signs of ‘spring’???

You know, I started to write this post over a month ago. And I honestly believed that spring was around the corner. There were several signs. Yeah, I know… some time before this post I showed you a video of poor Mittens the barn cat in a terrible blizzard. At least he thought it was a terrible blizzard.

So how did I know spring was on its way? The usual observations as shown below…

Oops, well, maybe not that photo. It was only a balmy 7F that morning. But there was sunshine, doesn’t that count?

Then finally the black birds arrived, as well as flocks of geese flying overhead, the eagle back to the Eagle Tree in the long pasture (hence the nickname the ‘eagle tree’), snow melting during the day and freezing overnight making driving and walking interesting, sump pump running, little bulls starting to think they are big bulls by pestering the ladies and young ladies so they were evicted to the bull pasture to pester the big boys (a few mamas moo-hooed a couple of restless nights – for us, not them – as payback for stealing their little brats), chickens laying more eggs,

foothills revealing bare spots with glimpses of grass and the flowering bulbs pushing up foliage, leaf buds on the trees swelling larger that will soon burst into green leaves, the leaves that didn’t fall off this past fall are now dropping onto the ground as each storm blows through, I’m starting to get the garden itch, seed catalogs arriving in the mail, stores stocked up on gardening supplies and seeds, cows itching and scratching because they were either buggie or shedding or both, and because of itchy cows there is plenty of fence work to be done, more blue skies with daytime temperatures above 30F, tom turkeys starting to spar and puff, goat hooves in need of a trim, cows getting rounder, and it did seem like winter was taking its last gasp of the snow/rain/freeze/sunshine cycle that usually happens around this time of year.

So here we are over a month later. Most of the snow is gone, except in the deep shadows and on the mountains. We’ve had some days of flash flooding due to rain and warm temps. The river and creeks all reached flood stage and did some damage to property throughout the area. Frozen ground became a slimy mess and the Month of Mud suddenly became official. Then a few days of warm temperatures and warmer nights only to revert to winter all over again.

Well, it’s been over a month and the Month of Mud continues in the cycle of mud, dry mud, mud, dry mud and soft spots of hidden mud. Puddles of water sit in areas never seen before as is true with seeps running out of hillsides. The trees and bushes have not burst into green foliage. Grass is still in its semi-hibernation stage but the cattle and other animals want that green grass. It’s taunting them. There are a few cows who have very sensitive hearing and can hear the grass screaming in glee as it bursts through the soil reaching towards the little sunshine we’ve had. It must hurt their ears. Poor cows.

So finally with predictions (again) of warming temperatures maybe the plastic on the windows can finally come off, seed (of some kind) can be planted in the garden, the trees may finally burst into foliage so that we can maybe, just maybe, get on with the season called ‘spring’.

Oh, and another sign of spring……

Until next time….
~hobo