Dinosaurs!
Chapter Notes
AT LAST! We have reached the dinosaurs! I have to say, this is one of my favorite
bits, because it's just so off the wall and still makes me laugh. Researching some of
these details was hilarious.
Friday can't come soon enough. I miss my kids enough while they're at school, but to also miss a
weekend with them? Unbearable. Still, there's no point in getting on the road early. The schools
will not be rushed without good cause. So I relish the pleasure of a lazy late morning bordering on
early afternoon where I can just forget the world exists for a bit.
Besides, Sam is always a comforting heat, a furnace really, every day of the year. Even in the back
half of September not yet ready to give up being summer, I love it. While there's not really the time
to get into anything athletic if I want to make the day a proper outing, that doesn't stop me from
peppering kisses across Sam's shoulders and scratching feather-soft at her belly until she comes
half-awake. Mumbling gently, she rolls to her back, arm thrown over her head, to smile sleepily at
me.
I don't hesitate to kiss that little smile.
"Do you think I could coax you out of bed a little early to get going? I'm thinking lunch in that
place you love in Morris Park?"
That does it!
Within the hour, we're scrubbed, dressed and presentable, with overnight bags packed and headed
for the street to hail a taxi. A crisp fifty dollar bill charms the driver to take on a longer than
normal drive and we're on our way. A leisurely dawdle over lunch feels good, like a reconnection.
And watching Sam's animated face and beautiful smile is never a waste of time. Too often, I don't
get a lot of one on one time with Sam where we're not pressured by something. Our lives are
usually busy, even with the girls away at boarding school most of the week, so this is a welcome
joy.
Another taxi gets us out to Yonkers where we're a bit early and kill time wandering the lovely
campus of Lily's school. It had been a relief to find this place where my little darling could test out
her independence. It hadn't been easy on any of us, but the staff here is wonderful and she has
blossomed.
When she spots us loitering on a park bench near her dorm? The way she lights up makes me feel
like the most blessed person in the universe.
"Moms!"
Lily has never seen Sam as anything but an equal parent, not yet a year and a half old when they
met. Still small for her age, she nonetheless gets an arm around each of us as we stand to greet her.
"I've missed you, baby," I gush and Lily lets me sweep her up into a full-body hug. Small or not,
she's not my little baby anymore!
After getting Lily's things sorted out -no easy task as excited as she is- it's a last taxi to the car
rental agency and Sam behind the wheel of a nice little coupe to make the drive north to Peekskill.
We wander around the town for a couple of hours before Ruby is done for the week. As she's
newly in high school -and god how did that happen- her hours are longer.
There's little time for more than dinner with her in the campus dining hall before she's off for final
preparations and then the play. Honestly, the kids aren't bad and I even enjoy myself, rather than
suffer through supportively. Certainly an improvement from some projects past!
A fun night at our favorite little B&B in town and a last matinee on Saturday sees an exhausted
Ruby pouring herself into the rental to doze most of the drive home. Characteristically, Lily
chatters on tirelessly about everything in her head and I relish the sharing.
Once home, the girls race each other to the elevator and then down the hall to our apartment, Sam
hot on their heels, egging them on. Ruby feigns tiredness to let Lily win as she usually does. The
sprawling apartment feels right again with their noise and energy filling it. There is much
rumpusing about as they settle in, then Sam gets a chicken in the oven and she and Ruby share
some silently communicative look. Immediately sly, Ruby nonchalantly gives her little sister such
a fake blasé look that I can't imagine how it fools Lily.
"Hey Lils?"
"Huh?"
Hyperactivity wearing down, Lily is ready for a quieter evening, gravitating over to lean into
Ruby's side where she sits at one of the barstools at the kitchen's edge.
"Do you remember those fun farm videos we watched with Mom?"
"Kinda?" By Lily's tone, she doesn't really remember at all, but then Ruby grins wickedly.
"The one with the dinosaurs."
Well that does it! Even if I weren't already eager to see said videos, Lily's instant excitement would
have had me following them over to the couch for a family cuddle and my new favorite
extracurricular activity.
