Mud. It's a beautiful thing...

 

We got another dose of snow today.  About 3-4" of wet, wet stuff.  It was all right because what followed in the afternoon was warm and sunshiny which made some of this.  Mud!

 

Mud means different things to different people.  To me, mud means we've had a good snow or a good rain that soaked into the ground.  It means that the run-off is going to fill reservoirs and stock ponds, creeks and wadis, and puddles.  It means fresh water for livestock and wildlife to drink.  It means grass, wildflowers, and hay meadows will get enough to drink to bring them up, full of life!  It means that robins will have mud for their nests in April.  Ducks and children will have their fun wading and waddling in it.  And lest you think my definition a bit lofty, mud also means my mudroom lives up to it's name.  The dog shakes her muddy body as she tracks in, the boots come in and leave globs everywhere, and my mop and bucket are always wet and on-the-ready.  It does help if we give our boots a good slap-together outside before bringing them in, but sometimes we forget.  Ah well.

 

These are the cows that are the most likely to calf in the next week or so.  We sorted them up by calving dates and this bunch is on the hill by our house for close observation.  Normally, we do not keep the mature cows this close, but the pastures where they would normally be calving are still knee deep in snow and there is nowhere for them to be.  So for now, this is where the action happens.  With all this melting, perhaps we will get to those pastures with cows soon. 

 

These little girls are all cozy and dry under the shelter in the straw.  The babies that are born out there in the small pasture are sledded in to a place in the corral where it is dry.  The calves can at least have a little dry, warm time with their mothers before the are kicked out into the wide world of mud.

Just a couple days after the Vernal Equinox, the Western Meadowlarks began to sing.  What a joy!  Come (scroll down), take a listen, and feel the joy!

Birds & no bees....

Hello from the frozen tundra of the North!  We are just days away from the Spring Equinox, better know First Day of Spring, and we just keep getting slammed with snow.  I don't want to complain --even though my natural man would like to-- because I'd really like to see some green soon, but I do know that this wet, wet snow that's coming down is what's going to make it green, green, green when it's all melted down.  The men here keep having to get up in the wee, dark hours of the morning to move enough snow out of the way so we can drive and have a little space for the sheep and cows to have somewhere to stand and eat.  There is no grazing happening at this point. Just standing and eating and walking a little bit to the water tanks.  As you can see by the first picture, the sheep and the cows in the background are pretty much snowbound.  We try to make it as bearable as possible, but it is what it is right now.  Thankfully we are warmer than we were in February -- staying mostly in the 20s and 30s -- which feels ok.  We are also thankful that the mature cows have not started calving yet.  We hope that we are going to get some warmer days to melt this snow off so they can have a little bare ground to have their babies on instead of the snow.  Hubby is planning to contact our county road plow neighbor and see if we can hire him to plow some bare spots in the pasture for the cows. 

Despite the rather wintry weather we are having, it does have a feel of spring to it.  Yes, it does!  It is wet, sloppy, good snow that's falling and there's a good deal of slush, and mud underneath the whiteness of it all.  And the other telltale signs are the birds that are arriving.  The Canada geese have been here, standing around in the hay field looking for something green or buggy to eat.  It's so funny to see them just standing out there in the snow looking around.  The meadowlarks have come in and can be found out in the pastures where the men have cleared snow away for the cows and sheep.  They are turning over every bit of hay or cow pie to see if there might be a bug underneath somewhere.  The robins have come too and so have the red-winged blackbirds.  Juncos are usually thought of as winter birds to most people, but they never stay here for the winter.  They do come though in early spring and again in the fall.  I think they are pass-through birds for us.  The red-polls and a few American goldfinches have stayed through the winter and are still here for our so-called spring.  But you must know that oftentimes, this really IS what spring looks like for us.  Heavy, wet, spring snowfall is typical.  It's just that we haven't had it in a few years, and it comes on top of our previous, hard, winter snow so it feels like the never-ending winter.  But.....spring will overcome winter.  The sun gets nearer and it will prevail!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the snow.  I've been strapping on my traditional, wood snowshoes to test them out on this wet snow and they work beautifully at keeping me floating on top of the snow.  The modern, aluminum snowshoes are a bit heavier and they tend to sink into the softer snow.  They are great for hard snow, but not so much for this stuff.  The dog, Heidi, and I are enjoying the walks.  She thought she should bring the frisbee along.  She sinks in to her belly, but doesn't seem to mind.  I try to tell her to walk in my tracks, but she doesn't care.  She wants to chase jackrabbits!

So, my friends, from the country where the snow seems to never end, I wish you happy winter and will very soon wish you a happy spring!  What's happening in your neck of the woods?

A bit o' Irish for you...

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock. 

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's wisdom to uphold me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's host to save me... 

~Attributed to St. Patrick
Ireland 389 (?) - 461 A.D. 
......................................................................

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I share with you some wonderful stories about the Irish by one of my favorite children's authors, Tomie dePaola.   Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland, Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato, Fin M'Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill,  and others.  He has a nice book called The Miracles of Jesus.  Both Littles and Bigs can appreciate the stories and art of Tomie dePaola. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Firsts...

