Owlets

 

I found another nest of owls early this spring

up by the Lambing Shed,

and they have since fledged the nest

and are on the ground as they are still not very good

at flying yet.

 

One of the parent owls was with them at first on the ridge

but when I came along, it flew to the power pole to keep watch.

The babies walk-flew to different places and I followed

one of them to the fence and got a little closer.

It's been so fun to see this owl family grow up

before our eyes.

 

We are officially In the Hay Field.

Hubby is mowing and I went for a few rounds with him

in the tractor this morning.  The good thing about ranching is that I

can hop in and go with him -- we get to work together each day.

The hay is very wet so it'll be a couple days before it can be raked

(turned over) and dried enough to bale up.

 

The hay is so thick and tall and good, Hubby called it a

Once-In-Every-15-Years Event.

It's so exciting to experience once again.

We are blessed.

 

Nature Study...

 

 

While I was out looking around in my yard, I found several things that I thought were especially beautiful.  First, the roses.  As you might remember, we had an early snow this month.  Everything froze.  But right after it, we had some unusually warm days that dried things and the leaves all fell off the trees.  The roses were blooming and I think they were freeze-dried.  I brought a few in to admire. 

You can see life stages in the Gallardia flowers.  Right now there are a few new blooms (what amazing flowers!) whilst others are in stages of dried petals, seed heads, and seeds blown away.  I chose to put my subjects on top of a large, white watercolor paper as a neutral background for my study.  Since I took the pictures outdoors in the afternoon, you can also see the study in fall shadows on the paper!

The Cottonwood leaves are especially unusual to me this fall. Generally, they turn yellow and fall from the trees, but my hunch is that they were yet green or turning while on the trees and then were frozen at whatever stage of turning they were in.  They have the most intriguing patterns.  I brought several in to lay around on tables and shelves to appreciate. 



There are so many beauties outdoors just now.  The milkweed pods have opened and their silky fur with chocolate brown seeds attached are just fascinating to look at and touch.  The seeds will gently float on the wind to their next destinations.

It is mostly silent outdoors now.  Most birds have migrated except for the year-rounders that stay with us.   The "beep beep" of the nuthatch tickles me, and the "see me?" of the American goldfinch does too.  Last night while shutting the chickens in, I heard two Great-horned owls hooting back and forth to each other.  Nature is quieting itself and settling itself for winter.  I'm going to appreciate these fall days as long as they remain.



Hubby and I took a little get-away to the Black Hills.  It happened to be during the snowy season of October.  This was the most beautiful drive we've taken in a long time.  It was so peaceful, away from busy tourists that are usually here.

What are you noticing now?

 

Sunday drive...

 Gumbo Lily

 

 Can you see the Killdeer nest?

 

Killdeer eggs close-up.

 

Sons fixing water gap in border fence.



I love taking a Sunday drive with my Honey.  It's usually a drive over a familiar trail out in the pasture, but to me, it is always new, always changing, and there is always something to see that hadn't been there before.  I love the Emerson quote which I posted recently:  "To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture that was never before seen, and which shall never be seen again." 

As we drive along, my eyes catch movement -- the movement of birds and their flight patterns, of grasses and wildflowers waving colors in the breeze.  I see deer and antelope and I look to see if there might be any fawns or kids near them because it's almost time for them to give birth.  Then my eye catches sight of a steel spool for barb wire laying in the fence line.  It fell out of the Ranger last summer while the men were fencing there.  We stop to pick it up and throw it in the back. 