Bridging the foresting gap. May 23
11571 views
Rainbow Haven Acres
Published on May 27, 2017
"So! New adventure today!" Alex said with over-the-top enthusiasm, well used to the
damn camera by now, and when did that happen? "Today we" -she paused to step in
close enough to make Brainy protest about ruining his shot, grabbing the man's
shoulders to bodily turn him north- "get to take down a few of those behemoths."
"They are hardly that, Alex," Brain teased dryly while the camera swung wildly for a
moment. Smirking at him, Alex tapped the underside of the device to tip it up. The
jagged line of massive old firs stood tall deeper in the acres of trees on the property
"That's because you're looking at the fringe of deciduous trees here at the forest edge.
That's not what we're after today. Come on, let's walk. The others will bring the gear."
The friends walked side by side, Brainy distractedly filming as they chatted a bit.
"Lucy says there's a good sized pond around here somewhere," Alex said as they
walked past the barn, immediately swallowed up by the heavy forest there. The old
road was little more than a flat track through the trees, covered in years of moss, fir
needles and browned leaves. There was little sign of the compacted gravel beneath.
"We'll have to find an access point," Brainy added in easily. "Perhaps not today, as we
have a full agenda." After a pause he continued, voice softer. "I have never been past
the barn, with or without the cameras."
"Right? It's crazy that we've been here for three and a half months and barely touched
anything past the barn. Even knowing there's a road under our feet, this place feels like
no one's been here for decades."
The forest around them was old and deep, undergrowth right up to the edge of the road
where it swung away from the barn to follow the edge of the high knoll beside the new
village where they all lived. Overhead, the morning light shone where a branchchoked
ribbon of open sky showed the way.
They only had to go some hundred-ish feet in to find the next human-made object.
"A culvert, yes?" Brainy asked as they paused atop a massive block of aged concrete
that ran diagonally to the road. While part of the road, it was a sharp contrast to the
soft lines of the hidden gravel and the living plants. The thing had to be a good fifty
feet long and some ten wide, clonking with dull hollowness beneath their tread and
stinking of slow water.
"Yeah, this is the overflow for the pond, so we must be right below it. In fact, look
over to your left. You can just see how that rise there is a little too flat and even to be
natural. That must be an earthen dam."
It wasn't easy to see amidst the profusion of life around them, but there was a ridge
notably clear of large trees, a patch of morning sunlight beyond it.
"Excellent. We now know a route to the pond. Carry on."
Amused at her pal, Alex led the way again, the road straightening out to lead them to a
much brighter area.
"This is definitely secondary growth," Alex mused as the forest abruptly became much
shorter, broad-leafed trees mixed into the evergreens. "This was logged at some point
in the not too distant past."
"The road is also more easily seen," Brainy added and paused for a moment, camera
peering around just as he was doing. "Do I hear water?"
"Yep. Remember, we've got that year round creek back here somewhere."
"Certainly. I just hadn't expected it to sound so… active."
"It's probably still kinda high from spring melt. Another reason we've waited this long
to do this."
The young forest was quickly left behind as the road swung them around to the left
and became deep and dim once more. So much so that they were both a little startled
to find themselves at their destination.
"Ouch," Alex said somewhat unnecessarily and warily edged up on what had once
been a fairly good-sized bridge. Sunlight was like a spotlight on the clearing made by
the bridge and the surprisingly high creek rushing beneath it. Grass grew thick and
lush right up to the boards, and even crawled out onto them, along with moss and a
few happy little flowers. Not a single board looked safe, dry and cracked with years of
harsh winters and hot, dry summers.
It's pretty funny to listen to Brainy weakly object to Alex creeping out onto the rotten old bridge,
where she flashes him the wickedest grin and jumps up and down a few times. His undignified
noise makes her laugh and she kneels to peer over the edge.
"Well, it's bad, but at least we can walk across. Oh hey, there are some huge -beep-ing concrete
blocks under here that clearly haven't shifted with the water. Sweet! We can totally work with
that!"
