TO WALK IS TO LIVE

A simple, gray, clouded sky makes up this south-central day on my small farm here in Missouri. It is St. Patrick's Day and the NCAA basketball is on in the front room, -droning commentators voices of March Madness TV and packed in, seated crowds cheering constantly. I have broken away from the half-time score of a particular game ( Ohio State vs Xavier ) to take my best pal 'Elijah' -my Yorkshire Terrier puppy, for a walk out into the misting, 40-degree afternoon. I throw on a hooded sweatshirt and my denim jacket and next hooking 'Eli's' leash onto him, we both head out the front door onto the porch and then make our way along. The weather of last week was a wonder of near 70-degree sunshine and mild breezes but today it is nothing short of a damp and raw, chilling experience. I have my green sweater on beneath my jacket and with the memory of my Irish mother in my mind I move along holding onto the little guy that is my bouncing and running 'Eli'. We make our way up the county road towards the more southerly portion of my property towards the large flat sweeping pasture and we are each a little bitten by the cool wind as we amble on. 'Eli' is a skipping, bounding ball of blue-gold hair and he is loving every moment of our adventure. We walk on a daily basis. Elijah never grows tired of our little jaunts up along the farm and forest and the running, spring-fed creek known as North Bridges Creek. This land is a part of a farm I had bought nearly two years ago. I have named the farm BLUECAT FARM. Somewhere along the line, goats and llamas and over eleven cats have made this farm their home as well as me. It is a wondrous thing! The gray sky is an iron-chalky canopy above Eli and I as we make our way up into the pasture through the last green metal gate. He ducks and dashes beneath the welded round pipe of the gate and I climb over it. The keys to the padlock fastening the chain and gate are hanging on a tiny hook beside the kitchen stove back at the farmhouse. Eli and I have gotten quite used to doing it this way. My little Yorkshire Terrier scurries along and I, holding onto his 'auto-release and retract leash', walk along following. Cardinals, wrens, cedar waxwings and robins flit about in the bared branches above us. There is the sound of a Great Horned Owl in the distance. His hoot, hoot, hoots can be heard far off down somewhere along the flowing waters of the creek. The day is gray. I am with a great friend. It is Saint Patrick's day. I wonder about the beautiful, cheerful spirit that was my mother. I picture her face. I see her smile. I hear her laughter. I think of how much she would adore my little dog 'Elijah'. It warms my heart and then next Eli and I move on down towards the creek side that is North Bridges on my property. The waters flow and gurgle and sparkle in the drab color of the afternoon. It is movement and life and motion on to itself. I smile once again. Then Eli and I circle about and head on back towards the house. It has been nice. I'm thinking to myself, "To walk, is to live." Elijah and I hurry on. Where is Henry David Thoreau and Edwin Way Teale on such a day as this? The farmhouse calls. The trail is beneath us. The sky is above. And a friend is before me. Elijah turns and barks. Magic in Missouri.
-RSC/Mar. 17, 2007.