Initially, we went North to check on cows and calves and to see the sheep, but there are so many things to see this time of year.  Spring brings such color and beauty to eyes that have been a long time looking at snow and gray skies.  For instance, there is greengrass which is different from the grass any other time of year.  Greengrass comes in the spring.  All grasses that come up in the spring are greengrass.  Yes, they all have their individual names, but together in the spring it is greengrass because it is very soon when the greengrass matures and turns brown and stays that way until snow and until the next spring.  Because of the winter's heavy snow, we are seeing a wildflower explosion!  There are flowers that we haven't seen in years because there was not enough moisture in the ground to bring them up; or the plants may have come up, but there was not enough moisture to bring forth blooms.  I pictured the gumbo lily, commonly called white evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa)  which is just coming out now.  It is one of my favorite prairie flowers, and this blog is named for it.  The gumbo lily always comes up here because its tap root is very deep, and in our clay gumbo soil, there is moisture down deep.  Right next to the gumbo lily is the yellow flower that is one of the very first to come out on the prairie.  We call it wild parsley but it is also called Desert biscuit root.  It's leaves look similar to carrot leaves and so it is also called carrotleaf lomatium.  The deer, antelope, and sheep love to graze on these and the wild onions which are some of the first forbes to come on in spring.  History tells us that American Indians ate the wild celery's enlarged roots raw or dried and ground them for flour (therefore, biscuitroot).  This reminds me of how the early settlers would pick dandelion leaves in the spring to eat for greens.  Can you imagine how hungry they would be for fresh, green foods?

As we drive along, I see a Killdeer on the ground playing hurt, dragging a wing.  I know that trick to lure us away from her nest.  We drive up and sure enough, there are four eggs in a sort of nest of stones and pebbles on the ground.  Did you notice how all the egg points point toward each other in the center so they won't roll away?  How do they know to do this?  God has given them that instinct.  There were Curlews and hawks and killdeer and coots all out and about today.  We even found the cows and also the neighbor's cows in our pasture.  Hubby radio'd the sons to come up with a couple of steel posts so they could fix the big hole in the fence where the water was once high and moving and now has receded.  It's one of those Sunday chores that happens on a ranch.  I remember many Sundays when our family would be heading to church down the gravel road and find the bulls out and have to turn around to go home. 

I hope you got a chance to enjoy a little spot of time in nature today.  Tell me about it if you did.

Owlets!

 

Great-horned Owl Mama

and her

Owlets

!

I'm going to do more spying on them later

and see if I can get some better pictures.

 

Wildflowers...

 

 

 

 

Out on the prairie

the Golden Pea, or sweet pea as we call it,

is as abundant as dandelions. 

With the heavy snows of winter comes the wildflowers in spring.

You can see sweet peas everywhere you look,

and they are especially thick where the snow laid in heavy.

I look forward to seeing what beautiful wildflowers will pop up this spring and summer.

 

Wildflowers are perhaps the most enchanting of all for me.  I love their delicacy, their disarming innocence, and their defiance of life itself.  ~Princess Grace of Monaco



Here's a little country ditty about having cows around!  Enjoy.

Big Year Birds...

 Black Tern

breeding adult

 

 Osprey

 

 Lincoln's Sparrow

 

 Pine Siskin

(photo by JLynn)

 

Say's Phoebe

 

Eastern Bluebird

(probably female)

 

These are just a few of the many birds we've been seeing in our neck of the woods as we continue to count birds for our Big Year.  The Grankids and their mothers and I are learning so much and are developing a keen eye for various species of birds -- their colors, their markings, the way they perch and fly, and the songs they sing.  My pictures are less than crisp and bright due to gray, misty, drizzly, wet days -- hooray!

 

The youngest and casual bird observers are so hilarious with their comments.  Lily calls the Grackle a "Crackle".  When her mother tries to correct her, "Say G G Grackle."  She says, "G G Crackle."  Another child, Toodles, calls the Wilson's Phalarope a Spinny Duck, which is an excellent name and description of it.  Her Daddy has always called them that.  The younger birders like Chief and JohnDeere look through their mini binoculars upside down, but they sure do "see" all kinds of birds and things.  I think it's a beautiful thing to be in tune with your surroundings and nature.  God has given us so many gifts if we only have eyes to see them.  What birds are you seeing?

 

"For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day."

~Evelyn Underhill

 

"To the attentive eye each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson



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!

Sandhill Cranes land...

Sandhill Cranes
If you click on the pics, you will get a closer look at the red patches on their heads.
 