Right on cue, Brainy's camera catches the wail of chainsaws back the way they had come,
swinging around to show a towering evergreen wobble and crash down into the younger forest at
its feet.
"They're not wasting any time," Alex notes dryly as the chainsaws start up again.
Moments later in video time, voices and the large tractor's engine can be heard, the massive orange
beast appearing at the head of quite the procession. The wide bucket normally at its nose has been
changed to a massive and faintly terrifying set of toothy jaws made of long, thick tines.
"All those jackets and work bags hanging from those teeth make it look like it's gobbled up a
whole team," I joke and my girls chuckle with me.
"Reinforcements!" Alex crows, her voice amused, and Kara races over for a near-tackling hug,
babbling on about her accomplishment of using a chainsaw and showing off the sawdust flecked
over her person. Impressively, behind the tractor drags a massive chunk of tree as long as any two
tall people and thick as three.
There are strangers with the familiar faces of Team Lanvers, several men of all shapes and sizes
and from young to old, as well as a lanky blonde woman with the sort of easy smile that
effortlessly commands any room. She seems really familiar to me and I can't place it. Dammit, I'm
usually really good with faces!
"Lou!" Alex calls out happily and collects a hug from the blonde. "What, no Debbie?"
"Hilarious. As though she'd schlep around the wilderness. When you have a proper road, she'll
visit." The sisters chuckle at the drawling comment, the blonde Lou's smile deepening. "Constance
was very curious, but since heavy machinery was involved, I told her no."
Whoever Constance is, the horrified looks on the sister's faces is hilarious.
There is a clustered meeting at the edge of the bridge and Lily sighs that this is all boring. Sam
tickles at her for a squeal and a squirm, the two of them racing off to burn some energy. Ruby and I
just sigh and share an exasperated look, snuggling in more closely to keep watching.
A beat up pickup truck unknown to me joins the party to pull off the road and leave its trailer
mostly accessible. The trailer is a bizarre contraption of open struts and long rails like a sled
flipped upside-down. On the rails squats an ungainly mechanical doohickey the strangers quickly
loosen from its safety straps and start it up with a noise like someone bred a better motorcycle to an
overenthusiastic lawnmower. I'm baffled until the tractor hoists up its log payload onto the
platform. I'm horrified by what turns out to be a horizontal band saw that slides down the length of
the log to shear off layers.
It's even worse at high speed.
Meanwhile, the teams are pulling up rotted deck boards and hauling them back to be tossed into the
tractor's jaws. The bridge shrinks and the pile of freshly sawn boards grows, the tractor vanishing
to dump one load and drag back another. All of it at such an accelerated pace that I can almost
sense Winn's sadistic glee in exaggerating the spectacle of it all.
The day progresses on and suddenly, the action slows, every eye looking to where the road bends
out of sight. By the base roar of the engine approaching, I can understand why. A moment later a
gargantuan excavator lumbers into sight on tank-like treads longer than the Kubota.
There are several beeped-out reactions to the thing.
"Is that the dinosaur?" I have to ask and Ruby chuckles as the rest of the family piles back onto the
couch.
With the reach of the excavator at their disposal, the larger pieces of deck are torn up with ease,
followed by a light strain of hydraulics as rusted steel beams are lifted away. While the gang
inspects the mossy concrete blocks, the stream rushes by, quickly thrown into shadow once more
as longer tree trunks arrive to span the crossing. While that is being reinforced, several of them set
to work with circular saws to rip the raw boards of their ragged live edges.
As shadows lengthen to evening… there is a functional bridge across the stream. Team Lanvers
crowds onto their handiwork with their helpers and the drone lifts away with the camera filming
their celebrating the accomplishment.
LL Not-Your-Neck-Of-The-Woods 1 minute ago
I feel good for all of you! It must feel amazing to do something so hands on and,
frankly, terrifying. More than once my heart has raced in watching you, dangling over
that rushing water or with logs ten times your size far too close! Particularly you,
Doctor Danger Danvers.
After watching so many of these amazing videos, I feel like I almost know you, and
want you to be safe and happy.
