July 14, 2024

Fencing

I woke up in a great mood and felt happy when I sat down to drink my morning coffee with my wife. After a few morning chores, she sat down to send emails for school while I changed clothes and gathered my equipment for sitting in the ground blind.

This morning, the skies were bright, but the thick canopy of trees in the forest did a great job of shading the woods. The summer air would soon heat as the sun moved off the horizon. When I arrived at the feeding station, I set out more bird food and deer corn before zipping myself inside the blind, where I waited quietly to see what wonders nature would reveal.

I wiped the fog off the glass of my lenses for almost half an hour before they warmed up. As the forest settled, I knew I was beginning another day of sitting outside in the heat. To capture photographs of wildlife, nature required me to be a part of her world. Patience, endurance, and staying present were staples in this natural realm.

The woods were peaceful this morning. Various birdsongs sounded in the distance while a mourning dove’s coos echoed out from a nearby pine. I noted how, in moments like these, silence felt calm. But the quiet that came from trying to remain silent and still when a deer was twenty feet away staring at you was intense. Silence could be both relaxing and unnerving.

As I stared out the narrow window, I heard a bird fly over the blind, its wings flapping louder than any bird I had ever heard. There was nothing at the feeder, and when I ducked my head down to look through the window and see above the feeding station, I saw a large red-tailed hawk, perched on a branch.

The enormous bird was about two feet tall, with sharp colors and piercing eyes. I moved my camera less than an inch toward the bird and it was gone in an instant, its loud wings beating the air. The entire event lasted less than four seconds. I felt bummed I didn’t get a photograph, but seeing the bird up close was a memory I would treasure.

The hawk was another reminder of the circle of life. A few days ago, I saw a rat snake at the feeder, probably hunting mice that were eating the bird food at night. During the daytime, several squirrels frequented the area to feast on the seeds and nuts I laid out. These little furry animals likely attracted the attention of the hawk. So when I put down feed to see one animal, then its predator was also likely to come.

About a half hour after seeing the hawk, a doe emerged out of the woods. While I took photos of her, I could see a fawn off in the distance, but it never came out into the open. After catching my scent, the doe moved north toward the creek, but I hoped she would circle back, as deer often do.

A five-lined skink showed up at the feeder while a squirrel feasted on nuts. The skink, with its bright blue tail, seemed interested in making friends, but the squirrel was having none of it. It was interesting to see them interact. The skink would approach closer to the squirrel while the squirrel tried to shoo the lizard away.

About an hour later, another deer stopped to feed near my blind. This doe was more wary than the first, perhaps even a little shy. As she stood in the distance, she hid behind a tree that was only large enough to hide her right eye from me. I shot a few photos of the timid doe that I liked. The deer stuck around in the area for half an hour, finally moving on toward the east.

I sat inside the blind for another half hour before calling it a day. After, I gathered all my equipment and trash, exited the blind, and headed back through the pine grove toward my house. As I got closer to my backyard, I could hear something playing outside. When I got to the fence, I recognized it was one of my wife’s infamous murder podcasts.

As I rounded the corner and neared the yard, I saw my wife had a large gate lying on the ground. She had also dug a hole and set a wooden fencepost a foot and a half into the ground. She was sweaty and smiling, happy to be away from the books and outside working. 

We had wanted to move the old gate to the side of the house for a while now. This would make it easier to get the riding mower in and out of the backyard. It would also allow us to drive a car through the fenced area if we ever needed to. I went inside the house, grabbed a cold water, and came back outside to help my wife with the project.

After she drilled holes into the posts, I helped screw in the large attachments that would hold the gate. We connected the gate and then measured to determine where the next fence post hole needed to be placed. After, my wife moved the hammock, placing it near the area to use for shade from the sun. Then she began digging the next eighteen-inch hole with a small garden spade. She had dug the other hole using the same tool, being careful not to cut any lines running under the ground. The project area lied precariously between our electrical pole and a shed that had power.

I went inside the house, grabbed more water, and then made a bowl of ramen noodles for lunch, topped with the rest of my wife’s leftover ribeye. It was pretty tasty. After an hour had passed, I went outside and dragged my wife out of the heat, reminding her she would have done the same for me. Once we were on something, it was hard for either of us to pull back.

After my wife had cooled off, I invited her to get some ice cream at Culver’s. She happily accepted, asking if we could stop by Lowe’s to pick up a few items for her project. Culver’s messed up my order of chocolate ice cream, giving me vanilla with strawberries and small chunks of brownie. It was a lucky mistake. After we gulped down our ice cream, we braved a visit to the hardware store.

At Lowe’s, we picked up one hundred feet of black wire fencing and four posts. We looked for a wheel that would fit the gate, but only found replacement wheels for various lawnmowers. I remembered seeing some wheels at Tractor Supply when I was buying feed, so I told my wife we’d stop by there to see what we could find. We also bought two cans of black metallic spray paint for the metal gate. The gate used to be a part of the pasture fencing and had long lost its luster. We figured a fresh coat of paint would bring it back to life.

We found a few options for wheels at Tractor Supply, settling on two different sized wheels, hoping one of them would work. We perused the small drawers of nuts and bolts to find something to secure the wheel. When we arrived back at the house, the temperature was soaring and we wanted to be indoors.

While my wife worked on her computer, I took a shower. As I was getting cleaned up, a storm blew in, clouding the sky and dumping rain for a couple of hours. After a scorching morning, I was happy to see the rain fall and heat drop away. When I came back into the kitchen to look for a snack, my wife was prepping a homemade lasagna made with spicy Italian sausage. 

About an hour after the rain stopped, the sun popped out and my wife went back outside to work on the gate. I went outside to see what she was doing and saw she needed a little help for the two-person job. I jumped in and within a few minutes, sweat and gnats covered my face. My wife felt bad because I had just showered, but I thought that was silly. It wasn’t a problem showering again later.

We finished most of the fence project, ate dinner, and got cleaned up, ready for the new week. It was a great weekend full of projects, photography, and a fun visit to the bookstore.