Welcome to February... and we begin this shortest month of the year with frigid weather. Especially hard to take being that we were just enjoying somewhat normal temperatures in the high 70s. Just who is in charge of the weather.... I would like to file a complaint.
My cousin R called me a few days ago to wish me a Happy Birthday, and he was asking me about the weather during the winter months in Texas. On the day of the phone call, it was 77 degrees here... and rather than brag, I just stated that as fact. On the other end of the phone line, R and his wife D had just finished shoveling the snow in their driveway. Their house is up for sale now, and they plan to move from their two-story Long Island home into a small townhouse or condo that doesn't have many steps and hopefully doesn't have a long driveway that needs shoveling when it snows.
R also asked me about the local livestock and wildlife... "What sort of animals do you see every week?" (I resisted the urge to ask him how much time he had to listen to such a list.)
I told R about the horses and the cows and the goats... about the neighbor's chickens and roosters, and the peacock that sometimes comes up to our property. I mentioned the armadillos that make holes in the lawn, the raccoons that eat the cat food on the porch, snakes that hide in tall grass and in the flowerbeds, the foxes that find their way into our barn to protect their babies, the deer that drink from our pond and eat the food that my husband puts out near the woods. I told R about the stray dogs that find their way to the properties here after their owners have abandoned them at the end of the road... I gave my cousin the on-going saga of the orange cat and his inability to learn proper kitty-manners.
We talked about the local game-farm and the exotic animals that are kept there, but are sometimes killed for sport.... as if 'sport' meant shooting at animals that cannot escape the eight-foot fence around that property. As I spoke, my cousin R heard the symphony of birdsong out in the yard... hundreds of sparrows and cardinals and bluebirds and yellow-breasted larks and tiny chickadees and brown-speckled grackles, and sometimes there are blue jays and mockingbirds.
"Listen to all those birds," said R. "It sounds like you're in the middle of a bird sanctuary." I do admit that the birds are a joy... and I freely admit that I do miss having chickens. I like watching the cows across the road, but at times their poignant sounds when the calves are taken away are just heart-breaking. And the goats are fun to watch because they play like puppies, but there again... some of those little goats are killed for that property-owner's dinner. The deer are graceful and beautiful, the baby foxes are adorable but I certainly don't need them in the barn. As for the others, I can do without all of them, especially the snakes.
"Do you know how lucky you are to be living out there on all of that property?" said my cousin R. Well... that got me to thinking. I told R that yes, I was indeed lucky..... at least there was no snow here to shovel.
"You have your dad's sense of humor," said my cousin.
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