Is this what I think it is? I took this photo tonight. And I swear I have never seen this hole in the glass before! Is this from a gun? A rifle?.
Hmm. It is pheasant shooting season.
TonTon and I had words with hunters coming too close to my house today in their camouflage gear and their fluorescent vests. I ran down to the creek and intercepted them. There were two of them, armed with rifles and two dogs. I say please do not shoot so close to my barn, I have pregnant animals. You are shooting at My birds. Startling my sheep. This is My home. I would be grateful if you would take your guns elsewhere. This is private property.
I am angry. They scare me. I lick my lips and the moisture freezes. I resist the need to wipe my mouth with my fingers.
They are stolid and playing stupid with sly looks. They look bemused. What did she say? A foreigner! Did you get that? Did you know one of Them lived out here? They look at each other and back at me. My heart is beating so loudly I am surprised my chest is not moving in and out with the rhythm. The Big One spits tobacco to the side, missing my boot. I do not move. He shifts his rifle. I leave my sunglasses on but wish I was not wearing my silly hat with the Pom Poms. I am furious and these Pom Poms sway with the whip of my head. But I will not take the Pom Pom hat off either. I will not shift. I forget to breathe. I stand, motioning TonTon: In. He looks back. He would rather stand in front of me. GET IN. I say. He sits. Still in front of me. He will only go that far.
The men look at each other and shrug their shoulders. Their faces are florid and blinky. They look back at me. I am suddenly aware that I am out here in the middle of nowhere, alone, except for a small sheepdog in a fury. These men have guns. Loaded. I wait. My shoulders back, feet in grubby green gumboots solid. I will not swallow. Ton growls. Low. Daisy calls from the barn. I am glad my hands are in my pockets.
Then they nod, grunt, turn and move on, guns on their shoulders, barrels pointing back at me. Their dogs range, barrel chested, hungry. TonTon hates them all with an unusual passion. He quivers at Sit unable to control his bark. Desperate to race after them and have his say. I say Down and he hurls himself furiously at my feet and glares still, visually spitting, growling up at the men as they leave, his head down and sideways. The BigDog is so scared he has hidden. The men with Guns terrify him. I watch them walk.
Get In. I say to TonTon as I turn my back on their barrels. He is reluctant . Get in Behind! I growl louder. I am angry. I bite my thumb at them. I swear quite nastily. Dog leaps to my heel. He is Looking back as he walks forward. Lets put the sheep in. I say.
This is better. 
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
100 responses to “Sinister is the wrong word maybe flat out scary”
Are people really allowed to just wander about with guns???
Apparently! just a trifle unsettling! c
That is a conchoidal fracture in the glass. It can be caused by just about anything that strikes it, including BB’s, mower-thrown rocks, or bullets. It is a cone-shaped hole, and an object struck the glass at the tip of the cone. if you look closely at the hole you’ll be able to tell if the projectile came from inside or from outside (but it’s hard to imagine it coming from anywhere other than outside).
Native Americans took advantage of stone’s tendency to fracture conchoidally when they made arrowheads. Glass does the same thing. I have a funny story to tell about this if you’re in the mood for it.
I am in the mood for it. Tell us a story. And after reading what you said, about the conchoidal fracture then yes the hole was from the outside, which looks directly across a concrete pad, a small field and the creek. Hmm. these guys are rotton shots! c
A guy I used to work with had a BB gun when he was a kid. He wanted to do some target practice, but it was too cold outside. So he thought he’d practice in the garage. The first BB went right through the window, leaving a perfect conchoidal fracture. He nearly panicked! His parents were sure to skin him alive for being such a numbskull! Then he noticed that there were some spots on the glass from where they had painted the garage the previous summer. It was a bit of a sloppy paint job, but it was just a garage.
Seeing those same cans of paint on a shelf in the garage, he had a brainstorm. He quickly went into the house and found some Scotch tape. He covered the hole with tape on both sides (inside and outside), using just barely enough tape to cover the hole. Then he opened the paint and daubed a drop over the tape, repeating his artwork on the other side as well. They moved out of the house a few years later, and his parents never discovered his misdeed.
OK you made me Laugh out loud!.. That is tremendous.. poor little fella .. Still laughing!! making a hole in the glass look like a sloppy paint job.. Excellent! I hope he confessed after twenty years or so.. c
It wasn’t me! I hope he confessed too though.
i just reread and adjusted but i am still unconvinced.. great story.. I told John and he laughed like a loon.. c
I’m far too vain to disown such cleverness. If it had been me, I would have told you so.
