by Jan Fielden
The Colonel says there are strange happenings at the Red Oak Ranch! We have a tree that lost a couple of limbs for no apparent reason. Naturally the limbs fell on the fence, taking the top wire down to the bottom after it broke. The other wires were pulled and had to be re-stretched. The branches were live with leaves; healthy looking leaves. The trunk of the tree was solid, etc. Just what we wanted to do in all this heat; fix a fence, saw up a limb or two, pick up the debris. He threatened to cut the whole tree down…I talked him out of it. I knew he wasn’t serious about cutting the tree down anyway. He loves trees too much.
He had locked the Middle Herd up in the North East Pasture so they wouldn’t be in our way and wouldn’t try to walk out because the fence was down. After we finished with the fence we drove down to one of our favorite places to have a cool drink. It is a little cove that is always about 10 degrees cooler than any place else in the pasture. A very peaceful place. While we were sitting there drinking our soda, The Colonel spotted a Blue Bird. Then suddenly he saw another one, then another, and finally we realized there was a whole covey of them. A beautiful scene in the Sweet Gum Grove. It was as if they were all playing as they were flying here, there, and yonder; lighting on a log then on the ground. We decided I need to get a Blue Bird feeder and try to entice them to come closer to the house from time to time. The Red Oak Ranch is home to so many.
