Tag: animals

Categories
Nature Writing

Playing With My Camera~ Smile For William!

Most of the snow ,that was on the ground yesterday, is gone today.  It has been raining, making everything wet, dreary and muddy. I was a little disappointed when I saw the view was so blah!

Kenshin is a ham when it comes to pictures.

Uriah hates the camera! Every time I pointed it at him he turned  away, or just  sat down with his back to me.  He wanted to take a walk.  I told him to smile for William, only then did he face the camera.

I gave up and came back in the house, where Kenshin started making a heavy sighing sound at me and turning in circles. I asked him, what was wrong? He took me to my computer, and then looked out the window at the outside kennel.

It took me some time to capture what was out there, between Uriah outside the window and Kenshin inside, I wasn’t catching anything.  Can you see what I finally saw?

Categories
Nature Writing Writers Site

Slip, Sliding Away~ Or, Go The Way Of The Ice

I stuck my head out the door and instantly decided to stay inside until spring.

That didn’t go over well with Uriah, or Kenshin. Both the dog and cat wanted outside. Uriah for bathroom duty and Kenshin had a wild look in his eye; he wanted me to walk him around on the deck so he could sniff the air.

 
”Nope!”   I shook my head at Kenshin, who is an indoor cat.

 He frowned and decided to look out the window.  Uriah happily wiggled out the door.

I pulled on my coat, hat, and gloves.  Grabbed my ski poles and reluctantly I stepped outside. Every thing was coated in black ice, the type that looks like wet pavement, but really isn’t.

Uriah was slipping around the driveway following a scent.

I leaned against the garage doors and listened to the winds howling through the trees. The deck boards creaked and the rain gutters rattled. Sharp ice started raining from the dreary grey sky. The snow, no longer pure white, had sunken in as the temperatures hovered just above freezing. The warmer air held a hint of a damp spring.  In random areas I could see field grass attempting to show through the snow. Uriah stood about fifty feet away from me, just watching and waiting, willing me to follow.

I muttered.  “You win!” and took baby steps into the snowy yard.

I walked a short distance up and onto a snowdrift, and then I started having trouble keeping on my feet.  My non skid boots weren’t connecting to the snow and ice. Instead of standing still, I was slowly sliding backwards.

 I had one of two choices. Keep my ski poles stuck in the snow and end up on my face.  Or, let go and hope I would glide backwards without falling.  

I chose the latter.

I lifted the ski poles, and slid slowly, very slowly, backwards…

All the while I made this high pitch screeching sound, sort of like a sick coyote, until I came to a stop. 

Uriah thought I was playing and ran at me.  As soon as he hit the black top, he slipped and landed on his backside.  He coasted the rest of the way on his hind quarters stopping only when he bumped into my legs. If he hadn’t run into my legs, he would have just swept right past me and ended up in the snow under the Blue Spruce. 

Immediately Uriah scrambled to his paws and started pulling at the cuffs of my pants.

To keep myself upright, I sat down.

”Get out of here, Uriah! Are you crazy?”

He answered me by grabbing my right glove, which I was waving at him, and pulled it off. He ran onto the snow, where he promptly started digging furiously.

 “Uriah! Give that back!”

He looked up and gave me a doggy grin, and continued to dig. Once the hole was large enough, or so he thought. He dropped my glove in and pushed the snow over it using his nose.

“Uriah you’re an idiot!” 

He took that as words of endearment.  And ran back to me and grabbed my left glove and took off towards the pond.

I slowly crawled and shuffled back into the house.

I watched Uriah out the front window. He was digging like an insane dog. 

I’ll get my gloves later!  When the ice melts, or in spring…

I’ll worry about them later.

Right now, I have a cup of coffee and a book, Heat Wave by Richard Castle. I just need to find my reading glasses! Tomoe, my husband’s cat loves to hide them, usually under the bed, or on the couch, or in the liter box…! Sigh!

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Picture is from Word ClipArt
Categories
Nature Writing

Outside Temperatures Are In The Low Twenties. My Fever Is Above 100! Random Thoughts When Sick~

I woke up this morning with a cold. My head was pounding! My sinuses were stuffed!  I would rather have sat, and not move at all.

But, Uriah needed to go for a walk.

I opened the door and told him to have fun, and sat back on the couch.

Uriah barked at the side door until I gave up and went outside.

Today was very clear and bright and extremely cold.  Whites and blues, of snow and sky, stayed separate from the beiges and dark browns of the tree bark.  Lines of color cut in and out of the blinding white snow. 

