Rogue cows and friendly dogs

I went out sand plum picking again this morning (imagine that) - but it was far from a "normal" day in the thicket.

I got out there and immediately got busy. I had my goal of filling the two buckets that I had with me, and I really wanted to do it and still get back to town in time to walk to pick Daniel up from school. I was deep in the thicket, picking away, and after a while it dawned on me that the cows across the road were being really noisy. I didn't think too much about it at first, and just continued with what I was doing. I emerged from the side of the thicket a while later, and glanced down the road. I saw a lady who had pulled her car into the driveway, and she was talking to an officer from the sheriff's department, who was parked across the road in the ditch. Their voices were carrying, and I heard her say something about "I didn't want them to get hit, so I called" and then she left shortly after that.

I stood there for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what was happening. Then the officer moved his truck, and I spotted it - them, actually. Two cows, who were outside of the fence, right alongside the road. He was trying his best to shoo them toward the gate, but they weren't having any part of it. I giggled a little bit as I watched, thinking back to the days when I was constantly chasing horses like this. Just as I decided to hike down and help him, another vehicle came and stopped. And another, and another. People who were driving past just stopped their cars in the middle of the road and formed a roadblock, and were able to herd the cows back into their pasture unharmed.

Once everything was under control down the road, I turned around and started picking again. I was in my own little world, pondering the meaning of life or something, when out of the blue a dog started growling and barking right behind me. I jumped and turned around - as much as I could turn clutching my bucket full of sand plums and with my hair tangled in a branch - and saw a big black dog about five feet away from me, just on the edge of the thicket. And he was angry. I stood there for a moment, trying to decide what to do. Running wasn't an option, because I was wedged in there pretty tightly. I saw this same dog yesterday as I was getting ready to leave, and even though he did a lot of barking and growling, he didn't come near me even though he was only a few feet away from the van at the time. So I yelled at him. And I told him to go away. Because that's what you do when you're on the verge of being attacked by a crazed dog, right?

OK, he really wasn't crazed or anything, and he quickly got bored of barking at me while I was obviously trapped and not a threat to him, and so he trotted away. At the same time, I heard something else coming from right beside me, and looked down to see another dog who had actually braved the thicket and was standing at my feet. At this point, I didn't know whether to scream, cry, or laugh, so I just stood there looking at him. He looked at me for a moment, came a little closer, and proceeded to lick my hand.

At that point, I guess I had a new buddy. This dog did not leave my side for the rest of the morning. He would wriggle in and out of the thicket with me, and followed me everywhere that I went. He hung out with me, and I may or may not have found myself talking to him after a little while (hey, it's almost too quiet out there at times). He was actually a pretty cool dog - although I had to stop him from eating my plums a few times.

Anyway, with the distractions, I didn't get both buckets filled, but I did end up with another 43 pounds or so - so not bad for a morning's work. I need to go out a few more times and get as much as I can, but I may have to give it a day or two because my body is screaming at me from the exertion.

The rest of the day was normal-ish. I watched my friend's kids for a little bit while she went on a job interview, paid the bills, cleaned, worked on some more of the smoky laundry, made the last 4 batches of strawberry jelly after I cleaned up the mess from supper.....I still have to pack lunches and get stuff ready for tomorrow since it's going to be an early morning.

Saturday. Maybe I can take a nap on Saturday.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Update on the van situation: As of right now, I have just enough money to get the transmission replaced! I've been crunching numbers all day to see if it is going to be possible, because if I do it right now, things will be tight for the next month - however, I am going to either call the garage or stop by tomorrow and have them order the transmission and get the process started.

With any luck, I will have my wheels back in the next couple of weeks - and I couldn't have done it without everyone's help. It still seems more than a little surreal, but I think we might be able to do it! I will continue to post updates, I promise!