Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Bulls, Birds, Bees and a Summer's Eve








Bill sez it's good we have a demilitarized zone aka a dirt road and its right-of-way.  

Otherwise, we may have witnessed all-out war this morning. 

Fortunate for that zone separating them, the warring factions finally shut down their verbal dispute and went home to their mamas (cows, that is).  

I can see it now in the sheriff's report for the Daily Bee:  Aug. 15, 6 a.m. 214 South Center Valley Road, caller reports major brawl between two bulls:  Black Angus and bigger Hereford, causing traffic jam. 





Yup, we had a lotta bull roaring out there in the air waves this morning.  In fact, they've been hurling insults at each other for the past two days. 

The noise eventually ended when I walked out to take pictures.  Taylor's big Hereford herd sire had headed home, while Bert Wood's Angus was still bellering to no one in particular. 

Seems like critters and nasty bugs are unsettled or mad here in the neighborhood.  For two days we've had birds of every regular species known to the Lovestead flying and landing en masse all over the farm.  

I've witnessed two major robin conventions, have heard and seen two birds smash head-on into the living room windows and even saw a couple of birds checking out the shop where Bill is working on the dog shelter.

While Bill was working on the dog shelter yesterday, I encountered other evidence that there must be something in this smoky air stirrin' things up. 

I decided it was time to start on my project of painting the interior of the barnyard fence.  Well, that lasted about five minutes.  

The bees showed up, and a couple of them just wouldn't leave me alone.  I managed to get half a section of fence partially painted, in between dodging the nasty and probably hungry critters dive bombing me from head to toe. 

I walked away a few times, but the second I'd get back to painting, the assault would start all over again.  

Where's the demilitarized zone when ya want to paint a fence???

Well, the monsters kept getting the upper wing, so I kept stepping away.  On my final retreat, one came with me and then landed on my finger.  

Of course, I reacted hysterically as one often does with bees.  

Of course, when that finger and the rest of the hand, holding a bucket almost full of white barn paint, loses its grip both literally and figuratively, the paint bucket lands on the ground.  

Within miliseconds, two thirds of the paint flows out onto  horse apples and other dried-up barnyard residue. 

There was no way to find the silver lining in this mishap, mostly cuz the paint was white and instantly infiltrated with all sorts of barnyard dirt.  

So, I had to go find a rake and work the white pool into the barnyard muck, lest a horse withOUT a white nose would find the paint and go through a sudden color transformation. 

With about 25 percent of my paint left in that bucket and the barnyard mess worked into the ground, I returned to the fence.  

Didn't matter where I stood, even 30 feet away, an entire army of nasty bees lay in wait, each quite anxious to complete its assigned task of turning that woman totally buggy.  Within seconds, the dive bombing would resume.  

I finally moved to the opposite side of the barnyard, using the rest of my paint to coat a section of fence which had not been in the original plan. 

So, on a scale of 1-10, I'd say the bees went off the charts on intimidating their foe, bulls certainly would rank second, and since the birds were all pretty harmonious, they don't count.  

It definitely seems, however, like something is motivating the animal and bug life to act out their frustrations more than usual, at least around here. 

I suggested to Bill this morning that maybe all this behavior portends an earthquake or something really dire. 

Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, we experienced a lovely evening last night.  Though the temps have warmed up in the day time, we're back to the evening cool down.

That led to perfect conditions for my neighbor Terra to bring her grandparents from Arizona over to meet Lefty.  It also meant a good hour's worth of saddling up and riding Lefty pretty much anywhere Terra wanted to go.

The adults just kept moving their chairs so we could talk and watch. 

Seemed like a wonderful ending to a day which had also been frustrated by an automatic waterer exploding with waterfalls, thanks to curious equine noses fiddling with the tanks inner sanctum. 

After Bill and I fixed that problem, my next challenge came with my camera which has developed a problem with its flash.  

My friend Mike at Image Maker showed me how to manually open the built-in flash so I can take some photos today. Once I brought the camera home, however, the flash did not want to open for me, except for rare instances.

So, I took the band aide approach, literally.  The flash is taped open.  I can take my pictures and use the flash if needed.  

In the meantime, it's looking like new camera time.  The Canon I have has been used pretty much every day since Annie gave it to me several years ago.  

So, it's earned a rest. 

In short, life in this mid-August hot and dry time seems to be a mixed bag, but, as usual, the good times outweigh the bad, even if you're a mad bull out next to the pasture fence. 

That's cuz you know that de-militarized zone is gonna allow you to beller all you want, knowing you can live on and fight another day.  

Happy Wednesday. 

        














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