This morning, the weatherman had made a joke about today’s temperatures, being as close to a heat wave as we can get in January.   The past few days we had wind chills between -20 to -50 degrees.  Hitting the twenty’s would have been a heat wave. If it had really gotten that high, it didn’t.  And all this white is wonderful for my headache… Grumble, grumble… !

Uriah ran circles around me as soon as I stepped outside. Then he stared at my pockets. I reached in and pulled out a biscuit. At the same time, I accidentally dropped my stick of gum on the ground. I bent down to grab it.

 Did I tell you, Uriah loves spearmint…

He grabbed it first and raced away from me. I tired out quickly. Then stood back and watched him run circles around a Blue Spruce, with my gum still intact, sticking out of his mouth.

I swatted the air at him.  He plopped down in the snow and peeled off the paper. Then he chewed the gum a few times before he swallowed it. He looked longingly at the gum wrapper and promptly ate it…

Yesterday I didn’t walk out back. Within one day the line of footprints that I had made by dragging my feet through the deep snow, were gone. Completely  filled in by the wind.

With a heavy sigh, a cough, and a sneeze I slowly followed two sets of fresh prints. One was a coyote a lot bigger than Uriah; he had stepped in and out of the snow easily.  When Uriah walks, he wades through the snow dragging his chest along. Not the easy gait of a coyote.

The second set of prints, were from an even bigger deer.  I stepped in the snow next to his footprints and only sunk in half the distance.

 I followed the coyote’s trail, which moved in the same direction I was going. Except for when he ran around and underneath the old apple trees.  I cheated there and cut my own path and linked up with his prints. I saw where he had dug irregular holes, here and there in the snow. Until he laid down just before the back path, and left a complete body print in the snow.

 I saw a line of rabbit tracks that stretched out from the Bog Willows. Then move with even hops, towards the path.  A little farther away, the snow was scattered, where the coyote and the rabbit both headed off into the trees. I looked up and saw Uriah’s hind end disappearing into the same section of trees.

 I headed up the path going east. Just as I reached the section that broke off, with one side heading southeast, the other northeast. I stopped! My mind said, enough walking for today, tea time!

 I whistled for Uriah. He surprised me by running out of the trees. He circled around me and headed back into the trees.  He even jumped over branches with the agility of a puppy.

I told myself to enjoy the day like Uriah!

I looked upward into the taller trees.  That was when I saw a slight movement, about twenty-five feet up, way-out on the edge of a heavy branch.

I blinked a few times until I focused on a dark brown Pheasant.  He blended in completely with the branch and tree.  I moved a few steps to the west and I could make out his long tail, it pointed west, his head to the east. As I walked away the entire Pheasant blended in with the lines of the tree.  I saw no difference in the coloring of either bird or tree!  I stared hard at him; I couldn’t find his slick purplish- blue head, only dark browns.

I could see he was starting to fidget.

I didn’t want to make him anymore nervous than I already had. I walked a few feet along the path, then turned back and said out loud, “You really think I could climb up there?”

Just then Uriah Howled!

I assumed he found the deer and would soon tire himself out.  I trudged back to the house. Uriah beat me back.  He got his biscuit and I was able to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and a box of Kleenex…

Categories
Nature Writing

Coyotes And Crystals; Or Walk With Me And Freeze Your Toes~

Yesterday morning when I looked out the window I saw grays and whites, clouds and snow.  A small section of the sky had a rolling cloud; it was unraveling in grayish-yellow sections in a futile attempt to filter down a ray of sunshine.  

Without thinking I slipped on my gym shoes instead of my boots.  I had packed the snow down on my walks, so the path we took no longer had me wading through deep drifts. Still it was a mistake to forget my boots. I figured that out when I was standing in the snow next to the apple trees up to my ankles.

I kept moving towards the path. I told myself that my feet wouldn’t get any warmer until I pulled on some heavier socks.  That won’t happen until I have my morning coffee, and that isn’t even in my universe until Uriah was walked.  

So I continued on…

I stopped on the path when I saw something clear and shining under the snow.  Uriah hesitated, and watched me dust the snow off the ground.  The ice was solid and window pane clear. Around it the ice swirled with white; it resembled a vase I had seen once.   When I started to walk away, Uriah turned and disappeared between the trees.

