A Big Year...

 

 

If you are a bird watcher and you've never watched this movie, you should.  Even if you are not a bird watcher, I think you would enjoy it.  The Big Year is about three men's quests to find and count the most bird species in one calendar year.  The adventure takes them all over the USA and requires a few uncomfortable situations in order to find what they are looking for, and as it turns out, as they are looking for birds, they each come to realize what they are REALLY looking for in life.  It's a good movie that you can even watch with your grandma or little kids.

 

I'm a novice birder myself and after watching this movie, I was excited for my grandkids to watch it too, because I'm gradually converting more and more of them into bird watchers.  It's quite contagious, I think.  After watching the movie, I asked the kids if they'd like to do A Big Year with me.  And the eldest of the grands said, "Yes!  Are we going to travel all over the world?"  I told them we would do our Big Year wherever we are this year.  We won't chase birds much although we might chase a little, but we will be very observant right where we live and wherever we go.  I plan to have a special prize for the one who counts the most birds.  We've got our lists and our field guides at-the-ready and with the spring migration, we are adding to them almost daily.

 

If you want to watch the movie, The Big Year, you can find it on DVD on Netflix or you can stream it on Amazon.  I'd love to hear if you decide to do a Big Year where you live.

 

 

(same calves, different lighting inside the barn)

 



We took a morning this past week and branded and vaccinated about 100 head of calves -- the first bunch born to first-calf heifers.  They are really nice calves.  We are still in the midst of calving our herd and I believe we have about 100 head left to calve out of our 500 head of cows.  We've finally lost the majority of our snow and so it's turning spring up here in the north country.  Snow can still be found in the draws here and there, but for the most part, it's gone. The grass is slow to come because it has been a very cold April, but these last couple of days our temps have shot up into the 70s so that really helps to bring up the grass.  We've had a lot of run-off from the snow and every reservoir, creek, wadi, and dip has been filled up with fresh water.  What a blessing!  This evening as I type, there is thunder rumbling and a few lightening bolts and a little bit of rain is sprinkling down.  It sounds like we have good chances of rain in the coming week, so that's encouraging!

Tomorrow I will go to town and get my chickies.  Two of my grandgirls want to go along with me, and three others will likely meet us at the Feed Store.  It's very exciting you know!  Peach, the eldest, is getting two Silver-laced Wyandot pullets and one rooster while the rest will be Pearl White Leghorns which in my humble opinion, are the very best egg layers. 

I hope spring is treating you well and blessing you with sunshine and rain.  We've got to have some showers to bring up the flowers!