A visit from the natives.

Earlier today, I found the TINIEST grasshopper I've ever seen - there were a bunch of them and they were all less than 3/8 inch long:

After dinner tonight, a "local" couple passed through our yard:

Amazingly enough, the deer (who come through the yard every few days) have left the squash & peas alone! The frost on the other hand.... well it hasn't been so kind. :-(

Don't Fence Me In.... the final installment

I'll keep it simple. The fence is done. Finished. Completed. Today we painted it.

Tomorrow will be a day for resting (except for maybe touching up any spots of paint that we may have missed)... and cooking. I had something going in the crock pot all day today, which will be tomorrow's dinner....

Don't Fence Me In.... part 2

Yesterday, we primered the fence boards. Today, I moved all the blocks that were where the fence was going. Dad helped me put up the stringers and then we hung 28 fence boards. I'm even more tired this evening than I was yesterday evening! Thank goodness I had easy dinner stuff around.

Tomorrow, we paint the fence.... For now, good night!

Don't Fence Me In.... part 1

Fences.... good fences make good neighbors. They also keep things in and out. We have several fences to build around here. Some will be "field" fences, some will be wooden, and some will be, very likely, a bit more - but that'll be a fence for a later time.

Today, we started on a wooden section of fence, that will replace some blocks on part of the dog run.

Because we want the fence to last a while, we began by laying out the boards that we would be painting with primer.

This was a time consuming process, hand painting 30 fence boards..... But they're all painted with primer now.

Tomorrow, we'll begin assembling the fence.... or at least that's the plan for now.

Old Graves

Today, the kids and I took a bicycle ride up to the local cemetery. I love old cemeteries. They have such great history. Beth noticed how "young" many of the people were who passed around a century ago, and was a little sad about it. We talked about how people didn't live as long as they do now. She was especially impressed by the number of children, under the age of two, who were buried here. We gave thought to what modern medical advances have given us - things like the flu and infections no longer take the lives of children like they did a century ago.

LD on the other hand had his speculation meter pegged about all the possible (and gruesome) ways these people passed away. I guess that's just the difference between boys and girls.....

In this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words.... so I'll let them do all the talking: 

Go visit an old cemetery... though do so during the day, when it's nice and sunny, so you don't get all creeped out. I don't want to be responsible for anyone having nightmares.....

Memorable Weekend

As in Memorial Day Weekend. This is the weekend which is the beginning of Beth's summer time with me. It's also the first weekend since Dale went back to work where he could visit with us for more than 2 days... ok, so it's only one day longer, but it makes a HUGE difference. But, because he'll be leaving on Monday, we opted to have our Memorial Day feast today. Beth and I planted the last of the peas & squash from our little green house and we also went up to Grandpa's "campground" which is a bit of National Forest Service land about 3.5 miles from the house. It's where we go when there's too much activity going on in town - such as busy holiday weekends. Beth and LD even found a use for the cracked snow disc, and here I was just going to throw it away... LOL what was I thinking???

A mile up the paved road you take a forest service road and then travel another 2.5 miles into the forest. Until about the last 2 years, Grandpa was spending a good deal of time up at the campsite every day - to escape the "heat" in town - to him that means the temps are over 85 degrees. Because he hasn't been up there in a couple of years, he was dying to get back up and take a look at what was "left" of his handiwork. And, here's what we found:

We're looking forward to cleaning it up and spending some days up there again! Though, I don't know that I have the energy to move all the rocks like Dad did... or build structures like he did...

Ahhhhhh... I love summer!

Early morning moooooovers

The sunrise this morning belied the reality of things. Based on this, you wouldn't think anything was amiss... it's May 22nd after all:

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.