(laughter again) i know.. you are an honest chappie. take care! c
Yes. It is. Is it clean on the inside? I looks that way to me in which case it is new. Did you follow the holes trajectory to see if you could find the projectile? It looks like it passed clean through and straight in.
I would have just fainted dead away. You are very brave. Did you call the authorities? If you see them again, do not hesitate!
XO, Lynda
Good thought about the actual bullet. That never crossed my mind. This is the sheep’s pen window, so it is in deep winter bedding now. If there is a bullet we will find it in the compost (laughter)! very appropriate! c
are bullets the right sort of metal to be picked up by a magnet? You might find it that way 🙂 Proof to show the authorities. On our farm we didn’t have much trouble with hunters, it was the skidoos. Dad would put up wire fences with no tresspassing signs where they like to cross our land in search of snow drifts to play.
Oh playing in snowdrifts! naughty. the season is over evidently so the men with guns should not be a bother again for a bit!! c
Scary moment alright, but you stood your ground and it paid off – in spite of the pom pom hat!
TonTon would have looked and sounded scary to them too, he’s your hero.
Anyway, why were they on your land? Didn’t they know it was private property? I hope they don’t come back.
I have to post clearer signs I guess! c
We go for hikes in areas that have very clear signs prohibiting hunting. We’ve had clueless hunters shoot over our heads. It’s terrifying.
mercy! that IS terrifying! Do we have to carry flags! c
Well I just wish I had met them with you, feeling unusually cranky and aggressive today. I would not normally confront anyone..but I did it once with a gent who was crazy. I took the aggressive route using language I would not normally and surprise he backed off quickly. Maybe he figured I was crazier than he. Anyway you stood your ground and did well…good for you!
I have always believe that if you SHOUT, NO! really loudly, at an aggressor, 9 times out of 10 they will pause for enough of a second – for you to get the upper hand. In fact this has worked for me on a number of occasions. I can just imagine if i had YOU roaring up behind me -these guys would have taken to their heels a great deal faster..! Pop over anytime Chris! c
If it is a gun, then it looks like it was an air gun. It’s not from a rifle of a deer hunter or similar, the hole is far too small. I used to shoot pheasant and similar birds with a shotgun, but the accepted rule is that you only shoot when you have clear sky behind the bird. If I was shooting rabbit, I’d use a high velocity air rifle, but I wouldn’t want to shoot towards somebody’s property, as it’s too dangerous and stupid. As jomagat said, it could just be damage to the glass from being knocked or banged. Regardless, I think you have a right to privacy and putting up signs to deter hunters sounds like a good idea if they are wandering onto your land.
well that is heartening, i am sure they just wandered off, and this hole was from a rock or something, after all there is a code amongst hunters, not to mess with the wives, tho john is not a hunter! We grow our food at home. I will post More signs, with bigger simpler words.. that should do it! c
Oy vey, I have had to deal with the same thing – and we get hunters from Minnesota AND from Iowa, because I live on the boarder road. It sucks. There are LAWS…about how close they can shoot to a home – you can investigate that and then have even more “ammunition” to go after them with. (Words make better ammo anyway, eh?!) ALSO, I have done the same thing you had to do – more than once, though usually my husband hollers at them for me. I yelled from my front door once, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY PROPERTY?” Turned out it was someone I knew who was there non-threateningly, but MAN WAS I MAD!!! He still teases me about shouting at him. I guess I was lucky it was someone I knew!!!
I was trained for the theatre and i was a teacher. I have a BIG voice, tho i am a little person. Initially theses fellows were looking way over, not noticing this woman and her dog barrelling at them. funny now.. c
There is a similar hole in my parents bathroom window (in the city) from a bb gun fired by the boy next door…
I feel a bit sick for you. I have been spitting angry, and confronted the stranger who had made me feel that way (he vandalised the property of elderly neighbours)… Part way through, I realised I had perhaps put myself in danger… not very bright.
It took me ages to stop shaking.
I hope those fools have gotten the message and stay away. Good Luck!
