A Cow's Tale

I may still have a lot to learn about living in the country, including understanding that there is a difference in the way sound travels out here. We hear so many varied sounds - the farm trucks traveling down the road, the crop dusters overhead, the train coming down the track at all hours, and of course the animals....

We constantly hear animal sounds since we have quite a menagerie all around us; frogs, crickets, roosters, birds, chickens, horses, donkeys, and goats. We don't see most of these animals but we hear them. But the dogs we hear and see. I've grown accustomed to seeing the dogs that apparently had the run of our land before we homesteaded here. They take a tour every morning and we often meet when I am also out walking.

One day as I was walking back down the lane toward our house, just before the sharp bend that turns into our yard, a little beagle rounded that bend. He was bouncing along wagging his tail, happily out for his morning stroll when he suddenly spotted me coming toward him. Well, he just circled around in a u-turn and headed back in the direction he had just come at the same steady pace.... never looked back... never changed his speed..... passed in front of our house, rounded the bend on that side of the pond, and then disappeared out of my view as he entered the lane in the tall grass.

Anyway, about the traveling sounds..... on one particular morning, in addition to the usual sounds, I heard a cow mooing. The sound seemed to be coming from right at the end of our lane. I rushed down the lane to see the cow that I just knew would be standing at the entrance to our lane..... On the lam following her escape from some neighbor's pen. Since I had been stopped twice by the goats and horses walking along the road in the mornings I knew it happened! I so wished that I had a camera with me. What a picture that would be!...... I knew that you would want to see that. ...A cow greeting me as I walked down the lane for the morning paper.... Well, I walked as fast as I could to the end of the lane.....I did not see the cow. I hurried into the road because I was sure that cow had just walked on a little father down the road.....After a couple of minutes I heard the cow again. She was indeed down the road - in her normal pen, maybe a half a mile away. Sigh...... And across the road, watching me with great interest were the dogs that regularly walk our land. When our eyes met they turned their heads to the side. They really wanted to understand me. We all need to learn to live together. Except the snakes and the mice. They need to move.

What do you think I would have done with that cow?

At least it got my heart rate up!

Hope you all have a great Expo week whether you celebrate it in your land or not.

Weekend Special at Still Waters: Just for sixteen month olds: Day 1

For A Great Get Away


SPORTS......














golfing......

rock climbing........................

















Always popular sport (indoors and outdoors) of "fly swatting"!
Seasonally offered imported love bugs for ease of capture.
















crow calling.....

















COUNTRY LIVING.....















featuring our 1940's tractor

THE GREAT OUTDOORS...




hiking with our local guide ......







or a quite walk along our trails as you commune
with nature....


















or do a little collecting......












....... rare white bird feather............













........ petrified turtle











Refreshments....
After the afternoon activities take a break with a iced glass of cool well water......













or just enjoy the ice....


















... just watch for


the pieces that fall in the dirt! TO BE CONTINUED...... (Happy Aunt KK?)

Late Night Visitor or "What? More New Friends?" 9/5/08

If I moved to France I would expect to live with the inhabitants of France. So when I moved into the field on the edge of the woods I guess I should have expected to live with the field mice and snakes. But I really was not prepared to share my house with either of them. Last night as I read while waiting to hear John McCain speak, I sensed movement in the hall between the powder room and our bedroom. I looked up from my book several times and did not see anything. I thought it was probably just a little mini stroke or a detached retina and kept reading… It was a pretty good mystery…. The door to our bedroom was closed and the light was off since Jimmy gave in to his exhaustion and went to bed before time for the speech. I finally looked up to see a tiny little mouse running around in the hall. He seemed lost or disoriented. He would stop and look around then run to the bedroom door and nose around the bottom of the door. Then he would stand on his hind feet, with his little pink mouse hands on the door and lean on the door. He would then run to another part of the door and again stand up on his hind feet and put those little pink mouse hands on the door- and TRY TO PUSH THE DOOR OPEN!!! Well, that’s what he appeared to be doing. He was very tiny and kind of cute but I would still not get out of my chair until he finally disappeared. I found a trap and put it in the hall. I still have not caught him. When I went to bed I closed and locked the door into the bedroom. I keep thinking about that little ant…… that moved a rubber tree plant!
Have a great weekend!

Thank God I'm a Country Girl posted: 8-7-08

This morning I tried out the most beneficial 'race walking'- swinging arms at 90 degree with one foot in front of the other. After 10 minutes of panting in the 100+ heat/humidity my wicking shirt had wicked it's weight so I moseyed down to the mail box and back. Yes, I can see that by race walking for an hour a day just 5 times a week one could lose 35 pounds a year without any other changes. Assuming one lived through it.
Back at Still Waters Jimmy and I settled in to shell the pink eyes he had picked yesterday late and I was transported back to Briarwood Road, 1960s. (Yes, apparently it is still legal to shell peas in your own home if you live more than 8 miles from any city limits). I remember many summer days of shelling peas or beans then blanching, draining, cooling and finally bagging to freeze the little jewels. I loved peas and would count and recount the bags to see if we had enough to have them at least once a week. And since Daddy loved beans I wanted to make sure he had enough of those. I realize now how filling those shelves in the freezer satisfied something inside of me. I'm back to my roots. Thank God I'm a country girl!
Love you!