Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Saturday Sharing, With Coffee! #10
Hello to everyone out there on this chilly Saturday morning! Time now for a cup of coffee! It is a cloudy day, a bit of wind, and cool. Especially compared to yesterday. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I was able to sit on the deck for an hour with bare hands, feeding the birds. I tried that this morning too. One hour, with bare hands. I nearly froze. It was cold out there. My fingers could barely move when I finally came inside.
Actually, my entire hand was cold, not just my fingers. I knew it ahead of time though, but I wanted to be out there for a while. Now that the birds come readily to my hand, I do not like to miss a day. All 3 Boreal Chickadees now come to my hand, though one is still a bit nervous. Several Black-capped Chickadees also come, though 3 are very brave now. That is solitude.
This is Ned, quite happy looking with his peanut.
And there are 3 Red-breasted Nuthatches that will land on my hand, though one is still very nervous about it. The one Boreal Chickadee is amazingly brave now and was patiently sitting on the railing, waiting for me to get my box to sit on and get the peanut pieces on my hand. I barely sat down and he was on my hand. He will even land with his back to me now. That is solitude.
Whenever a wild animal will sit with their back to a person, it means they totally trust that person. Animals of all kinds will never sit with their back to anyone or anything that they consider a danger of some kind. So when he first started doing that, it was fantastic. He has accepted me completely and feels comfortable around me now. That is solitude. I call him Benson, since he is a male. His mate is Carine. Both are names from characters in my mystery story.
This Boreal Chickadee is Carine.
The two bravest nuthatches are Ned and Nadine. The two bravest Black-capped Chickadees are Crystal and, and, hmm, no name for the male. So, here we go again, I need a name for the male Black-capped Chickadee. If you would like to submit a name, please do, and we will do it like we do for the chipmunks. I will put your selection on a piece of paper, crumple it into a ball, put it in a bowl and let Muffin pick the winning name.
And this one is Benson.
It must be a name that begins with the letter B, and be a male name. I would also like a name, this time female, for the other nuthatch. It can begin with an N or an R. And a name for the other Boreal Chickadee, female and begin with a C. Must admit, I am having fun out there with these little birds. And, guess who has come back? Jasper and Jasmine! For those who do not know, they are two squirrels that have been around off and on for a couple of years now.
This nuthatch is Nadine.
I have not seen them around for a long time now, however. Jasper was around in the fall chasing Chase a lot. Now Chase has disappeared. I was planning to change his name, but when he disappeared, I decided there was no point. The pictures today are all from yesterday, except the top featured image, which is a female Common Redpoll. Well, I hope you all have a most wonderful weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Lost Team Case. Chapter 6. Helicopter Coming.
The Major, Snake and Tony went into the car together. Muffin was in there too and sat on the Major’s lap. “Okay now, Snake,” began Major, “where is Carnival?” “Who knows?” said Snake sarcastically, “find him yourself.” Tony punched Snake in the stomach. “I told you before, easy or hard, your choice,” said Major, “now, Carnival kidnapped a good friend of mine, we call him the Lieutenant, plus his wife and two other ladies. Where are they?”
“Sounds like a fun time for that guy with 3 dames,” said Snake. He was punched again, harder this time, causing him to groan. Major asked the same question. “Forget it old man,” said Snake. Major nodded to Tony who took out a rather large knife and started to push it into Snake’s stomach. “Wait, wait, do not kill me!” he said squirming. “Then answer my question,” said Major firmly, “this is your last chance.”
“Carnival took him to the mountains,” Snake began, “he found an old cabin up there one year and he uses it to, uh, “teach” people. But I do not know where it is and that is the truth!” He was sweating by this time. Tony took him out of the car and brought in Red. Snake was yelling he needed to go to the hospital or he would bleed to death. Rock told him to shut up and looked at his wound. “You will live,” said Rock, then he took off Snake’s shirt and told him to press it against the spot.
It appeared that Red was more stubborn than Snake and Tony dragged his body out of the car and brought in Bancroft. He cooperated quickly and told the Major the same thing as Snake. Then it was Charlie. He added a bit more about the location of the cabin and said they all knew. It would still be a lot of area to cover over rough terrain, to try and find us however. “What do you think Muffin?” asked the Major.
Meow,meow.=This one tell truth, I know. Others only tell what have to so they not get killed. Trust this one. “Good girl, I agree with you,” said Major, “you may go Charlie.” And he did so, very fast! Snake and Bancroft did not fare so well, however, and ended up swimming with the fish out on the lake. “Do you think it was a good idea to let Charlie go?” asked Rock. “I told him if he was smart, to leave Toronto right away,” said Major, “otherwise Carnival will likely chase him down for talking.
He likely will not take my advice though and will try to hide here. Now, we have to switch things quickly and head west to the mountains, that is where Carnival took them. It is likely going to take some time to find them.” “Well, I can fly anything, so can Benson, and I know Ralph can fly too,” said Rock, “so we can have 3 planes in the air looking for them.” “Yes, that is good,” said Major, “so we will get ourselves an early start tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, back to us. The girls had peeled the bark off some new branches, revealing that nice bright wood underneath. Then they cut them in smaller pieces and spelled out SOS on the dark gray shingles on the cabin roof. If any planes fly past, they just might see it and investigate. Problem is, in the nearly 5 weeks we have been here, not one plane has passed by here. This is obviously a very remote location, which is not good. But it keeps everyone busy, and somewhat encouraged, doing things like this.
I have lost track of time, and even the days since I went back to ‘nowhere’ do not register. Each day is just a day to me, nothing more. Perhaps that is a good thing for me. Having Sky here has been the biggest help for me though. She is calm, relaxed and always seems cheerful when she is around me. Her quiet, soft voice helps to calm me also, especially when those headaches hit me.
I do not know if she is really my wife or not, but they all say that she is. I know this much, I would be lost without her and I want to stay close to her all the time. Then, one day Kristina and Sigurbjorn came running in and said a helicopter was coming close to the cabin. They went out and tried to signal it with the mirror.
The helicopter turned and came directly over to us and hovered nearby. A door on the side opened and a couple of large wood boxes were pushed out, crashing to the ground. The girls then knew what that meant. Then a ladder came out and a man climbed down, carrying a large gun. Sigurbjorn came inside to get the gun we had, but I had gotten it already.
“Back outside,” I said to her, pointing the gun, “now.” She went back out and I stood in the doorway. The man came closer and I took aim and shot him. Down he went. Then I shot the other man in the door of the helicopter. He fell out, landing with a thud on the ground…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 