Hello, I'm Mary, Book 3

Mary · Hello, I'm Mary, Book 3

A common early morning view through my kitchen window. The horses all know where to find me, and they stand where they can see into the house while they wait for their breakfast, and sometimes doze off while waiting.

Mary

Breezy and Patch at play. The pictures were taken from inside the house after the sun had set. They were putting on quite a show but would have stopped if I had gone outside since it was time for their dinner.

Mary

We are in a series of storms that are coming into the west coast, bringing us a lot of snow and wind. After several mild winters, we are having a real one again. Getting around in it can be a bit challenging.

Yesterday morning my hubby made 2 attempts to drive out of the driveway which is several hundred feet long and uphill all the way. He got about half way the first time, and about 30 feet farther the next time, backed down again and came to the house, then called our neighbor who had plowed for us the day before. The snowdrifts were up to the car windows and getting deeper.

The neighbor has a v shaped plow mounted on a one ton feed truck. He made a pass coming down and another one going up, and the job was done in less than 5 minutes. It would have taken almost an hour to do the same thing with our tractor and front end loader. Good neighbors are such a blessing!

By mid day the sun came out and I went into the greenhouse to water plants, repot a few things, and pick some salad greens and ripe tomatoes for dinner. I have about 20 mostly ripe tomatoes sitting on my counter and windowsills. The fish in the big water tank were fed, and I sprayed a few plants for the annual infestation of aphids.

We had more snow and wind overnight, so this morning I watched and prayed as my hubby made a run for the top of the driveway. The car did some interesting gyrations but he made it to the top and through the big drift by the gate on the first try. I'll keep an eye on it through the day and might have to do some plowing so he can get back in tonight.

smokey the dog

Aaaahhhh the joys of farm life in winter!

Mary

Yes, indeed, Smokey. You know about snowdrifts and such.

A previous owner of this place, the one who decided where this house would be and where the driveway should go, needed to study our wind patterns first, and then we wouldn't have this problem every time we have a snowy winter.

Mary

It's a new week but not new weather! Yesterday and the day before the temperatures warmed up enough so that the top layer of snow started to melt a bit, then everything froze solid again. The highway is plowed and has grit on it. I would say sand, but this is heavy duty, more the size of pea gravel. Our gravel county road was also plowed, so I guess we are ready for the next storm.

Saturday morning we went to our favorite cafe for breakfast and then shopped for groceries and other things before coming home. I have no plans to leave the place all week, so we did some stocking up to make sure we have enough milk, eggs, etc to last all week.

We weren't sure if venturing out on Sunday morning would be possible, but we made it. On the way home we spotted Neut, our wandering cat, at the neighbors, so he got a ride home in the car, purring all the way.

This morning I took more pictures of the horses playing in the snow before I went out to feed them, but haven't hooked the camera to the computer to look at them. The wind is blowing and they felt quite frisky. Even one of the older ones got into the game.

Our power was out this morning, I have no idea why, and they almost never tell us. If it is a significant event we might read about it in the local paper. Several years ago the power company put in a lot of new lines and other upgraded equipment which made the outages far less frequent. While the power was out today I did some reading and thought about the greenhouse heat situation. The propane furnace will operate but without the fans to circulate the air. When we bought that furnace we made sure it would operate without electricity. I'm sure everything is ok.

Mary

Often, just getting around in a snowy climate can be a very interesting experience. Such was the case yesterday morning.

Our neighbor had plowed our driveway about 24 hours before, but since the wind blew all day my hubby said there were some big drifts when he drove into the driveway, it's downhill all the way to the carport so he made it. The wind kept blowing all night and by yesterday morning there was no way anybody was getting out without help.

The neighbor came to plow again, and started down the driveway with his feed truck loaded with hay for the morning feeding of his cows. He got stuck coming down the hill and the truck slid sideways. The cows came to the fence because they know the sound of the feed truck, and there was their breakfast, just about 10 feet away.

Now it turned into some old fashioned work, trying to clear the snow with a snow shovel from around the wheels, off the plow itself, etc, so the truck was not encased in snow, and could move forward. Behind the truck there is a deep ditch. Here's a picture, I know you can't see much detail, but it gives you an idea of how deep the snow is. I was standing next to my trailer taking pictures and had expected to take one of the plow bursting through the last drift near the flagpole.

Mary

After some wiggling around the rear of the truck went to the left, closer to the ditch. The cows watched in hopeful anticipation, and Nip (the dark spot between the rail fence and the truck) barked and did all she could to help.

Mary

Hubby put on his insulated farm coveralls over his good clothes and got the tractor into action to rescue the plow truck. He backed up the driveway, then pushed snow out of his way coming back down, backed up again and pulled the truck out and down the driveway with a chain. I missed getting a picture of that because my camera was getting cold and the battery was low and slow.

Mary

The truck turned around in front of the hay barn and was ready to plow it's way back up the hill, almost getting stuck again in the process. This is a heavyduty truck that has a steel flatbed instead of the usual pickup type of bed with sides, better for hauling hay. The plow is close to 3 ft high, and hydraulic, each half is controlled independently. The whole thing can be angled to throw the snow either to the left or the right, and can also be raised and lowered. It is a formidable sight coming toward us down the road.

Mary

The wind is blowing hard, the snow is drifting and the driveway is full again. Our neighbor, bless his heart, is coming to clear it out for us. Hubby had it cleared just before dark yesterday but you'd never know that now.

We are now on satelite internet, and are discontinuing our dial up service by the end of the week. Everything looks different, I have a lot to learn. It's scarry! I will have to get my daughter in law on the phone and maybe here in person to help me even send my emails, they don't want to go!

I think the Lord just gave me the inspiration to solve the problem, but first I'm going out to take pictures of the snowdrifts before the plow makes history of them.

Mary

More snow troubles. There is so much snow packed tightly between the snowbanks on each side of the driveway that the tractor couldn't do much with the huge drift at the lower end, and the neighbors truck kept getting stuck near the top. Hubby drove the tractor up through the pasture and out through a gate which we had to dig out with shovels before it would open, to get above the end of the driveway, and almost got the tractor stuck in the pasture.

He pulled the neighbor's truck out, and the neighbor tried again and again to clear the snow. After many haul outs, the snow between the banks wouldn't move any more, and he was only about 1/4 of the way down.

I called another neighbor who has a big snow blower, he is out of town but his son said that after repairing something on the blower today he was fairly sure he could get here around 8am. Hubby called work and told them he would be late. We are still waiting and it is almost 1pm. The snow blower must have needed more than a simple repair.

Yesterday I did get some snowdrift pictures, and some of the truck and tractor problems. They are still in the camera, and I don't want to hook it up to the computer because if I do, right in the middle of downloading, the guy with the snow blower will come and I want to get pictures of that too.

This morning I chopped the ice on the water tank into dinner plate size chunks and removed it from the tank with a 4 tine pitchfork. Some of it was 4 to 5 inches thick. Yesterday I was lazy and chopped a 2x2 ft square hole but it had 2 inches of ice on it again, so the job was bigger this morning. Our overnight temperature was -8, and it was still -2 when I did the water tank clearing, but was sunny and bright as it has been all day.

There are 2 methods that I use for keeping a tank clear enough so that the animals can get a drink, and it depends on wether the ice will be in contact with the water. A tank where the water level drops until somebody refills it can be kept open by just chopping a small hole and leaving the rest of the ice in place because it adheres to the sides of the tank and forms sort of a roof that keeps the rest of the tank from iceing over quickly. But if the tank has a constant supply of water going into it, then the ice will be in contact with the water and it all needs to be removed. I wish I had a piece of plywood to put over the tank I cleared this morning. A floating insulated lid would be even better.

I was thinking that I hope nobody will try to drive down our driveway without realizing it is impassable, because they would never be able to back out. Our neighbor's truck that kept getting stuck has 4 wheel drive and chains.

