You've seen it as golden, late fall grass.  You've seen it frozen, crystallized.  Now experience a third season with my trusty Ohio farm field, though it's not the image you might expect.  I bragged all winter about the tranquility of my winter farm life, days in front of the fire, endless stretches of white and ice beyond my window.  Well, springtime is a different story!  As the creatures and plants come to life, so do a farm tender's responsibilities.  In the last few weeks we've cleaned the bird boxes scattered all over the property; sawed fallen trees, split the rounds, and stacked them for drying so next winter will be as warm as this one; built a fence; patched and re-installed the dual gas tanks in the pick-up truck; and spent several evenings monitoring controlled, agricultural burns in the fields.  It's a common practice, one my Dad is well trained at though that didn't stop some of the counties' implanted city slickers from getting scared and calling the fire department.  A field fire creates a lot of smoke, and occasionally some pretty tall flames so we can't blame them, but it was still embarassing at 9:30 at night to hear sirens from three directions barreling toward the farm.  Real fire trucks, fire deparment vehicles, and volunteers in their pickups all arrived to discover no flame, no "explosions" as had been reported to 911, just three ragedy farm folks (since we're playing that part well lately) holding rakes on the edge of a smoldering field. 

The volunteer fire chief laughed at the whole scenario, made some jokes about our venison smoking techniques (a deer carcus was creamted in the fire) and gave us an inside number to call the next time we decided light up a section.  That's what you see in the picture: what looks liked dying is really rebirth, the ashes of an overgrown field now ready for new sprouts.  In a matter of weeks, it will green up and match the rest of the place which is full of daffodils, tulips, spring birds, sunshine...and more chores!  Good thing we are getting out of here!  On a midnight plane to Nicaragua today to try our hand at speaking Spanish, being beach bums, and more writing of course!

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