The past two months have flown by , like the dozens of Canada Geese that have decided to take up residence in the pond and streams here in the park. At first I was delighted to see these iconic feathered creatures flying in their famous v-formation overhead ; hearing their mechanical flapping and their famous (infamous?) honking. However I have since discovered that a sole walker is considered to be a threat and I now must walk with a big stick for protection! Rubber boots have become standard footwear as dodging goose poop is a pointless effort. They must be starting to prepare for the arrival of their goslings as they seem to be pairing off . As sweet as the little fluffy babies will be to watch as they arrive, I am also imagining that we may be held hostage here as the road and open space around the park will be heavily guarded by nervous honking biting flapping parents!
A lone trumpeter swan has taken up residence here a couple weeks back. At first it was thought that it came from the farm down the road that has over twenty swans of various species. This got us all discussing what the story on this might be. Swans are monogamous and mate for life. However, there is a small percentage that divorce...seriously, I looked it up! Some of the women here were hoping it was a female showing courage and taking back her life and so her life story started to develop. The farmer came and took a look and said it wasn't one of his birds. It is less than three years old, ( how he could tell this I have no idea) so has yet to attract a mate. Where this bird will find mate in this remote area is anyone's guess as the birds down the road already have partners. Apparently there is no polygamy in that community so either this swan is going to have to subscribe to Plenty of Fish or consider an inter-racial relationship. That would be cool. A swoose or a gwan...?We also have some wood ducks, some mallards and another water fowl that I haven't identified. It is a bit nerve racking trying to get close enough for a picture with all those geese surrounding me. It is amazing how menacing two tiny black eyes can be. They don't even have eyebrows to furrow.
The weather the past few days have been in the high teens and up to 20 today. Incredible. The first thought is to head outside and see what we can do to start to bring this trailer up to date. Speaking of bringing the trailer up...hydraulic jacks will be required to jack the trailer up and replace all the supports. After our plumbing 'disconnect' episode we were able to ascertain that the supports are pretty much rotten to non-existent. We already suspected this from the unusual tilt to the counter-tops and the hills and valleys in the flooring. You know the floor is off balance when your rolling computer chair is unable to maintain it's position and your core muscles are getting a workout trying to remain in front of the monitor. After a while you get lazy and just reach from the left side of the desk. I was wondering why I continue to have chronic neck strain on one side. So back to the exterior . That is now on hold. We knew the ground was a bit spongy even during the deep freeze for winter. Now we understand why. Our plot of land is the end of the ditch that was created to drain the ground water and the little spring away from the
other trailer lots on our street. The maintenance man here at the park put it in proper perspective...."you're sinking". I wonder if this is the rite of passage here in the park? So we have turned our efforts indoors....replacing the floors instead. Great thing about floating floors: even after jacking up and leveling the trailer, nothing is likely to crack!
