Portents

 

Sky a tumble of thunder, slashed by lightning like angry beast claws this morning. It woke me quarter to four AM, thus out to walk the dog in the fragile darkness that broke so easily under the storm.

No sojourn in his 10X10 concrete-floored, Dogloo full of straw, with a big bucket of clean water equipped run for old Mack this morning. There was another episode of the mutt vs marmot unrest last night. At this point the score stands at Mack 2, marmota monax 0.

Which is fine I guess, although I had to figure out how the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks the damned things were getting through the chain link. Not hard to see once I went out with the big light. Over the past few days something has dug the wire support up off the floor on one whole side of the run. Thus, the dog is inside the house for the day and big repairs are in order. Since the run was built for Mike the Border Collie GOAT of my life, way BITD, I guess I can't complain, but dang!!! I hate a woodchuck anyhow.

I was cleaning up a weedy patch, digging out some old half barrel flower bed thingies, and generally nicening up the yard the other day and found where they had burrowed under them. This was about three feet from the nearest tomato plant and a few yards from the beans and lettuce. Opportunism at its finest. I filled the hole with rocks and cleared everything around it so it is no longer hidden, but dang!, just dang! And now they have taken their show up the hill to my poor old dog's run.

The storm has broken, it's raining, lightly, at least, not the torrents that usually accompany thunder storms. However, the trip to the Burbine forest I was contemplating for dawn or so is out of the question and probably not much other than reading the news and discussing same will get done today. First robins are chattering along the driveway and there is some sort of light to the Northeast of us. Sunrise maybe I guess, could be. Have a good one and keep your batteries charged and your pantries stocked. The dog  and rodent follies aren't the only show in town these days.