Yesterday NumberOneSon called on the 2-way radio and said there were a whole lot of cranes in our Horse Creek Pasture.  I radio'd back for their location and asked if anyone wanted to go with me to see the sight.  A young voice answered back, "We want go, Gram."  So I grabbed my camera, pulled on my mud boots and coat and flew out the door to get in the Ranger.  I met two of the kids who were excitedly waiting outside for me with binoculars around their necks.   Peach and Toodles climbed in the Ranger and we took off, sliding our way through the mud and muck out to the puddly pasture. 

And there they were! From a distance, they looked like a herd of sheep because there were so many of them, and they blended in so well with the landscape like sheep do.  We inched closer and I kept snapping pictures in hopes that one or two would turn out ok.  Then I turned off the motor and we just sat and watched and listened to them talk to one another.  It was quite a sight!  And quite the sounds!  I have never, ever seen this many Sandhill Cranes in one place.  I suppose there were at least one hundred.  I'm sure they are migrating through, and likely a few pairs will stay behind here on our prairie.  We always see cranes in the summer with their long-legged babies walking behind their parents through the pastures.  We often have a pair living fairly close to our home and they will come by our stock pond and perch in our tall cottonwoods in the evening.  It's kind of scary when I walk by the trees on a summer's night to shut the chickens and a couple huge cranes flies off over head with their rattle-y calls.

After our bird-watching adventure, I was telling the girls that I remembered reading a very good book called Cranes in My Corral about an Oregon rancher's relationship with four cranes who lived in his corrals.  I think I borrowed the book from our local library.  I thought it might be a good story for the kids to read. 

Once I dropped the girls off at their house, I drove home and walked in the door and smelled hot rice.  O golly!  I had forgotten all about the rice!  I had set some rice on the stove to boil and ran out the door with such excitement that I forgot all about it.  Thankfully, the rice was not scorched and supper was not lost.  Not to mention, we had ourselves a fine Sandhill Crane Adventure!

Today a large flock of robins were chattering and fluttering around in our three juniper trees in the front yard.  Another migration on this wet, wet snowy day.  The big snowstorm that we were anticipating went south and east of us.  We did get some rain and slushy snow out of it, but the poor folks to our east got slammed with a foot or more of snow along with 50 mph winds.  That's hard work ahead. 

Butterfly...

 

Look who flew by my eyes today!

I had to look it up.  I think it is

Milbert's Tortoiseshell.

 

The weather has turned warm here.  It was 45 degrees yesterday with sunshine and melting snow.  Today we hit 58 degrees with more sunshine and melting.  The little dry creek below our house is running and the overflow culvert by our stock pond near the house is gushing out.  The run-off is really coming down now and reservoirs are filling up everywhere. These last couple of warm days have been glorious even though we still have plenty of snow out and about that has yet to melt.

 

And guess what?

Thursday and Friday we are expecting

more snow.

And more cold.

Temperatures in the teens are expected for the weekend.

What will this poor butterfly do, I wonder?

Perhaps he will find a nook or cranny to slide into during the cold snap.

 

We have lots of baby calves running around and they are good and healthy. There are many ranchers in our area who are having a rough time. They are losing calves to the elements and sickness is breaking out in their calves too. It' been a long, tough winter for many.  We've been blessed to have three men working around the clock to save calves and keep everything fed and cared for.  We've also had to buy extra straw and hay for the cows and calves.  Straw for keeping calves dry and hay for hungry cows and sheep.  We could stay in this weather pattern for a while.  Our wet season is April, May, and June so we'll see what's in store for us.  We can't complain about the moisture when others not far from us are not getting any, but the warm sunshine sure felt good! The children keep praying for moisture (rain and snow) at their table prayers.  It has been engrained in them, I suppose.



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?

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

A morning walk...

 Sharptail Grouse 

Common Redpolls

Signs of children who play for many hours outdoors.

They love to make these shelters for rabbits and cats.

A beautiful, warm morning with sticky, melting snow underfoot.
Gray skies.
A January thaw.

Glorious.