On Friday morning, I headed to the back place to check cattle. Sugar rode along. A gutty pup - with no qualms about jumping in the water or going after cows. I’m the one having anxiety attacks. The cattle were in the irrigated part of the place, below the canal. They were fine. I opened the gate at the plank bridge and calculated the best route to avoid the holes in the boards. Once across, I closed the gate behind us. I’d never seen this much grass here before. I wandered through the brush until I finally picked up the road again. We got in and out a couple of times to take pictures. Sugar has learned to get down to the floor to exit the pickup. She kept getting into this nasty needle grass. It looks like hair or wire and has a sharp point on the end. The dogs picked some of it up a few years ago. We weren’t familiar with it before that. It seems the weather conditions for this grass were perfect this year. It is all over the place.
I carefully climbed the furrowed brow concentration part of the drive - in granny in 4WD. It’s not high, but the road is washed out. You have to avoid the ruts that have become a couple of feet deep. Finally past the toughest stretch, I relaxed a bit. Sugar jumped towards the window behind my back. I took one hand off the wheel to put her where she belonged. Uh oh - bad move - now we’re high centered on a steep hill. Can’t roll back, can’t go forward. I got out and discoved that there wasn’t a shovel on the bed. I had post pounder, bars, fence stretcher, posts, wire, clips, staple and tools - but no shovel. I began trying to free the rear end with the bar. This was not going to work.
Do I have a cell phone? Of course. My husband insisted when I drove back east that we get them. They’re both sitting on one of the bookcases in the dining room. It wouldn’t have helped if I had mine. I could have left a message at the house for The Sugar Beet Baron to find when he came in for the noon meal. I had, once again - committed the first deadly sin - not leaving a note as to where I was going. I was only going to be gone a little bit. I did however have the digital camera with me to document the fun. The first thing that went through my head when I knew I’d be walking had been, “I’m glad it’s not Lucky”. Lucky is heavy, old and stiff. A lot like me. We’re both accustomed to walking, and Lucky has a lot of heart. I’m concerned about her overdoing it. But Lucky was home. More than likely on the sofa or in my (our) recliner, dreaming about rabbits.
“Okay, Sugar - we have a walk to take.” She was thrilled until we hit the first patches of that nasty grass. Ouch! I tried walking on cow trails instead of the road. It didn’t matter. When the grass bit - she’d panic and roll around. Picking up more of the stuff. I’d scoop her up, pull out the needles and calm her down. The cow trails weren’t helping, so we went back to the road. The grass and brush were so thick I decided against any shortcuts. Sugar was carried through the stretches of the nasty grass, cactus and yucca. She’d squirm and cry, “I want to walk!”. For two months old she did great. A few times she needed to take a break, so I took some photos. Or maybe it was the other way around. She tripped over a rock once. She picked herself up and looked at the rock as if to say, “Hey! What did you do that for?”. I checked her pads every time I pulled grass from her coat. She was doing fine.
We made it to the county road. I picked her up again, since I knew where she was headed. Into the ditch. I let her drink and carried her the rest of the way. We made it home just before noon.
I thought that she’d sleep all afternoon. I wasn’t lucky there either.
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