The Goose Was Good!

This Christmas was no different than past holidays. We ate too much – but the goose was good. Goose is dark meat and since it was smoked, it came out very reddish in color and it didn’t taste like chicken. There appeared to be a lot of grease in the goose but we warmed it on a broiler pan and most of it dripped off. Another nice thing about goose is they are small – minimal leftovers. If you get the chance, I suggest giving it a try. I would get one again!

This morning, Robert woke up to clomp clomp clomp outside. From all appearances, a moose was on our porch landing. Being the wilderness tracker I am (hahaha), he/she came up the side yard, nibbled on one of our birch trees in the back, then followed Squirt’s groomed trails around to the front birch tree. During the trek, he knocked over several large, precariously positioned snow piles - I thought I would have to shovel the path out again. (Moose are a tad bit wider than the shovel blade.) Finishing a few sprigs from the second tree, he moved around the porch to the landing, scooted down the steps and headed towards the raspberry bushes. BTW – it’s hard to miss moose tracks in 3-4 foot drifts of snow.

Needless to say when I took Squirt out for his morning perimeter check, he was on the trail the entire time. He knew where the creature entered the yard and where he left and it took several circles around the yard to assure the giant dog was gone. Later today, Squirt was barking up a storm inside. When I went to look, one of our neighbors had his 4-wheeler with his blade on the front stuck in a drift. I am pretty sure Squirt thought it was a moose and he was protecting.

Wednesday is a momentous day for the Trospers. It is our first downhill skiing lesson. We have reservations for 10am. I have never been on snow skis in my life. I assume it is a lot different than water skiing – at least I hope so as I was never any good and couldn’t stay up on the water skis. Robert has snow skied before but not enough to teach me and we don’t have the patience for that anyway. Unlike other sporting attempts, we are renting gear to start out. We have bibs, coats, etc., but the boots and skis are expensive enough we need to make sure this is something we are really interested in. Robert assures me I will like downhill better than cross-country since GRAVITY does most of the work.