I have heard, and although I’m not sure it is the same birds that return every year,  it would be kind of nice if they were.  Last spring, as I was working in the garden, I could hear but not see an argument between two couples trying to settle into the same spot.  Honking and splashing angrily at each other, the disagreement escalated until I imagined them to be a little like the Hatfields and McCoys before one couple moved on and all was quiet again.  This year, the geese arrived during our false spring.  That was the lovely couple of days of warm weather we were teased with before Mother Nature got a bee  in her bonnet and gave us two additional feet of snow.  I don’t know about you, but that snow certainly interfered tremendously with my plans for spring.  I had been out working in the yard when it started falling, and it fell fast and furiously, as spring snowstorms often do.  Through the whiteness, I heard a couple of geese communicating with each other, and they didn’t sound happy. In fact the more I listened, the more they began to sound like an old married couple.  Before you know it, I began to imagine their conversation.   (Although you might find it a little strange to be imagining a conversation between two geese, it was probably the sanest thing that I could have done under the circumstances.  MORE SNOW falling after a winter of SNOW and MORE SNOW and a spring that was finally here but cruelly snatched away is enough to  make anyone lose their marbles, for crying out loud!)  She:  “I TOLD you to ask for directions!  You obviously took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere in the Northwest Territory!”  He: “Directions? Who needs directions?  I could find my way just fine if you weren’t cackling at me all the time!”  She:  “Stop flapping your bill and start feathering our nest, because these eggs are coming whether you are ready or not…and while you’re at it, put the toilet seat down!”  Although not quite as entertaining as the geese,  there are also plenty of ducks quacking away and the pine trees are alive with the chirping of dozens of birds.  Now that the snow is gone again, the spring peepers and other croaking frogs are singing so loudly back in the swamp that if there were any arguing geese, the noise would surely be drowned out.   I can’t leave out my own hens, who are making happy clucking noises searching for worms and bugs while the roosters strut around and cock-a-doodle-doo a little more than they were before. Whether it be a symphony or a cacophony, the sounds of spring are music to my ears.