The past couple of days have been great. The weather yesterday was sunny and felt almost balmy... with a temp around 50 or so ;-) Then it dropped quickly later in the evening to near freezing and everything turned to frost. Today was just sunny and cool, but still very nice. The sky stayed clear tonight, the stars are out, and the temp is dropping again... For years, when ever I looked up into the winter's night sky... my eyes immediately fell upon the constellation Orion. It didn't matter where I was... Pearce AZ. or Mission Viejo CA., it was always the first thing I saw, without fail. But up here, away from the lights, I've hadn't seen it. Now granted there are a lot more stars to gaze at... and being up north, I thought maybe it was somewhere else on the horizon. I knew that there must be a meaning behind always seeing it, but I never found out what that was. And now having made this northerly migration & getting into step with my manifestation... I can't find it :-? I questioned... "maybe now that I'm on my deliberate path, Orion doesn't need to appear anymore..." Bummer... now Orion's gone and I still don't know the meaning of it all. Well I saw it last night... after returning from a Jeep night run, I looked out my bathroom window and it was the only thing in the sky. I guess the ambient light from my nightlight 'cancelled' out the other stars enough so that Orion just shined through, bold as could be... It's funny, but it was like seeing an old friend... though I still don't know the meaning behind it...
Last night Henry calls me and tells me to open my window and listen. He says the dogs are barking and that he & Denise could hear some 'animal' or something outside. I heard the dogs in the background, so I rushed to grab my big flashlight went to the bathroom window. As soon as it was open I started my swoop of the meadow with my light... then I saw the beam from Denise's flashlight doing the same from their 2nd floor. And then I heard it too... out of the dark, it was a solitary 'cry'. My immediate conclusion was that it was a coyote... though it didn't really sound like one. It was kind of creepy sounding and the natural process of elimination ruled out deer, cougar, bear and Wally. Denise yells over in the dark, "I think it's a coyote" and I said "I think so too..." then she asks "are you going out there?"(translated- "do you want to drive down there and see what's up") and I replied "yeah, I'll meet you downstairs" Literally seconds later Henry's at my door, eye's bugging... "come on, hurry" he says... "I'm right behind you" I says... 
We all piled into the Jeep and started down towards the pasture... I slip it into 4 wheel drive because, 1'st of all... I can! ;-) and 2'ndly, it gets a little sloshy down in the meadow & beyond. As we were passing the pasture where the cows were, we slowed and shut down to listen for the "cry". It had stopped. What ever it was... I'm sure it was now more curious about us driving over... closer to 'it'. So then we continued on to the pond... just because. In the mean time we're discussing the solitary nature of the cry, but also we all agreed that it didn't sound like a coyote... yadda yadda yadda... Denise mentions that she had heard the same 'sound' last year around the fall. And she seemed to recall that someone had told her, that it was probably a raccoon's mating call... I honestly would have never guessed that one! But it sure added a new wrinkle to the wildlife elimination process... So there's a shot of the pond at night... we figured might as well check on the elusive Wally...
Turning to head back home, and approaching the illegal road that carves off of the state water peoples road... I just threw it out there and asked "back home or adventure"... It was a no surprise when Henry quickly replied "Adventure!" I kinda figured that he would... ;-) And what can Denise say... it was 'boys against the girl'... So through the hacked trail we went, with Henry all excited and reciting some theme parks announcement about 'holding on, smiling for the hidden camera' and how after the ride 'you could come down to the pavilion and pick up your group ride photo'.... or something like that :-) 
ssshhhh...this road is actually the state maintained road and is gated off with no public access... until the illegal road showed up... It's a very short ride in between gates, but it's straight and pretty level. So Henry from the back yells "floor it... go faster!" I turn my head slightly to see Denise's reaction... she's smiling (mostly at her son's enthusiasm) & not disagreeing. So I look for a safe spot and give it a little gas... and since it's a dirt (mud) road, it feels like your going fast, bouncing along, but in actuality it was very safe (that's for you Tom ;-) Along the way we noticed some small pine trees that were pushed over by the bulldozer and decided that it would be a great idea to sneak back and recycle a couple for Christmas trees. 
My baby, the morning after... dirty, used and totally satisfied... I love my Jeep!
Yesterday, after getting the barn ready for the delivery of new hay... Denise & I walked the property line trying to figure out where to best put up a fence so that the animals would have more room to roam around. Later I started with a small section near the main gate... to get a feel of how the posts would go into the ground, and stretching out the wire fence. I did about 60+ feet and stopped for the afternoon. But today I figured since the fence 'project' will take a while... I had better finish the small shed for the generator. Snow could come any day now and it would be nice to have the emergency power ready, when needed... instead of a 3 stooges act... in the dark... during a snow storm.
And at the end of the day... it's time to feed and put the menagerie to bed. Denise earlier had let Miracle out so she could stretch her legs and, romp & play around in the field. Later on Denise had to go pick up Henry and take him to gymnastics, so she asked me if I wanted her to put Miracle back into the pen or would I want to. I'm always up for something new around here, so I told her Miracle & I would be fine... This is a shot I took as I was getting into position to 'corral' her back towards the barn... she just looked so majestic up on the hill. What more can I say... The past couple of days have been great... :-)
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