I think we have dinosaurs. May 24
21571 views
Rainbow Haven Acres
Published on May 27, 2017
It was a cool morning, the sky barely alight with the rising sun behind heavy, wet
clouds. Alex was impatient to head out, Brainy half-asleep as he stumbled out of his
trailer where it had been moved over by the clubhouse.
"Why must you draft me into these early morning gallivants?"
"You've got the camera, buddy. And the YouTube money is welcome."
Grumbling, Brainy nonetheless flopped himself gracelessly into the waiting UTV,
halfheartedly filming the changing light of farm and forest around them. The vehicle
broke into the clearing and over the rutted road where the heavy machinery had
chewed it up, before flying over the brand new bridge.
"Ah, that feels good!" Alex proclaimed and slowed at the road becoming indistinct and
choked with vegetation. "Ugh, more mess to clean up. The Google Earth photo has the
warehouses over on the right here."
Beyond tall grass and a gravel road desperately in need of attention, rose two goodsized
steel buildings. They were identical, painted a faded green and, by eyeballing the
proportions, Alex estimated they were about thirty by forty feet. The UTV jounced
and bucked as she took a circuit around them for a quick inspection. Brainy's animal
objections died as the small vehicle stopped and they both winced at the cockeyed
rolling door on the second shed.
"Think we'll find some squatters in there?" Alex asked quietly and Brainy looked at
her sharply.
"I would rather not know the answer to that question."
Feeling very much the city girl with barely a clue what she was doing, Alex
nonetheless climbed out of the vehicle and warily approached the building. There was
enough old grass growing on both sides of the threshold that she could be reasonably
certain nothing big had been through here. The space was floored in gravel, stubborn
weeds spattered here and there from small holes in the roof and siding, but it smelled
reasonably clean, so that was a win. There were a few aged remains of the building's
former life, some beat up shelves, stacks of rolled netting, scattered cardboard boxes in
various states of decay.
"It's not bad, actually," she called out, clearly picturing Brainy's 'yeah, right' face.
Surprisingly, his footsteps approached, camera plying about the space.
"It… is not." He sounded surprised and Alex nodded fervently. With nothing but
Google satellite footage to go off of, these buildings had been a huge unknown. "From
this brief inspection, it appears that the building is entirely salvageable. Amazing."
"Agreed. On both counts. Though I can't image what the hell we need with it."
Walking the perimeter of the second building revealed no way inside, the person door
stubbornly locked even after five years of neglect in the elements. Alex also noted that
the electrical main remained intact as it was mounted just beside the stubborn door.
That was a good sign.
Even as she was contemplating just breaking the damn doorknob with a rock or
something as rash, Brainy spoke up. "The others will wonder where we have gone."
It was as good an excuse as any to not be stupid, Alex turned away from the door and
put it out of her mind.
"True. Go ahead and take the cart, I'll walk back. I want to take a bit more of a look
around."
"You're certain?"
"Yep. I know you brought along a GoPro, expecting me to wander off."
They swapped wry grins and headed back to the UTV.
"True. I do know you that well. I also took it upon myself to bring the chest rig that
you prefer."
"Atta boy!"
Brainy had rightly assumed early on that a low-slung chest mounted camera would not
be comfortable for his breast-bearing companions and shopped around. Fortunately, he
had found a rig that sat on the sternum, keeping the little camera close to the body
with only a minimal adjustable mount. Kara would wear the head mount, but Alex
hated it and just glared. Lucy and Nia didn't like the cameras at all, tolerating it for the
sake of their weird little family.
Quickly snapping the elastic straps around her shoulders and upper torso, Alex
snapped the camera into the plastic jaws and adjusted the mount parallel to the ground.
With a spare in her pocket in case of battery failure, she was off, striding jauntily
through the scraggly fields and overgrown rows of noble fir grown wild. There weren't
too many of them for a tree farm, the once neat rows barely discernable in the spaces
between trees. Wild saplings fought for space with grasses and shrubs, the once
cultivated land returning to wilderness.
Alex liked that.
Satisfied with her outing, Alex turned for home.