Mary

The battle with the snow continues and seems to be getting more interesting all the time! This winter is becoming quite a challenge, between the snow and the lingering below 0 temperatures every night. Our overnight lows for the past 3 nights have been -8, -5 and -4. I guess you could call it a warm up. And now there is more snow in the forecast.

At the moment our neighbor with the snow blower is here working on widening the driveway and blowing out several large piles of snow that had been scooped up with our tractor bucket over the past few weeks. The cold temperatures have caused problems with the machine, jelling of the diesel fuel is one of them, so the tractor that runs the snow blower has been hard to start. This is the third time he has been here. The first day he arrived just at dark, and working with lights on the tractor, he managed to make one pass down the driveway and another going back up, but every few minutes he had to stop to replace bolts that kept shearing off. It's a safety measure to protect against damaging the machine itself.

Yesterday he came back and had more problems so he didn't get much snow cleared. Today he is back again.

Another potential problem is looming. A couple of weeks ago the water line that comes out of the house and goes under the driveway to supply the greenhouse and garden had frozen. We hope nothing has broken, and we won't know about that until spring. The well is on the opposite side of the house with a 2 inch plastic pipe buried 2 ft deep running to the house. With the long lasting cold weather it could also freeze. We've been leaving the water running in the sink every night, just a stream about the size of a pencil, but it is enough to make the pump run a few times during the night and keep the line clear.

Every day I chop the ice out of the spring tank where the horses get water. Yesterday when I did the evening chores I happened to remember that we have several 1/4 inch thick sheets of plexiglass, so I put some of them over about 3/4 of the tank, just leaving the end where the horses have been drinking uncovered so they could get their water. This morning there was only 1 inch of ice instead of 2, and today with bright sun, the water in the tank might warm up a bit and result in less ice tonight. It needs to be checked twice a day.

Due to our drought situation from last winter and summer, the flow from the spring that supplies that tank is only a slow trickle. It could easily freeze, and if that happens there would be 2 days of water for the horses and then I would be hauling buckets of water from the house for 4 horses.

As a result of all this, I have canceled my room reservation for the endurance riders convention, and told my friend who was planning to share my room that I won't be able to go. She will be disappointed, but with the water situation what it is and the forecast for another storm beginning tonight and lasting for 2 or 3 days, I didn't think it was wise to be leaving home for the weekend and leaving my dear hubby to deal with all of it. He was relieved when I told him I had decided not to go.

Mary

Winter goes on, and on, and on. Snow and wind, over and over. I may have forgotten what bare ground looks like if it weren't for the pictures I have on the computer that rotate as a screen saver.

For the past 2 days we have had 3 ft of snow blocking our driveway. There is way too much for our tractor to handle, and the neighbor's truck with the plow can't do anything with it because it is very wet and heavy. He tried and only got about 10 ft down the driveway pushing snow ahead of him before it packed tight and stopped him. This is the second time this has happened this winter, actually the second time in about a week.

About a week ago, he got stuck up there where I took pictures, and he was stuck in the same place again. Hubby took the tractor up through the field, we dug out a gate to let him out on to the driveway above the stuck truck, and he pulled the neighbor out with the tractor. Two, three, four times after that they gave up. I called another neighbor who has a big tractor mounted snow blower, an industrial strength machine, but he couldn't get here until the next day.

Before I go too far here, I will post a picture of it.

Mary

We had about 3 days without new snow or wind. Saturday morning we went to town, had breakfast at our favorite cafe and shopped for groceries. Sunday the next storm came and we didn't go anywhere. The driveway filled up fast. By Monday morning there was 3 ft of snow packed into the lane, and our neighbor got stuck just above our gate on the county road because there were huge drifts there as well. Later, after feeding his cattle and sheep, he came and started clearing out the little section leading from the road to our gate, about 30 ft, and started down our driveway, pushing snow ahead of him. He only went about 20 ft past the gate and the snow stopped him again.

I could see him through my kitchen window, so I called him on his cell phone and told him not to try to do any more, because if he got stuck now there was too much snow in the field for my hubby to get the tractor through it to pull him out. We can sometimes plow with the tractor, but when there is this much snow, there is no way!

We called the neighbor with the blower, and he is waiting for parts to repair it, hoped they would come yesterday and he could get it back together and be here about mid day to start clearing snow for us. It is mid afternoon and no blower. It's started snowing again, just what we need!

Meanwhile, my hubby should be at work but got another unexpected day off, and we don't know about tomorrow. When he can get out of here, he will take several changes of clothes so he can stay in town with our son and daughter in law and at least get to work. On Friday he is supposed to go across the state and then Saturday be in Tacoma, WA to officiate at a funeral for a relative of a friend.

Travel conditions are horrible. The freeway is closed as much as it is open due to wrecks, zero visability and the inability of the plows to keep up with new snowfall and drifting snow. God can change the weather if he really wants him to go there.

My horse feeding chores twice a day really give me a good workout. I chopped ice out of the spring tank for several days and then finally used 2 long heavy duty extension cords to hook up a stock tank heater. First I had to plug it in and get it out of the tank where I had used it about a month ago. The 3 inches of water left in the tank had frozen and it took some heat and about an hour to free it. I had expected to be able to refill that tank, so hadn't removed the heater, but then the water line for the outdoor fawcetts froze. The heater keeps the spring tank almost free of ice, so cleaning out a corner of it twice a day has become much easier and faster.

One of my inside out tire feeders disappeared under snowdrifts one night, and was not visable at all. I walked on top of the drift next to the fence and located it by falling into it. PLUNK! Then I shoveled snow out of it and stomped a path for the horses to get to it. That was a mistake, with more fresh snow and drifting, it was down in a deep hole the next morning and I was out there chopping that packed frozen snow with an axe and shoveling a path almost down to bare ground so the horses could stand in a normal position to eat from it. I also chopped ice to remove snow from the approach to the water tank so they could drink without danger of falling head first into the tank.

This morning I had to dig out one of my hay carts that was snowed into the place where I had parked it with a fresh bale of hay in it a few days ago. Wind had packed drifted snow under it, in the wheels and buried the handle. My other cart gets filled and emptied each day so that one wasn't a problem this morning. I think I will be taking the carts back to the barn between feedings. They are the large 2 wheeled garden carts that easily hold a 100 pound bale of hay and are still easy for me to handle.

This spring tank is filled by a (presently) very wimpy trickle of water coming out of a pipe that runs back into the underground reservior. In 15 winters, it has never frozen until this year, and that is because there is so little water going into the tank. so the water just sits there and gets colder and colder instead of being refreshed by about a gallon every couple of minutes. The upper side and one end of the tank is buried in dirt. One morning after a lot of wind, I had to probe with a shovel to find the tank, it was completely drifted over. The "walk until I fall in" method is only good for hay feeders, not water tanks, and I am thankful that the horses hadn't walked where they shouldn't. The tank is an old recycled boiler and has reinforcing metal bars that would catch horses feet, and if one of them fell into it that would likely result in a broken leg. I'm thinking seriously of making a fence on the upper side of it to prevent that.

Mary

The snow blower cleared the driveway about mid morning yesterday, hubby left for work, came home after dark with groceries, had dinner, packed enough clothes for a few days and left again to spend the night in town since another storm was starting. He is at work now and watching the weather and road conditions to see if it is possible to travel to the other side of the state tomorrow. I just looked at the weather report, the storm warning goes though 7pm tonight and doesn't look much better for the next 3 days.

This morning I couldn't find that feeder that I spent about half an hour digging out and clearning yesterday. Even the "fall into it" method didn't work, the drift is so deep that the barbed wire fence is disappearing under it. I have 3 more to use, but have to put hay on the snow for one horse. It quickly gets scattered by the wind, so I will just keep hay in the other feeders and hope that everyone gets enough. I also had to probe with the shovel to find the water tank and dug out a path for the horses to get to it. The pathway I cleared yesterday was drifted full of snow and solid enough for me to walk on without sinking.

