Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 It is difficult to tell that everything is icy today; but it is.  Strangely enough, those are puddles you can see there, but it's ice underneath, so it was treacherous trying to walk around.  The dog and I stuck to walking in the grass or leaf litter so we'd have some traction.  I put old rags or towels down on the porch steps to get out the door. We left a white trail of ice around the yard on our walk. I guess the top picture is a bit more obvious. At any rate, while I am not longing for the 100 degree days and high humidity of summer,  I have had enough of winter weather drama for a bit now. 

Such is life. My rechargeable batteries for the camera went kaput; or else it's the charger that won't work, I don't have any AA batteries on hand. So, there goes posting any more recent pics for awhile...at least until I can get to the store and get some. Oh, well. What has been going on here? It's icy. Well, yesterday we had a day of sleet, which partially melted and refroze, leaving a sheet of cement/ice that requires great care to walk on; especially if you are carrying a child. It-the sleet-didn't start 'til mid-morning, so husband and I were able to do some fetching and hauling. On Wed evening hubby came home and noticed a calf up to the dry cow pen. Then when he put hay out Thur (yest) AM he saw another cow up there calving. So we waited a while then went up and checked out the situation. Yep. Two healthy calves. Unfortunately the first calf was a bull. Why "unfortunately?" He was another little red calf. I think his mom came from the ...

(this pic is from the ice storm last January...there really hasn't been many good winter photo ops for this year...and I am just as glad, too.) Anyone who lives out in the sticks and has livestock can relate I am sure. Doing chores in winter is such a drag. Hubby bears the brunt of it, especially now since I have the baby to look after. But I try to do my part. For starters you have to dress up like the Michelin man (he's this tire company's cartoon dude-all puffy and bulky looking) in about 100 layers of clothing, some of it insulated. I start off with just a t-shirt, then a pair of insulated coveralls, then a flocked hooded zippy sweater, then an old quilted chore coat. Then you finally add a pair of insulated boots, which weigh about a ton and give your legs a good workout. This process takes most of the morning and by the time you have the next-to-the-last layer on you realize that you have to go to the bathroom, so you go and then start the process all over again. When...

In tribute to what those in Oklahoma and other areas of the Mid-West are going through, here is a poem from one of the masters of poetry, along with a couple of photos I took from our ice storm back in January. I feel badly for those who are going through it now, I remember quite vividly how horrible it was to be without power. We were without power for 9 days and it was awful. We had to milk using a generator, and we went down to husband's mom's place to sleep. It stayed cold-well below freezing-for so long and the ice didn't melt and the limbs kept falling and we had to slip and slid around on the ice doing chores. A veritable nightmare. The first pic is a shot of husband's granddad's place and the damage to their shade oak tree. It has recovered a bit by now, but it's still sad. The second pic is some dogwood buds on ice. Robert Frost had it right; ice is great for destruction... Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’...