Downpour

After seeing on the news both last night and this morning that we were going to be in for it, weather-wise, I smirked at the high clouds, the frosty fields, and thought, "Hmmm, it must be planning to miss us." I spent the day inside waiting for the Fed Ex driver (Honey the Foxhound's new best friend - he travels with dog cookies in his pocket!), anxious to drive the 10 minutes to our leased pastures to visit the cattle. I haven't seen them since weekend before last, and I needed some cow love.

The breeze picked up in the valley while I sat in my car talking to Jane, half of the property-owning duo, and noticed a few sprinkles, but the sky was still bright.

Driving down their long driveway, I stopped and decided to get out and go find the cattle. I thought I could see Xoe way in the back, so I knew the others would be there, too. They weren't interested in coming to say 'hi', so I walked all the way across the pasture, stopping to watch the 11 turkeys I startled fly away, and to crouch and examine two wooley bugger caterpillars in the middle of the pasture grass (why there?!). Clyde and Xoe stood to watch me approach. Rather than walk at them straight-on, which is threatening, I walked at an angle first one way, then the other, finally coming to within 50 feet and stopping to lean against a tree trunk.

"Oh, it's you!" they seemed to say, as Xoe, Clyde and Roxy all headed in my direction. I called, "Sheila, where are you?" and soon she lumbered out from beneath the trees. Soon, Roxy on one side and Sheila on the other, I was tandem-scratching the two big girls. Silly Roxy started counter-swinging her head and her butt in different directions. Apparently my thin fingers are a poor substitute for self-scratching on a branch, but she was trying to get my fingers to do what she wanted.

After a bit Sheila got pissy and stalked off, Cowboy at her heels. Roxy followed. (Sheila is a quiet leader.) On their way back into the trees, Xoe and Clyde both stopped for another sniff, giving me a chance to accept a lick from Xoe's funny black tongue and give her a scratch on the neck.

I felt only a few raindrops on my careful walk back through the pocked pasture toward my car. The rains started in earnest about halfway home. By the time I pulled into the driveway, holy cow, it was raining cats and dogs!

Looking outside at this moment, the sky is an angry gray, the tree branches are whipping and the rain is pouring from the sky. This will be one of those giant-puddle-in-the-driveway-making downpours, I can feel it...the perfect day to putter indoors!

Our driveway, less than 1 hour later. Did I call that or what?!