Then the damnedest sound carried through the early morning.
For long moments she could only stand there amidst the trees and puzzle. It sounded
sort of like a hooting owl, but lower, and had the faded quality of having gone some
distance. Even as the primitive parts of Alex's brain fretted with worry, sheer curiosity
drove her forward.
The sound stopped, then started up again, seeming to come from a slightly different
direction. Alex was so intrigued, even as her heart rate picked up, that she nearly
tripped into them.
Well shit.
It was a brisk walk back to the occupied part of the homestead, Alex feeling like the
forest had eyes. Getting back to the familiarity of the barn and the village had never
been so welcome. No more of this wandering around alone shit for her.
As Alex stepped into the clubhouse tent, she announced with no ceremony, "so, the
property has gotten weirder. I think we have dinosaurs."
It was both annoying and gratifying that Brainy lunged for his camera before he even
turned around. While Nia and Kara were understandably puzzled, Lucy lived up to her
reputation and burst into a devilish laugh.
"Oh my god, are those damn things still running around? No! Hasn't two winters killed
them off yet?"
Nia and Kara looked back and forth somewhat helplessly between the two best friends.
Only practice and steely will kept Brainy from doing the same. Then recognition
began to flicker over Nia's face even as Alex flipped back the edges of her flannel shirt,
carried in the crook of her arm like a football.
It would be one of the few times Winn was going to have to beep Kara's cussing out.
For in Alex's flannel shirt lay… an enormous egg. It was the size of a full grown
grapefruit, with a glossy, cream-colored shell.
"The ostrich," Nia breathed in a hilarious mix of shock, amusement and alarm. That
made both Brainy and Kara's heads snap to her and back to the egg. It took Brainy a
long moment to once more focus the camera on Alex's exasperated look.
"Ostrich," she said flatly and Lucy had the nerve to look completely innocent.
"Uncle Marty didn't mention that? Huh, weird. Usually his memory is pretty good."
With an expression dry as the Atacama Desert, Alex rubbed her nose and took a deep
breath. "Frankly, I think this alleged 'forgetting' is a Lane thing." The besties shared an
affectionately antagonistic smirk and Alex continued on in a perfect deadpan. "So, let
me see if I can piece this together from the clues I have, because, frankly, I thought the
locals were yanking my chain until I found this. For the sake of the viewers and my
own sanity if nothing else. There was a wildfire about a year and a half ago, which is
obvious when driving into town. Some loon with big ambitions had started a wildlife
farm years ago and that was one of the properties that burned. Said loon vanished into
the night, a penniless pauper, leaving behind what must have been a hell of a mess,
and ever since, people have been finding stray critters running around the valley. Our
derelict tree farm, of course, is a perfect place for the -I can't even believe I'm saying
this- ostrich to graze amidst the weeds and grass, with deep forest alongside to hide
in."
Her voice had gotten steadily louder and more sarcastic through the tirade and Lucy
was hard-pressed not to laugh at her.
"Does that about cover it?"
"It wasn't just ostrich?" Lucy added tentatively and laughed as Alex whipped off her
hat and stepped over to dole out a smack across the head with it. "Hey! At least the
kangaroos won't kick you to death."
That finally cracked a very bewildered Kara into laughing. It was worth breaking the
scene from behind the camera and Alex's murderous look spoke volumes.
"Gray kangaroos," Lucy explained, her voice wobbling with mirth. "Tit high on you.
Not those red hell-beasts that could probably take on an ostrich."
With an aggrieved dog noise, Alex gently set the egg on the table and stomped out,
leaving her friends cracking up in her wake.
"Hey, we can make some money off them if we can catch them!" Lucy yelled after her
and Kara knew she was going to be listening to Winn whine about how much bleeping
out he was going to have to do to the end product.
LL Not-Your-Neck-Of-The-Woods 1 minute ago
I know I'm late to the party, but this whole thing made me laugh and laugh. When you
said there was some local wildlife, I would have never thought of ostrich and
kangaroos! Poor Alex looks so frustrated. Would a giant omelet and some company
make her feel better?