I noticed that an animal had been digging little holes underneath the trees and around specific plants. I couldn’t figure out why, or what he would be after. I thought, maybe he smelled the rodents that burrowed tunnels under the snow. Except the holes only reached the frozen grass, and then he moved on to the next. The area was, too, trampled down for me to make out chipmunk tunnels under the snow.

I stopped along the southern fence line, every tree and bush was covered in a white haze.

 Frost crystals!

Usually the crystals would melt if I breathed on them.  This time, I exhaled like I was blowing out candles. When they didn’t melt, I began to wonder if my breath was warm enough.  

I held onto one branch and looked very closely at the ice crystals; I wiped off a section from one small twig.   As I watched, and this only took a few seconds, the ice crystals grew back.

I tried again to melt the crystals by exhaling on them. I watched the crystals melt. Then I watched them reform, not as pretty as the original ones, but still they grew in an upward fernlike  spikes,  called stellar dendrite.

I wished I had a magnifying glass to watch as the crystals grew.  I never saw anything happen so fast!

The air was very damp and cold, a bitter cold. I wondered if that dampness was the cause the crystals grew so quickly.

I heard Uriah huffing angrily!   He raced at me across the field!  His hackles were up as he sniffed at my leg, checking me out. He walked around me once more making sure I was alright. He didn’t even ask for a biscuit. He stopped, sniffed the air and scrapped his back legs hard, the snow shot out behind him. Then, using his hound dog impression, Uriah looked up to the sky and barked.  He set his nose to the ground and ran ahead of me, snorting angrily!   He stopped and sniffed each of those little holes, with disgust!

 I watched his dominance dance few seconds, and then I look out over the farmer’s field, towards the east, something moved, a coyote!

 I whistled and the coyote stopped and laid down.

Coyotes, have responded to my whistle and my voice before, so this wasn’t a surprise. But, my feet were freezing and my legs burned from the cold air and I was ready to head home. Not chase Uriah over an open field…

I called for Uriah and the coyote sat up and listened…

He was waiting for us to leave. 

I wanted my coffee so he wins…

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*Picture from Word Clip Art
Categories
Uncategorized

Mother Nature Waits Quietly For Her Guests To Arrive~

I dragged my ski pole through the snow, and watched as the snow gently wafted to the right.    The frigid northwest wind had the snow settling like granulated sugar. The air was bitterly cold, and dry, while the sun blinded me in that bright blue, blue sky.  

I had my scarf fastening tightly around my face.  My breath irritatingly hot, sweated up the inside of the scarf. I pulled the scarf down and took a deep breath of that subzero air. The intake of freezing air into my lungs hurt.  I regretted the move immediately and covered my mouth and nose.

Pheasant tracks, fresh, zigzagged ahead of me.   I caught up with the bird halfway to the back of the property. It turned to the south and ran underneath the fence and raced to the west.  Amused, I watched the bird clumsily hurry away. It had a grayish-beige body with a white ring around its neck and a dark sleek, purplish- black head. It leaped upward in an attempt to become air born. The pheasant rose nearly three feet off the ground, and pumped its wings hard and squeaked as it flew.  It sounded a lot like Uriah’s stuffed toy.

I watched the pheasant attempt to fly west. It plopped to the ground and disappeared behind a snow drift.

I continued on..

I stopped at the northeast end of the path. In that area I was slightly higher and more out in the open. Those gentle winds burned my cheeks and froze my eye lashes.

From this point, I could see where the water, only days before, had flooded the Bog Willows. The water underneath had dried up. The top of the water had frozen in place and connected to the lower branches of the trees.    

To me, it looked like someone had set up tables at a banquet hall.  There was space underneath the ice for chairs and the guest’s legs. The top of the ice was covered with a tablecloth of white crystals. In this frozen field, Mother Nature quietly waited for her guests to arrive…

With the wind at my face, my feet, and fingers and cheeks froze, painfully.  Reluctantly, I headed back home.

Somewhere above me a Hawk screamed.  I looked upward into that bright blue sky and I couldn’t find him…

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Picture from word clipart
Categories
Uncategorized

Hickory Dickory Dock~

First day of a new year!

 I stared out the window at the icicles that clung to the screen, trailed down the deck’s railings and lengthened underneath the grill.  The winds had smoothed out the snow. And I could see little birds jumping in-between the branches of the Blue Spruce on the south side of the deck.

