“Why, when it’s 90 degrees outdoors, is Diane wearing a jacket with the hood up?”

That’s what I imagine neighbors and others passing by Pipi’s Pasture might be saying to themselves if they happen to notice that I’m bundled up on a hot day. Then may think I’m senile — perhaps even crazy. Actually, I’m just trying to protect my hairdo. Other people might wear hats; I choose a hood because it covers my hair, and I wear the jacket because the hood is attached to it.

You see, each week I make an appointment to get my hair done. I’m not good with hair, and getting it done is something I do for me. It’s a small thing, but after my hair is shampooed and styled and topped off with a wonderfully fragrant hair spray, I come home feeling wonderful. However, considering my lifestyle, there’s a challenge in keeping the hairdo looking nice.

I’m outdoors plenty, feeding cows, watering the two lawns and fiddling with my flowers. All of these pose a problem to my hairdo, but perhaps the corral chores are the worst. To feed the cows I have to roll bales of hay up to the fence, cut and remove the twines, and then divide up the hay and put it through the fence. Because the cows are always standing right next to the fence, I bend over and push it through the spaces between the corral poles. If I didn’t have my hair covered … you get the idea.

Besides that, as the cows start eating the hay, they push some of it right back toward me. Even worse, they sometimes find a matted piece of hay and start shaking it to loosen the leaves.

Since I’m bent over, I’m in position to get leaves, dust and even insects in my hair. This has happened to me more than once, and even a vigorous brushing doesn’t remove all the stuff from my hair. (A cow named Rein is particularly guilty of shaking leaves, and she has also been known to lick my hair.)

The corral fence is lined with elm trees so there’s a lot of shade. I sometimes sit on a bale of hay to wait for the stock tank to fill with water, and that’s when “bugs” of all kinds find me — tiny black bugs that fly, little bugs that are almost invisible, flies and more. They are attracted to the fragrance of the hair spray, so if I didn’t have my hair covered, it would be full of bugs.

Watering the lawns poses a problem for my hairdo. I’m too lazy to turn off the faucet before each water change so I just pull the sprinkling hose backwards, and sometimes I can’t get out of the way fast enough and get myself sprinkled — even thoroughly wetted down — so wearing a hood is the only way to keep my hair dry.

I have to admit, a couple of times lately, on real hot days, I had to shed my jacket and hood. I’m really not crazy.