Draft Horse Plow postponed

Beyond the morning field haze veiled Mount Tahoma. The quiet industrial road ahead was closed, though, and in a yard a dog began to bark. There was no railroad crossing until I made my way back to the highway and rode blocks again to a major stoplight.

Along the highway across the railroad tracks a robin flew across the road, in water nearby frogs croaked very loud and close. Sheep stood in the corner of a pasture. And cars passed me. There was only a shoulder.

One more stretch of highway and I turned the bike to ride into a small road and to the Emergency Food Network sign at a shed. There I learned the Draft Horse Plow has been postponed until next Saturday because of the condition of the ground. Rain has the fields turned to muck and the horses need some stability.

"We could lose our Clydesdales, they would sink right in," the farmer said. She turned out to be Carrie Little, who is one of three top vote-getters in a national contest for a White House Farmer position.

Tacoma Reads Together featured a Draft Horse Plow among its events for the featured book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.

Carrie Anne Little told me there was a trail I could take back and avoid all the highway without a sidewalk. The trail was marked on my map as a little dotted line. It was easy to find the trail, and on the way in I saw bikers riding there from a distance.