 Uriah was outside. I watched as he slowly trudged through the snow and picked a spot, out in the open in the sunshine, to sit down.  He looked out over the yard, and then looked over his shoulder at me. He was happy to be outside.  The sky above him was a beautiful deep blue with puffy white clouds. The ice shimmered like clear diamonds, enhanced from the blinding white sunlight, as it reflected off the snow. 

I finished my coffee and headed for my coat and boots.

Once outside I pulled my scarf up around my face. There wasn’t a wind, but frostbite was a reality in these low temperatures. Uriah danced around my legs until I handed him his morning biscuit. I waited as he crunched it to pieces. Then he nosed around in the snow until he found every last morsel.

Being Uriah he tried for two biscuits. I shook my head at him.  He didn’t seem disappointed; instead he turned and waded through the snow towards the back path.

The snow was powdery and painfully white.

Uriah stopped, and looked back at me; he was hesitant to step near the path. He must have remembered the cold water running under the ice.

 I moved cautiously forward and pushed my ski pole down into the snow. It hit frozen ground. Confident I wouldn’t end up with wet feet, I moved on.

 Ice crystals were growing upwards along every piece of dried grass and twig sticking up from the snow.

As I got closer, I could see unfrozen dark water. Little puffs of snow perched on top stray blades of grass, which sat above and over the water. The sight was spectacular! The area was covered with multiple bouquets of white snow flowers. The highest stood only two inches tall.

 Uriah took a couple of tentative steps forward, and found his own way around the freezing water. Instead of walking straight ahead, he had turned and walked into the trees and scramble over branches.  

By walking on piles of dried grass, I was able to make my way to the southern fence line. From there I picked my way around the water, hoping to avoid getting my shoes wet.  

I noticed that I was not the only one who walked this way.  I spotted the tracks of a coyote, rabbit, and squirrel. 

 I stopped and laughed! Pheasant tracks!  They were heading to the east. The same direction I was going!  As the ground slopped upward, I followed them up and away from the water.  As the path moved slightly south, I found the tracks under the trees.

That bird had followed the fence line.  He walked halfway down the path, and then his tracks turned to the south. Where he moved into the open field and headed towards the denser tree line.

I kept walking. I waded through the powdery snow.  I passed up some smaller tracks.  They looked like the rat tracks that were near Uriah’s kennel.

There were some prints I couldn’t identity.  The snow was soft and the footprints had caved in.  This animal walked with his feet apart. He left a trail, similar to train tracks.

Once I reached the end of the path I rounded the back and passed by the farmer’s air field. Headed north and took a left turn and then faced west. There the Bog Willows stayed to my right. This took me in the direction that headed back home.

 I walked under a bush, and noticed smaller tracks, possibly rat tracks. Or, maybe not! This guy had circled around and around underneath the bushes. More than likely it was gathering its breakfast. A few feet on the other side of the bush I came across a coyote’s tracks.  He was circling the bush from the outside. I assumed, he too, was gathering his breakfast.

Uriah appeared from the tree line and looked at me. I waved at him.  He turned and went back to his games.

 At that point I noticed some small, nearly dotty tracks on top of the snow.  I stepped forward and stepped into a snowdrift. This animal had to be very tiny, or he would have sunk in the snow. I stood still and picked out its trail. Then I stepped back where I could follow its path without standing in deep snow.

This animal had circled every piece of grass and wildflower it passed, and it left behind a tiny dusty trail underneath each plant.  Its tracks moved perpendicular along the path I was on.  I thought this was great!  I was heading home.  I could follow it without wasting time. I would even walk a little slower and keep an eye on its tracks.

Then the little tracks disappeared under a Bog Willow…

That was when I made a mistake!

 I walked forward to see where the animal tracks had gone to.  When I did that, I brushed against the top of a sagging Bog Willow.  It was capped with heavy snow, as was everything else in sight.

As the snow showered down on my head I heard a squeak! I saw a mouse stick his head out of its nest of milkweed seeds. That nest was built in the center of the tangled branches, on the top of that Bog Willow, which was about five feet off the ground.

I should stop here and tell you. I don’t like mice! I am the idiot that will dance on the couch, bed or table when one of the little buggers appears. On with the story…

Now, all this was happening at face level!

Uriah caught a whiff of fear and came running! He danced around my feet when he saw the mouse!  

The mouse saw the dog! Then looked at me… Its mini brain worked overtime during those seconds when it tried to figure out, who it feared the least… That was the one it would leap at!  

The Bog Willow branch snapped upward!

I squealed!

