A Bat in My Kitchen

Now I have seen it all! What else can top the country living experience than waking up at 6:00 a.m. to a BAT flying past me in my kitchen!
It was dark as I wandered through the house but when I reached the kitchen, I flipped on the light switch, which only lite a small section of the kitchen. I proceeded to pour myself a cup of coffee. As I turned around to exit that area, simultaneously I saw our cat run into the kitchen and look upward as something unknown to me now, flew past me. For a split second, I thought it was a wild bird trapped inside the house, but I quickly realized by the glide of its flight that it was a BAT!
I screamed for Lonnie Buck , he ran out of the bedroom to see what had just happened as he heard me say, “There is a Bat in here!” As I dashed into the bedroom to hide, slamming the bedroom door behind me.
From behind the bedroom door I'm yelling for him to close the door leading to the upstairs, so the bat wouldn't fly up there.
Once again Lonnie saved the day by quickly catching the bat and nonchalantly throwing it outside. He announced that he covered the bat with a blanket to catch it.
Then I came out of the bedroom and saw Lonnie put the "bat blanket" back where he found it, so I asked him if he was going to..... At the same time Lonnie said,"What? Don't tell me you want to wash the blanket now!"
I was just as surprised that he did not want to sterilize by washing the blanket.
I said," AH...YES I want it put in the washing machine" Lonnie rolled his eyes and reluctantly place the blanket in the washing machine.
Mumbling about how unnecessarily germ conscience i am.
I am sooo glad that I wasn't home alone on this particular morning. Now, I can sit down, relax and have my cup of coffee. 
As I approached the couch, to sit in the spot where i always drink my morning coffee, I saw a Huge Spider next to my favorite seating spot.
Oh my gosh, does it ever end?!
Shouting,.....Lonnieeeee! I hate living in this old farm house!!Now I have seen it all! What else can top the country living experience than waking up at 6:00 a.m. to a BAT flying past me in my kitchen!
It was dark as I wandered through the house but when I reached the kitchen, I flipped on the light switch, which only lite a small section of the kitchen. I proceeded to pour myself a cup of coffee. As I turned around to exit that area, simultaneously I saw our cat run into the kitchen and look upward as something unknown to me now, flew past me. For a split second, I thought it was a wild bird trapped inside the house, but I quickly realized by the glide of its flight that it was a BAT!
I screamed for Lonnie Buck , he ran out of the bedroom to see what had just happened as he heard me say, “There is a Bat in here!” As I dashed into the bedroom to hide, slamming the bedroom door behind me.
From behind the bedroom door, I am yelling for him to close the door leading to the upstairs, so the bat would not fly up there.
Once again, Lonnie saved the day by quickly catching the bat and nonchalantly throwing it outside. He announced that he covered the bat with a blanket to catch it.
Then I came out of the bedroom and saw Lonnie put the "bat blanket" back where he found it, so I asked him if he was going to... At the same time Lonnie said, “What? Don't tell me you want to wash the blanket now!"
I was just as surprised that he did not want to sterilize by washing the blanket.
I said," AH...YES I want it put in the washing machine" Lonnie rolled his eyes and reluctantly place the blanket in the washing machine.
Mumbling about how unnecessarily germ conscience I am.
I am sooo glad that I was not home alone on this particular morning. Now, I can sit down, relax and have my cup of coffee. 
As I approached the couch, to sit in the spot where I always drink my morning coffee, I saw a Huge Spider next to my favorite seating spot.
Oh my gosh, does it ever end?
Shouting, Lonnieeeee! I hate living in this old farmhouse!

OH MAGGIE!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF THE CORRAL AGAIN!!

OH MAGGIE!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF THE CORRAL AGAIN! As I spoke to my horse with food in my hand, she followed me back to the gate so I could coax her back in while holding off the other two horses so they wouldn't get out. Mostly yelling at them to " back up". It was feeding time and they were hungry and wanted the food in my hand too. All four of us were standing at the partially open gate. Finally I decided to give them grain and hay to distract them and Maggie walked herself back in to eat her grain and hay also.
I decided then and there that I did not want to play this game all winter long so.....YEP, The suburban girl started pounding stakes into the partially frozen ground this morning with a HUGE HEAVY sledge hammer at the corral area between the previously installed stakes where there may be gaps big enough for our horses to escape. I pounded eleven of them in and then took twine roping and tied and knotted the boogers out of it to secure the stakes. All while working over an hour in this 25* weather.
I hate cold weather, I hate farm life and ironically HERE I AM, doing this hard work with no men are ever at home when needed in these situations!
Well, the horses liked the company as they chewed their hay and watched every move I made. I could imagine Maggie was thinking, now how am I going to escape?

In the Dark of the Night

Most of you that know Lonnie and me, also know our horse Maggie, the Missouri Fox Trotter Mare, and that she is also an escape artist.  Yes, she likes to unlock the gates or lift the rope fencing and crawl through it. That is one of the main reasons why Lonnie has low currency electricity running through the rope fencing that surrounds the horse pasture. That is, of course, if any one of us remembers to plug it back in after unplugging it for feeding time or exiting the gate for riding purposes. However, the portable, temporary pastures that Lonnie sets up for better grazing areas, does not have the electric safe guard connected to prevent Maggie, the escape artist from wondering or in her case “running” away, and then her buddies, the other two horses gladly follow her.

