Nearly every day I intend to come here and write a few things down, but the hazy pre-dawn window that is perfect for such things quickly passes and the day begins in earnest. Keyboard and blue-lit screen left in the dust. Sometimes I wish I could accomplish an entire day’s efforts in the first four hours of wakefulness; it is such prime-time. Physically, emotionally, creatively. But the sprawl is before me and as much as I’m inclined to stack the tasks of my life, I still find myself in the garden at 7pm picking raspberries and pruning tomatoes. There’s always one more thing this time of year. I like it though, not exactly sure why, but I do.
It’s going to be a big canning year for us. Every year I can applesauce, salsa, and marinara, but condiments such as relish, bread and butter pickles, jams, ketchup, etc., seem to be in 2-3 year rotations. I should probably schedule all of that better so there’s some balance in the workload, because all of a sudden we run out of everything. Canned a bunch of peaches and I’d like to do another batch or two. I know, wrecked all of the nutrients in doing so, but I figure there’s a lot worse I can do for my health than a weekly jar of joy-inducing peaches in the dead of winter.
We’re seeing a lot of coyote here lately, in broad daylight, close to the garden and house. My aunt texted me last night – their property borders the back of ours – and they’ve seen three at their place this week. Last night while working in the garden our other neighbor mentioned that he saw one in our back field two days ago. Most coyote have about twenty pounds on our dog, but size advantage aside, Scout's not exactly the most menacing fella. Keeps you paying attention. Coyote are the one animal seen with frequency around here that reminds me humans are not so mighty after all. Maybe a few people in big-league power would benefit from the humility of time spent with coyote. I recall a couple of winters ago we had one in our backyard, right next to the house. Look in each others eyes kind of close. I felt so small. There’s not much of a record reporting humans on the coyote menu, but they are hungry critters who are not satiated by woodland flora.
Anyway, lots of sightings, and that feels important. Like wild turkey, we never saw any coyote growing up, now we’re practically naming them. They are beautiful though. And have very sharp teeth.