Uriah barked! 

And the mouse squeaked and landed on my arm!

I was in a Disney movie….!

My fear was that mouse would crawl down my coat!

I stopped hopping and held my hand out to Uriah to sit. I kept thinking, “Stay calm and relaxed.”   

Riight!

I reached out and put my hand on the Bog Willow.  I made a very shaky bridge, which I hoped that the mouse would use.

He did!

Once he was off my arm, I was out of there!

 Uriah continued to hop up and down. Run in circles and sniff at the snow under the Bog Willow.

I headed over the flooded path, and broke though the ice. A wet left foot wasn’t going to slow me down!

Uriah, finally decided to follow, but refused to come inside the house.  I left him outside to guard against an invasion of mice…

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This image comes from the Project Gutenberg archives. This is an image that has come from a book or document for which the American copyright has expired and this image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hickety_Dickety_Dock_1_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546.jpg

File:Hickety Dickety Dock 1 – WW Denslow – Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg

Categories
Nature Writing

To SnowBlow Or Not To SnowBlow, That Is The Question~

The thought for the day was two fold. Drain and replace the antifreeze in the tractor before the radiator cracks. The second, walk the driveway and decide whether to snow blow today, or tomorrow.

 I stepped outside and the lack of sound was overpowering.  

 A flurry of compacted flakes blanketed the air as they slowly drifted out of a solid grey sky. Every piece of ground, branch and roof top was outlined and covered in piles of soft, feathery snow.

 Uriah immediately threw himself onto the snow covered driveway and rolled and moaned. Then he jumped up and raced in a circle around me.

 I grabbed the push shovel and cleared a four foot area in front of the garage door.  Then I set the shovel back in the garage and looked around for Uriah.  He had headed out towards the northeast tree line. He had set his nose into the snow, and started running.  The snow piled over his head and back. Within a few seconds he was covered in white and looked like he was tunneling under the snow.

 I glanced towards the barn, and decided the tractor could wait. I needed see how much damage happened between the ice storms, pouring rains and massive snow fall.  While I walked around I could check the driveway.

 I whistled for my dog and headed down the driveway to the west. 

This snow was perfect for cross country skiing, soft and puffy.  Lousy for building a snow man, it won’t hold together.  

This morning, Kenshin, our half Siamese male, complained loudly until I brought in some snow for him. He grabbed the bowl with his front paws and pulled the snow onto the rug and floor. He ran around, sliding in it.  I shook the snow onto his head.  He was so excited; he turned in circles and then jumped up and tried to catch the flakes.

 I had grabbed a handful of Kenshin’s snow, and rolled the snow over and over, in my hands, until it started to melt and formed a ball.  My hands froze!  When it was hard enough, I slid the snowball across the kitchen floor. Kenshin took off down the hallway after the ice ball. When I went to find him he was sitting on the snowball like a chicken on an egg.  With a wide puffy cheeky grin, only he can make. 

Now, I am walked along the east end of the driveway.  The snow at this point, was only up to my ankles. I could see the deeper drifts along the bend.

I had only walked about thirty feet, when tuned towards the house.  The closer I got to the house, the deeper the snow became, until it was knee high.  The bushes, in front of the house, had at least a foot of snow perched on top. I used my ski pole to slide it across each one, cutting apart the snow.

I noticed Uriah nosing around the four, Blue Spruces near the southern fence. I stopped and tried to smell the cold air.  The last time Uriah brought me over here he was bothering a skunk. I wasn’t falling for that again. I hesitated! Nothing, no skunk!  I moved towards the trees.

The silence was heavy.  Not even a bird.

 I walked around the back of the trees.  Uriah came with me. That’s when I saw the snow had accumulated along the southern side of the trees.  I brushed off one of the lower branches, and gave one of the higher branches a little shake.

Then, I stepped back to check out the next tree. Uriah was noising under that one. He was sniffing at some rabbit tracks. Just as I came in close and reached up to shake the snow off a higher branch.  Uriah dove underneath the tree.   His movements vibrated through the trunk, and caused the snow, even higher up to loosen.  An avalanche of snow tumbled down from those higher branches onto us both.

I was a snowwoman! Snow trickled down inside the collar of my coat, onto my bare neck.

Uriah was happy; he pranced and started rolling in the deep snow. 

“I’m full of snow!”  I growled.  

Uriah ran at me and grabbed my pants leg and tried to trip me. When I laughed, he ran around me and tried again. I shook the snow off my hat at him.

