A March ramble...

Nature Notes ~Edith Holden

These first days of March have come in like a Lion, just as it almost always does.  Actually, I don't much like March because it always seems like the windiest, chilliest, nastiest time of the year here.  We were supposed to have a "nice" day in the mid 50s today, but no.  We woke up to 10 degrees and a deep, penetrating cold.  The barn where the newest ewe/lamb families were stashed for the night was bitter cold.  Inside we found one ewe with triplets who just keeled over for no apparent reason so those three M-babies were gathered up, poor things.  (The lambs were marked with the letter M at birth)  Another four lambies were all humped up, thin, and bleating.  One young mother only wanted one of her twins, and the other lambs were evidently doing so poorly on their aged mothers that we grabbed them and put them in the bum pen too, poor neglected things.

Today has been a suckling day.  Every four hours or so you'll find me sitting on the milking stool  trying to get those bummies to suckle onto a bottle.  The triplets are the best suckers, but the other four require more patience and attention.  They are weak, frail, and tiny and don't have as much "want to" as the Ms do.  We'll carry on though, feeding a little milk at a time until everyone comes around to being expert at suckling.  With each feeding the bummies get a little better and a little smarter, and they come to think of me as their Mama Sheep.  After I feed them, I rub them down and wipe off their faces with my mittens and tell them what good lambies they are.  That's what their mother would do.  Despite my growing attachment to them, I am planning to sell them to Dr. Liz if she still has room in her bum lamb program for them.  If not, we'll keep them and raise them.

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 Loggerhead Shrike from All About Birds

The other day we were in the barn working heifers and sorting them up into calving groups.  We'll be having baby calves just any day now.  As we were working I noticed a fairly large bird flying back and forth, back and forth through the rafters.  I tried and tried to make out what it was, and finally it clicked in my brain.  It was a Loggerhead Shrike -- a handsome predator bird who wears a black mask and has a large, hooked beak that is made for eating mice and small birds.   It gave me a thrill to see it since it would mark the beginning of the bird migration here.  I've also noticed the Canada Geese flying in by the flockfuls.  I just love seeing the birds return home for the spring and summer months.  Still no signs of robins or the western meadowlarks.

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As you know, I love my coffee.  In fact, I think I have become a coffee snob -- meaning I want to drink the Best Coffee every time I drink it.  Why not?  Well, today I was looking at a Bialetti  on Amazon.  Have you ever tried one?  I haven't, but I'm thinking about buying one.  It is really inexpensive, and it is said that this old-school Italian espresso maker makes the best coffee ever.   For our regular morning coffee, we have always used a Bunn with fresh-ground coffee.  It's ok, but being the coffee snob that I am, I never think that the water is hot enough when it pours over the coffee grounds to make the very best coffee.  I do like the taste of my Melitta One Cup pour-over because I bring the water to boiling every time and the coffee is excellent, but it isn't practical to only make just one cup at a time for the two of us.  Hubs, on the hand, really doesn't care a flip about "good coffee."  He likes the stuff they make at the vet clinic that sits in one of those aluminum pots all day long so he would probably be just fine keeping the old Bunn on the countertop forever no matter the water temperature. My only other justification for buying the Bailetti  or this stainless Farberware Classic is that so often we have power outages, and it would be so good to have a stovetop espresso coffee maker for those times...you know....so I don't have to suffer too much.  (We do have a generator -- thanks be to God -- but you know, what if someday we can't afford electricity?  It could happen.)  So what about you, what's your favorite way to make and drink coffee?

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One of the college sons came for a quick little visit yesterday.  He is on spring break, but he is working at his job through it.  A day visit was just great.  We talked and laughted and cooked together and made chocohotopots for dessert.

The townie grandlittles were here today.  Bee and Ladybug brought their mom out for a visit.  They even came bearing molasses cookies for coffee time.  Wasn't that nice of them to do?  We didn't get to spend much time outdoors like we planned because the wind was blowing fierce and cold out of the east, but Bee and I fed the lambies together at the barn, and she insisted on kissing each of their heads. Ladybug is just two months old and she is smiling and cooing and saying cute baby words.  I just love being a Grammy.

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I ordered baby chicks last week, but the feed store won't receive them until the very end of April.  Rats!  I was hoping to have chickies for the grandgirls for Easter.  I guess we will just have to look at the lambies and the new baby calves instead.  I ordered 24 pullets of various breeds:  Pearl White Leghorn, Red Star, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock and Araucana.  I also ordered 4 roosters because I thought it might be fun to raise a few of our own chicks later on.  I may regret that decision.  Usually I get sick of roosters and their nasty ways, and they end up in the stock pot.  We'll see how it all turns out later.

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I shoveled some snow over the spot where my hyacinths will hopefully push through when spring finally arrives for us.  I don't bemoan the snow.  We actually need snow or rain or anything wet because we are short on grass and short on water where we live.  More snow, especially wet snow, would be most welcomed.  Or rain.  I'd love some rain.  It did rain a couple nights ago, just a little, and then it snowed, but not much.  It mostly turned cold and the wind blew hard.  If wind was snow, we'd be buried in the stuff.