Frosty's Midnight Banquet

Tuesday was a corn day. The kind of day you are glad to see, and glad to see the end of. This year's yield has been less than stellar, due mostly to lack of rain at the right time.

Tallying the results left me feeling there should have been more boxes for the freezer. I even went out and looked down each row - was there a crate that I had overlooked? Not that I could see.

Today, after waving the Trucker up the road, I bit back more emotion than usual as I tackled the corn patch for a "cleanup" picking. In the very center, a black crate, half full of large green ears of corn. In the shadows, I had missed it on Tuesday! I admit to shedding a few more tears, these of anger and frustration. The other half of the crate's erstwhile contents were strewn around, all with the husks pulled back and the juicy kernels chewed away.  Someone had sat himself right down by the crate and had himself a banquet.

In retrospect, though, it would have been worth the loss to see the masked bandit trundling along my garden rows in the dead of night, and happening upon that abandoned crate. How "Frosty's" sparkly black eyes must have glowed, and that impish grin widened even more at the feast I so thoughtfully left in the seclusion of the center corn row! What a party he must have had! Not a total loss then, and Dusty the pony will certainly relish the remains. Not to mention the nanny who has tried everyone's patience severely since her arrival.

Me? I'm off to process the last picking. And yes, this time I checked every row thoroughly. "Frosty" will be working a little harder for his midnight repasts from now on!

(The origin behind the name Frosty comes from the book Frosty:  A Raccoon to Remember by Harriet Weaver.  Ms. Weaver was a park ranger in the Redwood Forests of California who adopted an orphan raccoon.  The ensuing adventures kept our children and ourselves in giggles as we enjoyed the book together years ago.  The book is still available on Amazon.  I highly recommend it.)