But, the thermometer (IN the covered porch) told a different story - reading just 37 degrees. Last night's little snow storm left us with a solid inch (or maybe a little more) of the white stuff, and it was crunchy! If my car could talk I'm sure it'd be saying, "for the love of Pete woman!! Get me a carport!!"
Thankfully, my car cannot talk. The scenery had much to say.... most of which was, "Burrrrrr!!!"
A significant difference between winter snow and spring snow, is the rate at which it melts off, and freezes into ice. Winter temps are overall colder, so the occurrence of this type of thing are far less frequent - ice usually forms on higher locations - like ice sicles on the eaves of the roof.
Even so, there's still a lot of snow covering things.
The yard, having not been mowed or addressed with the weed eater, looks like some strange, alien sea:
And just so you know, muck boots are not the greatest choice for tromping around in snow.... Sure, they keep feet dry, but they have ZERO insulation... By the time I was done outside, my toes were a bit tingly and well, REALLY cold.
But, at 6:45 am, the real stars of the morning are the cattle..... Good morning guys & gals, how are you this sunny, and chilly morning? We had a rather interesting discussion, though I think I need to brush up on my Bovine, they kept looking at me quizzically, as if to say, "I sort of understand you lady, but well, I'm not entirely sure that what you think you're saying is what I'm hearing." I do know, that when I moo'd, it did get their attention.
Cows are a prey animal - this makes them a pretty skittish bunch. Though, it only takes one curious animal to affect the herd - to make them ALL become curious. The key is to stand VERY still and say complimentary things to them - such as: "oh there's a pretty/handsome cow!" ....or "who's brave this morning?" (make sure you use your sweetest tone of voice) ......"oh yes, THERE'S a brave cow!"
And the cows say, "ok lady, we're fairly sure you aren't a cow "getter" so here we are... tell us a story."
So I told them a story, or at least I think I did, because we stood there, them getting a bit closer all the time and me with my toes, fingers, ears, oh heck, my WHOLE self, getting a bit colder with each passing minute.
Then, there's the "lead" bull.... Lead having more than one meaning here - he's got a ring in his nose, so that you can lead him around. Yes, folks, that's frozen snot hanging down from his nose.... ahhh the joys of being bovine.
He's MUCH bigger than the rest of the herd. If you compare the facial pictures of him to the rest of the herd, you'll notice that his head appears smaller - but it's actually his body that's just that much bigger. He's also grown out of having to hang out with the crowd - here, while all the other "youngins" are waiting for my story, he's getting his scratch on with a support wire to one of the power poles:
But, back to the herd. There are all sorts of cows here - both male & female, and the only commonality is that they are meat cattle - some may be slaughtered for the market, and others may go on to become breeders... or at least that is my theory....I think that mostly it's the steers who end up on the chopping block, but who knows if I'm really right..... If you know, please share your wisdom so I no longer mislead my readers, ok? Thanks
Here are some of the cows behind our place: Filet, Chuck, Rib Eye and T-Bone:
I think I may have stumbled across the REAL cause of Mad Cow Disease..... to say he's having a bad hair day might be a HUGE understatement:
And look at this face - I just love the frozen whiskers:
This one, 9097, AKA T-Bone, was particularly interesting (and definitely the bravest of the bunch).... here looks as if they're saying, "dude... was'sup?"
And, there was a lot of this going on - where those in the back would pop their heads up. They weren't quite brave enough to move to the front row, but were still curious enough to want to see what was going on.
One final close look at this stranger on two legs:
Then it's time to move on to look for the grasses that weren't covered in too much snow.
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