“When I feel the heat, I see the light.”
― Everett Dirksen
The mornings have been short stints of perfection: the sun is hung up in the sky long before I wake, the air is cool and still, the grass is damp with dew, and the deer―sometimes dozens―are disappearing from their night in the neighboring hay field. Every morning I wish I had thirty extra minutes to just sit on the porch and enjoy the peace of it all before the day (and heat) kicks in, but of course I’m too exhausted to get up earlier, having spent most nights staying up too late to watch the 10 p.m. sunset and awaiting the roll of evening air―my cue to open all the windows in our home.
Last night our line of towering poplars swayed with the wind, their leaves rustling while the goats stretched for another branch they couldn’t reach. The horses’ tails were at rest, a respite from the daytime swarm of flies, and the chickens were perched outside their coop. It’s moments like these when I feel like summer is a babysitter. It’s telling me not to worry, all is well, go have fun. It’s our great reward for surviving winter on our own, each of us battling it from a different angle.
The hottest part of our day comes when we both return home from work, so we’ve been frequenting the river access in town along with few other like-minded people (and their dogs!). Timber and Derby LOVE the water. Timber is more of a wader and Derby will swim to the bottom of the Atlantic if it meant retrieving her ball. We’re beatin’ the heat and enjoying all sorts of free fun that’s available here.
Tomorrow we leave for our first overnight camping trip with the horses and dogs. I’m a little nervous but mostly excited. I mean, what could go wrong with hauling over two thousand pounds of babies into the woods for a night? We’ll be at a poplar fishing hole north of us, equipped with horse pens, and we’ll be feasting on cold foods since campfires are a no-go in stage two fire restriction areas.
Happy weekend, readers! I hope to have some fun camp photos to share next week!
Back home, watching the smoke steal the sunset.
Advertisements Share this:
