Just past dusk, but not quite dark last night. Sitting at the computer looking at eclipse photos and reading the news...and let's be honest here...playing Klondike.... I like to play Klondike.
Suddenly, from down by the heifer barn, blood curdling screams of KILL! DEATH! DIE!!!! KILL!!!!! echo mightily. Like the soundtrack of a horror movie. Like your worst nightmare. Like the end of all things. A horrible, terrible, just plain awful screaming....
And then.....
This morning. Early...ish...but nowhere near as early as I normally go outside. Finnbar the Puppy-Duppy transforms into Finnbad the Terrible as we walk to his yard. Rumbling growls are transmitted to my fingers through the leash before I even hear them. Mistrust, anger, and then the urge to attack and protect...all are translated through the thin band of leather. Communication to the pack.
Suddenly the big barks begin. Bark, bark, bark. Bark, bark, bark.
A shape looms by the driveway. A great big thing, cloaked in the swirling fog.
Has the Zombie Apocalypse been brought on by the solar eclipse? Are we safe here on our little family farm?
Answer in the comments.
Well, actually, yeah. No danger in either event. That screaming? That godawful wailing, shriek from the barnyard? The kids bought a couple of nice little pigs to raise yesterday and one of them objected to being taken off the truck. Pigs make their feelings perfectly clear, not unlike some toddlers I know.
ReplyDeleteFinn's killdeathdie reaction to something in the yard? Liz moved Peggy's plastic slide over to block the driveway while she played outside in the sand pile. You never know who will come up the hill unexpectedly and she wanted her to be safe. Then she left it on the lawn when they went out to get the piggies last night.
Sometimes there is little to be done around here but scratch your head and get on with business. But if I hadn't known they were out there with those pigs last night I would have been running for a firearm I can tell you.
And Finn? That's just Finn. Silly is kinda like a job for him.
Horror movies start just like that. You never know...
ReplyDeletePigs! I know that scream anywhere!
ReplyDeleteAnd something strange and out place...Boomer would so agree.....BARK BARK BARK GROWL!
Jan, weird stuff around here....
ReplyDeleteLinda, the first second I heard it I nearly jumped from my chair. Then I remembered. Finn is so silly. Anything new in the yard...even the slide being moved a few feet...and he goes nuts!
'Sometimes there is little to be done around here but scratch your head and get on with business."
ReplyDeleteUmmmm . . . . and take wonderful pictures and write prose/poetry :)
Cathy, thank you! I am actually grateful for all the silliness that goes on around here and for blogging, which has made me appreciate it all much more. Before I began keeping a journal when the kids were small, I was a very sad person because I simply did not SEE the life I was living. Writing it down made it all real in a way that it wasn't before and I am happier for it. Much happier. What started as a series of notebooks has morphed into this delightful connection with truly wonderful people, all over America, Canada, and even England. In looking for my old bird journals, which I want to put on eBird, I found those old journals. Glad I kept them....it was sobering to read how life was when my late mother-in-law passed away and about other events great and small during those busy days of cows and kids. Thanks for being one of those wonderful people and say hi to Keith for me if you would....
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