The calm before the wind-chill...

I took a nice, long walk again today.  I think we had 60* on the thermometer today and very little wind.  So unusual for us here.  I wanted to spend some time outside so I took one walk up to the mail box before the mailman drove by.  It's a two mile round trip.  Then I took a pasture walk out into the wide open plains.  There isn't any livestock out there right now because it is mostly used for spring and summer grazing.   Just a short way into my walk, I saw a badger -- a blonde badger who saw me and popped right into a hole as quick as a wink.  I was so hoping I'd see him again and could snap a picture for you, but it was not to be.  So I'll show you somebody else's picture of the blonde badger.  When I say the badger was blonde, I mean that he matched the pasture grass, unlike many badgers who are very dark or silver in color.

Photo courtesy of Wilderness College.

Do you see the cow trail worn into the grass?  I often find myself walking in cow trails when I go hiking out into a big pasture.  The grass is tromped down and it's usually easier to walk in the trails, but sometimes the ruts are too deep for a two-legged creature to walk in and I must forge my own path. 

 This is an alkali area of the pasture.  It's spongy and the white stuff is very salty.  You don't ever want to drive in a low alkali spot or you might sink the outfit up to the frame.  Nothing much grows here except some salt grasses and weeds.  One pretty weed is called Saltlover (Halogeton) which is poisonous to livestock.

 

I found a cow carcass scattered about in one spot.  She's been out there a long, long  time.

 

 And this must be one of Badger's holes.  There were at least four holes on this ridge.  The thing is to have several holes in which to hop into quickly and to have lots of storehouses for a long winter.

 

How about that expansive sky and prairie together?  Breathtaking, isn't it?

 

Turning back toward home, you can faintly see the barns, granaries, hay corrals and homes.  You can also see that the sky is changing and a cold front is blowing in.  We've had high winds since dark and the winds are expected to hang around and increase for a few days as the temperatures drop.  Combined, they will give us sub-zero wind chills between -15 and -20.  Brrrrrr!  We've had such a mild winter so far, that I shouldn't complain when Real Winter hits.  (Well, I might complain, but it IS winter after all.)

Back home the low sun invites itself in at about 3 pm and warms the house up a little.  Coffee time!  Come in and have a cup!

September....

There are lots of things about September to write down in the journal...

 *The turkey.  She is still with us.  She once had five other friends, but now she is one.  I caught her enjoying the flower garden through the window one early morning.  She likes to hang out with the chickens sometimes during the day.  I've seen her roosting in the old Cottonwood tree by the pond near our house.

*The hollyhocks are appreciating the last of the hot days left in September and the bees are thankful that they remain.  The moss roses are still happily blooming in their buckets and only a few Black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers are left blooming.

*The grass has turned from green to mostly brown.

*Only Daughter turned 25 this month.

*The bucks were turned into the ewes on September 20th.  The gestation for sheep is five days less than 5 months which would make it February 15th when we see our first lambs.  Do you see the big buck peeking over the ewe's back?  The sheep herd is grazing the alfalfa re-growth in the hay field and they are FAT.

 

 The buck is bringing up the rear.

*The big Poplar tree in the yard has turned from green to gold this past week.  H. Peach loves to walk in the crispy, crunchy leaves, and M. Toodles likes to eat fallen leaves.

*We must shake out the clothes after hanging them on the line now that the wasps are out.

*The spiders and crickets are everywhere.  My dad told me that when you see lots and lots of crickets on the ground, it's a sign of a cold winter.  O dear, there are lots and lots. 

*I hear the Great Horned Owls at night.  "Hoo - Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo - Hoot"

Looking way up high.

*The Folks have been here this week.  We've had a good time.  Dad's been disking up the old hay field, Hubs and Son have been fencing while L. and I have been painting the family room.  

*I have more paint for the guest room.  

*I'd like to paint the granary before winter comes.  The paint is peeling.  

*The hay has been hauled in.

*The pullet hens are laying!  

*Something got into the coop the other night.  One hen is missing and there are white feathers all around the door.  Another hen has been grabbed around the neck as her comb is torn and some of her neck feathers are missing.

*Must shut the chickens in way before dark.  The critter will be back.

*The sun is shining into the dining room and kitchen windows since the Fall Equinox.  I like that.

