Animals Finished And Complete

The old saying that time flies by too fast is becoming more true the older that I get.

I woke up this morning suddenly aware that we have now been back in Tennessee almost as long as the too-short time that we spent in Wyoming.

When we first moved back to Tennessee my Mountain Boy, my puppy and I all spent the first few weeks in a holding pattern, waiting for our non-paying renters to vacate our house.

The law required 30 days notice which we reluctantly gave even though we would have preferred to utilize less orthodox methods to get them out.

Regardless, the three of us spent our first few weeks renting out a very small and very old and very rustic and ultimately very sweet cabin out in the country on the way to Fayetteville.

I had worked with the lady who owned it, and the cabin was located on a corner of her property.

It was a beautiful area.

Very quiet.  Very rural.  Filled with deer and all the trees and running streams that we were no longer used to after living in the high desert plains environment of Wyoming.

The combination of our laid back friend and the privacy and solitude of her home were welcoming for both of us, allowing us to gradually become reintroduced to the south-east.

Allowing us to ease our way back into Tennessee life.

Late one evening in September I looked across the road from the cabin and standing in the driveway in front of me were a handful of deer.

The sun is beginning to set in this picture so there is a lot of light and shadow, but if you enlarge the picture they are there.

I stood looking at them for a long time, and they also stood for a long time watching me closely.

Watching for sudden moves.  Watching for danger.

I presented neither of those things to them, and eventually one by one they wandered slowly back into the woods...................

Great Pyrenees dogs are very common in Middle Tennessee.

They are used to guard herds of animals, sometimes cattle and oftentimes goats.

While still at the cabin one very sunny and very warm day I went for a run along dusty and hilly country roads close to M&M's home, eager to explore the area.

A couple of miles from the cabin I heard the barking before I saw the source of the sound.

Stopping for a few moments I looked around me, uncertain if the dog was fenced or would come angrily running out to confront a strange woman on the road in front of his house.

And then I saw him.

He was huge and white and awesomely beautiful as all Pyrenees are, and from behind the fence he watched me suspiciously, while standing protectively in front of the goats he was responsible for.

Barking occasionally at me I could tell that he was not vicious but was rather simply warning me to stay away from his multiple smaller and weaker charges.

Not wanting to upset this lovely animal I stayed back, and stood for a few moments admiring him.

A beautiful animal.................

And the watchful goats, who are defenseless without their fierce protector............

Across the road from M&M's home is a large horse farm.

The home is beautiful and so is the property, in that way that speaks of owners who have lived and built in this same place for decades, if not generations.

Each day as I ran, or walked with LC and James (and sometimes M&M and her sweet dog Sadie) we would pass by the handful of horses on the property across the road, and they would inevitably make their way to the fence line to say hello.

Curious animals, we sometimes gave them vegetable and fruit scraps, and in return they allowed us to pet them.............

The brown and white horse standing underneath the tree was named Choctaw.

He was tall and wonderful and the king of his domain.

He was the ruler of his country kingdom and he knew it.

One day, close to the time we were getting ready to leave the cabin, I walked down the road one more time and in front of the fence.

The horses were all grazing with the exception of Choctaw and as I kept walking I realized that he was watching me very closely.

When I first noticed him he had been standing very close to the tree, but as I kept moving slowly further down the road I noticed that he was slowly making his way around from the back to the front of the tree so that he could continue to watch me.

Choctaw never left the shade of the protective covering of the tree, but visually followed me until I was out of sight.

I might not have noticed such things a year ago, but while living in Wyoming and living so close to so many horses, I learned a lot about them and their behavior.

They are curious, intelligent and sweet creatures...............

A deer on M&M's property.

This girl ran from the woods down the hill on the property, across the front yard and then stopped by the weeds and ditch close to the road.

For a few moments she seemed unsure what to do or where to go next, and she surprisingly ended up running back up the same hill and back into the same woods..............

This little guy was on the rutted out barely-paved-road leading to M&M's home.

The area is extremely hilly, and when we noticed him standing on the side of the road we stopped the truck.

Braking hard on the hill we sat watching him closely, expecting that at any moment he would turn tail and scurry back into the woods.

Instead he stood completely motionless.

After a few minutes LC let off the brakes just the slightest, but that was enough.

This little guy was gone................

Not long ago we headed out to Beech Grove in search of a confederate cemetery.

We found it and it is a wonderful, historical and respectful place located just off I-24 highway.

While we were at the cemetery LC and I learned of a confederate horse that was buried a few miles away.

Driving unknown and hilly country roads and turning onto unmarked side roads, we fully anticipated that we would have a nice drive but would not find what we were looking for.

We did.

The burial site of Old Isham is a seemingly out of place small site sitting on the side of a country road at the end of private property.

When I climbed out of the truck to take pictures of the site I realized that I was being closely watched by this beautiful animal.

As they all seem to be, he was curious and attentive.

He stood motionless and watching me during the entire time I was taking pictures of the burial site, and the barns and hills surrounding me..................

One of the most surprising animal sightings we have had so far was a small herd of buffalo.