Well, last night at 9:00 p.m. it was already very dark outside, here in the country, with no surrounding city lights to illuminate our neck of the woods. When it suddenly occurred to me that I have not seen Lonnie and Quentin return the horses from the temporary pasture to the fixed pasture yet. Quentin had already gone to bed and I saw Lonnie very relaxed, reading his newspaper, lounging on the couch, when I said,” Lonnie, have you put the horses back in their pasture?” At that simple question, Lonnie instantly jumped to his feet, threw the newspaper down and with a slightly raised voice said,” OH NO, I forgot!” and proceeded to bolt out of the house. I followed him to help retrieve the possible “runaways”. He said,” I will round up the horses, if you will just fill their bowls with sweet grain to encourage them (to return cooperatively.)

So he walked quite a distance to retrieve the horses. First he brought back Nitro, the herd leader. Meanwhile, I filled their bowls with grain as always, on the outside of the ropes, then I deliver it to their feeding spots.

All of a sudden I heard Lonnie shout,” Maggie is loose, she is running towards you!” so I rushed to the closed gate to open it for her entry. Just as fast as I reached the gate, which was latched, she was turning the corner in the very dark night at FULL speed with her mane and tail blowing upward by her speed, right for me!!

I shouted at her with one hand upward in a “stop sign” position and the other hand trying frantically to unlatch the gate quick enough for a swift entry and said, “WHOA, WHOA MAGGIE!”

Just as I was about to jump over the gate, because the gate latch wasn’t unlocking fast enough to persuade her direction into the corral, she swiftly turned again and ran past me. PHEW /: and stopped dead on, right where her bowl of grain was placed, on the outside the roping near her feeding spot.

Finally, Lonnie walked up to my area with Rebel, the third horse, and placed him in the corral, then retrieved Maggie, grabbing her halter to bring her back into the corral. He started to tell me, without him knowing what had just taken place between Maggie and me, that she got loose as he tried to grab two, haltered horses at the same time, she looked at the small flash light that he was using to see in the dark of the night and apparently Maggie was startled. She then bit his wrist and then ran in my direction toward the corral where she met up with me.  OH, what a nightmare! I can add this memory to my collections of getting acquainted with country living. :/               October 9, 2013 

 

When I Shop, I Hunt!!

When I Shop, I Hunt!!

When I shop, I hunt!! I love a good 50%-75% off a clearance section in any store .I dig through all the items with the intent and mindset that I MUST find, and take home a deal from this pile, even if it kills me. Almost like deer hunting and bringing one home. Just as exciting for me!!

Today I found a great clearance sale going on out here in the country in little ol’ St. Johns, AND, most of all, I unintentionally embarrassed my 15 year old son while I was there, Cha-Ching,  sweet pay backs. Anyone else raised and lived through teenage years’, knows what I’m talking about.

So, I’m digging through a box of Loofa’s, I don’t know why, I don’t use them, but you never know what you’re going to find in the bottom of any clearance box. Bingo, I found a wallet (the only wallet in that box) with a BIG BLUE emblem of U of M on it. If anyone knows my “over the top fan”, husband, my thinking wheels start turning, hmm, would he use it? If not, he will just put it in his U of M collection room.

 Oh, darn it, interference of the hunt, there’s no price on it. I franticly walked up to a store clerk, and started telling him my w –h- o- l –e,  l-o-n-g  story, how I found this only wallet, blah, blah, blah. Can you please find out the price for me?

 This kind man, with slightly shrugged shoulders, and semi lifted hands, and wide eyed, listened very patiently to my plea. And behind me, my son said,” MOM, MOM” and no response from me because hello, can’t you see I’m talking to someone at the moment? I ignored him.

When I was finished talking, the polite gentleman said,”I’m sorry but I don’t work here.” In which at that point, my son walked behind and past me mumbling to me saying, “I was trying to tell you that, you are sooo embarrassing!”

Oh, with a slight pause, I said, “so sorry” as I walked away from him also saying,” Well, you LOOK like you should work here.”

Ahh, WHAT was that supposed to mean? As if, I didn’t put the poor guy in an awkward situation already. But I didn’t miss a beat as I proceeded to walk to the front of the store, to find the employee working behind the checkout counter. I started the whole story over again, “I found this wallet in with the loofa’s box and………………..”

In the end, the wallet only cost me $1.00. The embarrassing moment, priceless!

When will I learn to get out of harm’s way?

When will I learn to get out of harm’s way?

It was such a beautiful, mild, mid 70’s kind of day.  Sasha and I walked outside to give the horses some oat bagels and carrots for a treat. We talked to them, stroked their coats and enjoying their company. As I was stroking Maggie’s coat, I was secretly thinking to myself, ”This country living is peaceful”, can’t get this in the suburbs”.

