ORANGE!!! The color of Autumn!
“Each person who delivers KindessStays with us forever.”—Robin S. Sharma
Chapter Five —– The Rain Moves In
It’s starting to cloud up. Yepper. Clouds on the Western Horizon—I told Boo Berry —“don’t pay attention, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“But what if there is thunder?!” Boo Berry’s eyes bugged out.
“Oh, heck, it will be so far away, way over there in on the mountains—so far away we can only sorta hear it.”
“Yeah, but… WE CAN STILL HEAR IT!!” Boo Berry shuddered.
“Oh, geez, just go in the house,” I replied. “In the house, you can’t hear thunder way over on the Plateau.”
With that, I picked up my paws and headed out to the grain bins. I only looked back once and saw Boo Berry staring at the back door wanting to get in.
What a dog, I muttered.
On the way to the grain bins, I ran into the hens again. They were scratching and clucking to each other…rather busy I thought, when suddenly, Skitter stopped and looked up at the sky. Cocked her head to one side, fluffed up her feathers in a very fluffy way, and muttered something to Silver, as she turned toward the henhouse.
Silver looked at her in a perplexed manner then started following Skitter toward the hen house.
I watched them for a spell, “Hey, where ya going? There are still bugs out here to catch and eat!”
“Not right now, cat! We’re heading into the hen house. Not worrying about eating we have lots to eat in our house: yummy lay mash, a halved cucumber, and a wee little bowl of dried mealy worms. See ya after the storm!” Skitter called as they ran into the hen house.
Storm! Everyone is getting sorta wrought over a storm that may or may not happen. Shish!
I passed the grain bin. Sat for a little bit in the road, trying to decide which farm road to take next. To the left is the gated pipe and grass field Dad cuts for grass hay. First Cutting is all he ever does on it. That is when the grass has bloomed and headed out making lots of protein-rich seeds.
That field has been cut, baled, and stacked. And I’ve played in there with Boo Berry until I am rather tired of that field.
To the left is the haystack yard, past that is the equipment storage area: the plow, a combine, all the necessary implements to work up the ground, you know, stuff like that—and, OH! YES! And the little headgate where the irrigation water splits to go to two different spots.
That’s where I’m going!
Some mice hang around there in the weeds, and water snakes hang around to catch the mice who are hanging around in the weeds!
Yes! I am! A perfect spot to hunt!
After a big dust-blowing wind
Storm clouds rolled in with sprinkles of water now and again.
But, the big news
It isn’t the rain or wind but the turndown of the heat and the uptick of the cooler (much) weather.
We thought—-one more ride with the top down!
🙂 🙂 🙂
“Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.”—John Barrymore
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
And it was very chilly—enough we had to wear jackets outside
Hurry! Hurry! I think/yell as the birds tumble through the sky—-
“By all these lovely tokens, September days are here. With summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.”–Helen Hunt Jackson
Winter is coming…coming…coming.
Winter is coming, I sadly think.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Chapter Four —– A Couple of Hens
Boo Berry and I played hide and Get Boo Berry for a long time. Gradually, Mom got done with whatever it was that Mom was doing and started walking back to the farmyard and (I suppose) onto the farmhouse.
Boo Berry got all nervous, gave me a long look, then bounded after Mom.
That left me to walk in by myself.
Oh! Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.
As I was walking in I ran into the two hens, they were right by the grain bins clucking and scratching in the weeds.
“Hey, CAT!!” the White hen yelled at me. “STOP! I need to tell you something! Something very important.”
I stopped, of course. I had nothing better to do.
“Okay—I’m listening.” I replied.
Cluck, Cluck, cluck….”Just a minute…..there is a cricket!!!”
POUNCE! missed, well, kinda sorta missed, got one back leg. POUNCE!! “Bull’s EYE!” The other hen yelled, “Right in the back of the cricket!”
Gobble, gobble, yum, yum.
“Hey I want a cricket, is there another one, let’s look and see!” the second hen clucked.
“Okay, okay,” scratch, scratch.
“You two are annoying!!! I growled. You stop me for something and then just as you start to tell me you lose your train of thought! I’m going. This is a big waste—–”
“NO! WAIT!!! I have to tell you that something big is going to happen and it’s going to happen SOON!!!” Skitter put her claw on my paw and looked me right in the eye. Well, she did have to turn her head to one side to look me right in the eye. But….anyhoo I stopped.
“Silver and I woke up this morning just knowing that something big is going to happen on the farm and it’s going to happen real soon.” She took her claw off my paw and sorta walked around me.
“I don’t know what it is but we both feel it—like maybe we better get all our eggs in the nest early. And maybe we better not go out of the farm yard too far…because, gosh, we don’t know, but we do know. It’s just a feeling in the feathers. Something big is coming.”
At just that moment the other hen scared up a whole slew of big giant flying grasshoppers!!!
I jumped up into the air to see if I could catch one or two. The hens were scrambling madly pecking and attacking the only way a chicken can.
BUGS! The best kind! Skitter yelled with her mouth full…YUMMY BUGS!!!
Not only are the birds flocking together and moving through, (these are not the Swallows but another bird)
And the sky loudly proclaiming CHANGE
Even the snakes are restless….moving here and there, eating as much as possible, not shedding (the growing time is over), they are starting to gather to ‘den up’.
Here is a quote from good ole trusty Google: “Unlike many warm-blooded animals, snakes don’t actually hibernate in the winter. Instead, snakes go into a state known as brumation where snakes become less active and their metabolism slows down tremendously. Brumation is similar to hibernation in that snakes will sleep for long periods of time.”
They seem to be everywhere right now, heading to wherever they want to call home.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The birds are not the only sign of the Summer transitioning toward winter 
The sky will randomly give us a taste of Winter’s colors and shades
Although winter’s colors will be much paler they are still the color of winter;
Our youngest daughter, Misty’s, shirt reflects the Autumn sky.
Light is another sign of transition —Summer to Autumn, then on to Winter- that cold, wet, dark time.
But we won’t dwell on the last season, instead, we will absorb and cherish this glowing time of the year—AUTUMN!
From my world to your heart,
Linda