Goslings and horse flies

Today was a nice relaxing day.  I got off work a little early.  I had a few things I wanted to do today, so I got after it.

The first thing I did, was head out and pick up some goslings.  I have 2 geese(a male and a female), and I like to have around 6.  I found a local place that had some white Chinese goslings that are 3 weeks old.  I picked up 5 of them.  I am conducting an experiment.  I have heard that adult male geese will raise goslings.  I decided to test if that is true.  I got home, and opened the box near the pond and let the goslings out.  They looked around, and started eating a little grass.  Soon the gander I have saw them and started making some noise.  The minute he did, these goslings headed straight for him.  He didn't quite know what to think.  These goslings went right up to him and stayed by his side.  He was nice to them, but seemed a little annoyed that they followed him wherever he went.  Soon the female goose joined him and those goslings annoyed her a ton.  She kept trying to swim across the pond and all over to ditch them, but they stayed right by their side.  I'm pretty impressed.  These goslings came from a brooder, and have not spent time with adult geese.  It's kind of amazing to me to see them take right to the adult geese like that.  We'll see how this experiment goes.  If they will stay by the gander, they should be fine.  I'll keep y'all posted.

After that, I stained my wagon.  Since I initially built it and stained it, I have added bench seats, and folding side rails.  These pieces have not been stained, so I decided it was time.  Also, per my wife's direction, I used wood putty to cover all the screw holes in the wood.  I've spent the last 2 days doing this and sanding it all down smooth.  I wiped it down with a wet rag today, and then began staining.  I got 2 coats on it and am very happy with it.  It's looking good.  I wish I would've remembered to take a picture.  I'll try to get one tomorrow.

My wife headed to church tonight, so I decided to go horseback riding with a friend.  I have not ridden Rachel yet, and with how good she is under harness, I figured it would be very easy for her.  I loaded her up and headed to my friend Chuck Whitlocks.  Chuck has a nice sandy arena and so it was a great place to ride Rachel for the first time.  She did awesome.  She didn't have any issues with the saddle pad and saddle.  She took the bridle with no problems.  I think she liked this bridle, because it didn't have blinders.  It would've been a perfect evening, had it not been for the swarms and swarms of horse flies!

It seems in Texas that there is one bug every year that comes in swarms.  I can recall years of garden spiders, june bugs, grasshoppers, and crickets.  This year, must be the year of the horse fly.  They are EVERYWHERE!  They are like organized gangs that just swarm and attack.  They chase my wife down the driveway in the car every morning. 

While riding tonight they were all over us.  It seems that every 30 seconds I was swatting a fly and killing it.  Rachel seemed to have 7 or 8 around her at all times.  I kept the riding short because of this.  Rachel was doing so good, even though she was being attacked by the horse flies.  So annoying!  They don't seem to mind the fly spray I'm using.  I currently am using a spray with .5% permithrin.  Maybe I need something stronger.  Ugggh!  Quite annoying.

Rachel did wonderful though.  She stood perfectly still while I got in and out of the saddle and didn't do anything out of sorts.  She's awesome!  Looks like I might be able to start riding with my saddle group again!