Muley and I watched a big harvest moon rise last night and set this morning. I've moved my nightly encampment from the lawn of the bunkhouse up to the pathway in front of Honey's paddock where a big oak tree holds the dew off me and I can feel the wind sweep in across the plain from Mary's Peak. Muley shares her paddock with a smaller mule, named Kate, who looks like Muley in every way save a white star and shorter legs. Kate has developed the bizarre habit of pulling my tarp off me as I sleep and dragging it into the paddock along with my sandals. She stands there at my feet chewing my sandals while Honeychild reaches up to shake the branches of the oak tree with her teeth, dropping leaves and acorns down upon my sleeping bag.
In the morning, I wake to see Honeychild standing over me watching me. "Good morning, Honeymule," I say, to which she responds readily with a long, earnest bray, issued just several feet from my bleary face. Then she sighs and lets out half a dozen board yawns while the other mules begin to cry for their breakfasts. What cacophony! And so I rise and head to the bunkhouse to dress, usually just in time to see Fred, the one-legged peacock, ruffling his way disgruntledly down from the haybarn. Morning is upon us all!
After morning chores I've been heading in to town pretty regularly. I've been loaned a bike from my dear Corvallis friends and it has proven indispensable. I try to get back to the barn by 6:30pm so I don't get stuck on the roads in fading light. I usually get back in time to grab a bowl from the kitchen and head out to the blackberry patch along the driveway. I've frozen five gallons of enormous, plump blackberries and three more of blueberries. I've also begun drying apples (from the tree outside the door) and am going to sauce and can more tomorrow. Amy, who runs the stable with her husband Barry, has been bringing me wonderful produce from her jungle-garden, and I've been blanching and freezing everything I can't eat. I love getting ready for winter!
I received a call today from the president of the Oregon Coastal Trail Association. He called to tell me he'd brought up the idea of my riding a mule on the Corvallis to Sea trail at a recent meeting and had been met with enthusiasm. So... I'm getting in touch with some folks locally in order to do a little more research to make sure the trail is a feasible challenge for me and Muley... If so, we'll probably try to ride a portion of it in the next few weeks -- we need to get a glimpse of that ocean before the rains set it!
Oh! And I've arranged to move into a lovely room in downtown Corvallis and have accepted a job at the family-owned Grass Roots Bookstore just a few blocks away...
More later and love to all,
~April and Honeychild
P.S. I promise -- photos are on their way!!
No comments:
Post a Comment