Sharkfin's blog: "Chaos"

Yea it’s two more work days until time off. So I get home yesterday after work and decide I need to mow the Clappsadles land next door if I am going to shoot off fireworks on Friday Night with the girls. Manderooski has to do the 4^th of July at the Ole’ Navy store and Jaquileen is off work from Friday on so we decided to do drinks and fireworks Friday Night. However now that I have mowed the dang hill I need a hay bailer to scarf up all the hay I have created. But, that is not the story. The story is the Mowing Task itself. So there I was riding the Big Ole Green Tractor…no it’s not a John Deer and hell if I can name what kind of Sears Craftsman tractor I bought from Granny Hogue it’s a something something 1000 a 19 horse power Green Tractor. Oh wait! A 19.5 Horse Power, got to get in that half horse…I wonder how they determine it’s a half horse…is it like a midget horse or a donkey…perhaps a pony they threw in because they ran out of horses…no idea…so I am riding the mower thinking to myself…I am a lucky ass guy not do be doing what Bonnie was doing. Because riding on that mower just adjusting the speed and turning the wheel looked and felt a lot better then the weed pulling she was doing next to the side of the house…oh babe the flower garden looks magnifeek! So I am riding and semi chuckling to myself that this mowing is not at all bad when I heard something wiz by my head. I thought I know I turned up the tractor but holey smokes I can hear bees or flies with the tractor running…can’t be! Then I see swoosh, swoosh one on the left and one on the right faster then a Nolan Ryan fastball two Barn swallows were whipping by me. I think for a second the closest barn is 300 yards away at the Clappsadles place. Why on earth are these Barn swallows zinging by me? Then I think shoot I must be mowing close to their nest. Perhaps they have babies or eggs near by so I slow down the mower to see if they desist running an aerial assault on me, however now they multiplied into 5, 6, 7 sleek dive bombers and their all whipping in and out front and back in unison. I looked like PIG-PEN from the Charlie Brown series. You know how he walked and dirt and bugs were flinging around him and no one else…that is how I felt I had my own squadron of barn swallows just whipping in and out at me. But, they were not hitting me but coming real close. So I turn off the motor and sit for a second…nothing! They widened their approach mission and were doing once overs around the field I just mowed. So I watch close and they get real close to the ground. Ah HA! They were Bug Knapping! I was not the source of their rage. I was not the Barn Swallow Air Craft Carrier but I was the Bug exciter. Apparently the bugs that lay in hiding in the tall weeds either had to jump up and out of the way of the mower blades or be chopped up in an all greens salad mixture. .. They chose fly and perhaps not die. The barn swallows were swift. I took on a new understanding and admiration for their work. So I speeded up the mower now knowing I was not part of the problem but part of the solution however…one thing I did not count on was the barn swallows had a rhythm to their madness which was also part of my pattern in cutting. See when I went north south they flew north south however when I changed up and went east west they could not apply their pattern to meet mine…I could just see the squadron leader, “Barn Swallow Blue leader to Right wing, your out of control pull up man pull up!!!!” and then one time I almost took four right in the face. I did a loop-to-Lou just in front of the grapes and this sent four followers on my tail to pull up very quickly and almost not quick enough but they maneuvered around me and the grapes like a team of Blue Angels. So there I was with my group of barn swallows mower and chopping bugs and there Bonnie was on her hands and knees pulling weeds…ah life is good…until she reads this… I think I might just re-mow the field again tonight! I best learn to like the taste of bugs I am thinking too….

Have a fabulous Wednesday

Marrtay