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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer January 24, 2005- - No. 44 |
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It is cold, wintry and overcast. The first light of dawn comes on slowly this morning. A thick heavy blanket of air hangs within the darkness still lingering along the tree line. Twenty-some wild turkeys mill about near the edge of the woods. They appear larger than life against the snow covered soybean stubble. Heads down, they scratch into the residue hidden below the snow. The farmer missed a few, his combine didn't quite get every little round white bean seed last fall. The pick'ns are good here. The attentiveness of the big birds, to such good eating, is not easily interrupted.
Their awareness of the small green tractor approaching from the south is obvious. A few heads up and watching, one or two move on into the cover of the woodlot. Most persist, uneasily, with their morning feast. The tractor, a firewood hauling trailer pulled behind; a dog bounces ahead through the powdery snow. Single file, the turkeys move into the seclusion of the forest growth.
The wood cutter spends an hour or two nearby with his noisy machines. The unsettling whine of the chain saw pierces the morning silence. The thunk thunk throbbing tone of the tractors two cylinder engine leaves no trace of early morning solitude. He and his dog will be gone soon. Then, those plump feathered creatures will move again out onto the open field. And, resume their morning feeding. The quiet of the land will again be theirs; twenty-some large black feathered friends, leaving their tracks in the snow. |
