Monday, May 19, 2008

Visitors




Happiness at the horse corral

Kiwi and Kea couldn't be happier. Their vacation has ended, and they're back on a full work schedule this morning. We have equine visitors to take up the void of Lily and Lefty's absence.

The dogs are fully rested and ready for some full-time vigilance as Reyvan, Rosie and Coquie occupy the horse corral.

The lady horses kept the lady dogs busy yesterday because, after gobbling down their fill of fresh green grass, they realized they were in a different place. They saw the cows across the road, and that was a new experience. So, they spent a lot of time walking the fence and staring at all the new sights.

That meant a lot of patrolling the fenceline for Kiwi and Kea. They were in dog heaven.

Later in the day, I even had a chance to ride Coquie through the fields and the woods. It wasn't the most relaxing of rides because Coquie was totally out of her element. She'd already suffered enough emotional trauma with the move and all. And, then for me to take her away from her friends to even more strange territory.

We pranced a lot. She even tried a little crow hop with me, so we rode in a lot of circles. Then, the mosquitoes took over down in the far woods. I was batting them out of my eyes, holding on to double reins and Coquie was trying to shake them off her head and neck. We were both pretty miserable as we rode on through their endless attacks on our bodies.

After putting Coquie up and coming out of the barn, I heard dogs bark and saw horses staring. Turns out there was a small neighborhood gathering down the road from the front yard. That included adults, kids and dogs. It also included the newest transplants to the neighborhood who make Bill and me seem like old timers in Selle.

Leslie and Kevin live across from Taylors. They moved in last fall, came from Phoenix. Meanwhile, our neighbor Jim Vanicek sold his place and his yaks over the winter to Wes and Alyssa from MINNNNesOta. Wes works for Quest Aircraft, and Alyssa takes care of their "all-boy" little boys, Caleb and Nathan.

I walked over and invited them to walk the Lovestead. Bill met up with us, and the whole contingent, including dogs, Roxie and Duke, marched down the lane, gabbing and playing, respectively. I had put our dogs in the kennel, but Kiwi (Border Collies are smart, ya know) figured her way out of the kennel. Later, we saw her method. She found a weak spot at the bottom of the chain link, turned sideways and shimmied out. That will be fixed today.

Well, the group gathered around the Lodgepole Log, and everybody signed. So, we have a lot of new names in the society.

On the way back, little boys sat on tractors, and Roxie competed with Kiwi for the Folgers can. The mosquitoes also dined happily.

So, we have had some wonderful experiences with visitors of the human, equine and canine kind.

Visitors come into our lives and leave impressions. Some stay for a long time, while others are momentary blips on our personal time charts. Many leave us with a memory or two and go on their way.

This morning I feel compelled to talk about a visitor who came into our family's lives, ever so briefly. His name was Shane Beebe, and he shoveled my mother's and sisters' roofs.

Shane spent two days at the Colburn place. We all enjoyed him. In my brief visits with him, I learned that he loved photography, that he specialized in decorative concrete, and that he helped contractors out with pole barns.

He told me he had researched the Internet before moving to Sandpoint from Colorado and before that Michigan. The Sandpoint area had everything that meant a lot to Shane, including natural beauty and recreational opportunity.

When we met him, Shane was shoveling roofs during the winter months to make money for his family. I knew that he had at least one daughter. Last October, he also posted a couple of his photos on the "Sandpoint in Pictures" feature of (www.sandpointonline.com). They featured some bull moose who hung around his place.

This morning, I was very saddened to read that Shane died early yesterday morning when his Dodge truck rolled over several times south of town on HWY 95. He was thrown from the vehicle; he was not wearing a seatbelt, and he died at the scene.

His brief visit into our lives left a positve impact. We send our love and prayers to his family and would want them to know that we truly enjoyed knowing Shane, even if ever so briefly. He was a good man.


No comments: