Pretty stuff

My former student, Darlene Deeter Steffensen, sent me this yesterday. She reads my blog and figured I needed to be reminded that the flies and flowers will come. Of course, Darlene snapped this shot over on the West Coast, where I've been told by my daughter Annie that there has been a spring.

We're still hoping.

I did some fencing yesterday----after the snow followed by rain finally ceased. This project was a stretch along the border between our place and Meserve's. Stan has been repairing fence for the past few days in preparation for Bert Wood's herd of cows. He just kinda shook his head yesterday, as we visited over the fence in a furious snowstorm, and said usually the cows come by May 1, but he doubts there'll be enough grass by then.

We have a double row of fences between our place and Meserve's. The previous owners of this place had the goats and the goat fences. Stan said he usually didn't worry too much because those cows would have to go through his electric wire and then four strands of electrified zappings if they were wanting to come over for a visit.

We quit the all-electrified look and its no-so-inviting sensations that scared off neighbors, cows, deer, just about anything that dared set foot onto this place. The fences remain but not the jolts. I think the word has gotten out too, especially to the deer, and last year some of Bert's calves knew those fences on our side held no punch.

We don't intend to go back to shock-and-awe here, but we do have fence to fix. Last night's project involved about an hour's worth of pulling up the correct strands from the ground and stringing them back through their respective clamps. It took some time, and my finished job "ain't purty," as some folks would say, but I think it will work.

We've got lots of other sections of fence to do, and I figure if we approach a segment a day, we could get it all back in order within the next couple of weeks.

The rainy, snowy weather has been good for soft ground. That's good for some things, bad for others. Bill gave me pointers on using the new Kubota tractor with its loader because I was anxious to move the long bread-loaf pile of barn shavings and manure that built up over the winter.

After a couple of tries with the loader (I'm still learning to get coordinated with the up-down, up-down gears for bucket and its hydraulic lift), I stopped that job cuz the tractor was leaving big ruts in the grassy area around the piles.

The wet is good for digging up new sod, though. So, this week, one of my daily projects has been spading new rows couple of feet at a time in the garden west of the house. When and if it's safe to put all that greenhouse stuff outside, I'll need plenty of room, especially for all those healthy cucumber plants---and the cantaloupes.

Maybe, by this weekend, if weather forecast holds true with temps in the 60s, I can quit dreaming about pretty stuff and start snapping my own photos.

In the meantime, thanks, Darlene for the reminder. I did send your photo off to my sisters, Laurie and Barbara, who will be glad to know that flies are flourishing over there on the coast.