Walking the Dog

Walking around the farm in fall with our dog, Lucky, is such a divine experience taking in the crisp air hearing my feet crunch on blankets of leaves. The grove of trees at the end of our lane has a clearing in the center with several large boulders placed there, no doubt, by a previous farmer who hauled them from a field. Over time I have cleared the dead trees and foliage so it serves as a kind of shrine to nature. I like to sit perched on a big boulder surrounded by the sounds of birds and various creatures scurrying amongst the leaves and downed branches.

Of course this time of year, there is also the sound of grain dryers from neighboring farms prepping their crops for storage or sale. Our dog and cats become feisty as the temperatures drop always wanting to run here and there jumping and leaping like crazy. It must be the way they get their blood pumping to keep themselves warm, I suppose, but the scene is somewhat cartoonish. In the mornings before work as I walk the sidewalk from the house to the barn, the dog leaps at me with his front paws poised like a boxer sparring in a ring. This particular tendency may be Lucky’s way of showing that he misses Daddy, too, as my husband would always play-fight with him on his way to the car before work. I haven’t found a way to tell Lucky that Daddy’s in Iraq and can’t play with him until summer when he gets home.

With so much to do around the farm, I haven’t kept my bird feeders full of seed as I typically do and I find myself missing their jovial presence in the front yard. Now that fall is here and we have the end-of-season chores finished, perhaps I should get more of my feathered friends’ favorite seeds and fill up their bird bath. The weather here as has been unseasonably warm for this time of year and I hadn’t noticed until recently that the migration patterns haven’t quite kicked into full gear yet. I have spied a few flocks heading southward, but the geese haven’t arrived in our fields yet as they traditionally do by now. You can’t see the geese, but you can hear them especially when Lucky gets a wild hair and takes off in their direction and they take off en-masse. That’s just Lucky protecting his turf and I’m glad he’s here to keep watch and sound the alarm when anything moves.