We unexpectedly came across these huge animals while driving secondary roads on the way to the beautiful old town of Bell Buckle.

There were no shoulders on the side of the road, as there normally aren't on winding and narrow secondary roads in Tennessee.

This picture, along with a few others I snapped that day, were taken very quickly while LC stopped the truck in the middle of the road.

They were a surprising sight.

Surprising but very welcome when we miss and speak often of the wildlife we found in Wyoming.............

While still out at the cabin I was running country roads one day and came across these cows.

They were both sitting in the field and as they saw me I stopped running and instead began slowly walking, not wanting to disturb the quiet they had found up until my arrival.

Instantly alarmed at my presence they both stood up and turned towards me, staring me down.

I was surprised at their reaction.................

Surprised until one of them moved slightly and I saw the calf sleeping in the grass................

I was so busy taking pictures of the lake and the boats and surrounding hills at Fort Loudon Marina a few months ago that I was surprised when I finally looked down close to my feet while walking on the pier and saw these ducks.

They had not made a sound as they approached me...............

I love this picture.

Taken a couple of months ago on a side road in between the flat farmland of Cowan and the mountain community of Sewanee...............

Geese at Woods Reservoir................

There are many many herons in this area, and I see at least one every time I am on Woods Reservoir.

On this day LC and I were on the boat and had just left the boat ramp when I saw this beautiful creature standing alone on a point.

I snapped this picture quickly afraid that he would be gone at any moment...............

But he did not fly away.

He knew that we were approaching him and yet he seemed unperturbed by our presence.

There was something very majestic and regall about him and the way he carried himself.

So beautiful................

Over the past months since we found ourselves back in Tennessee I have written often about a small island located in the center of Woods Reservoir that I years ago named Bird Island but have recently learned is actually and formally named Elder Island.

It is a bird nesting area, right now empty but in just a short while will be completely filled with the frantic activity and noise of birds large and small.

This flock was swimming close to the island on the same day that we saw the heron................

And quickly took flight when we got too close...............

One more flock that we scared into flight as we reached the back side of the island.................

They run on top of the water as they pick up enough speed to head into the sky.

In Fall I saw many of these birds on Woods Reservoir and never get tired of watching them, laughing like a little kid each time I saw one of these wonderful water-runners..............

We came across this heron the week after taking the pictures above.

He was located close to our last sighting and I think he is likely the same bird...............

On this particular day we tried to get even closer to him than the last time.

We got close..........until finally he lost patience with us and first walked away and then flew away, heading across the lake.............

Deer seen at the UTSI campus close to sunset...............

Geese flying through the fog over Woods Reservoir..............

I saw only one of these animals at first while bike riding at the base a few weeks ago.

The other two were sitting in the grass at the top of the hill initially unnoticed by me.

At first I thought the animal was a dog but at I rode closer realized with excitement that it was a fox.

Climbing off my bike I unceremoniously dumped it in the ditch by the side of the road, slowly crossed over the street on foot and stood underneath a tree about 100 yards away from these foxes, afraid to go much closer and scare them away.

They played, stood, sat, scratched, all the while aware of me but seemingly unperturbed by my presence.

I was surprised that they stayed in one place for so long but they seemed to be in no great hurry to move on.

I eventually walked back to my bike, remounted and rode beyond them hoping to find a walkway that I could access and get closer to them.

I found the walkway but by then two had disappeared back into the woods and the third quickly disappeared as well when he saw me.

A completely unexpected sight and I smiled in pleasure at them for the rest of my ride.

Too cool..............

A very beautiful duck seen on a warm and sunny day a couple of months ago at Tims Ford Marina..............

A new bird and animal rehab facility has been built at Tims Ford State Park during the past couple of years while I was away from Tennessee.

On one long bike ride in and around Tims I not long ago I snapped these pictures of a couple of the facility's temporary residents..............

One of many deer I saw at Tims Ford that day................

OK..........not a real animal but a really wonderful painted sign located outside a small local favorite restaurant in Tullahoma called Piggys Place.................

Close to the outskirts of town, and at the far end of the Wal-mart parking lot is a very surprising thing.

A small pond that is home to a very large flock of healthy Canadian geese.

They are beautiful and very sweet, and somehow they are a wonderfully unexpected and magical thing nestled among the ugliness of stores and building signs and far-too-much traffic.

I truly love them................

Our front and back yard are home to many many squirrels.

They use the trees and the roof of the house and the roof of the carport and the power and telephone wires as their own personal highway transportation system.

They are amusing, funny, entertaining and provide LC and I with much enjoyment.

Jamie loves to chase them and would eat them if she had the chance.

She has only had the chance once over the years that I know of, but she takes huge pleasure in chasing and terrorizing them as they pass through and above the yard.

LC years ago asked me what the Norwegian word for squirrel was and when I told him that I did not know he made up the word Vooshen Slashen.

They've been vooshen slashens ever since...............

My oldest boy and his wife's little dust-mop dog Gizmo..................

And finally my very sweet girl Jamie sitting in the back yard..............

We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals... In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.................Henry Beston