Mary

Another snowstorm has enveloped us, but this morning, before the wind got strong, we went to town for breakfast, stopped at the library and grocery store, and got back home while we could still use the driveway, although the drifts had already started to form. Hubby parked the car at the top of the driveway next to the road, so it doesn't matter if the driveway fills up, and it will.

This morning while I did chores, hubby got on the tractor and plowed some lanes around the buildings and into the area where I park the hay carts while I feed the horses. This will make it easier to get around temporarily. He brought in firewood and filled the wood rack outside the back door.

A couple of weeks ago, before the snow started to pile up, we had a few below 0 nights. That makes frosty whiskers on the horses, so I got some pictures of them before the morning feeding.

Meet the boys. Here are Moose, Breezy and Patch standing by the feeders, waiting for me to finish my photo shoot and fill those tires with hay.

Mary

This is Bullwinkle, so named because that is who I think he looks like, minus antlers. He has a very long face, quite expressive for all that bone, and in this picture, he has very long frosty whiskers.

CajuninKy

My horses are ninnies. They stay in the barn. That is actually because we have so little turnout at the new place. They had run in sheds at the farm and did fine. they are shedding their winter coats now.

Is Bullwinkle also an endurance horse? He is a fine looking fellow. He has a kind eye.

I do not envy your snow. I would like it if it didn't snow on us again this year. I like warm weather.

Mary

Yes, they have all been endurance horses. Bullwinkle is a Saddlebred, not designed for endurance, but he liked that job a lot better than being a pack horse. He is a pasture ornament now along with Moose and Breezy. Between those 3, they have covered over 14,000 miles of endurance trails and now they just eat for a living.

The wind howled and the snow drifted all day yesterday. Our driveway is full again, another tire feeder went under drifts, and I had to clear slush and snow off the water tank again. I step over the top 2 wires of a 4 wire fence to carry hay into the pasture and try to find a place where the wind won't blow it all away. We have huge snowdrifts where we never have had them before. I'll get more pictures of the big one that is advancing toward the house.

CajuninKy

Are you still riding the endurance rides? If so , what horse are you using? I would not have thought of a saddlebred as an endurance horse but each horse is an individual. I was reading about a Kentucky Mountain Pleasure horse that has been competing in endurance rides and doing well by all accounts. And he is barefoot at that. Times, they are a changin'. Hope the weather eases up on you. If you use the snow itself to make a windbreak, would the wind scour it away?

Mary

My new endurance season starts on March 29. I hope Patch and I can be ready for it.

I wouldn't have thought of using a Saddlebred for an endurance horse, but he had been a packhorse before I got him, so I knew he was tough. I traded a couple of unbroken mules for him and hadn't planned to keep him, but he kind of grew on me.

The Kentucky Mountain horse you are reading about is probably Odem's Raven owned my Sue Walz of Oregon. He has completed the Tevis ride twice. The Tevis is the toughest ride in the US. I have ridden with her briefly on some of the northwest rides, and that horse just flies along. I do not try to keep up with him for more than a couple of miles at a time.

Mary

Yesterday my hubby came home from work a couple of hours early, packed a few things, picked up his business paperwork and headed over the mountains to the west side of the state. There was a short window between storms so he thought it was wise to use it. After he got over the 2 mountain passes, 4178 and 4193 ft, he called me to say he had made it to rain and wind. A few hours later he called again, and was about 40 minutes from friend's house where he would spend the night. Today he is visiting with missionaries who are home on furlough, and taking care of some business. When he comes home, probably tomorrow if the weather is good enough, he will bring our missionary friend Jim back with him.

Jim is the missionary to Romania that I requested prayer for a few weeks ago because he had a heart attack. If you didn't read about that, it is in the prayer forum. Jim has been visiting supporters in western Oregon and needs to get a ride to Baker City to visit his home church before going back to California to the veterens hospital for another check up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I feed horses, tend the water tank which doesn't need much attention now that the tank heater got the water in it warmed, carry firewood, refill bird feeders and wait for winter to be over.

Lambing will start in less than a month, and I hope we can get around by that time. Corrals will have to be plowed, and the pasture behind the barn will need some lanes to expose some bare ground. In the next couple of weeks the shearer will come to do a partial shearing on the ewes, called crutching, that takes off belly wool, cleans up around the udders and around the tail. It can be nearly impossible for us to see what is going on during labor, and after the lambs are born, they need to be able to find their dinner instead of drity wool tags.

Yesterday I watched a coyote trot through our pasture. He stopped along the way to investigate something that smelled good to him, then went on his way again. A few hours later, just as it was getting dark, I saw him again, coming back. I hope he did not have sheep on the menu.

This morning two bald eagles were perched in the trees along the property line below the hay shed. They nest farther north, so won't be around long. I saw the great horned owls mating already, they nest early and usually take over a hawk nest, or use a hole in a tree. The hawks will build a new nest, use it this year, and then the owls will take it over if it survives our winds. Usually the nests are ok, they are built when the wind is blowing so are tested before they are even finished.

CajuninKy

So glad DH made it safely. And I am also glad to hear Jim is doing better. I have wondered how he was.

I am afraid if I lived in your area I would lay in supplies before snow fall and not come out until Spring. I guess you get used to it but I don't know how.

Where are the sheep now? In the snow? How are they fed if the wind is blowing all the hay away?

The coyotes stay around all year? How many sheep do you lose to them and do you use LGDs? Do you have any herding dogs to help with the gathering? I wish there was a close place I could take my BC to learn to herd. I know he would do well and really enjoy it.

Mary

Some winters the losses to coyotes is a sheep every few nights until we can shoot the coyote. We have coyotes all year. It would be nice if they went somewhere. The old guard dog died, and she was not too effective, having been a pet for too long and then having an accident that required foot surgery and recovery time. She prefered the house or wandering the countryside to staying with the sheep. Hopefully the new pup in training will do better. They have a llama, but I think he is too old and lazy now. About 10 years ago I did see him run a couple of dogs out of the pasture.

One Border Collie is all this flock needs, she is a young dog but is catching on quite well. She has a lot of natural ability and her owner and his wife taught her a few simple commands with voice and whistling. You could teach your dog, too. The basics are sit, drop (a lower but ready to go position), stay, left and right, and come. That's all I can think of. A few ducks or lambs to herd would make a pup happy. Geese might be too agressive and intimidate a pup in training. Border collies will herd each other when they are still in their litter, it is cute, they totter around trying to keep their balance and are already herding something.

The sheep are in a pasture near the haystacks. That same pasture will be used later when the lambs are quite small, but in between they will go to a pasture behind the barn. We move them as they deliver their lambs, through the barn, to a corral or smaller sheltered pasture, and eventually back to where they are now.

Feeding is tricky, but there are somewhat sheltered spots where a hill blocks the wind, etc. Sometimes a lane is plowed through the snow and the sheep are fed on that between low snowbanks. Every day is different, depending on how much snow, or how much wind and from what direction.

Mary

Part of the flock eating their hay on a calm day about a month ago, when there wasn't much snow.

Mary

A closer look at a few of the ladies.

God's Warrior

I have had the pleasure of watching these wonderful dogs at work herding sheep. I saw them in Scotland when I was there and also have watched them at several Highland Games presentations here in the US.

Here are a few very enjoyable clips that you might enjoy watching online. Have fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R464fTLB3Gk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1rsiIN5Mdo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJePEGnqMe4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-J02xs0MgE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4QQncNd6DY&feature=related herding cattle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f13tN_r7mjE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ez-ktzD0E&NR=1

Mary

Thank you! I hadn't thought of looking on U-Tube to find anything. I hope Cajun will be inspired to get her dog busy herding something after she sees these.