HAYSTACKS AND A GOLD-BLUE PUPPY

It is another blue-sky day. The breeze is light and the temperature is in the upper 40's. I drive along in my Jeep Wrangler with my best buddy 'Elijah' seated near to me in the passenger seat. He is harnessed in his doggie seat and is intently watching and sniffing as he looks out through the wind glass and passenger side window. The sun is warming as it flashes through into the interior of the vehicle. The day is a marvel for mid-February. 'Eli' and I are off to a good friend's property to pick up a half-dozen or so 'square bales' of hay. The hay is stored in an old lean-to of a barn structure a ways down 'V' highway and then off onto a dirt county road. Eli is excited. I drive along and then pull off the blacktop onto the county road and make my way towards the end and to where on the left the fences are lined and the barn with the hay stored within is located. I turn my jeep and align the little wooden, green trailer I've pulled along behind and park it accordingly as to lessen the distance to where the barn's opening is and to where I will next have to load the hoisted hay bales. I step from the jeep and hurry around to the passenger side and take charge of little Eli who is very eager to join me. He is not a dog to be 'ever' left behind! So, with Eli unstrained and now fastened to his leash the two of us are off beneath the barbed-wire and faded wood fencing and onto the tract of land towards the barn. The day is a wondrous blue-sky adventure. My idea is to tether Eli to the side area nearest the barn's loft as I climb and carry the square bales across the field and over to my jeep and trailer. He complies as I tie him off and than as I hurry along taking six of the better bales and deliver them into the bed of the trailer. Eli awaits patiently as I rope the top layer of hay down. I can see him from where I stand in the dirt road. He is sniffing and stirring in the winter wheat-colored grass before the old faded gray wood of the barn. He is a delight! Then I am finished with the hay and I next rejoin Eli. We are off on a long walk up and over the back pastures of my good friend's land. It is after all an incredible day for a winter's month. Elijah and I saunter along side the barn and then make our way out across the rolling land. We can see haystacks and cattle feeders in the distance. The fencing lines and rolls away on either side of us. It is a Missouri Bluebird colored sky above. The breeze is calm and refreshing. Eli's tongue is flapping in a gleeful way. He looks back at me with that happy sparkle in his eyes. We have the whole pasture and field, for as far as a person (and dog) can see, to ourselves! It is one of those moments when you know you've made a very correct decision in life when having proclaimed two years ago that you would leave the foul air and over-crowding of the east coast and move to Missouri and the outstanding Ozarks! A person walks along with a wonderful fellow, such as his Yorkshire terrier-dog 'Elijah', and knows that, although he has made quite a few mistakes in his life and 'does' indeed have a few regrets, he also knows, without a doubt, that, at this very moment, 'all in the present is well and good'! So Eli and I hike along. We can hear the cows 'mooing' in the far distance. Birds are returning to the area from their winter's stay in the tropical south. The song of the avian wonders can be heard everywhere. The is the delightful sound of the 'country' all about. So man and puppy Yorkie roam for awhile. The pasture rolls a little and ground is a blond-dried affair. The haystacks are like huge mounds of cereal dotted across the agri-landscape. 'Sweet Missouri", I keep thinking. "And a little best friend like my 'Eli'! It does not get any better does it not? Then Eli and I make a final sweep and head back to the jeep. He is a bit tired and thirsty I can tell. I have bales of hay to deliver back to my own farm. I have animals to care for;-llamas, calves and goats. Life at this moment is good. Eli's hair tousles in the Missouri breeze. He is a gold and blue bouncing boy. We are back in the Jeep Wrangler now. We are off down the county road. We return, the two of us, to BlueCat Farm.
RSC-Elijah/Caulfield, MO.

THUJA arborvitae 'Green Giants'

To order 'online' is bliss. You name a site! Any site! A person can purchase anything! From music c.d.'s, to clothing, to books, to furniture, pet-carriers, cell-phones, holiday gifts, flowers, paintings, posters and paraphernalia! It is a marvelous venture, an exciting act, an exercise in finger-tip simplicity, a wonderful dance of convenience these days to browse and pick out and then purchase all in the clicking of a mouse and a small amount of two-touch keyboard harmony. I have bought and sold 'online', and I'll just bet that you, also, have bought and sold 'online'! Who are all of these men and women responsible for all of the ease in 'shopping and purchasing' brought to the living rooms and PC rooms of this world? They should all receive a special medal, I say! Why just the other day I made a most astonishing purchase while seated before the screen and keyboard of my HP desktop computer. I ordered from a plant (arbor) nursery a number of hedging plant conifers named -"Thuja' arborvitae, or to the more common ascribe, -Green Giant' Evergreen hedges. They are considered to be durable, healthy, disease-resistant, smooth in needle texture and capable of growing a possible two to three feet in height a year! Whew! I'll be dogged! As this writer (blogger) types I am still awaiting their delivery in the mail. This is also O.K. I plan on planting my couple of rows for bordering on this farm sometime in late March or early April to ensure the best possible success. I am hoping for a nice row of six or eight before the fence, which runs along the county road and my 'south' pasture. I will plant a row of four or five off to one side of the farmhouse drive as well for curbside effect, as well. So we will see. I'll keep myself posted as to the results of all of this Missouri farm landscaping done directly as an initial result of the Internet and buying and selling products 'online' Thinking green and hoping for the best.
RSC. Elijah, Missouri.-missouri moon cat -2/2007