I turned and looked up at the trees; the snow was heaver higher up. I decided if the wind picked up tonight all that soft snow will fall.  If it doesn’t, I will come out tomorrow. Without Uriah and shake them off.

“Ok, Uriah! Where to now?”

Uriah barked and ran off towards the back path.

The snow became deeper the further away from the house we got. Uriah ran ahead, anticipating a walk in the far back.  So, he hit the ice and water first. I watched as he stopped and slowly turned to look at me with an, “Ahhhw Shoot!” look on his furry face, just as his weight broke the ice under his paws. He only slipped into water a couple of inches deep, but it must have been cold.

“Come on Uriah, let’s walk this way.” I coaxed him out of the water and off the ice. When he walked up to me, I rubbed his face.  Then I pushed him behind me and I walked forward to check the path. I could see ice under the snow stretching ahead into running water.

Uriah waited for me to whistle at him. Then he raced ahead, kicking up snow as he ran. I walked along the tree line, heading west, back to the house.

I focused my attention inside the trees. The standing water showed up as grey frozen patches, slightly hidden under the snow.  Water flowed out towards the drainage pipe, which ran under the gravel driveway in front of the barn. The ice was grayish-green with pee-yellow streaks caught just under the surface. Frozen in place! The yellow looked like veins in a leaf.

I walked over the top of the drainage pipe, past the barn and in-between the mulberry bush.

The water trickled from the open pipe, on the west end of the barn. It flowed about twenty feet, until it froze solid!  The top of the water had eight puffy, round snow mounds that resembled giant marshmallows.  And three ovate shaped ones, which looked like they were pinched in the middle, then stretched out on the ends. The water was dark and clear; I could see the dark greens and assorted gold colors of the field grass under the water.

Uriah stood behind me, and whimpered he didn’t want his paws wet again.

“What’s wrong?” As I asked him, he turned and ran to the garage door. He had enough of the cold and wet.   

I pulled at my collar and shook some snow out from under my jacket. “Ok, let’s go back in for a biscuit and coffee!”…

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Picture is from word clip art

Categories
Nature Writing

I Stare Into A Place I Cannot Walk~The Ground Glistens With Temptation~

The world is covered in ice! 

I stepped outside to the sound of a thick rattling. Not a sweet musical pitch, more a deep thudding sound.

I tried to take a step forward and found myself without footing. I held tightly to my walking stick /ski poles they stopped me from taking a tumble.  Uriah was walking gingerly; he couldn’t get a foothold on the ice.  I decided, staying next to the door would be the safest place.

 It was ten o’clock in the morning. The temperature was over the freezing point.  Yet everywhere I looked my world was covered in a thick shiny ice…

This weather had started early yesterday.

By nine last night, when I took Uriah out for his last walk, I found the driveway coated with a ruff, white edged ice. At that time I was able to get a foothold, and take Uriah for a short walk.

As I walked out of the garage, I turned to the right, and chambered up the slight incline using my ski poles and Uriah, as a support.

The snow looked like butter crème frosting!  While the night before it resembled powdered sugar. I crunched though the top ice layer, and walked towards the vegetable garden and Uriah’s kennel.

Before I came outdoors, I had turned on the outside light above the garage door. That lit up the driveway and set a glow around the house.  

Once in the yard, I turned and faced the house.  On the northeast side of the roof I watched as water, illuminated as silver sheen, ran down the roof and over flowed from the frozen gutters. From there, it traveled down the light pole.  The water never made it to the ground.  It froze solid in mid-run, and coated the pole, and the light in clear ice.  

 The deck was an ice rink, thick as twenty coats of varnish. The frozen clothes line was still stretched above the lower deck and connected to the upper side rails. I had forgotten to take in the aluminum pole I used to raise up those lines. That pole was more than covered in ice. It looked like it was dipped over and over like a giant clear candle, its center a soft fuzzy grey.

The grill that sat on a square pattern of pavers was sealed and enclosed in ice.

I was outside only ten minutes. During that time it snowed big flat flakes.  Then changed to an ice storm of painful pellets, and then changed into cold rain, only to start all over again, with the snow.

This morning, I stood outside the garage door and worried about the trees!  Then the electrical lines!  If the winds picked up, before the temperatures rose enough to melt the ice, I will have broken tree limbs and no heat.

Suddenly, the grey skies opened and it rained. Hard!  Only for a minute and then stopped.   

