Our entire ranch is encompassed by a six foot high livestock fence. Most of that fence has 2 strands of electric wire running along it. At night the gates are closed and locked, and we have a motion sensor alarms that let us know when a vehicle comes up our drive and when something is moving around on our property. We also have 2 dogs that patrol the area Well, ok maybe we can't really count on the dogs for security because they mostly wander about looking for small rodents or grasshoppers to chase.
Still, it would be pretty difficult for someone or something to prowl around unnoticed. Amazingly however, last night as my husband, Bruce, and I settled in for the evening our front motion sensor alarm sounded indicating someone or something had come up the driveway.
Since it was nearly 10pm we were startled and a bit concerned. I got up from the couch and looked out the window toward the driveway. If a vehicle had approached it would have been forced to stop at the gate that crosses the driveway about 40 feet from the house.
It was dark and I couldn't tell if there was a vehicle there or not, but there were no headlights shinning up toward the house . While Bruce slipped on his shoes I flicked on the porch light which did nothing to illuminate the drive way.
I grabbed a flashlight and shone it down toward the gate. I still saw nothing, nor could I detect any movement inside the gate.
Now that Bruce had his shoes on , he walked a few steps out the door and shone a large hand-held battery operated flood light down toward the gate.
"I don't see anything" he reported as he swept the front area with the light.
"It must have been the neighbors cat" he suggested, knowing full well that she locks her cat in the house at night. He does things like that so that I won't stress about things prowling around in the dark at night. I may be a farm girl, but I still worry when unidentified things go "bump" in the night.
We settled back down and watched t.v. for about half an hour, and I was just beginning to relax when the same motion alarm once again annoyingly indicated someone or something was in the driveway area.
I had the flashlight handy and my shoes on so I was the first to jump up, flick on the porch light and bolt out the door. I was determined to catch whatever or whoever was skulking about. Bruce followed with the larger brighter light. Nothing.
Our driveway makes a complete loop around the house, and allows vehicle access to the barns, coops and pens. We went into stealth mode and walked some distance together before we decided to split up. The plan was for each of us to loop in the opposite direction . I opted to take the right side of the drive (which by mere coincidence just happens to be the most open and well lit side) and told Bruce to take the left (which by contrast is the darkest and most obscured side.
Bruce walked slowly shining his light back and forth in a slow but steady sweeping motion. I walked more rapidly and mostly shone the light behind me to be sure nothing was creeping up on me.
We eventually met face to face on the back side of the loop. Neither of us had seen anything. As we waked back toward the house we heard the motion sensor sound again. Bruce ran toward the front where the sensor is located and I followed quickly, while managing to keep a safe distance behind.
When we reached the front area neither of us saw anything. "Ok that's it" Bruce said "The sensor is obviously malfunctioning...I'm going in." As he turned and walked toward the front door I started to follow, but instead lingered behind just a little. I may be a coward of sorts, but I have never let one mystery go unsolved in my life.
As Bruce closed the door behind him, I squatted down behind a shrub which offered good cover, but also allowed me to see the sensor. When something trips the sensor it sounds an alarm inside the house, but it also has a small red light on it that blinks to let us know it's working.
I waited nervously wondering if whatever was out there would come from the direction directly in front of me or from my left. Of course there was also the possibility it could scamper across the lawn toward my right or it could even approach from behind me.
I didn't have long to wait. After about 10 minutes the small red light blinked on the sensor and I knew I had the intruder. I quickly flicked on my flash light and shown it toward the sensor, then back toward the gate, then toward the house, then slowly, every so slowly I turned around and shone it behind me....nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Chuckling, I decided that Bruce was right the sensor was obviously malfunctioning. Either that or it was so high tech that it was picking up ghosts. It could be shut off from inside the house of course, but I decided it might be best to deactivate it outside, right then and there.
I bent down and shown my light directly onto the face of the sensor and to my surprise, there in full illumination stood our prowler. A tiny garden variety spider had decided to weave her web on the sensors case. Each time she spun her sparking threads of silver webbing across the sensors lens she inadvertently activated it.
I can't help but wonder if it was the blinking red light that was the deal breaker for her decision as to where to spin her web. As I looked closely I saw the web crossed the lens multiple times.
Isn't nature amazing!
