Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Friday Fun With Coffee! #6
Good morning to all of you on this cool, but sunny, Friday! It did cool off alright, down to -4F (-20C), but it is supposed to reach a high of 25F (-4C) this afternoon and not cool off much tonight. Back to melting weather tomorrow which will be nice. We often get this kind of nice weather in February, kind of teasing us into thinking that winter is nearly over. However, there is still a lot of winter left yet.
I imagine you are probably wanting me to continue with my story from yesterday, so off we go back to that snowy ledge. My nice “slope” was actually 2 very dead trees that had fallen against the cliff edge many years previous and had been so covered with snow as to completely cover them to look like a natural slope. The snow was deep enough to hide any sign of the remaining branches on those two trees. One of my snowshoes had gotten tangled in the trees, twisting my ankle rather badly.
The day started off nicely snowshoeing through a snowy landscape, like the one above.
So, there I was, lying on my back in the snow, with my snowshoe, and my foot, caught in the dead trees. Not exactly the best position to be in for sure. Now, what to do next? First of all, I had to get my snowshoe, and my foot, untangled from the branches of those trees. That was not exactly easy since my snowshoe was in the air and I was lying on my back in soft snow. But, I was able to use the one tree to pull myself up so I could undo the strap on my snowshoe to get my foot free.
Then I was able to get my snowshoe out of the branches. I put my snowshoe back on since the snow was rather soft and deep on that ledge. However, my ankle was paining quite a bit, so moving around in that deep snow was not easy. What to do now? There was no visible way back up and from what I could see it was at least 20 feet down to the next ledge. Although I did not want to get too close to the edge since snow has a nasty habit of hanging far over the actual edge and I could then end up falling.
Watching these tiny chickadees, above, can be helpful at times.
And who knows what might be under that deep snow at the bottom. Deep snow can be nice to land in, but it can also hide some dangerous objects. So I decided that jumping down would not be a good option either. Besides, my ankle was really throbbing now and jumping could make things worse. It was 1pm when I left, it was now 2:30pm, so that gave me about 2 hours of daylight left. I was not really sure what to do, so I cleaned the snow off a rock and sat down to ponder the situation.
The only way out was to go up, but that granite was quite straight up for about 30 feet and rather smooth which made climbing up impossible, though one area wasn’t quite as bad looking. Sigh. While I was sitting there, some chickadees came along from the valley below, a couple stopping to check around those two trees I had uncovered, digging behind the bark looking for insects. Then off they went to the top, effortlessly flying upward.
Red-breasted Nuthatches often travel around with chickadees.
As they flew upward, I noticed a small branch or perhaps small tree sticking out of the snow, and a little further along a small balsam just sticking out of the snow. Considering how deep the snow was, they would be bigger than they looked. And if they were well anchored to that rock, then just maybe they would be strong enough that I could pull myself up. But they were too high to reach, even using my snowshoe. I looked over at those two dead trees.
Hmm, just might work. I brought one over and put it against the rock to use as a ladder. I checked the short branches to make sure they would be strong enough to hold me, then took my snowshoes off and began climbing. I was just about high enough to reach that first little tree when, SNAP! That broken tree broke again and I tumbled down sliding to the edge of the ledge!
Hmm, this story is longer than it looked. Guess I will have to finish it tomorrow. I hope you all have a very pleasant day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Secret Estate Case. Chapter 3. Wolf Dog.
I told the cats to go around one of the little buildings and get into the trees to see if anyone is back there watching us. They took off like little streaks of lightning. Meow.=Ooo, men with guns. Meow,meow.=Yep, we put to sleep. Just then they began to shoot at Sky and myself. I was hit and fell to the ground. Sky did not know where the shots came from so she just began to shoot everywhere, making sure she did not shoot low so as not to hit the cats.
The shots got everyone running over to us. Muffin and MC got themselves in position and “Thwock!”, then a moment later, “Thwock!”, and both men lay on the ground. The cats looked around a bit, then came running back out and over to us. Meow.=there 2 men, now lie down in big sleep. That is the cats way of saying the men are dead. Meow,meow.=We also see huge wolf dog back there, he watch humans, not pay attention to us. Meow.=Yep, he really big huge, not see wolf dog so big before.
I was okay since I was wearing my Kevlar vest. “I should slap you for scaring me like that,” said Sky sternly. “I am sorry, really I am,” I replied, “I just wanted them to think they had shot me and maybe they would move around so we could see how many there was.” I am not sure Sky liked my reason or not, but she seemed to accept it. I was telling the truth though. “I do not know if there are wolves around here,” I said to the cats, “but perhaps someone here has a large dog, some can get to be very large indeed, especially if it was bred with a wolf.”
Meow.=See, it wolf dog. We moved around to the front of the house to wait for Rock and the others. “Look!” exclaimed Tracy as she pointed to the porch. There was a man hanging from the roof. We went to check and discovered it was Marven. He had been dead for a while, but he was not hanging there when we first arrived. We had been on that porch shortly after arriving when we checked to see if the door was locked.
“Did they hang him there after we arrived?” asked Sky. “Yes,” I said, “but Marven was dead already when they hung him up. I think this is just a warning to us to leave or we will suffer the same fate.” “Nice sort of people,” said Astrid. “Yes, so we need to be very careful from now on,” I said to everyone. I called Rock to see how long it would be until they arrived. But there was no contact. The others tried also, but nothing from anyone.
We were able to contact each other, however, so that was good. “Well, who has the ability to stop our signals?” I asked everyone. “Lavina,” said Tracy, “but she is dead.” “Right, but Toledo is still around,” I reminded them, “and he is the one that invented this ability to stop signals. I guess we just have to wait for Rock to return.” “Um, are we planning to stay here at night?” asked Kristina. “Getting a little nervous?” I asked her.
“Well, now that you mention it,” she responded, “perhaps just a little.” “Well, since we only have one chopper, that would mean two trips each time,” I told everyone, “so it makes sense for us to stay out here until this is over.” “That is okay with me,” said Tracy, and the other girls agreed with that too. I hope that is the right decision anyway. Guess we will find out. Meow!=Chop, chop come! I tried listening but heard nothing. After nearly 5 minutes I could finally hear the chopper coming in the distance.
Finally Rock was landing on the pad. “Hey, look what I found, a hitchhiker,” said Rock, all smiles. John had met them at the airport. He had called Baldwin who told him where we had gone, so Baldwin sent him along in one of his jets and he arrived just before Rock returned for the other girls. “Nice to have you along for this one,” I said to John, “we have had company already, 2 men that are now dead, and Marven, who is still hanging on the porch.”
“Well, that means that someone else knows about those jewels,” said John, “and does not want any competition. Leaving Marven’s body out here was to let you know it is not healthy staying around.” “Yes, that is what I figured too,” I said, “Rock, did you not get a call from me?” “No,” he said, “and I tried to call you, but the phone was dead, or something.” “That is the work of Toledo,” I said, “but I doubt he is working by himself, more likely he is working with, or for, someone else.” Suddenly this huge wolf appeared behind us, grabbed Muffin and ran off into the trees with MC and Storm in hot pursuit…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
