Star-Filled Walks: Part 2, Intruders

The stars and sliver of moon drew my eyes skyward during my early morning dog walk.

How can just a slice of moon throw out that much light? Would a star fall from the sky?

The Border collie standing in the middle of the driveway interrupted my thoughts. Hackles up, Caeli was staring at the waterway that stretches across the fields in front of our house.

My eyes followed her stare.

The moon illuminated black shapes.

Calling the dogs, I hustled them back to the house and retrieved the spotlight. From the safety behind the fence in the yard, I shone the light across the waterway.

Cows.

In the fall, the neighbor lets his cows graze the harvested fields. The cows found our alfalfa field more tempting and escaped in the night.

Returning to the house, I looked at the oven clock glowing in the darkness.

4:53.

No one wants to call their neighbors at 5 in the morning.

I took the spotlight back outside and illuminated the waterway.

Yep, they were definitely cows and they were definitely on the amble away from their farm.

And so I made the call--revealing to the neighbor that his cows were on the loose and letting him assume that it was a barking dog that awoke me from my sleep.

Controlling the Wind

We live in areas where flat fields stretch for miles, with few fence rows and trees.

The wind can really get rolling, picking up speed, as it rushes across those fields.

Years ago, we planted trees on the west side of the house. As they grew they provided shade and slowed the wind.

They also provided an extra helping of snow in the driveway.

The west winds hit the trees and fence, drop their snow and carry on, leaving car-stopping drifts.

The husband has grown tired of digging through drifts. So, he bought the ugly orange snow fence, drove posts in the ground, and installed a line of fence 100 feet from the driveway.

Between that and new skis, it should guarantee a gray winter with little snow.

Alas, No Wings

When I first spotted the red ewe lamb in the yard, I paused.

In all of our years of raising lambs, we've never had one escape the pasture. Upon finding no holes in the mesh that separated the yard and pasture, I chalked it up to wings.

Weeks passed before, once again, I found a red ewe lamb in the yard. Was there some gap between the ground and fence?

Yesterday, when photographing sheep, I found the problem.

A concrete block had been moved, thus creating an opening. As I put the block in place, the lamb ran up the driveway, through the yard and toward the barn.

I followed.

Try as I may, I could not find wings.

I was hoping for wings.

But when I returned home from work today, I found this same lamb in the yard.

She looked at me and winked.