Afternoon Shadow

It's a beautiful day outside, so quite I can hear the flag snapping in the breeze. A lady who owns the big ranch down the road rode by on horseback not to long ago. She had two cattle dogs with her, so of course Sarah pulled the eye-hook from the post where she was chained. I apologized and drought her into the house. This is open range country where cattle ranchers have the right of way.

"We'll be driving cattle through here later this afternoon. When those folks..." she nods her head toward the house barely visible on the other side of a thick stand of pine trees on the hillside. Her horse steps sideways as she talks to me. "...the ones that had those big white dogs. The ones before those new people with the kids moved in. I would have to call ahead of time to make sure they would take their dogs in when we needed to move some cows."

"Don't worry about Sarah, I'll keep her in the house until you drive the cattle past here. I don't let her run because she might chase the new fawns. She doesn't know any better not to chase deer, or cows."

We talk about her horse. I comment about the horses I had on my small farm in Pennsylvania. I ask myself will the pain ever go away as I walk with Sarah back to the cabin. Do I suffer from envy? Ya.

Later I getup from my writing desk for a cup of coffee, a baby snake of some kind is coiled up on the bricks in front of the wood stove. Quickly I grab a mixing bowl off the kitchen counter and scoop it up before Sarah has a chance to kill the poor thing. Outside I take a picture, then let it go. It scurries into the wood pile. The photo isn't very good, yet it's enough for me to use as identification later. I know it's not poisonous. I'm just curious as to it Latin name.

The breeze picks up, old Red, White, and Blue waves proudly. Many might say I should take her down because she's tattered and frayed. I choose not to because she's the only flag I have. Today is the forth of July, and a raggedy Old Glory is better than no Glory at all.