Sometimes Though Janet, Shaking or Not. We have to jam our hands into our pockets and stand up and say NO. Good for you standing up for your neighbours. We achieve nothing by doing nothing! c
I think hunting laws vary a bit state by state. Where I live there are laws about how close a hunter must be from a dwelling when shooting, as well as many other rules as mentioned by Mad Dog. Just like people in the general population, there hunters who are good, responsible people, and there are also hunters who are jerks, or God-forbid, worse. I’m just relieved that the jerks you encountered complied, albeit ungracefully, to your wishes. I was very nervous reading your post, even while realizing you must be ok, else who would be writing this? Heh!
Here, landowners who don’t want hunting on their land are expected to post the perimeter of their bounds with bright yellow and black signs placed every so many feet apart. Of course this is no guarantee some jerk won’t ignore the signs, but it also gives you more legal grounds if you ever have to call the cops. I sure hope those guys weren’t so stupid…When does hunting season end where you live? Here, it ended Dec. 31. No more hunting until Fall here and I can go back into my woods, where I love to walk and snowshoe. (If only it would snow.)
I am most definitely going to be posting more NO HUNTING signs. you are very right and i will check out the laws. i think they were tail enders.. surely the season is over. Or will be soon i hope.. c
OK, this is way, way worse than what I was dealing with, dear C. Good for you to stand your ground against this pair. But how you managed to contain your anger is beyond me. Now I more fully understand your “foreigner” comment. Their whole attitude toward you, the spitting, the bemused looks, the…makes ME angry. I cannot begin to imagine how you felt. I am incredibly thankful they finally left. You are a STRONG woman.
There is always an element of eye brow raising when i speak here. They don’ t see a lot of foreigners round these parts! And the general political atmosphere is very against us invaders. I did not feel strong actually. Just breathless. And i am sure they were as surprised as i ws by the confrontation. c
Yep, an air gun hole from a BB. Reminds me of a bit of a sad story from 4th grade.
Our teacher was very into birds and taught us a lot, an appreciation I still have, thanks to Mrs. Ring. After a while we all noticed these same holes in our class room windows. There was a bird feeding station half way between the building and the woods. It was close enough for us to watch the birds and study them. But two older juvenile delinquent boys decided to set up a spot just into the woods and shoot at the birds on the feeder. They killed quite a few birds and missed often enough to hit the windows. We found the BB’s in the room. They did this after school hours or on the weekend. Our teacher was very upset, rightly so, even for us at that age, we understood. We liked the birds too and they killed them just for fun! The police eventually caught them when they put the spot under surveillance. That made us all happy. Especially coming to class and not hear that a beautiful Cardinal, Blue Jay or Woodpecker had been killed.
What a miserable story harold. Kids and guns. BB or not they will do damage and if they can go straight Through glass then I can only imagine how that would feel in the hide of an animal let alone a bird at a birdfeeder. Glad the police got them before they looked around for more easy targets. c
Sorry for the sad story. But I put the good part at the beginning about our teacher and how she passed her love of birds on. Now I and my wife have done the same for our kids. It is nice to hear them exclaim at a bird and name it!
OK, I’ve been laying awake all night worrying about my kids and now I am going to add you to my worry list! My heart was racing and I was terrified for you… I have a feeling it is just by the grace of god they choose at the last second to walk away… Bless TonTon, he would have attacked them for you.. that dog has a beautiful heart… BTW, excellent writing today, you had me from the first word to the last.. Accelerating and then … sigh, you’re safe… Well down, almost poetic at the end in a very cool way (not sappy poetic if you know what I mean)… Loved it!
You’re very brave, Celi! Growing up downunder like we have, I’m sure you can’t be used to all the guns. I’m glad you’re ok, love.. x
That was exactly it Celia. Mine was not a hunting family. Though i had hunted with my grandfather when I was very young. It is the concealed weapons that worry me more. And that sudden realisation that I was questioning what this fellow believed was a fundamental right. And he had the guns.. c
Two things strike me – your bravery and Ton Ton’s obedience. Horrible to be in a situation where both are necessary but good to know they are at bedrock.
BTW, how are the bees?
TonTon was amazingly obedient but to a point. He was told to wait which means At Ease i guess, so he stood and barked, then i said sit so he sat and barked, still too noisy, so i said down,pointing to me feet, he went down but with very bad grace, and still was yelping and growling so i said Head Down which literally means head on the ground. He glared and put his head into the grass, but sideways with one eye up, growling from there. poor fella! So unfair! but the last thing I wanted was a dog fight! Their dogs were bigger and the other guy was holding them by their collars to keep them still. TonTon does not even have a collar! c