Posts Tagged ‘coming home’
Home Heat
We got home yesterday in the middle of the day, and the heat outdoors was still set to “High.” After a night without power at the lake, the four of us who had stayed one more night –Cyndie, me, and our friends, Barb & Mike– sat in the porch and contemplated our situation.
We had enough leftovers to feed ourselves for breakfast, but then we would create dirty dishes that needed washing at a time when we had no running water. A restaurant breakfast was looking like a favorable alternative.
I reported seeing an Xcel Energy utility truck cruising up and down the Wildwood road in the pre-dawn hour, which was an encouraging sign that they were aware of our problem. Cyndie was able to text her brother, Ben, to learn he had received an email notification that power was expected to be back on by 7:30.
We decided to hang around long enough to see if that would prove to be accurate, placing virtual bets on actual timing. A short time later, 7:23 to be exact, the landscape pond waterfall sprang to life, revealing we were back in business. Sheets went into the washing machine, and breakfast was reheated.
Closing up the house for departure from the lake place was done with much more confidence than if we had needed to do it in the dark, not knowing which light switches may have inadvertently been left in an “on” position.
In the absence of a huge lake to keep us cool at Wintervale, we thankfully enjoy the benefits of geothermal-sourced air conditioning in the house. Asher seemed happy to see us again, but after a short walk outside in the hot sunshine, he quickly sought out one of his preferred cool spots to rest.
As always, the horses appeared very tolerant of the harsh conditions, enduring the uncomfortable humidity with a stoic calmness, despite pesky flies and the absence of a longed-for breeze.
When it came time to feed the horses, we let Asher roam off-leash on the way to the barn. He spotted a squirrel that had been feeding on spilled grain under one of the feed buckets and gave chase.
The critter made one brilliant maneuver that I figured would save it from capture, but Asher stayed after it. They both disappeared into the jewelweed around a tree, and just as I was expecting to see the squirrel leap up the trunk, we heard a squeak instead.
Asher emerged from the underbrush and immediately trotted off to bury his quarry. I guess it’s never too hot for a predator/prey drive to play out. We figure he is just protecting the horses from these pests and putting the rest of the scavengers around here on alert that they are risking their lives if they are going to mess with things around the barn.
.
.
Welcome Home
Guess what I have to do with a certain urgency before we escape to the lake place for a ten-day getaway?
I had a nice visit with the mechanic at my local bike shop about his experience with Trek Domane e-bikes. He wasn’t aware of any issues with the fastening hardware. I left my bike with them, though he didn’t expect they would get to it before Thursday.
While we were talking, he was on his computer, opening a potential warranty issue with Trek on my behalf. It would be really lovely if I could be refunded the expense of the labor to remedy the sheared bolt and noisy bottom bracket.
Maybe I just pedal too powerfully for the steel fasteners.
Today, I’ll ride my mower instead of my bike, but I’ll be thinking about the friends I’ve been hanging out with over the last week, enjoying the residual energy of their happy faces and our joyful laughter.
.
.
Trip Back
Not only did I make the trip back home from the lake yesterday, but I selected a route that was a trip back in time for me. I received a message that my boots were ready to be picked up at the repair shop in Stillwater, so instead of driving straight home, I cut over through Osceola to cross into Minnesota on my way home. It cost me $30 to get the flaps resewn on my boots. I’m satisfied with that outcome.
Before leaving the lake place, I checked a map to refresh my memory of the route we used to take over and over for years from the time the kids were born. We picked an alternative set of rural roads to avoid heavy traffic on the 3-plus hour drive from our Eden Prairie home to Hayward. It provided a good variety of potential places to stop when someone needed to use a bathroom or have a distraction in the form of a treat. We ended up locating a variety of off-the-beaten-path restaurants that became lifesavers when anyone became too “hangry” for the rest of us to tolerate.
When I passed the turn that would have taken me directly home, the road before me became like a weird dream of scenery I vaguely recognized mixed with things I’m certain I’d never seen before. A lot has changed in the fifteen or more years since I last drove that way to and from the lake place. There were no roundabout interchanges on that route when we used to travel in that direction.
As I approached the first of several key turns of the old routine, I sensed it, but the crossroad was labeled as a more significant state highway than I felt was right. I opted not to turn, and as I rolled straight through, I glanced to the left and recognized it immediately. That was what we called the “roller coaster road.” There were a couple of steep rises in a row that provided a second of that zero-gravity feeling if I hit them with just the right speed, which I almost always did.
I made a quick U-turn and went back to follow that road, regardless of what it was now called. Soon, I was passing familiar old farmhouses and Trollhaugen ski hills, “Ward’s Bar,” and the torn-down place that was named “Best Place by a Dam Site” that was beside a dam. I had a flashback to chanting “We’re nowhere, we’re nowhere” with the kids when we were in the middle of the bridge between Minnesota and Wisconsin. There was the gas station where we would pause for fuel and some candy bars. Julian and I recently remembered we would get a “Whachamacallit” bar. The Dairy Queen was still at the end of the bridge in Osceola.
