The Farmhouse Adventure

Last Saturday, hubby, myself, and our good friend Jeremy packed up our camera gear and got ready for a little expedition. With the coolers full of snacks, and a rough idea of where we wanted to go, we took off in the Jeep into the perfect summer day.

We drove across the river towards the high plateau farmlands in the east. There were some old abandoned farmhouses sitting out in the wheat fields that we wanted photos of, and today was the day for getting the pictures. Even though the temperature was going to be in the high 90's, we had on jeans (well...hubby and I did, Jeremy was the brave one with shorts on!) and shoes just in case we had an unplanned encounter with a rattlesnake.

An hour later, we were pulling up to the first homestead. The day was already blazing with a dry heat intense enough to peel skin, but we trudged across the recently toiled field anyway. We all split up and started taking pictures of whatever caught our eye, and I have to say I felt somewhat like a National Geo photographer, going the distance for a picture of a falling down house in the middle of nowhere! Eventually we all ended up inside the house, picking our way carefully across the non-existant floorboards, making sure we weren't going to go crashing through to the scarifying 'cellar' below. Dust motes were swirling softly around us, the silence was thick. All I can hear is the click of shutters as the guys do their thing. I am standing there, eyeballing what I want to take a picture of next, when I notice a dusty lump on the floor, nudged up against the wall on the opposite side of the little room we were all standing in. There was something familiar about the largish lump...and as my eyes travelled up along the curve, to where it turned narrow, I realized I was now looking at a neck. And when I realized that, it took me only a couple of seconds more to understand that I was also looking at a little head, and that I was being looked at in return. My first thought was that this creature had died here, and had basically been mummified in the dry heat. But then it binked.

I remember half strangling, half yelping in surprise - and both guys whipp around to see what I'm spazzing about. I point, finger shaking....at the big dusty peacock staring at us.

A PEACOCK!! All covered in dust, and so still that had he not blinked, I would have thought he was totally stone dead. It's spooky when you think you are totally alone, and you aren't. Even when it's a big ole' feathery bird. So the guys get over it fairly quickly, but I'm totally entranced. Of course, our immediate hunch is that it's sick, and not to touch it (OHMYGAWDAVIANFLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!), but I just can't help leaning in a little to see it closer.

I look at it. It peers at me. I lean a little closer. And all hell breaks loose.

Next thing I know, there is a giant peacock body flailing past me. I know it's happening fast, but I see it's big eyeball move by me in slow motion. I'm shrieking. Of COURSE I'm shrieking...and laughing, and dodging the flotsom and jetsam that is stirred up in it's wake. The peacock bolts out the nearby back door (which actually isn't a door, but just a gaping hole), and I look down at the floor where it had been. Three big peacock eggs lay there in a little cluster. AhhHAAAAA!!!! Yes, Sherlock, the bird was sitting on it's nest. Duh!! Geez, so much for being a National Geo photog. Had this been a Walrus, I would have been gored and filleted by the time I realized what was happening.

So Jeremy asks "Was that the peacock making all that noise???"

Um. No. That was me, thank you very much.

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone. Even though the guys go back to taking pictures, I stalk this poor creature out the back door and into the tall grass outside. It's like some sort of freakish movie. I walk outside, and I catch a glimpse of the peacock fluidly gliding through the grass and around the next corner. So I follow in hot pursuit. By the time I get to the corner and peek around it, Mz. Peacock is standing fifty feet away, craning her neck over the grass to watch me. The minute she sees my beedy little eyes, she goes floating on around the next corner. And yes, this continues on like some sort of cartoon, until Mz. Peacock heads in the front door of the house. I call out to the guys "The peacock's coming back!!!!" and Larry turns to see her craning her neck at him, before disappearing into the bowels of the house somewhere.

So, we end up leaving, and reminscing about our near death experience. Well, okay - MY near death experience. Er... well, my near getting-pecked-to-death-by-a-boat-bodied-bird experience. At any rate, it was fun. And besides getting a bad case of heat exhaustion a little later in the day, I'm quite pleased with the pictures, and the stories of the day.

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Today I'm putting the final touches on the new designs for my website! Hope you like it. You know me, ever changing. And hopefully it won't be 104 degrees here like yesterday, because I was one miserable pup, I'm tellin' you! But the thunder and lightning rolled in at about 3:00 a.m. last night, and I laid there watching it through half slitted eyes, seeing the big pine tree outside my window light up in intervals. It's still storming right now, with thunder rolling in the distance, and the breeze coming in through the window smells like rain and earth and cherry trees.