Not Much Gets Past Mrs. HM

Like a seasoned scout, I can glean clues from my environment. I don't need to look for bent-over blades of grass, or broken twigs to see where the trail is leading me. All I need to do is be observant, kicked-back in the La-Z-Boy late morning, HIPPIE on my lap. I can see who is coming and going on the gravel road. The weather. My dogs on the front porch.

The dogs are a good barometer of activity around the Mansion. Juno lays under the living room window. I can see her head and ears. Which direction she's looking. If her ears lift up. Jack wanders around, up and down the porch steps. Sometimes annoying his hump-buddy cat.

Around 11:15 on Monday, I saw Copper Jack come running across the front yard, from up near the gravel road. This was unusual. Sometimes he's on our porch, too, walking around with shoulders hunched, ready for Juno to start barking. Sometimes he's in the front yard, joined by my little Jack, for play purposes, or napping. Sometimes he comes straight across the yard, from under the fence that divides our property from his rightful homestead.

I don't know where Copper Jack had been, but it was clear that he was headed for our BARn area, in a rush. Juno had not been under the window. Jack was nowhere to be seen. I knew that this meant somebody was in our BARn field. Since I didn't hear our dogs barking their fool heads off, and Copper Jack himself was silent, I figured it was probably Farmer H himself.

I went to the door and looked out. Uh huh. I only waited about 10 seconds before I saw SilverRedO driving across the BARn field. Coming from the Freight Container Garage. SilverRedO turned up the field, like heading for the road. Farmer H disregards the driveway from over there. He goes directly across the ditch between field and gravel road, without a pretense of driving around to hit the driveway.

A few more minutes of watching, and I saw the trailer appear, with HOS (Farmer H's Oldest Son) sitting on the metal rail at the front, as Farmer H backed SilverRedO down toward the BARn. Huh. They had been working since 8:00 over at the $5000 house. Now they had obviously come to get something. It's about a 20-minute drive, one way.

I needed to know what they had come for. Not because I'm nosy and controlling like that, but so I would know how much to worry. Farmer H has talked about taking his tractor to town. I don't like this idea, because it's dangerous as all get-out. He has to drive a couple miles on a 55 mph county highway, and also through town. He needs a follow-vehicle for safety, and HOS is technically not supposed to be driving right now. Though Farmer H says he could drive the tractor, because no license is needed. Which I think is poppycock, because what's next, a 3-year-old driving a tractor?

Farmer H has also mentioned taking his tractor to town on the trailer. There's nowhere to park it on the street in front of the $5000 house, and the driveway is only big enough for one car. The streets are narrow over there.

Anyhoo... Farmer H had also mentioned taking some roofing metal to town, to put a roof on the concrete shed at the $5000 house. That would require the trailer. The wind was gusting about 30 mph. Not great weather to be hauling sheets of roofing metal. Or handing it up and screwing it down on the roof of a shed.

I sent Farmer H a text: "What are you loading?"

He sent back: "The metal."

Okay. Mission accomplished. My worry level for the day was only about a 6/10, rather than a 9/10. That's assuming that HOS rode inside SilverRedO, and not sitting on top of the metal.