There were many trips on the rural roads along the St. Croix River when Cyndie and I imagined what it would be like to live in a place like that compared to our tiny corner lot in the suburbs. We had no idea at the time how great a place we would eventually find.
The horses were successfully trimmed by the farrier while I was away. They are all looking their muddiest best. Where they once were making horse-angels in the foot of snow, it is now just a sloppy meltwater mess of muck that they are rolling around in.
I brought Cyndie a pizza from Coop’s in Hayward that we had for dinner. I had a great time away, but it is really precious to be home. I intentionally planned it so I will have a full day with Cyndie before she heads to Florida tomorrow for a week, just when our temps are about to climb to almost 70F. Our kids will be joining her for a visit to their grandmother’s winter getaway.
Here’s hoping they get plenty of sun and a complete lack of alligators.
.
.
Special Greeting
Upon arriving home yesterday around noon, I was greeted by this sight:
Hmm. The two chestnuts, Light and Mia, were outside all the fences! I showed up at a very good time, indeed.
The other two horses were still inside the small paddock showing keen interest in the two escapees but not acting overly anxious about the situation. The scene was surprisingly calm given it was an extraordinary circumstance for horses to be roaming free beyond their usual boundaries.
I stopped my car well away from them so I wouldn’t trigger a reason for any change from their calm state.
Having learned a lesson when I became overly anxious the time Swings escaped the fences, I didn’t even approach the horses. Offering a friendly, gentle greeting, I eased my way directly toward the barn, scanning the fences for some clue as to how they had gotten out.
A gate in the larger paddock on the other side of the barn was open and in the moment that caught my eye, Light and Mia showed up behind me, just as I hoped they would. In the split second of trying to decide if I should go shut that gate or stay with the horses at the gate right in front of us, Asher came running up.
Our animal sitter’s boyfriend, Tyler was on duty, and seeing Asher led me to believe Tyler would be showing up right behind him. I’d hardly finished that thought when Tyler did appear. He looked more surprised than I was to discover what was happening.
I sent Tyler to go close that far gate and began the tricky process of opening the gate in front of me to let Light walk back into the paddock while struggling to convince Mix and Swings to not come out. As that exercise was succeeding, I glanced around to see if Mia would immediately follow.
I should be so lucky. It looked like Asher was trying to do some herding of his own, only in the wrong direction with her. Luckily, Mia didn’t overreact to the dog and promptly made her way around, showing interest in getting back in with the other three.
This was no easy feat. Now three horses were wanting to come out the gate I was trying to hold open for Mia and she is the most intimidated by the other three so she had no intention of stepping forward until they got out of the way.
Swings must have felt for me because she saved the day and turned away which helped direct Light and Mix to follow her and create a window of opportunity that Mia accepted. Somehow I pulled off all that without getting stepped on in my non-horse-wrangling shoes.
Tyler learned the fundamental lesson of NEVER leaving a gate unlatched thinking you will get right back to it. There is always a possibility of something distracting you from returning as planned. He had taken out a wheelbarrow of manure and was tending to Asher and thinking about getting laundry and dishes done before my return. All noble goals to keep owners happy with your service, but losing a couple of horses would have tarnished any sparkle of all the other deeds he and Anna are so conscientious about doing.
Thankfully, in this case, the horses helped to keep this from becoming a much bigger problem.
.
.
Great Greeting
When you haven’t seen your dog for a week, it’s hard to contain your excitement when you arrive home and see his sweet face again. If we get too amped up, so will he, and that’s not a behavior we want to encourage.
It was lucky timing that Cyndie walked in the door in the middle of Asher eating his serving of dinner because that made for a perfect distraction. He stopped eating long enough to check on Cyndie and then got right back to finish his food.
No overexcited jumping involved.
After he finished eating there was plenty of time for Asher to say hello to Cyndie’s mom and lean up against me for a massive dose of scratching, but he was perfectly well-behaved throughout all the greetings to a degree that has us feeling really pleased.
We took him for a short walk in the heat to check on the horses and found things in satisfactory order and the herd calmly spread out around the fence under the overhang.
They were spaced apart as if in an attempt to keep away from each other’s body heat. Their reaction to our return wasn’t so much a greeting as an acceptance of the realization their caregivers were changing back to the usual people.
When we stopped in Hayward to fill Marie’s car with gas before the drive home, Cyndie spontaneously hustled into our favorite pizza place right next door (Coop’s [though under new management]) and quickly grabbed a couple of frozen ones to go.
The pepperoni pizza dinner last night at home felt a little like we were still up at the lake, despite the lack of a lake.
Gee, but it’s great to be back home.
.
.
Feeling Crummy
Imagine you have been out of town, traveling on a commercial airline, attending graduation events with throngs of others who have traveled from far and wide and you arrive home feeling less than your best in the third year of a pandemic.
Out of an excess of caution, Cyndie chose to wear a mask when she got home until she verifies by test whether she was feeling crummy because of the dreaded virus or simply some other easily possible reason. Allergies? Travel fatigue?
