This afternoon I walked out onto the center pivot to satisfy my curiosity as to the precise size of those bales. Each cylinder is about five feet wide, and would be a little more than that in height if you stood it up. I doubt that those dimensions are of the slightest interest to a living soul in western
It’s for the same reason – to sound as though I know what I’m talking about – that I took a picture of the gate by which you enter the center pivot. We have all kinds of contraptions to close and secure gates at home, ranging from iron latches on a spring to a length of baling twine strung around a brick, or a 56lb weight. Believe it or not, this universal, and ingenious, device you have out here had me baffled the first time I came across it. I’ve never seen anything like it on my side of the
Even the solar-powered deer feeder is a novelty to me, although I dare say they have something of the kind on the Scottish Highlands. I just don’t hang out with deer-hunting types back home. Can’t afford to, and probably wouldn’t like them very much. I believe they are mostly wealthy men who fly in, bag their deer, and fly back to whatever city they’ve come from.
I ended up walking down-river a little way. It felt a little as though I was starting on a long round of goodbyes – to certain trees, certain grasses, to a whole landscape that’s given me company and beauty these last few months. I dare say I’ll come this way again. I don’t seem to be able to avoid it. This is, if I remember correctly, my twelfth visit to
