#The Geese are back

March, Friday the 13th. If you are superstitious be careful. It’s probably best you stay home today. Last month, February, we also had a Friday, 13th. In fact, March and February have identical days and dates. Just a little fact not everybody is probably aware of...or cares to know.

This morning, I saw a flock of #Canada geese flying over our property. Apparently, geese have already been spotted a few days ago in Manitoba, but these are the first ones I’ve heard and seen. When I hear the honking of geese for the first time in spring I always feel a bit melancholic. It brings back memories of years gone by, but it also gives me a happy feeling. Winter if almost over.

The snow is melting. There are many bald spots where the grass shows on our property. The way things develop, we won’t have to worry about flooding...unless we get heavy rains and, let’s not even think about it, a late season snowstorm.

For me, this winter has gone by fast. I was looking forward to going ice-fishing this winter, but it didn’t happen. Our club, the Seven Oaks Game and Fish Association, had our yearly ice-fishing event in February, but I couldn’t go. My van is in storage for the winter, I don’t have any use for it during the winter months. There really is no sense in paying those high monthly vehicle registration fees to have the van sitting idle. Even in the summer, I use it only to go fishing or take garbage to the dump. I have to rely on my son to come and pick me up with his truck, but he had other obligations and didn’t go, either. I could have taken our car, but you never know how deep the snow is and how many ridges are on the ice, so that was out.

Some of the members from my club went ice-fishing last weekend on Lake Winnipeg and they were quite lucky. Apparently, they caught many huge Walleye. My son caught one 28 inches long as soon as he started fishing. And more big ones after that. Everyone who was out fishing that Sunday caught big fish. I wasn’t there, so I can’t really say how the action was, but it sounds like everyone had a blast. Wish I could have been there. Maybe next year.

Already now, it is dangerous to go on the ice. It is breaking down quickly with these warm temperatures we’re having. Sunday it is supposed to go up to plus 14 C. That is warm. Last year at this time we were in a deep freeze.

The summer fishing season starts middle of May and I’m already looking forward to it. I can’t wait to go out with my friend Rudi and my cousin Manfried to the Big Whiteshell Lake for the first Walleye. And later on in the season I go to Lockport for Sauger and Goldeye. Lockport is only five minutes away from our place and I don’t have to rely on anyone to take me along and I don’t need a boat for that, either. I have a boat with a fish finder. It sits idle in my yard. I don’t have a trailer or hitch on my van.

It sort of brings back memories of when I was young and before I had a car. In those days, you needed a car to pick up girls. Some of the other guys I knew had cars and I asked them to come and take me along once in a while, but that didn’t happen. I finally bought me own car. Of course, that didn’t mean girls came flocking to me now, but it gave me more confidence to ask a girl for a date. After all, now I had a car. The big thing was to drive to the A & W drive-in for a hamburger and root beer. You needed a car for that.

It seems I’ve come full circle. Except now it isn’t girls I’m after; now it’s fish and, maybe, mushrooms. By the way, the mushrooms I found last year growing in my yard in such abundance in the fall? We ate a few and froze the rest. They were never one of the most desirable species of mushrooms in the first place; kind of soft and mushy. We threw the frozen ones away when we defrosted our freezer. Should I find some again growing this year, I will not even bother picking them. They’ll go into the composter immediately.

So, have a great weekend and be careful out there, after all, today is Friday the 13th.