Uriah, oblivious!  Happily drank up some of the rainwater.  Carefully picking his way around the ice, he walked over to me.  Without sitting on his hindquarters, he waited for me to open the door. He had enough of this wet, icy world!  

I laughed as he waddled inside. He will forget and ask to be let out. That should happen in about an hour…

Categories
Nature Writing

Would A Sign Help? ‘Chicken Or Pheasant Crossing, Slow Down’~

 

Early Tuesday, afternoon I headed outside to get the mail. I stopped, about forty feet from the road. When I spotted some large, bird tracks that crossed the driveway, south to north.

I followed the tracks to the south, the way they came into my yard, and looked over the fence into my neighbor’s yard.  I couldn’t see where the tracks started from. But, I could see a large number of bird and small animal prints around the trees. I noticed only the large bird had separated from the rest, and walked a four toed pattern under the wooden fence.

I retraced my steps back to the driveway and hesitated. Should I just collect the mail and head back to the house?  No! This was bugging me, that bird could need help.  I decided to follow the bird’s claw prints across the front yard.

 Uriah came over and sniffed at the snow, then followed me.  

I found a couple of feathers. They were stuck in the snow a few feet north of the driveway.  Reddish mottled brown with a soft gray tuff closer to the tip, about two to three inches long, I slipped them into my coat pocket and kept following the tracks in the snow.  They guided me across the front of yard.   That bird had walked a zigzagging pattern, headed north, and kept to the harder packed snow.

I reached the property line on the north end. Slipped between the evergreens and stood on a sizable chunk of plowed up dirt, and stared across the field. Uriah stood next to me and waited.

 I took off my right glove and readjusted my hat.  The temperature was in the lower 30’s, without a wind. I wiggled toes, to check how frozen my feet were, they weren’t cold. And my fingers were still warm. I wasn’t cold at all!  This gave me a reason enough to move on with my quest.

I was thinking the bird might be a hawk and he was hurt. Why else would a bird take a walk?  He could have a broken wing!  Or he may have been clipped by a car driving by too fast!  I shook my head silently. No! If the bird had been hurt I would have seen a blood trail.

It might be a pheasant!  I usually see a few of them running in the snow, or startling me when Uriah flushes them from the tall grass.  Again, I shook my head; the tracks didn’t have lines formed from the birds trailing tail feathers. And this bird had four toes. I thought a Pheasant’s tracks usually showed only the front three toes.   

 I replaced my glove, and made sure my footing was steady. “Well, Uriah, should we head back to the house?  Or…Should we see what type of bird left those tracks?”

 I left it up to Uriah to decide what we did next.

I use my old ski poles as my walking sticks,  I grabbed them both in a way that said I was finished standing around. Then I looked towards my dog. 

Uriah sniffed the ground, glanced up at me and started to walk on ahead. Now he was following the tracks, and I followed him. 

I carefully stepped out on a wash of tiny black icebergs, small points of back earth, which stood out above the snow.

Tracks of coyotes, a fox, and raccoons crossed my trail heading off to the east and west. Tire treads cut through the snow from an off road vehicle, probably the neighbor who I saw on Sunday.  His tracks headed across the road into the farm field. The animal’s prints looked fresh, possible early this morning.  I thought, maybe they were chasing the bird. But no, the tracks crossed each other. I doubt they actually saw one another.

Curiosity had me moving on.   I was beginning to think I was following a drunken chicken

The bird had walked towards a couple of very old, gnarly Oak trees.  Scratched in the snow then turned towards the road, and walked in the ditch, until he headed out on the road.

I called Uriah back, and made him sit. I waited for two cars and a truck to pass by. Once it was clear, I allowed Uriah up and out of the ditch, so he could stand next to me on the blacktop.  I could see that something had been hit by a car recently. It laid still another twenty feet to the north on the opposite side of the road. The car that hit it, had been heading south.

I made sure there wasn’t any traffic in sight. Then, I told Uriah to sit and wait!   I approached the carcass. It was a rooster, a big roster. With a red Comb, or was it a male ring-necked pheasant? No, it looked like a rooster…

It had the shape of a fat chicken. Well sort of.  It was hit by a car!

I kept checking for cars, and took my eyes off Uriah for a second. In that time frame, he walked up to me and stared at the bird. 

I glanced both ways along the road, and then asked Uriah. “Okay, what do you think it is, chicken or pheasant?”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him as I checked the road.  Then I asked. “Okay, Uriah! What do you think it is, chicken or pheasant?”