*The Indian Corn and the dried sunflowers are at the front door.  Welcome!

 

  

Prairie goes to the mountain,

Mountain goes to the sky.

The sky sweeps across to the distant hills

And here, in the middle,

Am I.

~Kathryn and Byron Jackson

from Open Range

Young buck...

 Look who I saw nibbling in the snow-covered flower bed in the backyard?

This young white-tail buck deer was all business about eating what was below the snow.

Even though not fully grown, he's majestic and beautiful.  Around these parts we must guard against the deer.  If you look in the background, you see a round piece of fence and two steel posts.  It is protecting a young tree from bucks such as this one.  They love to rub and scrape their antlers on trees and they sometimes eat young trees too.  Deer are browsers and will give most anything a nibble.  One year the deer moved in so thick and ate everything down to the nubbins.  They ate all the flowers, pulled up carrots, ate the potted geraniums on the front porch, and even ate my rhubarb--leaves and all-- and here they've always told us rhubarb leaves are poisonous.  Not so for the deer I guess.  They tend to gather in hay corrals in the winter and lay on the hay and leave their scat there to soil it.  And of course, they like to eat the hay that we have reserved especially for our livestock. Sometimes we end up sharing whether we want to or not.

Despite all this, I still think they are beautiful creatures, and I like to watch them all through the year.

Feeling owly?

 

 Just below our backyard there are some great big cottonwood trees.

Guess who we discovered in them?

The Great Horned Owls.

I think they look like Mister & Missus.

Aren't they sweet together?

Close-up of Mister Great Horned

And one of the Missus 

Who-oo are you-ooo?

Even though these owls are considered "eared," those tufts on their heads are not ears, but feathers that look like ears to you and me.  Check out the hooting here.  We've been hearing them a lot at night and when Hazel Peach hears them and says "Howl (owl).  Hoo Hoo!  Let's go!"  This means let's go find the owl, and she heads out traipsing through the tall grass to look for them. 

Frog legs for supper?

So.....I was out in the garden picking some fresh basil for my pasta supper when I heard a tussle in the bushes.  I see a frog and a snake.  But something's going on.  I watch and I realize this garter snake wants to eat this fairly large frog.  I watch a while longer and then remember the pasta is on the boil and I go indoors to rescue my supper and then go back outdoors to finish watching.  I grabbed my camera and recorded it here so you can see.  The first weird noise you hear is either the frog or the snake.  I heard it a couple of times before I got the camera on and was quite creeped out.  I'm sorry that I sound like someone who is talking to a small child.  I'm really not talking down to you.  I guess I was in story-telling mode.  I'll let Hazel Peach watch later.  She understands me.

EDIT:  If you don't think a garter snake could have eaten a frog, you must go watch THIS video. 

I stopped recording the snake and frog after I realized this could be an all-nighter.  I mean, they could have stayed in this position all night, I think.  They were each waiting the other guy out.  Waiting for a wrong move.  I promised myself I was not going to "meddle in nature" but then I decided that really, I AM part of nature, so I tossed a small stick over by the two and guess what?  The frog jumped away.  Sorry Mr. Snake.  I caused you to lose your supper.

Here's my supper.  More tomatoes.  It's a very simple fresh tomato sauce over angel hair pasta.  There's no cooking except for the pasta.  I just tossed some chopped ripe tomatoes into 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Added some course salt, pepper, garlic and fresh chopped basil.  Let it sit awhile and then add hot angel hair pasta.  Stir.  Sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese.  Eat!  Yum!  I'm glad my supper didn't get away.

Gone to the hayfield....

I rode my bike to the hayfield and raked hay for a couple of hours to help out.  I really enjoy doing it.

Here's the view from my seat.

Several hawks were flying over and swooping down onto the mowed field to check out the mouse population or perhaps they wanted grasshoppers which were in abundance.

A buck antelope had his place in the sun.

Bales and bales and now some square bales too.

I saw this fox pup as I was going up and down the field.  At one point he disappeared and then I saw him jump out from behind a stack of bales.  He sat there awhile and looked at me as I stopped to watch him...

 

...he had some itchy spots...

...then he stood up, stretched, and moved along to the creek below.

Someone was keeping track of how many rows he had raked.  See the tally marks?

At home I noticed some warblers (I think they were warblers) darting in and out of the lattice on the front porch.  Perhaps they were young birds.

