New back yard

Yesterday I drove up north to where I bought property to put my bees on ( to be known as "The Farm".  It is covered in Bayberry brush so I have been (painfully) chopping it down and burning it.  As I was working, evening suddenly appeared and I noticed the dogs looking toward the meadow and saw 5 deer munching away, not caring a thing as we watched.  Back to work to bring in the last pieces before dark and put them on the fire.  Then I opened a bottle of wine and sat.  Looking up the first star appeared, soon the sky was ablaze,  matching the fire before me.  I was admiring the Milky Way, something you can't see from the city,  as it stretched across the sky when a satellite past overhead and it took me back some some 59 years ago when my trusty companion, our golden retriever, Goldie, and I were skating on Green lake, one of my favorite winter things to do, and tiring, I lay down with my head on Goldie's chest, listening to the throb of her heart and rhythm of her breathing and saw Sputnik, the first ever satellite cross the sky, a night to remember.
                            

The bull

11/11/15  Tales from the backyard:  One morning while I was bow hunting a small woodlot not far from home, not having any luck, I started to return to the car across this meadow.  In the middle were two cows eating lazily, so, not wanting to disturb them, I cut up a small knoll, intending to drop down into the small valley and skirt around them.  Just as I rounded the hill, to my left I saw a huge bull standing about 40 feet away, looking at me.  At that time I was directly between him and his cows and he didn’t look happy.  It was about 150 yards or so to the fence and I knew if he came at me I would be toast, so I just continued walking hoping to get past but he began pawing and snorted a warning so I stopped.  I knew I couldn’t out run him and he wasn’t going to let me walk on so I just turned and began running straight at him yelling.

He then raised his head in astonishment so I turned and walked back to the truck to get the toilet paper.

A farewell to Cady

 Sitting here on the porch with Cady’s head in my lap, as usual, my hand caressing her soft silky fur.  Watching away the beautiful fall day, a lonesome fluffy cloud drifts by contrasting with the blue sky and the fall colors.  A vulture floats past and circles in the thermals, does it sense death is in the air?  A cat walks across the yard, Cady lifts her head but doesn't stir, her legs unable to hold her weight from the sudden onset of terminal cancer.  It seems like only yesterday we brought this black and white puppy into our lives.  It was just last week I took the dogs out on her now last hunting trip.  She just followed me around, thinking she was getting old, I let her.  Three days ago she was acting like a puppy again as her and Thai were goofing around as usual.  Now today she cannot stand, so we sit on the couch, me afraid to leave as she might go without me being there and her wanting to be in the flower bed, her favorite place to lull away the day.  I have succumbed and put her in the Hosta bed after another failed attempt of getting her to pee.  

The money clip

Tales from the backyard..  I was taking a bath this evening and as I stepped out onto the bath mat, I remembered some 20 odd years ago how I obtained it.  I was taking a course at Harper's Ferry, one of our training centers, and after class was walking around the old historic town, alone as always, taking in the history of this wonderful place.  At some point I reached into my pocket and upon pulling my hand out, my money clip with over a hundred dollars slid out and onto the sidewalk, without knowing, I kept walking.  One of the merchant’s across the street saw this and went over and found the clip, but I was long gone, too far to be hailed back.  Two nights later, walking the same area, I was hailed by the young owner of the store and she asked if I had been here two days before.  I said I had and she asked if I might have lost something, I said I did, “my money clip”.  She invited me in and handed me the clip with all the money.  I offered her a reward but she refused, but she couldn’t refuse a sale and so I purchased our $100 lovely handmade rag woven bath mat that matched our bathroom.  The world is so wondrous.

Jeans

When we moved to Chisago City, MN, my mother, for whatever reason, always dressed me different then my brother.  I was never allowed to wear jeans like him, always khakis and a button down Ivy League shirt.  I felt that I could get into Yale just for the cloths I wore.  One day in the eighth grade I revolted and after breakfast, snuck back upstairs and took my brothers old ratty jeans he wore around the house and put them on and ran for the bus stop.  Little did I know that I would be setting a trend, albeit 50 some odd years later, with blown out knees and rips across the thighs and without a belt they hung so low I thought I would trip.  It was one of those, “what the fuck is that kid wearing” kind of days.  Needless to say I went back to wearing Khakis’.  Never did make Yale.  Being stupid, I could have been President.

Longest Ferris wheel ride

Tales from the Backyard… One year a small traveling carnival  came to Chisago City (my home town) and set up next to and in the park in front of the then Post Office.  Around six, my friend Ron and I started to walk around and as a storm was approaching (in those days you had to look up not on a screen and no weather alerts) we decided to be the first on the Ferris wheel to beat the storm.  We were loaded and the operator was moving us to the top to load more passengers when this big gust of wind hit and down came the torrential rain and hail accompanied with flashes of lightning and the immediate sound of thunder.  Everyone ran for cover, including the operator.  We had nowhere to hide and were pelted mercilessly for about 20 minutes as we went round and round, laughing all the way.   When out popped the sun and we finished the ride soaking wet,  we weren't even charge us extra for the extra long experience.

The Red Bellied snake attack

Tales from the Backyard…  We had family friends we used to visit while on the farm and they had a son my age (Dennis) and we were good friends and even when we moved to Forest Lake, I used to hike back out to where he lived and play for the day.  I was ten and full of adventure.  Their neighbors had a barn full of stuff, one of which was an old rail road hand truck, the kind used for moving workmen along the tracks by pumping up and down on the handles.  We got excited and thought we would put it on the tracks again and take off for parts unknown, but it was so heavy we couldn’t even lift one corner.  On the way home along the tracks I surprised a Red Bellied snake basking in the sun.  Rather than slink away, he started to attack.  Luckily the railroad bed is made of rocks and at ten nothing got away alive, but by the time I finally hit it with one, I think I had made a hole about a foot deep; such was my accuracy with throwing objects.  Later