The storm that lit fire to my scars descended from the Canadian Rockies and glided over the cringing plains and closed like a fist of talons around my mind. I have heard of this phenomenon, head injuries that light up in a storm. I cracked my forehead in a mountain climbing accident, one summer ago. [...]
Archive for the ‘Wild Animals’ Category
The Storm
Posted in Pastured Poultry, Wild Animals on February 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Deer Hunter
Posted in Pioneer Farming, Wild Animals on December 25, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I went out this morning to shoot the deer that ate my cauliflower and cabbages and kohl rabi. I sat on the porch, wrapped in a blanket, rifle across my lap, and waited for them. The deer rose in the mist of dawn like figurines in the tall grass. I watched them through the scope of [...]
Bullet Hole Stickers
Posted in Pioneer Farming, Wild Animals on October 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A man at the auction barn was unloading pigs out of my trailer. It is a blue horse trailer, but I use it to deliver pigs. The man said, “They sure gave you hell driving away.” “What? Who did? ” I said. “Whoever you stole these pigs from,” he said. He pointed at the bullet holes [...]
Wild at Heart Grape Jelly
Posted in Wild Animals on July 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The mustang grapes sprang from the earth wild. A tiny seed leaf sprouted at the base of a tree. It stretched into a slender vine and clawed up the tree and divided and wrapped around every branch to the top and reached across to the next tree until a stand of oaks strained to lift a forest of [...]
Empty Nest Syndrome
Posted in Wild Animals on July 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The last heron chicks are gone. They had spent many long days peering over the edge of their nests at the lake, the fields of salt grass, the sparkling gulf shore, the far horizon. They stepped into the wind knowing how to fly. They could not fly well; not at first. They fluttered across the tops [...]
