A Long Awaited Encounter

Ed loaded the truck with his tools and the cooler and headed back to the wilderness garden. Here is the chosen spot to plant next year's garlic crop. Having had to abandon the garlic we have been growing because of disease, this spot is being readied for planting the new garlic. Time is getting short. In zone 4 the garlic should be planted right around Columbus Day. Ed is working on beds that are 18 feet long and 5 feet wide, with a three foot stone path down the center. Here stones for the path are in shorter supply. In the garden up front there are always two or three stones for one dirt.



Ed was kneeling down intent on placing stone in the path. Something made him look up. There perhaps fifty yards away was one of the young coyotes we have seen playing in the front garden earlier this year. Seeing each other at the same moment their eyes met. The early morning sun glinted red on the tips of the beautiful animal's handsome fur coat. Each took a good long look at the other. Then the coyote quietly turned and disappeared into the tall goldenrod of the meadow.

Ed has often wondered what he would do when faced with a coyote. Would he yell? Would he run for the safety of his truck? Would he fend off the vicious beast with his shovel? In the end the long awaited encounter was a quiet and peaceful one. Ed went back to his work, but the feeling that he was being watched never left him and I don't think the hair on the back of his neck was down until he came inside for lunch.