Four-year-old niece Katie and I parked the four-wheeler down in the cattle pasture lane to look for turtles in the turtle pond late this morning.

"There’s one," I said as I pointed to a little head that had peeked up out of the water. Just that fast, the turtle ducked back underneath, making a ripple that Katie watched disappear.

We waited for about a minute, but it didn’t peek out again. There was a good reason for this, according to Katie.

"The turtle had to go to the kitchen," she told me.

"Oh really?" I asked. "Do you suppose it has to make lunch for its family?"

"Uh huh," she replied. "They’re down there playing video games."

Well, I suppose the little turtles are too busy then to peek out of the water and see us waiting here for them, I told her. We started up the four-wheeler and headed farther down the pasture, where it follows along the creek.

Just as I pulled up to the big rock where I had taken pictures last weekend, I spied a muskrat in the water. Again, I shut off the four-wheeler and we watched the muskrat swim across the creek and disappear. I was so busy waiting for it to return that I didn’t even notice a muskrat about 10 feet away from us, swimming down the middle of the creek.

Katie noticed it though.

She tapped me on the arm and pointed, and just as I turned to see it, it spotted us and did a head-first dive for cover.

So much for our little adventure in the pasture. Katie reminded me it was time for lunch and she was hungry.

Back at the house, "The Lady and the Tramp" was still playing in the VCR … niece Jessie and her dog Harry had been watching it when I stopped in. The movie was left on while we sat down for lunch, and all of a sudden came the scene with the barking dogs.

Well, my Molly was sitting outside the open, front window and did not appreciate the sound of another dog barking, so she started in … and then Harry started freaking out inside the house. He started barking, ran to the window and stood up on his hind legs looking out at Molly.

There they stood, one outside and one inside, barking and howling … right along with the barking and howling in the movie … and we had to laugh at the show. There seems to be rarely a dull moment at the farm.