Today the grand kids were excruciatingly slow doing their chores. I told them that they'd stay out after dark if necessary but that didn't seem to speed them up. They should have been done with what they needed to do by ten or eleven in the morning but since their cousin was here until noon they didn't get a lot accomplished early on. I told them to hurry with their chores because lunch wasn't going to wait all day. This of course meant that they may as well go slow because they could just eat fruit off the trees. Who cares about lunch. So, they went slow. No, slower...
At five thirty I told them I was making dinner and they needed to speed up or it was going to get dark out. Nope, they slowed down. Can you walk any slower??? It was just one of those days I guess. At six dinner was ready. They were still poking around so I said that I was sitting down to eat and I sure hoped that their dinner was still warm by the time they finished up and were ready to come in. At six thirty I opened the door and heard an adult talking. "Who is out there?" I asked the kids. They said they didn't know but they were worried about it. (They didn't come in to tell me because they were "busy" doing their chores) As soon as I opened the door the dogs rushed out of the house and started barking by the pasture fence. The noise was coming from the very back of the property. I realized that it was not on our property but down a ways. I didn't know if it was in the orchard behind us or in someones yard.
Lucky kids... "Get in the house, eat your dinner, and get to bed." I'm going to find out what's going on. "Do NOT go outside. Follow what I say EXACTLY." They did. After all, I was letting them come in to eat dinner before their chores were done!
It looked like people were walking around in the orchard carrying torches. I heard someone say "glad you made it". What was going on? Handgun in pocket, shotgun in hand, flashlight in pocket, wearing all black clothes I walked to the back of the pasture - about 1/4 mile from the house. There was no moon; it's coming up really late. It's supposed to rain tonight but the sky was only half cloud covered and the rest filled with stars. I was able to see well enough that I didn't need to turn on the flashlight. As I was walking out there I was wishing I had a night vision scope. Why didn't I have a spare couple thousand dollars for such a piece of equipment? Then I wouldn't even have to walk back there, I could just look. No such luck, I don't have a spare ten bucks let alone enough for the night vision equipment.
I could see a cross with torches surrounding it. We're in trouble, it's some sort of cult taking over the orchard. I still couldn't tell if it was on an adjacent property or in the orchard. As I was getting closer to the back of the property I was mulling over in my brain whether I should go over my back fence to get a closer look. I wasn't going to ignore this and walk away without knowing what was going on. I walked really quietly along the far fenceline. I then crossed my field, along one of the crossfences. When I was about 100 feet from the back of the property I was finally able to tell that the cross, torches, and now bonfire was a church party at the very back of the neighbors property, not in the orchard.
Thanks neighbors for letting us know you are holding a church event. I need to rethink what I did. If it was a group of "bad guys" I'm sure they would have had some sort of night vision equipment. Except with the torches perhaps it would have been too much light too close to where they were. I don't know enough about that type of equipment. At this season of the year my pasture is too low to hide me as I was walking. I would have been a dead duck if this really was a drug deal, cult, or a group of ner-do-wells. I could have gone down the road further, through an orchard near my property to get to the orchard behind my property. Or, I could have walked the road, which I did after I figured out that it was a party. In front of the neighbors driveway was a sign. Follow Me... to the end of the line!
It's always good to go all the way and figure out what really is happening.
ReplyDeleteMy only experience with night vision goggles was illuminating. (All I could think of was bad puns.) A friend with Fish and Wildlife had some and we went into his very dark backyard. A neighbor's light lit up the yard a bit but other wise it was very dark. I put on the goggles and commented that I didn't think the goggles helped enough to be worth the expense. My friend then took off the lens caps and a whole new world opened up. What I had been seeing was only the light being let in through small holes in the caps. Like you question though, A few thousand dollers can be spent many ways.
In case you have a property having adjacent walls, you'll definitely need a party wall agreement for that construction project you might have in mind.
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