Friday, August 8, 2008

The Tree Incident of '08

Imagine our surprise when one morning last week we stepped out of the barn and discovered a section of fence draped in tree branches. We hastened over, followed closely by the woman saying "Wait, hold it, let me check it out first". Of course we ignored her and increased our pace. We arrived in a dead heat and discovered a huge tree had split down the middle, taking two others with it, leaving just the bottom rail of the fence standing. The woman burrowed inside the tent of branches and emerged to tell us that there was no way we could squeeze through. We'll just see about that, I thought to myself. We played along and wandered off into the paddock looking innocent.

When she had gone, we sidled back and Doc said "Keep a lookout. I'm goin in". He muscled his way inside and a chorus of snapping and popping emerged as he reconnoitered. "I dunno," he said, sounding like he was inside a cavern. "One of you little guys could prolly get through." As if on cue, the woman appeared on the horizon - much like the proverbial bad penny. She was counting "One, two, three...oh cr**", she said "where's Doc?!" We all froze, including Doc. She arrived, panting, and Doc chose that moment to explode out of the tree like a thing possessed, branches attached to various parts of his person. The woman did a very good impersonation of a gymnast doing a back handspring. There were dark looks and much glaring and two fence repair male humans showed up soon after.

We were sorry to lose our potential route to freedom but supervised the humans closely. They used a loud, hand-held device with a rotating chain. It made intriguing demonic sounds and created a shower of dust and wood chips. It was eerily reminiscent of TJ on one of his missions. In no time at all a new rail was installed and the old ones back in place. Disappointing, to say the least. Jack and I rolled in the wood chips but really, as of that moment, the corner holds no further interest for us.

8 comments:

billie said...

LOL - TJ on one of his missions. I will think of that every time we use the chain saw!

Dougie Donk said...

Be grateful that your human hasn't discovered electric fencing! Ours uses it as a secondary line of defence, to prevent me from visiting the neighbouring human who visits to feed me grapes.

Have you discovered grapes? The black ones are very pleasurable!

Buddy said...

Hay Dougie - I LOVE grapes - all colors - so nice and juicy on a hot day.

I have electric fencing - its not bad - its there - I'm here - we keep our distance.

Hope mom buys some grapes today!

Hay Sheaffer - exciting day you had with the tree and stuff - nothing exciting ever happens like that here - boring!!

robert5721 said...

Sheaffer,
Mr Rambo, or Mr Rambonie Man as we call him, our EXCELLENT jack, had a tree fall on his electric fence two days ago, and I have spent the last two days cleaning it all up. He did not even try to get past it, as it was a big tree with lots of branches and stuff to get in his way. He decided to stay in and eat his delectable equine hay with apple treats applied instead of trying to breach the mess....suggest that answer to your woman....lots of good firewood for this winter was had by all, and Mr Bonieman definitely supervised the whole thing for us. He counted all of the pieces of firewood that were placed in the bucket of the tractor according to HIS instructions. He DID run off when the chainsaw started, as he has heard all abuut TJ fron Dicey and Me, so he knows what to do..smile....
hope all is good for you guys there....
Mr Gale & Dicey

ponymaid said...

dougie - sadly, the woman is familiar with the electric horror. We have one of the infernal things dividing the paddock. We too are grape lovers, but prefer the green ones. billie once suggested that the woman should peel them for me and I find that a most sensible suggestion. Do you share yours with the race horse in your life?

Mr. Gale, how exciting! I'm sure you appreciated all the supervision of the cleanup - we donkeys are excellent supervisors. Rambo showed extreme restraint is staying in his paddock. The woman pointed this out to us...We also do a stellar job of keeping a running inventory of firewood, potatoes and anything else that needs counting.

Dougie Donk said...

Hi Sheaffer

I am sorry to hear your woman has dicovered electric fencing - mine uses it to curtail my freedom & access to 23 acres of grazing. Most frustrating, as the hooligan racehorse is not a "good doer" and gets unrestricted access at all times.

Gladly, he is not sophisticated enough to have progressed beyond Polo mints and apples as treats, so the grapes, ginger biscuits and thistle heads are all mine! Do you have thistles in your part of the world? They are a Scottish plant with very spikey & inedible stems, but the purple flower heads are most delectable.

ponymaid said...

dougie, we do have various thistles here, including some very large ones with purpley flowers - I wonder if they're the same as yours? I will send herself off to pick me some and give you a report. We are all mint fanciers and like virtually all minty snacks, including TicTacs, which leave a pleasant after-burn. Our favourites are called English mints and have a bit of a chalky texture. We usually have two mixed in our dinner, though Jack's are soaked first.

Dougie Donk said...

The very large with purple flowers sound remarkably like the thistles we have here. They are most delicious, but the little ones are not very pleasant.

I do wish my human could work out how to post photos (Perhaps you could send her some instructions?) & then we could ensure that yours is picking the correct variety.

As you like minty things, you could instruct your human to use strong peppermint tea in blending Jack's vittles. Mine has experimented with this & it is rather nice!