Homestead Happenings: THE PHANTOM HORSE

Thursday, August 29, 2019

THE PHANTOM HORSE

The sun brightens the fields while a storm plays in the distance

We arrived at the farmhouse at 9:45 a.m. yesterday (Wednesday, Aug. 28). It was lovely -- 72 degrees with a fresh breeze, and even though I knew it would be a hot day, I was lulled into complacency and left windows open into the afternoon. It did turn hot -- into the 90s -- but typical of fall, it came on slowly and temps dropped quickly as evening approached. Today is much cooler, and we watched a storm to the south.

The smoke from field burning

Mike and I had dinner at the Mexican restaurant in Orofino last night. Guess we're eating like elders now because we brought half of the order home for tonight's supper. We stretched out in our recliners to watch a little TV, but at 9:00 I looked over at Mike and caught him dozing. He allowed that it had been a taxing day. Besides the organizational effort of getting here, he also mudded the wall in the bathroom and made other repairs. "Let's just go to bed," I said. We had two hours of peaceful sleep before Bess, confined to her woodshed doghouse, commenced to bark. Mike went out and discovered the phantom horse in the yard. This was repeated at 4:30. Mike said he was able to get within 20 feet of the horse before he moved off.

Taken through two window panes

At 5:30 a.m., I found the horse grazing on the other side of my compound. He then moved on up the south side of the yard, stopping to graze under the poplar tree. Eventually, he moved to the edge of the field behind the grove, and I went out the sun room door with the camera. He didn't seem to notice me until I started back into the house. Then we stared at each other a long moment before he turned and sauntered westward into the field.

On the other side of the grove

Just think, if we really had a horse, I wouldn't be relaying all of this. It wouldn't even be interesting. Maybe it isn't interesting anyway.

Well, it's probably time to put the hummingbird feeders away. Their mortal enemies, the yellow jackets, are here in force. I still see a few hummers, but they barely make a dent in the nectar. It's hardly worth the sugar. KW

2 comments:

Chuck said...: What are you planning to do about the horse? Does it do any damage? Does it trample the grain? Could it do damage if it had a mind to? I presume the field fire was a grass fire and not a grain field. We haven't had many fires in this area, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.; August 29, 2019 at 5:33 PM
Kathy said...: If the horse is still around during / after harvest, we will report to Farmer Kyle. Otherwise, we don't know what to do. We asked the guy in the canyon, but he said the horse wasn't his -- and then he promptly died. (No kidding -- he suddenly died.) We haven't noticed that the horse is damaging anything. And the neighbors seem to take such invasions in stride -- as if it's no big deal. We can't help wondering, though, if someone somewhere isn't missing a horse.

Yes, the smoke was from a controlled burn. There weren't near as many wild fires this season, nor did we have a sustained hot spell. People are grateful.; August 29, 2019 at 5:49 PM