Chapter Five

Geez, traveling with Boomer is ever so booooooooring!  Boring!  I mused as I left Boomer trailing behind Mom with a determined look on his face.

Winter is long, the days are long, the nights are horribly long; all I want to do is get out of the house and explore.

Hum…no one has been here. I don’t even see a raccoon footprint.

Let me see that wild cat hasn’t been by the yard for a long time.  I wonder if all the cows chased him away.  I think I take a little peek in the canal—sometimes I can catch that mean, wild, thing trying to slip onto the farm and grab some of the mice who hang out by the barn.

Nope, no strange cat prints.

I think I am going to head to the Cross-Over ditch. It’s rather dull here.  There are lots of things to see and do way up to the ditch.

Let’s see; let me count the ways:

1. Play on the haystacks as I go by
2. Run up and over and in the spare-parts combine
3. Scrabble onto the fence, then scram back down as fast as possible
4. Run up and down on the implements resting on the by-way.
5. If I am lucky, I’ll scare up some mice. Mice are yummy for the tummy, you know.
6. Then it’s a long run/halt/run through the open ditch searching for mice and birds and other creatures hiding there
7. It Dad hasn’t closed off the irrigation pipes I can run into the pipe a long way, turn around and run back out.

(I have a feeling the pipes are closed off.  It seems Dad does that before the snow comes. —But I will go look anyway)

8. Finally, I will make it to the Cross-over pipe. I usually don’t EVER go there unless I’m with Mom, Mom and Dad, and Boomer.  But today I WILL!

Okay, before I go, let me head over to the woodpile.  I like the woodpile.  There are MICE in the woodpile.  I’ll just hang out and grab a snack or two. Then head off through the corrals, past Dad working on one the buildings and be on my way to the Cross-Over pipe!