Signs From The Other World
When I made that suggestion to move here, of course I didn’t know anything about what I was getting us into.
If I had known, we would have been here years earlier.
I’m going to make a list of some of the signs, shown to me, of what I call The Other World:
Our neighbors, who raise cows mostly, had a newborn donkey arrive just when we arrived also. His name is Sparky and he was just so perfectly made and had such a high, free spirit. He was put into a big circular pen with plenty of room for him to canter and play. His mother always watched him from the door to the barn; every time we went anywhere we stopped and watched him. We pulled our van up closely to the pen and Sparky, recognizing us, came to say hi. Immediately his mother made her presence known and pushed him away from us!!! But we always still stopped, just not so close. Our neighbors had lots of fun, laughing at this but not in a mean way. Michael took a picture of Sparky and several people bought copies.
One day I was driving down Austin Trail and, by the side of the road, I saw a mother bear with three cubs. And here I am, a city/suburb person, not getting any closer to bears–until then–than in a movie!!! I stopped and instinctively closed the car windows. The mother was reared up on her hind legs–we had a stand off. While keeping an eye on her, I watched the cubs. Teddy bear cubs are unbelievably CUTE–round, black, rolling around and playing with each other. I wanted to explode with happiness; this is what I came here for. Finally the mother gave up the stand-off and withdrew with her cubs. When I told Peter about this, he said that he doubted there were three cubs; this was rare for one litter. I stuck to my story and whenever someone tells me that they’ve seen our bear it’s always with three cubs. She lives in a cave not too far off; lots of times I see bear footprints in the ground during “mud season.”
One day, driving home from work–a part of my drive home was through a heavily wooded forest area–a line of five young male turkeys ran out in front of me. I stopped in time, thank God. They were hysterical! Walking in a line, their red combs small and thin, they appeared to be on an important mission of some kind.
Anybody who loves to watch birds would find this place a paradise. The bird population is thick and various; I can’t even begin to name all of them. We do have red tail hawks here–they live on “our” mountain and they cruise around in circles, looking for prey. They cry out in a piercingly sharp scream; I almost had a car accident once, driving along and seeing them, way up high. I could go on and on but I will say this–at dusk, during the cold months, an owl residing on the mountain really does say “Whooo.” Very primitive–an old sound.
There’s a creek that crosses our property and it’s been the subject of jokes, sadness, joy, and pain. Wow, that’s saying a lot but it’s all true. When we first got here I saw a rainbow trout swimming under the bridge that crosses the creek. I was literally struck dumb by the sight and could not get any words out. Just realizing that I live in a place where rainbow trouts come and go as part of nature–it’s not “helped” by people who “stock” fishing areas–I still become emotional, remembering this. Also, the creek makes noises at night, wonderful to hear after living near a super-highway, especially after a big storm. Then there’s the saga of the falling trees. Over the last 15 years, soil has been eroded and huge trees fell across the creek, creating a dam which in turn produced a pool under the bridge. I was miserable about this, and I kept nagging Peter to hire several of our wondrous Amish neighbor men to come and chop up the wood and cart it away. Peter kept quiet about it; and Michael, known for his even temper (sometimes) was infuriated. So strange. He told me that if somebody gave him a chainsaw he’d come here and saw the wood himself! In the end, in a quietly charming way, the problem was solved. We were sitting on the porch when a Great Blue Heron flew by, quietly landed on the pool that the fallen trees created, and began to eat!! Obviously, small water creatures had found homes down there. After that, Peter made an unusual decision; he said that the situation would stay exactly as it was. This was unusual because he is always doing things for Michael and me. So we respected this. He’s more than earned his right to watch the Great Blue Heron from time to time.
One night, Michael was home from school and we were all sitting and watching television when we heard a bumping on the cellar steps. Our cat, Callie, had some kind of wobbly creature by its neck and she was dragging it up the steps. Neither Michael nor I had ever seen this kind of animal; it was pear-shaped and looked soft and had these weird, whisker-like things sticking out of its nose. Michael and I started to yell–we couldn’t get any words out nor could we laugh or cry. But Peter–a former nature counselor–calmly assessed the situation. (Between the three of us, we have a standing family joke about that night. When we saw Callie, who was still a kitten, dragging this thing that was bigger than she was, Michael and I looked at each other, mouths open. Struck dumb with total surprise. It was really funny.)
This creature was a “star-nosed mole.” It has a cousin which is a vole. Peter who never kills spiders found a box, got the thing away from Callie which was no mean feat, and took it down to the creek. And the never-to-be-forgotten time I woke up and saw that I had a snake in the bedroom. Believe it or not, I wasn’t scared. I’ve learned a little about nature so I could see that it was harmless. I just calmly told Peter about the snake and he took it outside.
Finally, we really do have “bats in our belfry.” At the very top of the barn, there are rows of bats that hang upside down during the day and leave the barn at night. I sympathize with those who fear them–they aren’t pretty. But I came to love our bats. They communicate with each other better than with iPhones and, believe me, there are no stray insects plaguing us at night. They are efficient and organized. One time, in the Salvation Army store in Bloomsburg, I found a T shirt that had a picture of a bat on it with funny facts like: “they communicate better than with cell phones…they like hanging out with their friends…”
lgmwriting 