A nap was enough to get her out walking the dog and pulling some dreaded invasive garlic mustard plants while I was trimming and hauling away more branches from the lower portion of evergreen trees along the driveway.
I can never tell when she is truly ill because she tends to maintain her activities regardless.
After catching up with some news headlines, I was feeling kind of crummy until I happened upon the tidbit about the small trial for cancer treatment that resulted in an unheard-of complete remission in all patients.
Imagine hoping your treatment protocol might help some patients and then learning it made tumors vanish in all 18 participants.
I believe that would be the opposite of feeling crummy.
.
.
Finally, Snow
So, if you are going to return north from a week in Florida, in January, you might as well dive head first into the coldest and snowiest days all winter, to make sure you will absolutely and thoroughly miss where you’ve just been.
Luckily for us, our animals so completely missed us that the love and attention they have showered over us has gone a long way to offset the angst of the painfully adult dose of winter that has greeted our return. (We still have all 9 chickens! Although, they weren’t all that fired up to show us any love. They may be hardy winter birds, but they don’t seem hardy enough to want to venture out of the coop when it is really cold, or the ground is covered with new snow.)
Instead of driving to the day-job, I stayed home and plowed snow drifts yesterday. It is hard to tell how much snow fell around here, because the depth ranges from about an inch in some places, to two feet in others.
I took a picture with Delilah in it, but I was focused on showing the fine pathway I cleared around the back pasture fence line.
Then I noticed that interesting cloud bank in the sky.
That was some pretty distinct delineation of cloud and clear sky right there. Nature sure makes cool stuff.
As Delilah and I walked the path around the pasture, I noticed the horses had made cute little circle tracks in the fresh snow, leaving little visible spots of where they foraged grass to graze.
It almost looks like they were on cross-country skis, as they moseyed along.
Speaking of tracks in the snow, as Delilah and I started our walk from the house, breaking trail in the new snow, we came to the spot where our trail cam captured a view of the fox last year. Something had just entered our property there within the hours since this overnight snowfall.
I decided to let Delilah follow the trail into the neighbor’s woods, in case we might find where the fox has a den. She was thrilled to have been granted access to this forbidden land and leaped through the snow to explore where the tracks led.
Well, even though it had been less than twelve hours since the majority of the snow fell, there were already a dizzying web of trails crisscrossing the wooded slopes. The snow was fresh and just deep enough that identification was difficult, but there were so many different pathways that I soon realized the chance we were following one fox had become very unlikely.
We reached a spot where tracks were everywhere, and the leaves beneath the snow were turned up in a wide variety of places. For a second, I wondered if it was a pack of coyotes, but then I deduced it was much more likely to be a flock of turkeys.
No wonder Delilah was so excited over that particular location.
I convinced her to reroute our exploration back toward our property and gave up on hunting for a fox den.
At least we finally have a snow cover that offers better footing than the icy glazing we had battled the previous month.
.
.
Problem Solved
Look! No leaves!
Just in time for Cyndie’s return from Guatemala, 3 or 4 inches of snow have covered up the leaves in the front yard.
She flew to Atlanta last night and texted me from there to bring her a jacket. I grabbed a scarf and mittens, too. The flight from Atlanta left over an hour later than scheduled. It was a middle of the night drive to the Minneapolis airport and back.
Small price to pay to have my baby home again!
Despite a few scares, I kept all the animals alive while she was away. I must say, that’s a welcome relief.
.
.
Flying Home
Today is going to be a travel day for us, as we are flying from Florida to Minneapolis on our way home to Wisconsin. I am ready to get back to my normal routine. Despite leaving this warm and sunny climate and returning to the cold and snow, I don’t feel bad about leaving.
It’s been great hanging out with Cyndie’s family and celebrating her dad’s birthday, but even Fred was beginning to express interest in being done with all the special attention. There’s a point after which continued pounding on the “happy birthday” accolades begins to feel excessive.
The surprises are complete, and both Steve and Ben had to leave yesterday, so the momentum of the long weekend has already shifted significantly toward the concluding phases of the operation.
After their departure, Barry, Carlos, & I took a hike around the perimeter of the golf club community where Cyndie’s parents’ house is located. I stepped up to take a picture of one of the giant concrete power poles that support wires running along a portion of one border.
Almost looks like a pyramid.
After a long, leisurely soak in the pool, the day was slipping away at a rapid pace. We took in some NFL playoff broadcasts and ran a little errand to scout out a nice hotel nearby that has a few extra water slide features complimenting their pools. It could become an option for a future family gathering event down here.
Now my mind is shifting in advance toward thinking about a certain dog, some horses, our meowing cat, and the snow mess I will return to at the end of this day. It’s been above freezing for most of the time we’ve been away. I can’t guess how much snow will still be on the ground when we arrive.
Looking ahead, there appears to be a little more of the white stuff on the way tomorrow and Wednesday, so reality will settle in right away.
For now, our fun in the sun is done.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 