Tuesday 20 Sept 2005
8:35 p.m.

It was my second short walk of the day, and it brought a gift. I was standing by the corral, having just fed the horse my apple core. He’d knocked it to the ground and nibbled at it, then showed me his teeth a couple times as I stood watching to see if he’d eat it. I stepped back in fear of a horse bite; maybe he’d get cranky if he didn’t get what he expected. It didn’t occur to me till later that maybe he was giving me his best smile so I’d pick him a handful of green grass, like I always do. I laughed when I thought of that. Maybe it was his attempt at charm, at putting his best face forward. He never did eat the apple core. What kind of horses don't eat apples and carrots? I thought those were treats for horses.

When I heard what sounded like turkey gobbling coming from high overhead, I looked up, then bent my neck backwards to watch a flock of almost a hundred large, long-necked birds fly over the yard, north to south. Cranes, is my guess.

Now Playing: Clannad. There is music in my office again. Woo hoo! And all I had to do was crawl under the desk and plug in some wires. Don’t ask why it’s taken me over two months to get around to it.

Wednesday 9:24 a.m.

I will be spending a couple hours working with Scott today. Grunt work, lifting bricks from old patios and onto pallets to be hauled away. It will be a change in my routine and will help him out. He’s got to pour new concrete patios.

~ getting machinery ready ~

In spite of all the rain we’ve had in the area recently, some farmers have been able to get out into the fields and start the harvest. Our own menfolk were combining and baling yesterday afternoon and evening. Not one of them had eaten supper, so I packed up hot roast chicken, boiled potatoes (from our garden), apple pie, and coffee to send out.

Delivering meals to the fields during harvest is standard practice for farm wives, as the hour or more of combining that would be lost by coming in to eat could easily mean a crop yield loss of thousands of dollars. They’ve got to get the crop off while the getting’s good, and they’ll go without eating if they have to, to do it.

For these guys, that’s more foolish than for most. One is diabetic and should never skip a meal; for all, hunger drains one’s energy and alertness, which is essential when operating large machinery.

Rarely do I go for a walk and not take this path, heading south, before turning east and toward home on the grid road that runs past the farm. Once I get out on the road, there is a spectacular view across the fields. Below, looking west, is the best direction to see some stunning sunsets.

Best get out of my housecoat, into some old jeans, and dig up some work gloves for handling those bricks. Scott will be back from doing chores, and ready to go, in about 10 minutes I suppose.