Third Monday in August

The day started off with a shower in the horse trailer – Tom was unable to finish the plumbing job because of the horrific storm Sunday night. When I walked back into the house, Irene was in the back hallway, battling a snake! A little Ring-Neck, the sixth this season.

That evening - around 6ish - I get home earlier than normal because I don't have to wait/pick up Tom. I hear dogs (at least two) barking/yapping behind the house, but down at the bottom of the hill, behind the pasture fence. Tom says it’s been going on for about a half hour - and you didn't try to figure out what is going on? Sounds like they’d treed a ‘Coon or something. Anyway - I walk into the other field because I know a way across the creek and into the bean/corn field and there are THREE people sitting on the edge of the hill (where David would stand to shoot his guns). I run back to tell him, we get in the RAV4, April is with us, and there are three sitting there, a man with two kids. They never heard our car, so we drive back. He said if it was three GUYS he would have said something. He’s been home but not home (went to THREE Home Depots, local hardware store, too, to buy guttering materials for the run in shed) and didn't see them come onto the property. They've got the dogs in the woods, and the guy is yelling at them. Never saw the dogs. The horses (4) are concerned about what's going on.
I'm nosy so I climb the fence and can see the tops of their heads from there. Then I walk onto the big berm next to the landscaping bins - and can see them walking back to the house next to us - on the other side of the power lines. Never met the Widow that lives there, but know that she has others there because of the amount of yard work/bonfires that happen (can see that from our house when the leaves are gone).
I see them walk back over there and tell him that this must be the guy that is stringing aircraft cable across the paths that we are creating in the woods - he thinks it couldn't be - why not? Logical deduction - it’s not the horse barn people; they would NEVER carry that kind of obstruction into the woods. This is a guy that is staking out his 'territory' to use his dogs to hunt. Why is this so hard to imagine? From the widow's house, walk straight out and anyone would be on the top of the hill where the cable was strung. Duh? Anyway, I'm sure that's the guy. We’ll continue to make our paths in the park as we see fit - it's 'public' land, not somebody's territory, even if he did grow up there. He’ll be surprised when he sees new fencing going in, right?