I don’t think he cared.  But wanting  to get in on the game, he looked at the bird.  Then he looked back at me!  Then back at the bird! I could hear him loud and clear, “Can I take it?  Huh? Come on let me take it!” His eyes sparkled and he started prancing around.  His nails clicked loudly on the frozen blacktop.

I shook my head at him, “No! Let’s get out of the road.”

Uriah followed and only looked back once.

I saw a truck coming at us, really slow.  We had enough time to walk along the road. Then move off the road, in-between the Blue Spruce and the Austrian Pine, at the north end of the front yard.  

The truck turned out to be a farmer and his tractor; he was pulling a couple of swaying grain carts filled with corn. The farmer was very, very slowly making his way down the road. I waved at him. As I check the mail…

Categories
Nature Writing

Take A Quiet Walk, Just Don’t forget The Bright Orange Jacket~

Uriah’s nighttime walk was uneventful.

Sunday night  the air was still, the sky held onto an eerie, dark grey along the western horizon.   Northeast, the truck stop’s bright lighting reflects off the clouds in a grayish-yellow haze.  While the town, to the south, lights up the sky with a peachy-grey glow. 

I had turned on the outside light, in the driveway. It illuminated and reflected off the snow in clear sparkles, evenly tossed out like bird seed across the yard.  I walked along the edge of light. And outlined the edge of darkness with my footprints.

Uriah kept bumping against my right leg, and then looked up whining. He wanted a biscuit. He would eat all of them if I let him.

Every time I gave him a treat, I took off my right glove then reached in my pocket. He would sit and watch my hands. “Sorry! I only have one more.  I forgot to fill my pockets tonight.”   

When I told him no more, he sneezed out his complaint and started walking towards the barn.

This time of the year is the safest, for walking along side barn at night.  The grass is covered in snow, and I can’t accidentally sneak up on an animal. I set off around the West side of the barn.  Then circled around back towards the north and made a right turn, along the east side, next to the line of trees. 

From the road an occasional car’s motor interrupted the silence.

For the most part, silence followed us around tonight.

Earlier this morning, our quiet morning walk was interrupted.

The sky, instead of grey, held a pastel blue and purple hue, lined with a pastel peach haze along the horizon. The clouds, though thick and heavy didn’t look like a winter sky, they seemed warmer. I wouldn’t have surprised if it rained. It didn’t.

Someone has a fire going. I love the smell.  Bitter sweet burning wood, drifting silently in the morning air.

Uriah stayed close this morning, all the way around the path.  Until we hit the two thirds point along the north side. That’s when I brought to Uriah’s attention some odd foot prints. They resembled a dog’s print, smaller than his paws.

He walked over to where I pointed, and stuck his nose in the footprint and sniffed.  My daughter told me her dog’s paws smell like corn chips. For a second I wondered what Uriah smelled? His stance changed and the hair on his neck rose and he started running following the tracks, round and round, very happy.

He took off into the trees doing his coon hound impression, a deep, drawn out bark.  

“Uriah!  Get back here!” I yelled! He didn’t listen…

 I knew he would come out of the trees, when I walked off the path.

 Before, I had a chance to take a step. I heard the sound of a motor.  A vehicle was moving slowly along the northern tree line, heading west.

I stood still, and waited.

No one could miss me; I wear a bright orange coat when I go for walks.

The off road, four wheel vehicle passed into a section were the trees thinned. It was one of my neighbors. Not the one directly next door. Our property lines don’t touch at all.

His young son was sitting in back of him, and I saw the covered gun behind the boy… 

I started calling for Uriah. Uriah answered me, and he didn’t come out of the trees. The sound he was making, told me he was found something.

The neighbor, slowed down and stopped his vehicle, and watched me. I called for Uriah again.

The guy started to drive away, slowly.

“Uriah! Get over here now!”  I turned and walked back along the path.

Continually calling for Uriah, I was breathing hard, trying to walk over the heavy snow. My foot slipped. I had to stop for a minute. I couldn’t hear the motor any longer, so I don’t know if he stopped, or kept moving towards the road.

“Uriah… Uriah!”

Now, I stood in the dark. The silence was heavy, the air thick and cold.  This night reminded me of the night after my dog; Zeus was hit by a car, a very similar night, just emptier.  

Uriah barked, then whimpered and nudged my leg for a treat. I ruffed up his furry face and gave him his biscuit…