Mary

Praise the Lord, our driveway is cleared again and we can use it today! The weather warmed to the upper 30's yesterday and is supposed to be up to about 40 in the daytime for the next few days. Our snow drifts are shrinking. I can measure them by standing in the same place inside the house and comparing what I can see today with what was visible yesterday. One wooden handle on the old plow that I use for a garden ornament is showing today, but the other side hasn't reappeared.

Yesterday when I gave the horses their evening feeding I walked down to the spring tank. It hasn't needed any attention since the tank heater finally got the water a bit warm and the blizzards have stopped coming. The pitiful little drizzle coming into the tank has dried up and doesn't even produce drips. I have hopes that the possible meltdown will be restarting it, but with the ground below the snow frozen, it might not restart soon. Anyhow, I sure don't expect to see it today. Meanwhile the horses are drinking the water so I will have to get the hoses out of the shop, unwrap the outside fawcett, connect, turn on the valve in the basement and put more water in the tank.

The path leading to the tank is packed ice and snow which I should work on to break it up and lower it. I don't want the horses falling into the tank or the space between the snowbank and the tank while they are trying to drink. This winter has given us some new challenges.

A few days ago a fox was curled up sleeping on the snow in the pasture. When one of the horses tried to see what he was he got up and moved about 30 ft and made another shallow depression in the snow, curled up in it and went back to sleep. I took a few pictures but was at such a distance that he just looks like a rock. He has a good fur coat and was enjoying his nap in the sun, and even when the sun went down and the wind came up he stayed. I fed the horses and didn't try to hide or be quiet and he still stayed, but after dark he left and I haven't seen him again.

Mary

Yesterday I helped with getting the ewes down the chute to the shearing trailer for their pre-lambing clean up trim. The first lambs are due in about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. It only took us about 3 hours, but the job could have gone much faster if the ewes hadn't been so stubborn about going into the smaller and smaller pens that lead to the chute, and then about going into the chute. We need to work on making the trip through the corrals and chute into a pleasant experience with food at the far end so that they don't always connect it with being subjected to clippers. That would also help when we need to sort the ewes from the lambs.

We humans all got a workout because the sheep definitely have the advantage with 4 feet on the ground, their weight close to the ground, and outweighing us. They were pushed, pulled and shoved into the right places and they often decided to leave our grasp quickly. I was knocked down once and would have fallen a few more times if it hadn't been for a handy fence or ewes packed so tightly together than it was impossible to fall. The dog seemed to always be in the wrong places so eventually she was tied to a fence and we did the job without her. Nip tends to be more of a header than a heeler which would be good if we had wanted the sheep to come toward us instead of going the other way.

This morning when I went out to feed the horses I found Breezy standing on a big solid snowbank nibbling the lilac bush tops on my side of the fence. I snapped one quick picture of him and thought about what could happen if he started sinking into the snow and struggling to get out, because there was a fence buried in the snow below him.

I quickly got the hay cart from the shed and took it to where I have been feeding them near the greenhouse. I grabbed an armload of hay and stepped over the wire fence into the pasture to spread it out where they could see that their breakfast had arrived. A couple of minutes later I was relieved to see Breezy coming down the little trail through the snow from the upper pasture to the feeding area in the middle pasture. And then when I turned around Patch was standing there eating out of the cart!

Now what do I do? All the gates are snowbound, and I didn't want to take an hour or two to dig one of them out so I could get it open to put him back into the pasture. I reasoned that if he would walk over snowbanks to get out of the pasture, he could walk over them again to get back in. And so I lead him back following his tracks and didn't turn him loose until he was back to the feeding area.

Now there is a rope tied from the open gate to a post between the upper and middle pastures to keep any of them from going back. I'm sure they would do it again. So far I have only seen Patch standing there flipping the rope up and down with his nose, hoping it would move out of his way.

Our new snowshoes arrived yesterday, and so today I put mine on and took a nice walk to the pond in the big pasture. It's a beautiful day, calm and with sun so bright I was squinting. The snow has a hard crust on it which is shiney, so the sun reflects off it like it does off water. Next time I will wear my sunglasses.

Walking in snowshoes makes me lift my feet and legs higher than I would with a normal stride because there is about 6 inches of snowshoe ahead of my toes. I could feel that extra strain in my thighs, so didn't walk all the way to the end of the pasture, but if tomorrow is nice enough, I will do that. My hubby bought snowshoes for himself too, so we could have a nice walk together. Today Neut the wandering cat followed me for a while, and then sat down near the gate that I stepped over and waited for me to come back. Maybe he is getting smarter. Or maybe just lazy.

Mary

Here is what I saw this morning. The rail fence at the edge of the yard is about a foot lower than the one the horse is standing over. If you look closely you can see the end of the pipe gate to the right of the horse. The top of the gate is about 5 ft high.

Mary

There is a flower bed under all this snow. When will I ever see it again?

Mary

Our snow is slowly going away, and we haven't had a storm in over a week, so the driveway has stayed clear! I can see some bare ground here and there, including quite a bit of one flower bed at the south end of the house where a few tulips are already trying to come up! I see something else under a bird feeder where the niger seed hulls have made a large black streak on a bed of daylilies and hollyhocks. The sun hits that until about noon and it gets some reflected heat from the side of the house. One southeast facing hillside in the pasture has bare spots which didn't have much snow because of exposure to the wind.

I still haven't been ambitious enough to dig out a gate so I can get Patch out to ride him. The only place I could ride would be on the county road with a gravel surface that would quickly wear down his feet. Shoes are out of the question now because they would only get pulled off in the deep snow in the pasture, and so I wait and try to be patient. Recent daytime temperatures have been in the 40's with nights in the teens. I removed the insulation from the greenhouse vents so that the exhaust system can work because the greenhouse gets hot on sunny days with no wind.

Last week when I helped with the sheep I got knocked down and apparently jarred my pelvis enough to get it out of line again although the problem didn't show up for a couple of days, not until after I fell while snowshoeing in the pasture when I probably twisted something. I hope I have learned to watch my big feet and not step on one snowshoe with the other when I turn around. My snowshoes are 25 inches long and about 6 inches wide. It felt so good to be mobile again and I had walked about a mile on a 40 degree day with bright sun and no wind.

This afternoon I have an appointment with the chiropractor and have had about 3 lazy days now, doing a lot of reading while I try to not stress out of kilter parts of me. I have so many things I want to do in town, like taking the scatter rugs to wash in the big machine at the laundromat, and recycling a lot of things, but will put them off for another week so that I don't have to get in and out of the truck extra times.

My daughter in law got me a hyacinth forcing kit for Christmas. It came in a box with a pretty picture indicating dark purple blooms. I put the white stones in the big heavy glass vase, added the 3 bulbs, then a few more stones and water up to the base of the bulbs. This spent the next few weeks in my cool dark fruit and vegie storage room while the roots grew and the tops started to grow. When the largest one was about an inch high I brought the vase upstairs to a windowsill. Within days the pale yellow sprouts turned green and started to open as the flower stalks started to emerge. One is blooming now, it is pink instead of purple but smells wonderful. Sometime this spring, after they are finished blooming I will plant the bulbs in a flower bed.

Yesterday I saw our local fox trotting through the pasture and then sitting on a hillside in the sun. He seems very much at home, and I am sure he has seen much more of me than I have of him. A bald eagle was perched in one of our trees yesterday afternoon, and we saw a golden eagle on our way to town a few days ago, he was having breakfast with the ravens and magpies on a carcas of something that a neighbor had apparently dumped at the edge of a field, probably a calf since there are a lot of calves being born now and they don't all live. Tire tracks went to the spot but there were no drag marks, and no ribs visable so the animal wasn't very big. On the way home there was a dead deer on the highway near a haystack. Scavengers eat quite well here, even in the winter, they are God's clean up crew.

Mary

Today we are getting more snow! This is wet snow, so maybe it will contribute to the meltdown that has been happening in slow motion for the past couple of weeks. More of the fences are visable now, and some of them are harder to step over. One place which only had 2 wires showing now has 4, and I saw a patch of bare ground in the pasture yesterday. The horses are still in a small pasture because the place where 2 of them walked out last week still has a big drift over the fence.

Nip, my neighbor's dog came to visit again this morning after not being here in about 3 weeks. She cleaned out the cat food dish before I saw her, so now I have to be much more vigilant for a few days. Finding tasty rewards only encourages her to come back. My neighbor is feeding cattle near our place, and she is bored after a short time and comes here to see if I want to throw sticks for her. On one trip she brought a coyote's jawbone, I guess it looks like a stick to her, silly dog. Sticks are mostly under the snow now.

Paul often doesn't miss Nip for a while because he is busy unloading the hay a flake or two at a time, checking the cattle for possible problems, and watching where the feed truck is going. The truck goes very slowly in the lowest gear with the engine just idleing but nobody driving it. Paul stands on the bed and unloads the hay as the truck creeps through the field. He has to watch for ditches, fences, rocks and other obstacles, and has a kill switch he can reach to stop the truck. So, you can see that at times he just doesn't notice that his dog has left the scene.

I noticed that a lane has been plowed in the pasture behind the barn to start clearing places where there will be bare ground for lambing if the meltdown continues as it has. The ewes will be brought there a few days before the first lambs are due.

Two days ago I noticed that Ms Owl was sitting on a nest in our trees, the same one they used last year. I don't know the incubation time for owl eggs, but my guess is about a month. Spring is coming!

Mary

Our local fox trotted though the pasture a while ago, first going one direction and then the other, getting closer to the house but still a good distance away. I watched through the binoculars, at first just trying to decide if it was a coyote or a fox because of the distance. As I watched he suddenly stopped, scratched and sniffed at the snow for a few seconds, and just when I thought maybe he was going to take a nap, he pulled a wiggling sage rat out of the snow.

Crunch. Within about a minute he had eaten the whole thing, and continued on his way through the pasture, through a barbed wire fence into a neighboring grain field and out of my view. I wonder how many sage rats and mice it takes daily to support one fox. Mature sage rats are about 6 to 8 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound, so maybe equal to 6 mice. He's probably gone to sleep in his den and will hunt again in a few hours.

CajuninKy

I can imagine you must really be ready for Spring by now. I am tired of the cold but don't have a lot of snow to contend with. The mud is another story. A few of my horses are losing the feathering around their feet due to the clinging mud. We don't have heated water to wash them with so we have left it on to dry. I am soaking their ankles with MTG. I have a few horses that are losing patches of hair under their front legs and on the outsides of their hinds at the top. Don't know what that can be as it is not affecting all of them. I am soaking that in MTG also and if it doesn't get a handle on it I am going to take some scrapings to the vet and see if they have gotten into some kind of mite.

I feel sorry for you out in the cold for lambing season. I'm glad it only lasts a short time. Sounds like you all have it down to a science.

Nip sounds like a young dog. Most older BCs won't wander far from the "shepherd". They very much tend to be one person dogs. Mine is.

I was wondering if your horse had "scaled the wall" and escaped anymore. The snow sounds like it makes everything harder. We haven't had snow of that depth since I've been here in Ky. I hope we never do. LOL

Mary

It's a sunny day and I have laundry on the line! Maybe they will only get partially dry, but they will smell good! While I was hanging things out I was listening to red winged blackbirds, and I saw the season's first pair of robins. This week I can walk to the clothesline without walking in any snow, but that is only because the lawn between the sidewalk and the clothesline is an area that is like a windtunnel so there was only a few inches of snow there. The flower bed next to the clothesline still has about a foot of snow over it, but I know things are happening underground.

Yesterday was in the mid 40's again for about the 3rd or 4th day in a row. Our nights have been mild and snow in some places is melting fast. Parts of our driveway are icey, some are clear, but the part that leads up to the road was a real mess of deep, heavy slush yesterday. I had an appointment in town mid day and it took two attempts to get up to the road with 4 wheel drive. That made the mess in the driveway even worse with deep tracks going sideways. Even the trip back down the driveway was a slip, slide, fishtail experience. Thankfully last night it froze again, making hubby's exit this morning easy, and later this afternoon when it is soft again I will get on the tractor and clear it off. I'm sure my hubby will be surprised.

Cajun, around here the cattle get itchy about this time of year and some loose big patches of hair. The cause is lice. So far this year I haven't noticed any cattle having a problem, maybe because we have had a hard winter, or it could be just a little bit early for the problem to appear.

Although the snow is melting, the horses are still confined to one small pasture with ropes keeping them from going into the upper pasture where they could still walk out over the fences. The closed gates are still snowed in, and although I have thought about digging one out so I can get Patch out to ride him, I haven't done it since the only place where I could ride would be on the gravel county road, which would wear his feet down quickly and make him sorefooted. Shoes are still out of the question since they would be pulled off by the deep snow in the pasture. God might be teaching me patience, but I know better than to pray for it. He will give me what I need.

The horses are starting to shed, and they are rubbing against the fences, rolling in the snow, and grooming each other. I haven't had any problems with bugs on the horses, and the hair is loosening all over them, so I am sure it is just normal shedding.

Dinner will be a potroast with vegies cooked in the pan with it. I'm also making raisin bread, it is so good for toast or for French toast.

Mary

Yesterday I decided to start digging about 3 ft of snow away from a gate. It was too much of a job to finish in one session, so I worked on it again today and am pleased to say that the gate will open enough now to get a horse through it! Patch was lead out to the trailer where he ate some grain and vitamins while I groomed him a bit. The trailer is the only place where I can tie a horse since I do not ever tie them to fences. Now there is a pile of hair all around where he stood but he has plenty more. I didn't spend much time combing him since it was feeding time and the other horses were already eating their hay. He will be shedding for about 2 months before the winter hair is all gone.

Our temperature got up to almost 60 today. Heat wave! I was quite moist when I finished the shoveling job, it was an odd sensation after all these months of cold weather. The horses all watched me work, and when I opened the gate a little to see how much more I needed to do, one of them thought he was going to go out.

Lambing will be starting in just a few days. I'm looking forward to hugging some baby lambs, but not to the interrupted sleep and cold feet. I hope the weather will be nice this year, some years it is horrible. This weekend we will get the old blue truck going so I can use it to go back and forth to the neighbor's barn. It has been parked since the first snowfall which was about Thanksgiving, so it might need to be jump started. It is only 2 wheel drive, so we just don't drive it in the winter. Tomorrow I will dig out the snowbank behind it so it can be moved more easily.

Our driveway is in good shape since I plowed it a couple of days ago and more of the snow that was left has been melting. Some fences have partially reappeared, and I can see a few more crocus, daffodills and tulips coming up in the flower beds that are getting a bit larger every day as the snow melts away. I think spring really is coming.

CajuninKy

Our horses are all shedding too. We also have 2 that are losing hair in patches and ending up with bald spots. I am treating them with MTG and it is taking care of the problem. I don't know what is causing it. It's 2 of the black horses. The other black horse is fine. They all eat the same feed and are in the same bedding. They are all exposed to the same things so I don't know what it can be. As long as I can clear it up it doesn't matter much. I will be so glad when we can ride again on a regular basis.

Do you work for the neighbor or do you raise the sheep on parts with him?

Mary

What is MTG? I'm glad it seems to be helping. Some individuals are just more sensitive to things. If those two related, that may be a clue to an allergic reaction.

The sheep all belong to my neighbor. I get hay or meat in trade for my work and the pasture we lease to him.

Mary

Here is the gate I finished digging out yesterday. The snowdrift was quite solid and is 30 inches high in the middle of the left side.

Mary

The flower bed on the south end of the house is reappearing slowly. This is the same one I showed you a few weeks ago when the snowdrift was right up to the corner of the porch. A few tulip leaves are showing, some just with red tips, and some already green! The rose bushes below the porch railing are not showing any signs of life yet.

Mary

Two of the retired horses have been put out into the big pasture to earn their own living. Yesterday afternoon I stomped a trail through melting snow to the gate, then dug out the end that opens just enough to let one horse through at a time. It is a wire gate, so the wooden gate stays in the 2 ft deep undisturbed snow held 2/3 of the gate upright while I opened the other end. This morning they were near the gate at feeding time, and I wondered if it was because they hadn't found enough grass, or if they were just there out of habit, so I carried 2 flakes of hay to them. They ate about half of it and wandered away to nibble on shoots of green grass in the bare patches.

While they were eating I took advantage of the frozen snow surface and walked down to the pond to make sure they have water available. No problem, even after a 20 degree night there was a nice little open spot they can reach, and so they are on their own and our haystack will last twice as long. We didn't start the winter with our usual amount of hay and might have been needing to find some to buy at high prices since the hay supply everywhere in the northwest was not normal last year. Many producers held back part of their crop to sell late in the winter for more money.

Hubby was told that our irrigation water will be late arriving this year, delayed because of the ditch that carries it being filled with snow, which is a sign of a good snowpack that hopefully will give us a longer than usual supply. We usually don't get any water until about mid April, so nobody knows how late it will be. Meanwhile, our snow is melting very slowly and all that water is going into the ground to replenish the water table. It's been years since the grass in the pastures looked this green this early. Spring hasn't even officially arrived yet!

The spring that feeds the water tank in the small pasture is running quite well again, so I disconnected the tank heater and the extension cords, took down baracades around the tank that kept the horses from falling into it when they couldn't see it, and still have some of those things to put away. The horses can drink from the entire upper side of the tank instead of just the one corner they used for several weeks. Feeding time is pretty easy for me now without having to clear a path to the tank twice a day. The snow along the fence by the feeders is going away but I still have to watch my step.

Yesterday I worked in the greenhouse removing aphid infested plants and tossing them out into the snow. Every year about this time the aphids get ahead of my control measures. I threw out a big unruly tomato plant that not only had aphids but some kind of blight that made many of the leaves turn brown. It was a very productive volunteer plant of unknown parentage. I picked about 20 nice ripe tomatoes off it, cut it into pieces and carried them carefully to the door, trying not to shed aphids as I went.

Also on the greenhouse hit list was 4 beets that had huge ugly roots but were still making nice tender greens that were another treat for the aphids, and a few old chard plants that were also horribly infested. I had tried washing the bugs off so we could eat the greens, but never could get all of them. I think I need to grow onions with the greens, or maybe garlic. And I need to be more diligent in the future about spotting and spraying the bugs before they take over. The organic or not too toxic sprays I have used might handle a few bugs but not on the scale of what happens when I ignore them at first hoping they will go away.

Recently I read that aphids can reproduce without mating (born pregnant) and from the time they hatch it only takes them 10 days to produce another generation! There was no indication in the article about how many one aphid produces, but my guess is they are more prolific than rabbits.

Some of my ornamental plants have a different kind of aphids, but I do spray those, I am not too fussy when it comes to something I do not plan to eat, but I don't go too nutty about it because I have frogs in the greenhouse and don't want to poison them along with the bugs.

CajuninKy

MTG is Mane and Tail groom. It's very oily and has sulpher in it. The 2 are not related though they look almost identical. I have found another horse with the same thing. The buckskin mare. I am using the MTG on her and am watching the others closely.

Looks like it's nearly spring for you. Its was nice here yesterday. DH and I got to do a bit of riding. It was so nice to be astride again. It's another beautiful day today. Should hit 71 and sunny so I am hoping to go for another spin. Got a friend coming over to look at one of the horses. He has asked to raise a foal out of her from his stallion. We'll see.

What kind of saddle do you use on your endurance rides?

Mary

Bare patches in the pastures are getting larger and the snowbanks are getting smaller every day, but it is very slow. And I am not too patient. The flower beds on the west side of the house are clear of snow so I could start some cleaning of those.

So far I have not ridden Patch but he does get to come out of the pasture to be groomed a little bit and to eat his grain and vitamins without Breezy sticking his big nose in there. Breezy is the dominant one of the two, so Patch would only get one bite and Breezy would steal the rest. Patch will not be ready for the first ride of the season this year, just 3 weeks away now. I can't ride him without shoes and the snowdrifts in the pasture would just pull them off like mud.

Cajun, I use a saddle that is made for endurance, it looks like a combination of western and English. There are lots of kinds of endurance saddles out there. The one I use on Patch is called Specialized, but that company makes several different ones. Mine has a western style seat without a horn, and the stirrup leathers are a bit more like English, but not really like either one. I use stirrups that have a plastic framework and a 5 inch tread with a cushion for more comfortable feet when trotting for long periods of time.

Because of the high cost of fuel, and the distance I have to drive to get to many of the rides, I will not be going to as many this year. I have ridden over 1000 miles per year for most of the last 15 years, so you could say that I've been there, done that and have nothing I need to prove. Last year I didn't do as many as the previous year and it felt good to have more time to do things around home and not be running in fast forward so much. The ones I go to will be carefully selected. Riding in snowstorms and thunderstorms is not something I need to do anymore.

Lambing is taking up a lot of my time in recent days. I get up at 12:30am to go check them, and usually am home again in less than 2 hours, but then I am wide awake and it takes time to get sleepy again, so then I sleep late. It's a crazy schedule but I only have to be doing it for about a month.

Mary

Here is a link to my saddle. On the left of the page click see saddles, mine is the last one on the page. Add stirrups like those on the saddle next to it. The really unique part of the saddle is what you don't see, the foam pannels on the underside can be fitted to one horse, removed in one piece and have another setup for another horse. They attach by velcro. Peel one set off and put another on and it fits a different horse. I have two sets, one for a fat Patch and another for when he is slimmer later in the season.

http://specializedsaddles.com/new/

CajuninKy

How cool is that!! Angelsong on DG was asking about the fit of a saddle changing as the muscles developed into riding season. Bet she'd be interested in such a system.
What is the reasoning behind no horn? My DH has those stirrups on both his saddles. He has a partial amputation of his left foot so the extra footing helps him feel more secure.

1000 miles a season. You go girl! Or rather, you stay home girl! LOL You have earned a rest. I am of the same mind as you. I have ridden some wild broncs in my time and I don't need to do it anymore. I want riding to be fun now. Not a job.

Mary

Saddle horns are designed for roping cattle, I am not roping anything! They can also be dangerous in rough country if you go up and come down in the wrong place as an acquaintance of mine did last year. She was on a mule that suddenly bucked coming down a mountain, and was thrown up and came down on the saddle horn. The force separated her pelvis by 4 inches and destroyed the pelvic arch. Her husband was riding with her and saw the whole thing happen. He said she came down on that saddle horn 3 times.

She spent about a month in the hospital after surgery that required lots of metal bars, rods and screws to reconstruct her pelvis. She wasn't walking for 3 months. I was telling an endurance rider nurse friend of mine about it and she says she has seen a few similiar cases in the ER and would never ride in a saddle with a horn. Saddle bronc riders don't want them either.

On the home front, things have been quiet. I'm watching the snowbanks shrinking, and I have to say that is something like watching paint dry! Tulips, daffodills and spring snowdrops are coming up, daylilies are getting little green shoots, and I see one or two brave viola (little mini pansys) are blooming near the foundation. Big beautiful pansys are being sold at the discount store but they are 99 cents each, and I left them for somebody else.

Yesterday was sunny with a breeze and above freezing all day and all night too, but today the clouds have come, rain or snow is in the forecast, and the wind is strong and feels cold even with the thermometer registering 40 degrees. When I fed the horses this morning I heard the greenhouse vent flapping in the wind, so I wired it closed again to conserve heat. It opens automatically with changes in air pressure, fine if that change is from the thermostatically controlled fan that is pushing hot air out of the greenhouse, but not when the northwest wind hits it and makes it flap when the furnace is trying to keep the greenhouse warm.

