When Autumn Comes

I was walking with my dog late in the evening earlier this week.

Last week temperatures were in the 70's.

This week they were in the 60's, and now into late October Fall is belatedly settling into SE Idaho.

We have been home all this month.

Finishing outdoor projects before winter comes, as everyone this time of year in this part of the country is doing.

Clearing junk out of the house and out of the yard.  Getting wood cut and stacked and stored in our indoor wood shed.  Cleaning out both stove pipes.  Restaining the fence posts and the wood trim we put up around the exterior of the house in spring, and repainting all the black horses we put up on the side of the house and the side of the shed.

Surprisingly (even though they were all done in the spring), they all needed redoing this fall.

Summer is endlessly sunny, dry and hot.

Winter is endlessly damp, foggy, rainy and snowy.

And the wind occasionally blows strong during both seasons...............

 It was almost dark when we walked and we stayed in town.
 Kory stayed on leash, and we wandered up and down every street in Atomic City.

Two miles in total.

Sometimes an enjoyable two miles, and sometimes a two miles that feels as though I am doing nothing more than wandering in circles inside horror-author Stephen King's head.

The bucks that we saw off and on through the summer were nowhere in sight, but as we walked we came across a number of does and fawns, spread throughout town and hidden among the trees and bushes of resident yards.

 They are everywhere now.  Behind a home.  Under a tree.  Hidden in the sage.  Effortlessly jumping one fence after another in search of something to eat and a place to shelter.

As watchful and wary as ever, 

I am beginning to get to know them again.

The two does who traveled together throughout the summer with their three fawns.

It was one of these does who bluff chased Kory out on BLM land this summer. 

 My excited dog turned, tucked tail and scurried back towards the perceived safety of me.

She did not need my protection as it turned out.  

Momma doe didn't want to hurt.  She only wanted to scare monstrous dog away from baby deer.

She not only succeeded in doing that, but also succeeded in making Kory wary of chasing deer.  

Which is a good thing.

The doe with the front leg injury.

She manages to keep up with the rest of a small herd as they happily wander throughout town, but I worry about how well she will make it through winter.

The young deer with the funky ears.  What's the deal with HER??

I have no idea, but she makes me smile.

They all make me smile, and I welcome their presence.......................

We bought this pink plastic wading pool for Kory this past spring thinking that she would like to play in it when temperatures began to scramble towards the upper 90s in the summer.

For the longest time she ignored it, and then one day we came home from a long walk out in the desert and  my overheated dog stepped into the pool to drink and cool off

It has been her primary water bowl throughout the summer.

She has used the heck out of it.  So have the birds.  So have the rabbits that have been scurrying all over town and the yard this summer.  And now so do the deer.

We'll keep pink-plastic-pool out in the yard until temperatures are very cold, but in the meantime it is still a favorite of our spoiled dog......................

My initial cautious optimism at starting a small business of my own is gradually turning into a growing feeling that what was successful in Cody may not translate well in a tiny town 30 miles removed from the nearest population center.

Can I make it work?  I don't know yet.  I have faith in my abilities and skills, and am prepared to continue trying to move it forward.

We'll see what I can do with it.........................

Taken late in the evening at a time when light and shadow dance across high desert plains, and when wind and cloud formations against a blue sky and brown desert silently whisper calming words to me.

It's hard to hear the words.

The noise in my head usually refuses to stop long enough for me to be able to listen.

Maybe that will change one day.

I don't think that it will change one day............... 

We are closing in on another year.
Holidays are coming non-stop for months now.  
Birthdays.  Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas and a New Year and more birthdays.
 I love this time of year.  
I hate this time of year.......................

When Autumn Comes

Carrie Richards

here, where I walk,
confused silence swirls around my feet,
and the anguished summer leaves
are lingering limp, waiting for autumn...,
waiting to crumble and mingle with earth
drunk with the morning dew

somewhere beneath them
under the thunder
earth wears the scab of a fresh wound
in a place that will not be forgotten...
corrupt with mourning
sprouting with questions
immersed with regret
hollowed with anger
and shadowed by trees of despair

birch-bark faces, heads bent low, shadowed eyes
stone-cold voices, carried in the wind, behind disguise
while mute birds watch without a song
the leaves will decay, green goes, and the eye forgets
forget?  never....
while pawing on the hard and bitter earth
of reason, is impossible...

autumn comes
and autumn goes
I will live in hope that baffled minds
will clearly see a winter sun
and give up blaming ... who?