Outside Things

I will miss, especially, the morning views from this rental when we leave.

Calf and Pony being friends.

They are magical views.

And the morning drive into Mendon (when I take the elementary kids rather than have them on the bus)? I kid you not it makes me get teary sometimes! I have actually cried because it is just too beautiful! These pictures don't truly capture it at all. It seems like a movie set--not real life--the way patches of fog and cloud spread across the wetlands--sometimes in very distinct tiny patches just dotted low here and there so that you could walk from one small patch of magic to the next. I can't believe I get to see this so often.

Of course I'll still be taking that drive in the morning for years to come, and the views at the farm will be no sorry compensation!

And, of course, there are other views to enjoy (or not as the case may be) at the farm. ...

We currently have, I can hardly even say it, ... six roosters. (I'm covering my face in shame as I type.)

Nobody wants six roosters! Not even my husband! (And certainly not out poor hens! Bless their hearts.)

We just had one rooster. That was fine. And then Mike graciously took one for a co-worker whose plight (having ordered chicks that he'd thought were all hens and living in a normal neighborhood where people don't like crowing) Mike was sympathetic to. But then we ordered four bantam chicks ... and every single one of them turned out to be a rooster. Good grief. If you know anyone who wants a rooster. ...

And there's this view. Terrible Pig. (She really is a very spoiled and naughty creature--no matter how much Daisy, who thinks she's delightful, defends her.)

Penny and Jesse brushing her with a bristly broom--which she loves.

The kids protested just enough about her approaching butcher date that Mike devised a new plan and, in hope of spring piglets, bought the ghastliest looking beast to join her. He's enormous. And terrifying (though, on the whole, actually far better behaved than our bullying Pig!) I don't know that he's accomplished his purpose, but we will have to sell him soon either way as he eats far too much food!

I just call him Beast.

From this vantage you can't tell how much bigger than Pig he is! 

I did get quite a good chuckle out of these texts after the kids first saw him. (It is true that his backside appears, ah-hem, quite indiscreet. Teens on motorcycles stopped when we first got him just to gawk.)

Anyway! Moving quickly on!

More outside things. 

We saw the Northern Lights! I hadn't even known there was the chance and would have completely missed the spectacle happening right outside our house if Mike hadn't arrived home late and told us that people had pulled over along our rural stretch of road and were out looking at the sky.

It does feel deceptive somehow, showing these photos, our eyes alone could not see this much color. We saw enormous stretches of smokey and shifting red in the dark sky, several stark red streaks, and, where green appears in the photos, it mostly looked as if the sky was light--like the sun hadn't fully set--only, the sun was long since down and has never set in the north to begin with!

But it actually was intriguing to hold up our cell phones and see just how much color was there just beyond our ability to fully see!

It really was amazing! It was hard to break away to finally go back inside to get warm. These seem to be becoming visible in Utah with increasing frequency!

And to end, three last outdoor things: a view of the rental looking ... I don't know? Spooky?

And one of my most-dreaded views. "Cows out" has become a true bane of my existence. I have a very bad torn meniscus and can hardly walk properly, so trying to chase Rosy back in was impossible--especially when neighbor dogs started barking at her and she went into panic mode. She ended up running into a neighbor's back pen in all the commotion. My neighbor nicely agreed to let me shut the gate and keep her there until Mike got home. But I just ... did not know. I did now know, before moving here, how regular a part of my experience loose cows would become!

And last of all, the very best view at the farm. These people milling about, talking and laughing.