It was a normal summer day with little worries and tons of playing. If I were to guess my age I would say somewhere between 8-10. I remember I was so busy jumping on the trampoline, playing in the barns and the tree house, riding bikes, and petting the horses that i forgot the one job that was really suppose to be mine that day. We were all together for dinner and it had probably been another wonderful carefree day.
After dinner was getting cleaned up and we were all getting ready for bed (it was getting dark outside), Mom asked me if I had remembered to check the chickens and close the chicken coop for the evening. I had completely forgot that was my job and I was not looking forward to going out in the dark yard, and especially the chicken coop all by myself, yet I had forgotten and had to go. I probably tried to convince someone to come with me, but I had no takers. I went to the muck room and got a pair of muck boots and an old coat from the closet. I remember running as fast as I could across the yard (just in case something was going to get me) and then slowing down when I got to the chicken coop. It really was a nice chicken coop but I will admit it was a little scary at night. So I turned on the light, checked to make sure no burglars were hiding by the shovels and walked to the door. I had to check the chicken boxes to make sure there were no more eggs and all the chickens were there. I remember crouching down, and checking the first box...no eggs, no chicken. As I crouched next to the second box and started to look inside, all I could see was a skunk starting right back at me. Still to this day I have never been so surprised and scared in my life. Maybe I have but to an eight-ten year old, this was the scariest thing ever, especially since it was so unexpected. I remember dropping the chicken bucket and sprinting as fast as I could back into the house. Breathless and crying. Yes, I was a very sensitive kid and cried about a lot of things. I still cry when i get scared and mad today.
I remember telling mom and dad and crying and shaking. I don't remember why they made me do this, probably to get over a forever fear of the chicken coop, but mom and I went out together to close up that chicken coop. Of course, I had scared the skunk too so there was no evidence of the experience. I still will probably say my least favorite animal is a skunk. Although I can bare to see one and be around one. I just don't every want to touch one and can't believe people actually have the, as pets.
When we first moved to Riverside I remember Dad getting out a gun. I watched as he walked out to our small front porch and we followed. There were probably 5-6 skunks in our tree house. Maybe they were raccoons too but they were a pest.
One more skunk experience. We were repainting the barn before we were getting ready to sell the house. So I was middle teens. We had found some old paint somewhere and mom asked Lesley and i to dig an old hole in the old goat pen to dump out the old paint (you would probably be fined for this these days.) We dug a narrow, but deep hole. About a two feet wide and I would say about five-six feet deep. Then we proceeded to dump in a few gallons of paint. Since it wasn't absorbing in the ground, Mom told us we should just leave it uncovered overnight and then cover it in the morning when it was a little more in the ground.
The next morning Lesley and I went to cover up that hole and there, in the hole, was a skunk. he was all buried except for his head was poking out of the paint and he was breathing. I know, gross. Maybe I shouldn't be writing this, but it's farm life :). We ran to go tell mom (of course). Then guess what we did. Yes, don't feel bad. We covered up that skunk.
*Lauren*
No comments:
Post a Comment