reason no. 3 to be a morning person, the early runner always finds the bodies

One day I will wake up and go for a nice little run and it will  be so calm and peaceful it will be right out of an orange juice commercial. The End.

Thank god today was not that day....

I had decided it was early enough & cool enough to sneak north. I figured the spiders under the freeway bridge (& the homeless) would be sleeping. What I didn't count on finding was a beaver on the side of the trail.

I finished my run- fast. 

Collected Beach and drove back to the nearest trail head. We had to run a field and hop a fence or 2 (may or may not have included a tiny bit of trespassing) but there it was.

 

Okay, so not quite as dead as I remembered it being when I was there alone 

but still....

 The threat of rabies is always a good topic to brush-up on.

 That would be Beach refusing to come down off the rail after the 'dead' beaver lunged at me while I was taking a close-up.

 Nothing but confidence in her mother's ability to evaluate risk & road kill. 

 Anyway, I was half right, it was mostly dead.

 I can assure you the one thing I will not die from is boredom. 

360 degrees

 It is one small corner of our farmstead on a perfectly normal fall morning that I am called outside to come see.  This is what I found.  

360 degrees of life playing itself out.  The whole act, new baby chicks, the cat, the mouse, the eggs, and the child all within 20 square feet.   

"Children learn through self-directed, hands-on, real-world experiences." 

I warned her the mouse might bite her. I warned her of the heavy and painful consequences if that was to happen. 

She weighed the risk and made her own decision. 

 As I did when I tried to pick up one of the hatch-lings 

I wasn't so lucky and got nipped by the hen.

 What to do about a little clutch of eggs this late in the season.

The craziest part about all this on-slot of animal life is the whole reason Beach was out in that corner of the yard to begin with... she was waiting for this guy to show up!

Beach has 'inherited' this sun conue from my cousin and her kids.

 This place is so crazy....

remains of the days

It isn't all picture perfect like straight garden rows. This life is messy, sometime bloody. What I like best is that it is real.

BC is once again planning for out of town work. He keeps telling me the things he needs to get done before he goes like, "I want to get all the extra cocks roaming around here gone before I go so you don't have to mess with them." Yeah so, not great with the words but he is a thoughtful guy.  

He has lists for things to be done in the greenhouse and turning over the garden beds.

Firewood.

Of course to finish putting up this deer.

I think he has forgotten about his bees...

but they seem fine even without him remembering them.

Then there is this little creature.  

This is a great place to raise her.

A good piece of land filled with real life and real death.

I'm sure he hasn't forgotten her. 

She's hard to ignore and easy to please.

I wonder, what else remains around here?

surrender dorthy

I have given up on returning Poncho, the one eared neighbor dog. Right after he learned to obey "go home" he began showing up in the yard limping. I don't have the heart to keep taking him back to a home that clearly doesn't love him.  Plus, he is running out of accessory body parts.

Another item I have given up on is trying to sort out what is up with Beach- she isn't well enough to go to gym. The only way I know that is because when I told her she wasn't going she didn't freak out. Honestly, I can't remember the last time Beach missed gym. My doctor who happened to call to check-in didn't offer me a lot of sympathy on the subject. "Really, a patient that won't tell you what is really going on with her- that must bite."  

Beach is slow and looks not-quite-right. She isn't eating, isn't hungry, but isn't puking.

And yet, sure enough, 3:29 she suddenly asked if she could go to gym. I offered a compromise- she takes the day off to rest without feeling guilty about "missing" workout and I will let her carve a pumpkin.  

Then I told her if she cuts off one of her fingers she won't be getting to go to gym tomorrow either. At least she is smiling. Actually we all our, I just found that BC took the wrong cooler hunting: he has the juice boxes leftover from the party and I have all the beer.  

Yes, Poncho, you can stay for dinner.