Lamb production is in a lull for now. When I checked the sheep at 1am there were no new lambs and only one the night before. Now that the weather has changed they will probably start again. The barn chart shows only 4 lambs born all day yesterday. They seem to arrive in waves and it's about time for another one.

Mary

Paint branding is painless. The paint dries in about half an hour. Sometimes it gets a bit smeared before then, but we usually manage to read it anyhow. All the members of the same family get the same number. Red paint is for twins and blue for single lambs. If a ewe is sick or if the lambs get sick and need to come back to the barn, we know how many lambs we need to find to keep the family together.

It's not your eyes, the picture is a bit out of focus because I was hurrying to get it.

Mary

Some lambs just have cuter faces than others. It's just a bit out of focus. I had to hurry with this picture because the mother was worrying about her baby.

Mary

Ewes and lambs enjoying the warmth of the sunshine in the pasture.

Mary

Back on the home front, you can see how anxious the daffys are to get out of the ground where there was snow just yesterday! Isn't God just amazing! He has been working on this undercover!

Mary

Today I worked in the greenhouse, watering everything and also planting some seeds in cell packs. The heat mat is hooked up to come on at 8pm and turn off at 8am. With bottom heat, they will be up in about half the time the seed packets predict. It gets warm enough in the daytime for them to only need to keep their little feet warm at night. These are all cool weather types, lettuce of several varieties, cabbage, brocolli, Swiss chard, all things that don't mind some frost. I can set them out into the garden rows in about 3 more weeks. By then the soil should be dry enough to run the rototiller. Meanwhile, I need to be busy with a shovel and wheelbarrow, moving some of my ample supply of horse manure.

I took a brief trip down to the barn about mid morning to see what was happening there, not much, the recent lamb explosion has slowed down at least for now. I haven't brought in any lambs at 1am for a couple of nights, but by 4 there have been several and it continued all day. Over the last 2-3 days about 20 ewes delivered lambs. The mothering (community) pens are full and those ewes and their lambs will be graduating to the pasture tomorrow.

Snow had covered the ground again sometime after I came home from my 1am lamb check, but by about 10am the sun had provided enough warmth to make it all melt. We still have some big snowbanks, but the flower beds are mostly clear. The next few days will be showery, sometimes in the form of rain, sometimes snow. We even had hail a few days ago, the horses ran around trying to get away from it, but when they realized they couldn't, they just stood there until it was over. Of course they never run into the little shed, it is too noisy with hail on a metal roof.

Mary

Big fat snowflakes are falling and the ground is almost covered again. Earlier today I took more pictures of the disappearing snowbanks and emerging landscape, and also took some pictures of plants that are blooming in the greenhouse.

One plant, a Dracena that is several years old, grew to about 4 ft tall, and has a bloom at the top. It's a foliage plant and I had no idea it would bloom, but it must be happy to be in the greenhouse. Last winter I was reading that if the top is cut off the plant can be rerooted, and it was getting ugly because it has about 2 ft of bare stem and is growing crooked. Instead, we moved it out to the greenhouse to make room for the Christmas tree. Now I'm glad I didn't cut it off. God is constantly surprising me!

I also have cactus in bloom and a few amaryllis. When I get the pictures downloaded I will post some of them, that is assuming that they are any good. Today was a good day for taking greenhouse pictures because it was overcast and there won't be so many shadows.

By the weekend we will be out of firewood and will have to run the propane furnace. I love wood heat even through it is messy and requires attention several times a day. We have been burning the elm limbs we trimmed off the trees a year ago last fall, they are well dried and hold the fire a long time, and they do produce a lot of heat, but they do not catch easily so I have been using some white fir to get the fire going and produce some coals, then add the elm. It makes a horrible amount of ash, so instead of cleaning out the woodstove about once every week, I've had to clean it about every 3rd day.

Some red is showing in the middle of the rhubarb! The leaves come out of a big fat red bud, and those buds are pushing their way up through the mulch now. No sign of the asparagus yet, the rhubarb is always first. Last week I made a rhubarb cobbler from a package that I found hiding in the corner of the chest freezer where things tend to hide, actually get lost, for months at a time. I was looking for something else, but decided it was time to use it up before the new stalks come on.

I sweetened the rhubarb, added cornstarch (not quite enough as it turned out a bit runny, oh, that's juicy), then put a top on it that reminds me of something between a cake and a biscuit. Served warm with vanilla ice cream, it was pronounced a winner! There is another package lurking in the freezer so I think I will make it again in a couple of weeks.

Here's the recipe for the top. You are on your own with the bottom part, just sweeten fruit and add thickening agent as if you were making a pie.

Cobbler top, use with any fruit.

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 beaten eggs

Mix together and drop by spoonfulls on top of fruit. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes, until fruit is soft and the top is browned. This makes enough for a 9x13 inch pan.

Doesn't that just make you hungry?

CajuninKy

I have never eaten rhubarb but have wondered about it. Is it a fruit or a veggie?

Mary

I would consider it a vegetable since there are no seeds inside the part that is eaten. The plant does send up flower/seed stalks which I break off as soon as I see them. Only the stems, which look like pink celery are cooked and eaten, the leaves have something toxic in them. My son got my daughter in law to taste raw rhubarb and although she is a wonderful Christian, I'm not sure she will ever forgive him for that! If you have a garden spot, I would be happy to send you a chunk of the root to start your own plant. Once established, it will live for decades, so it's important to consider it's place carefully!

The plant will eventually occupy about 4x4 feet. Most years, in the fall, I apply a few shovelfulls of manure after the frost kills the tops, and then cover it with straw mulch. In the spring the sprouts come up through all of that. Occasional watering is all it needs. Late summer heat zaps it, but I eat or store most of mine away in the spring and early summer anyhow. I revived my plants the year my friend from Thibodoux came so she could taste fresh rhubarb cobbler.

CajuninKy

I do have a place for it and I would love to try it. It is so kind of you to offer. Would that friend be JustmeLisa?

Mary

Yes, that friend would be Lisa.

Cajun, I was trying to figure out how to contact you to get a mailing address without either of us giving our email or mailing addresses here on a public forum. Are you on DG? If so we can correspond there through the DMail system.

It's bright and sunny here, but cold with a bit of wind. I started setting out some pansys yesterday, but got chilled and gave it up when a snow flurry came along. At this point I am waiting for a few more degrees. It will be nice to have some flowers to look at before the daffodills burst open in a couple more weeks. I did see 2 lonesome little crocus yesterday, bravely showing me their nice purple against a background of brown leaves that mulch the flower bed.

Some of the seeds I planted about 4 days ago are already up, looking like little plants already. The lettuce looks different from the spinach, and the cabbage and brocolli don't look like either, or exactly like each other, although they are cousins or something. God's creation amazes me! yesterday I prepared more pots and planted more lettuce, and some kohlrabi. All these things will hopefully be just the perfect size to get out of their little pots when I can get a strip rototilled in the garden for them. I'm anxious to be eating fresh homegrown greens again.

A few days ago I was watching a fox who was trotting through our big pasture, stopping now and then to sniff at a mound of dirt, then trotting on. He is kind of a light copper/gold color, very pretty against the green grass. His bushy tail is as long as his body and has a white tip, while his muzzle and legs are almost black so as to appear that he might have been wading in muddy water and sticking his nose down into the water trying to catch something for his dinner. If I can remember to ask God when I see Him, someday I might know why the fox has those colors where he does.

Mary

Easter Sunrise service, cold and short! Regular morning service, indoors and warm!

After church we treated out son and daughter in law to lunch at a very nice buffet, and then they came out to our house and we visited until after dark. It is exciting to see how the Lord is working in their lives!

It's been a full day and I am ready for sleep.

