The smell of Diesel in the morning

We love the woods beside and behind our house.

We awoke at 6 a.m. to the sound of a bulldozer.

At first, I thought it was our neighbor Sam, who lives about 200 yards south of us, clearing a lot behind his home where he plans to build another house.

But the sound got louder and louder until it was obvious that it was in or near our back yard.

Peering through the Venetian blind slats in the bedroom window, I saw trees swaying and blue Diesel smoke in the woods just to the west of our property.

Somebody was bulldozing our woods!

Well, they’re not really our woods. They belong to David Head who has a cattle ranch. We just admire them from our porch and love them as a refuge for wildlife and a buffer between us and the rest of the world.

Maria gave David a quick call to see what was going on. Turns out he’s creating a firebreak, clearing out a lot of the deadfall from the January, 2008 ice storm that could present a fire hazard.

“Actually, I’m going to put about 200 head of hogs in there along with a lot of HUD apartments,” he drawled.

Maria told him we’d prefer the hogs over the apartments.

The ‘dozer operator has been at it for more than two hours now and, although I catch occasional glimpses of the machine, I don’t think our view is any less woodsy for his efforts.