More Snow

Not much, but enough to make our morning walk enchanting.  I don't really know as Bella cared one way or the other about taking a walk in the snow, but she enjoyed herself as usual.  I enjoyed myself, too.  Snow makes familiar sights along the walk enchanting.


 

I wonder if it makes it more difficult for Bella to smell where the squirrels have been.  

Every weed, every vine and tree are turned into a work of art, etched over with white.




I see the above vine looped over on itself most every day we go down there, but seeing it covered in white makes it really stand out.  I think it's an old grape vine.  It would have to be old.  Gary had the cows down there in summers for close on to 20 years or more, and they wouldn't have allowed a new grapevine to grow.  In fact, since there haven't been cows down there for a couple of years now, there's  more and more vegetation taking over again.  Probably even poison ivy/poison oak, though I haven't seen any yet.  Cows love that stuff, and it doesn't seem to affect them at all.  I think the deer eat it too.

In fact, the weeds and grass are all super thick and tangled where Gary doesn't mow.  It makes great habitat for rodents.

Bella loves digging for the rodents in the weeds.  As you can see:


 She had disappeared for some time, and when she caught back up with me she looked like this.  Seemed pretty pleased with herself.  I like to watch her, all I can see are her hindquarters and wagging tail above the weeds. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy.
Read more