Field Fun

Those are two words that I might not normally think go together.  Tuesday, it was the fields or no run.  I put on my new Inov8s, lacing one foot rather sparingly and leaving the other the way it came.  Just running down the driveway I could tell the left foot (normally my grumpiest) was better off because of the lacing change.

Cresting the small hill (knoll?) in Linda's back field, I saw that the neighboring farm had done their 2nd haying!  That meant the running would be less difficult.  They hadn't hayed all of the fields yet, but I still was able to get in 4.5 miles before heading across the street to the big hill (it's all relative).  At the bottom, I could see Rick nearly up the top of it : )  When he turned back, he gave me a big wave.  Upon meeting, I said I was heading to see if the path to the beaver pond (marsh) had been mowed.  Last time I tried running that way, there were chest-deep weeds and briars, as well as ticks. 

We didn't get very far when I noticed a dark mass in the field.  I thought it might be a turkey crouching down, though babies should be too big for that trick buy now.  I asked Rick what he thought.  Maybe a porcupine!  I had to go see it.  I feel marginally guilty; I'm sure it stresses them somehow, but they are just too cute.  It wasn't a very big one, but I wouldn't call it a juvenile either.  It didn't exhibit the same behavior that the others have.  Most turn their back to me when I went past a certain imaginary line, I guess representing their comfort zone with me.  I worried a little that it might not be well (thinking rabies, sometimes they just act stuporish and not aggressive then), but it didn't look sick.  Again feeling slightly bad that I was stressing it AND interrupting Rick's run, I decided to leave it alone.

Just when we started down the beaver path (it goes into the woods), we put up a partridge.  I was trying to think what  p-named critter we could run into next, but then switched to thinking a beaver would be the next cool encounter.  Unfortunately, the beaver home looked like it might have been abandoned.  I hope that was the story and not that the illegal trapper had returned for the ones he didn't get }: (

Running back, my porcupine friend was still there.  I wondered how hard it would be to make friends.  Rick started telling me all the reasons that would be the wrong thing to do.  No worries, just wondering out loud.  I realize it is almost always a bad idea to do that with a wild animal.

Back at the driveway, my Garmin showed I'd already gotten in my 6 miles.  Rick peeled off to get some more while I headed back to get a jump on dinner.