CajuninKy

Glad you had a good day. Ours was nice also. No sunrise service this year. We had our play for the morning service. Knock sang a special. He did good. Then we were invited to a friend's for lunch. It was nice. We visited and sang songs. Knock talked us into playing Wii with him. It was fun and funny. Knock and his mom went to a play at another church last night with friends while we went to the barn and did the work so we all had a full day.

Mary

Only one patch of snow remains in the big lasagna bed and it will be completely gone in another day or two. I have been cleaning a flower bed so that I can plant some pansies I bought to have some instant color. I'll have to dig up some of the asters to clean the quackgrass roots from around the plant roots. Pulling it up just leaves too many pieces of root that all make another plant. The project is going slower than I thought it would, but it sure is good to see that wheelbarrow load of weeds and grass that was growing in the edge of the bed yesterday. A full wheelbarrow always makes me feel that I am making progress!

This morning I took a walk around the vegie garden patch and noticed that my row of garlic is coming up through the mulch. When I planted it last fall I put bone meal in the row because it helps plants make good root systems, and that night a raccoon dug up a lot of the row because the bone meal apparently smelled like something he wanted to eat. I replanted the garlic and hoped for the best.

Yesterday I got 3 loads of wash dry on the line and today it is cold and windy again and looks like it could snow any minute. I don't mind saying that I have had enough winter! It's a good day to work in the greenhouse, and maybe wash some windows, at least on the inside. When the sun came up this morning and was shining though the kitchen window into the office where I sit at the computer, I saw spots! Nothing like bright sun to show up a dirty window.

A week or so ago, a stray cat showed up here. I always give them a chance to adapt and be nice, but they seldom are. Poor Neut got beat up and is limping round on 3 legs when he isn't hiding, so the stray has to go. Yesterday I set my live catch trap and baited it with a handful of dry cat food. The food disappeared but the trap didn't close. No cat in it this morning either, and I haven't seen him. All day yesterday I was very careful not to leave the cat food dish outside, and I hope he got hungry and decided our cafe is closed. Our cats got fed and the dish is in the house again.

Mary

Yesterday another storm rolled in and our world has turned white again. This one would have to be called a spring storm since the calendar says it is officially spring, but it has that look of winter just the same. The freeway was closed in both directions from town yesterday afternoon.

Today is the first endurance ride of the 2008 season and I am glad not to be there trying to keep warm. I haven't been riding at all yet, and don't even have shoes on Patch because of the deep snowbanks in the pasture. My farrier is gone someplace for a few days and will call me back in a few days. I haven't planned to do many rides this year anyhow, and will be doing more gardening and projects around home.

The stray cat finally got himself into the trap. I called a couple of places to see where I could take him, he seemed to be quite tame. So he is now relocated and I hope he will fit in and be a nice boy.

Neut is still limping around carefully. I didn't see him yesterday so took the food to the hay shed and fed him there. By last night he was putting the sore foot down and using it a bit. I don't blame him for not coming to the house in the storm.

Today and tomorrow a flower and garden show is being held in Boise, but we might not be going because of the road conditions. I had been looking forward to it especially since I have never been able to go due to it being on the same weekend as the first ride of the season. This year was my chance, but instead I might be staying home with a good book and trying to forget the weather.

CajuninKy

Sorry to hear you are in the grips of old man winter yet again. You must be so ready for Spring. At least you have your greenhouse. It must be a necessity there.

Are the ewes all finished lambing now? If not, how will the storm affect them?

Does the endurance season always start so early? How does anyone in your area get into shape for a ride that early with your conditions? We haven't been riding much here and I know we don't get nearly the weather you guys have to contend with. Yesterday would have been a really nice day to ride here, but DH has an infection in his foot and leg and has to stay off it. The work took all my time yesterday so I didn't get to ride either. Hope the weather lets me ride a few times this week. I need to get in some hours on a couple horses I need to move soon. Haven't been able to ride my own horse since last October. He's liable to forget he is broke to ride. LOL

I planted 2 potatoes yesterday in my old tires. I hope they do well. My seedlings don't look so good. Guess I am just not a good gardener. My seed order came in from The Cook's Garden yesterday. I have to make me some more newspaper cups. I may have not used a good potting soil for my seedlings. I think the mixture might be a bit heavy. What do you reccomend for starting seeds?

Mary

Yesterday after church our son and daughter in law came out for dinner and visiting. Our daughter in law assisted with getting all the proper codes entered and pages downloaded so we can claim our rebate from the internet company. Actually, I handed her the paperwork, hubby dug a couple of invoices out of the drawer, and she did the rest! Today she begins another term of nursing school, and we will hardly see anything of her at all until summer break.

We didn't go to the garden show since another storm was supposed to slam us that day. The weatherman missed this one, or the storm missed us, but anyhow, we had decided we didn't care to be driving home in another wintery storm. The freeway between here and Boise had been closed in both directions from town the day before, and the second part of the storm was predicted to follow the same track, but somehow it missed us. I have consoled myself thinking of all the money we saved on gas, admission, lunch, and anything we might have bought.

I don't know the status of the remaining ewes who hadn't lambed when I stopped doing the night checks. The little group was down to 6 the last time I counted, and they would have been put into the barn overnight and watched periodically during the day. The ewes with lambs are out in a field, but the lambs use their mothers for shelter when the snow and wind come. They also still have the creep feeder to get into and an old homestead house that is an excellent windbreak. The old house is a storage area so they can't get inside, but they can go all around it to find the sheltered side. When the owner feeds them he watches carefully for any lambs who look sick.

The endurance season starts with a ride about the last weekend in March or first weekend in April every year. This was an exceptionally snowy year but there are lots of other riders who live in places in the region where conditions have been much better for riding. Usually I begin riding earlier, when there is still some snow, but this year the big drifts in our pastures were the main problem since they would have pulled shoes off and I can't ride on gravel roads without shoes. Patch needed more time off anyhow because he had problems all of last season with sore tendons.

A call to my farrier got me his answering machine with a message saying he would call back after March 31, so it might be a while before I can get Patch's feet into shape for riding anyplace other than our field. I haven't been to anxious to get out there in the cold wind anyhow.

We have had a pair of trumpeter swans on our pond for over a week now, and this morning another one has joined them. They are white with black bills and feet, and they are larger than the Canada geese. I wonder if they will decide to stay here to raise their young, they never have before. We also have a pair of Canada geese and a few mallard ducks swimming around down there this morning. The pond is about 1/4 mile from the house so I spy on them with the binocculars that I keep on the windowsill.

Yesterday we saw an antelope napping in the sun in our neighbor's pasture which is beyond our pond. Technically they are Pronghorns, not antelope, but nearly everyone calls them antelope. This is the first one we have ever seen from the house in the 15 years we have lived here. We often see them another mile or so away when we are on our way to town, so this one might have just been doing some exploring when he found a nice place to take a nap. I took the camera along when we headed for town, but didn't see any closer than about half a mile away. This herd migrates in a large area, some of it private land and much of it government land. I understand that they were brought in from somewhere like Wyoming to replace or augment our native herd.

I have been reading about potato diseases on a page from Cornell University that also has pictures. My garden soil is infected with several of them and so I will be using tires for a few years for potatoes, tomatoes and peppers to try to get good crops without resorting to chemicals. I still need to go to the farm store and get some certified potato starts, and I will throw out all the homegrown ones from last year. My compost piles all have peelings and trimmings from infected potatoes, so I can't even use my own compost to grow them.

Here is the link to the potato page I mentioned.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.co...u/factsheets/Potato_Detection.htm

And here is a not too good picture of some of the local pronghorns that I was able to get because they had just crossed the highway and I was able to stay behind the car. it was taken in late summer when nothing is green anymore, but they were looking for something before they moved on over the hill. If there is any grass left, it would be near the base of the sagebrush where it gets a bit of shelter from the sun and might have been missed by other grazing animals.

Mary

They were very nervous about the car being stopped by the side of the road, so they didn't stay long. I just barely got this picture.

Mary

This narrative is continued on Book 4.