The sky was beautiful again.

And the sunflowers were bright and full of bee life.

A duck tale...

These poor little ducklings lost their momma to the swather.  Eldest son, A.,  was out swathing hay and accidentally killed their mother, but noticed that the ducklings were alive so he called for his wife, J. to come get them.  She in turn came to get me.  We decided that we ought to be able to do something to save these nine little ducklings so we went up to the hayfield and gathered them into a box to take home.

At first we thought we might put them in with the chicks.  We tried it and the ducklings immediately wanted to follow them around, instantly imprinting with the sound of the chicks' voices.  The chicks didn't appreciate having cousins around that wanted to tag along bothering them so they pecked at them to try keep the duckies away.  We realized this idea would not work.

So we decided to drive them out to one of the close-by stock ponds to see if we could find some duck families there that might adopt these fuzzy peepers.  Yes, there were.  We saw one pair swimming peacefully on the pond and so we decided to put the duckies near the water, but not too near, to see if they might hear the other ducks and go to them.

Here is where we left them, all huddled together.  I put my hands over them and blessed them and said a little prayer that God would watch over them and give them a new mama and daddy duck to take care of them.  Then we left.

After our lunch, about an hour and a half later, I just couldn't resist going back to the spot where we left the ducklings to see if they might still be there or if they may have joined a duck family.

As I drove up, I saw two pair of mature ducks swimming. 
"Good," I thought.

I walked down to the spot and the nine little ducklings were gone.

"Thank you, God," I whispered.

I don't know if they found a duck couple to take them in, but I trust that they did.

I trust God that they will have ducky happiness.

New landscapes...

We are currently running livestock on some new-to-us land which we are leasing.  It connects nicely with our ranch and so it has become a good fit.  Hubs and I took a drive out there to check cows yesterday morning, so camera in hand, I was all about capturing the new landscapes.  We went via the Ranger, an all-terrain vehicle that allows us to go places that a 4-wheel drive truck won't.

Cows and calves don't have to travel far for their breakfast.  The lush, green grass surrounds them, even while they sleep.

This land adjoins the pasture where the cows graze.  We call it The Breaks because, geologically, it is a type of badlands that are rough, dry, clay or shale areas that erode and break away.  Right now, it is covered in tall, green grass, but it quickly goes dry and brown.  For now, it's a beautiful sight. 

Do you see how the erosion happens?  This dry, clay-shale soil erodes like crazy and continues to cut away at the banks.  It's a prime hunting grounds for fossils.

After a bend in the trail, this Prince's Plume stood as a noble guard of the highest point.  It was the only one we saw.  Prince's Plume is an indicator of high selenium soil.

Here is a close-up of him.  I found a small plant, likely a runner from this one, that we dug up to take home to the yard.  I hope it takes to the transplant.  I should have brought a bucket of dirt with it.

Ox-eye daisies were prolific.

Do you see that the soil is cracked clay?  When it rains -- and it has been unusually wet -- the rain runs into the cracks and allows the flowers and grass to grow like crazy.  The good thing about clay soil is that it holds fast to any rain that falls.

I just love seeing the peace and contentment that the cows and calves reflect when their every need is met.

This is one of my favorite pictures.  Cows trailing to an oasis of water reminds me that our Good Shepherd is in control.  It reminds me also of an artist I learned to love when visiting England.  John Constable did the piece below.

Salisbury Cathedral from Bishop's Grounds

There is no Salisbury Cathedral in the background of my "cattle at water" picture, but God is surely in it.

 

The bulls were turned into the heifers on June 3rd.  I journal this as a reminder to myself,  things of importance in ranching.  Additional bulls have been turned out as needed.  We want enough bulls to service the cows for breeding.  We check up on the bulls often and see to it that they are with the cows and that they are in good health and not hurt.  An injured bull can mean open cows (not bred), and in ranching,  this is a disaster.

I hope you enjoyed my photo journal today.  I enjoyed posting it for you.

...........................................................

For every beast of the forest is Mine,

The cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird of the mountains,

And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

~Psalm 50:10-11

He waters the mountains from His upper chambers;

The earth is satisfied with the 

fruit of His works.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,

And vegetation for the labor of man,

that he may bring forth food from the earth.

~Psalm 104:13-14