 

First Robin pic by JLynn (DIL)

Western Meadowlark, Kevin Cole

Two days ago Peach and Toodles and their mama sited the First Robin here on the ranch in the trees next to their house.  I put on my boots and went with Peach to see it with my own eyes.  She was anxious to show him to me!  Today I spied the First Meadowlark while I was out feeding sheep.  I didn't have a camera so everyone had to trust my eyes for the report of "First Meadowlark" that was announced on the 2-way radio.  The meadowlark picture is not mine.  My picture would have snow, a little mud, and gray skies mixed in it.  Not as colorful as this pic.

We are expecting another snow this weekend.  Somewhere between 6-8" of snow on top of what we have.  The old snow is sinking slowly as the sun gets a little stronger each day.  Still, we have quite a bit.  There are now about 65 new calvies on the ground so the men have been working to make sure there are good places for them to be during the snow storm.

I've been stitching a little bit here and there.  One embroidery is for a baby's room and the Scottie Dog for a friend of a friend to tuck into a birthday gift.  In case you need a Scottie Dog stuffie of your own, the pattern is here at AllSorts.   It's almost spring!  Can you feel it in the air?  Yet?

Snowshoeing, the calm...

  

 

 

Heidi 

  

Charlie

click pic to enjoy a closer look

We had a beautiful, still, Sunday morning here and so I took my snowshoes for a solitary trek through The Woods which are the shelter belts around our homes.  Heavy fog and frost moved in these past couple of days and so the trees were covered with spiky, frost needles.  Even the barbed wire had lengthened spikes.  The two dogs went along with me and chased jackrabbits from their hiding places.  There was a special quiet calm and beauty that felt like a gift as I walked, even though from time to time my foot plunged deeper into the snow than I expected and set me off balance.  The snow is not uniform in its make-up now.  Some of it is hard as rock where the wind has blown over and made drifts.  It is easy to walk over.  And then other snow in the lower, more sheltered areas where it has melted somewhat, is softer and I sink in further.  I wish I had a hybrid snowshoe that would allow for either kind of snow.

As I was walking towards home, I just happened to look up to see this fine fellow -- a Long-eared Owl.   Another gift.  After I snapped the photo, I just stood for a long while and observed and appreciated  him.  He also stayed still without blinking and observed me.  After a few minutes, the dogs came looking for me and disrupted our observation time, and Long Ear flew off.  He looked much larger when he was flying than he did in this picture.  I think they "skinny" themselves to look like a limb on the tree -- the true camouflage.

After a warm, calm day, it sadly ended with winds whipping up around chore time.  We put all the sheep into their sheds and gave a little extra feed to the cows.  It sounds like we may not get near the snow that was predicted, but the winds are still on the way.  Some folks to our east are expecting upward of 12" of snow with high winds.  Blizzard conditions.

Perhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone. It is good to listen, not to voices but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen. If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity. And then, in some unexplained way, we share it with others. ~Gladys Taber

The cows come home (and new calvies)

 

On a sunny and mild Wednesday, the men and I went over to The River Place and gathered the cows to bring them home.  The men had made a trail for them with the tractor through deep snow cross-country.  We couldn't have done it otherwise.  It was a 6.5 mile trek for the cows.  I led the way with the pick-up and cake feeder to coax them, and Hubby followed behind with the Ranger with the tracks on it.  The girls came home in pretty good time and were glad to find hay and water ready for them.

On another note, the heifers have started calving and right now we have four cutie pies in the corral with their mamas.  These are Hereford/Red Angus cross.  I love their splotchy faces.  So far, the heifers are calving with ease, and most of the time we don't know they are even calving until we see a calf on the ground.  Now that's how we want to do it.  

There are still three or four head of ewes at the barn left to lamb.  This past week we docked three bunches of lambs and so far we've had good numbers.  We still have the youngest lambs left to dock.

Tally:  115 ewes, 184 lambs equals 160% lamb crop.  These number don't account for the number of bum lambs we've had.  We took another 8 lambs to Dr. Liz last night and she is happy with her bummies.  We are hoping we can buy back some of the ewes from her when she gets ready to sell them in the summer.

It's been a mild week here which has been so wonderful.  I even took a little snowshoe walk around and enjoyed that.  On Sunday and Monday we are expecting more snow with high winds gusting to 70 mph which means BLIZZARD.  Thankfully, we have all the livestock fairly close by and have plenty of shed space for young livestock.  I suppose the county roads will blow shut with drifting snow, but we have stocked up at the grocery store and have our barn supplies so I think we're ready.  When I look at all the snow around us and the snow that's coming, I just imagine green grass and full reservoirs in spring!  One needs to keep that perspective.

Today I got to be at home for most of the day, being a housewife.  I enjoyed it so very much.  I've been tidying up, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, and catching up with the laundry.  I even washed my chore coat, hats, and gloves so they smell and look so much better.  Supper is in the crock pot and I'm looking forward to soaking in an Epsom Salts bath this evening.  Ahhh.  I hope your Saturday has been just right.  God bless you and thanks for stopping by.