April 2016
This month I will be participating in the “Blogging from A-Z Challenge”
What is it?
Blogging every day. It begins on April First with a topic themed on something with the letter A, then on April second another topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until I finish on April thirtieth with the theme based on the letter Z. The theme of the day is the letter scheduled for that day.
No Trespassing!
So, the entrance to our community is lovely. After you pass by the guard house and through the gates, you will drive by the clubhouse and a pond. The pond is actually a retention basin. It has three fountains which are illuminated at night with red and blue lights.
The pond is stocked with glittery golden two feet long koi. The fountains and the fish keep the pond from stagnating.
The fountains rarely work, though. Each time they break the community has to hire divers to go down to pull the equipment up out of the water so they can be fixed. In the fourteen years we've been living here, the fountains have been repaired or replaced about eight times. The lights rarely work either. But, when the fountains are gushing and the lights are shimmering, it is beautiful.
A sidewalk surrounds the entire pond. It is exactly 1/4 of a mile once around.
I, along with a lot of other people who live here, like to walk around the pond. You know four times around and you've walked a mile.
Unfortunately, the pond attracts Canadian geese. They are messy creatures. Their mess isn't confined to the grass around the pond, they also make their way up onto the sidewalks.
It kind of makes walking around the pond less than pleasant.
A few years ago we hired a guy who would come in twice a day with his two dogs. He'd let the dogs loose and they would chase the geese away. The theory was that after awhile the geese would get the message and not want to stay.
I think it worked for a little while.
Then there was the husband and wife team. They would drive around the pond with some kind of noise making device. The noise sounded like an explosion.
It worked for a little while.
Currently we have eagle and dog decoys.
The dog decoy is a silhouette made of plastic. And according to the vender, "The dog is on a spring that gives it a live-action and in some winds, the dog actually appears as if it is running."
You can see how well that works.
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| Notice the goose poopy grass |
Ha! No Tresspassing Indeed!
The eagle decoy originally sat up on a 10 foot pole. But the pole broke and the decoy fell into the water.
Nope, doesn't work either.
After doing my own research on the web I found what I believe will be the perfect solution and provide us with a lot of entertainment during our jaunts around the pond.
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| The Goosinator |
Watch the video here: The Goosinator
Geese can be vicious, too. At least, when they have young. Too bad they're such a nuisance. And there's got to be a way to make the fountains and lights work all the time...
ReplyDeleteWhen I’m walking and a herd of them are on the sidewalk in front of me, they saunter out of the way to allow me to pass.
DeleteI don’t know why it has been so difficult to have the fountains properly repaired.
This made me laugh with the decoys that they thought would work to keep the geese away. Its like the statue of owls people put on their roofs here to keep the pigeons away. I wonder if they put something on the grass like a net that was uncomfortable to the geese if they would get the hint to stay away. I'm thinking geese season is a few months long that they are there?
ReplyDeletebetty
Betty, they are here year round. They never leave!
DeleteSounds like an ideal place except for the geese. They are truly annoying. Love the dog (which looks like a coyote to me) and the eagle. I like YOUR idea.
ReplyDeleteTeresa
I wonder if the Community managers would be open to the Goosinator.
DeleteI'm no goose expert so I have no idea how effective The Goosinator would be in the long term, but in the short term it's got a pretty high entertainment value from the looks of it. ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, those birds are not only smart but also very patient.
DeleteWhen I first started reading about the fountain issues, I wondered if you lived in my old neighborhood near Charlotte. Same thing happened there also. It was always something with the fountains.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny about the geese. My husband had occasion to use the coyote decoy at work a few years ago. We drove to the facility one Saturday and our dog was with us in the car. She went absolutely berserk in the back seat when she saw the decoy. So I thought they worked pretty well, but apparently your geese are immune. One more goose story - one of our friends here at the lake took to feeding the geese that wandered into her yard. OMG doesn't everyone know you don't feed the geese??? They love her, obviously. I think they had to convert most of their grass to pine straw because it was such a headache cleaning up after them.
Yuck! Why would anyone want that mess in their front yard?
DeleteSurprisingly, some people in our community have had to be warned, "Don't feed the Geese!"
I guess I should clarify in her defense it was the back yard facing the lake. But still.
Delete