Meanwhile, in the background, Lonnie was staking the ground and connecting the roping to it, which he often does, to give the horses more fresh grass to eat. We call it the “Temporary Pasture”.  It was surrounding Sasha and I, leading to the gate in which Lonnie could be able to simply open it and the horses would walk out and into the fresh grass area to graze. Otherwise, like in the past, we would take the lead rope, hook it to their harness and walk them out to the temporary pasture that was too far out to connect to the gate. After we fed them the treats and enjoyed their company for a few minutes, we headed back toward the house, walking through the temporary pasture to get to that point.

Then in the not so far background I heard Lonnie say,”Ok, come on out” Sasha and I looked up at the same time, and Sasha panicked and yelled, ”MOM, LOOK! Because I was already looking, she meant, they are running in our direction, all three of them. They went from a walking mode to a stampeding mode in seconds flat, as if they were at the races and they just heard the starting gun shot. I tried to calm her down within the few seconds we had before they reached us and said, ”It’s ok, just move over, get out of their way”. Luckily we were next to a tree at that point and Sasha jumped behind the tree. A smart decision made quickly.

One horse, Rebel, ran to the right of the tree and the others,(all of them weighing over 900 pounds each), ran to the left of the tree, RIGHT WHERE I WAS STANDING! All I had time to do in those few seconds was to position myself into the center of the two horses running right in my direction, and pray that they didn’t knock me over and trample onto me. And at the same time, I naively thought, surely they will stop before they get to me. Maybe to see if I had any treats left to give them? But Noooo, THEY DID NOT STOP.  They did slightly separate in the attempt to go around me, but Maggie didn’t quite have enough room between the tree on the right side of her and me on the left side of her. So, the broad side of her body banged into me at full speed, and I was thrown over a few feet, while on the other side of me, Nitro swooshed past me at full speed but slightly veered off to his left just enough so as to not run into me. Unbelievably, I was still standing, but Maggie’s hoof clipped the back of my leg and cut it and in an instant a bruise swelled up and appeared under a cut. THANK GOD, it was a minor injury. It gave me shivers to think of what could have happened.

The odd thing is that about five more feet ahead of them, they ran up to the rope and made a dead stop. I was so shocked, that they stopped dead on for the rope, but not the two people that were just feeding them treats just minutes prior to their blast off run. Ya know, my thoughts were correct, you can’t get all this in the suburbs”. When will I learn to get out of harm’s way?

Again Maggie??

Again Maggie??

Again, Maggie?? Lonnie and I were getting the other two horses ready for an evening horseback ride. So as Rebel & Nitro were tied up OUTSIDE the entrance of the corral gate, Maggie was just inside the gate area. We were n where near ready for the ride & Maggie was already mad that she wasn't on the outside of the gate. She knew that we were leaving without her, again. As Lonnie was putting the bridle on Rebel, I was giving him a treat to open his mouth & Maggie's face was nose to nose with him. I wanted to be fair so I gave Maggie a treat too. Just then, she slammed her nose down on my forehead, on purpose! She lets me know what she wants & it wasn't the treat. She wanted OUT! That HURT!! Well I had to let her know that she was invading my space, so I had to tap her nose firmly, as I yelled NO!! Back up Maggie, but she only took one step back. I swear she acts like a typical female with PMS. As Lonnie and I mounted the horses and began to ride down the driveway & onto the dirt road, she whinnied & neighed while running all around until we were out of her sight. Three and a half miles later when we arrived back home she was happy to see her friends return but I have a major head ache. Note to self, don't stand next to Maggie if she's not invited to ride.

Wild Turkeys Too?

Wild Turkeys Too?

Out here in the country, it isn’t uncommon for my husband to point out a wild turkey in the far distance while he is driving. His arm has flung across my face many times with an urgency as he pointed out, my side of the car window, and said ”LOOK, A TURKEY”. Of course, by the time I looked in that direction, as the car is going 60mph, I never could spot the wild turkey that he wanted to show me.

Since he is an experienced hunter, I just had to believe him. If he said that he saw a turkey, then there was a turkey in range of his sight.

Today, I got into my car and started out to do my daily routine of errands, with my son Quentin in tow. I was enjoying the peaceful scenery of the quiet dirt road and going 45mph, with no other traffic around and looking at how beautiful the blue sky bordered the green crops in the distance of every surrounding farm property as I passed by.

Suddenly, as quick as a flash, a flock of about 20 wild turkeys that were hidden in some crops next to the dirt road flew straight up, and over, then straight down into the middle of the dirt road,  right in front of my  car.

I yelled,” OH MY GOOSH!” simultaneously as Quentin yelled ,”WHAT THE HECK?” I slammed on my brakes swerving the car from side to side, so that I didn’t have to cook about 20 fresh turkeys for the Holiday Dinner Buffet. Unbelievably, they all scattered across the road and flew upward again into the air, without me hitting one of them! PHEW! That was to close for my comfort.

In the suburbs, I never came across a wild turkey in the road or anywhere within sight. All my Holiday Turkeys came from the freezer section at Kroger.

 Oh well, I can tuck that into my pile of country days in the “life of country living.”