Don't get me wrong! I'm far from being anti-science. In fact, I do believe that there certainly is a remote possibility that some of us humans may not always serve as the best stewards of the earth.
So, the fact that I'm ready for a little climate change at the Lovestead should not be interpreted as either a believer or nonbeliever.
I do believe, however, that we've had enough of this unorthodox brand of winter weather, which, in its latest chapter, had brought on flooding on top of multiple bone-breaking ice. Not a fun combination.
And, please don't start spouting those perennial put downs to anyone who dares to open their mouth and gripe in February: it's North Idaho. Get over it. It's winter, for Heavens sake.
For those of us who have lived through more than our share of North Idaho winters, I'm proclaiming that it's okay to gripe about the one we've experienced this year.
After all, when virtually every muscle in one's body aches from pounding on ice, shoveling water-logged snow in search of a drain area for streams or lakes of water from newly melted ice, beating on stubborn barn doors, bailing water out of horse stalls with a shovel and a cart or sinking into ankle deep manure water through melting ice, one reaches the point of thinking that maybe this farm life isn't all that much fun.
We gathered at our usual Friday-night dinner last evening to share our battle stories, which are pretty much like those of everyone else in the region, living in the country.
At least, we can drive to town. On last night's news, we heard about a few families over in Washington who are stuck on their farms because flood waters have gone over their routes out.
So, it could be worse.
The plus side of all this is that the sun did shine yesterday, and the rain did stop, allowing folks to get caught up on the individual calamities brought on by the Wednesday night-Thursday downpour.
In fact, after pounding, shoveling and expressing a lot of gratitude to my Yak Tracks for keeping me upright, I walked over and CLOSED THE BARN DOOR.
By golly, it opened too, and very easily. First time in over a month we've had that success. And, it was nice enough to open easily for me this morning.
Little victories! Oh, so sweet.
We also eventually dug to and opened the culvert which dispatched a whole lot of water from the shop and the area around the shop. Lily's original stall is now dry and clean. Lily likes her new stall and is so neat and tidy that she drops her apples in one half and leaves the other half clean.
While Bill was chipping away at more ice during some pleasant afternoon sunshine, I planted a few posies and a whole bunch of tomatoes on the tailgate of the pickup.
We also took the binoculars down the lane to make sure I had really spotted a coyote over in Meserve's field. By the time I'd walked to the house for the binocs and walked back, it looked as if the alleged coyote had left.
But no, once I peered through the binocs, I could see that the critter had found itself a nice place to lie down and soak up some sunshine. Our dogs were barking and playing, and that alerted the coyote of our presence. It looked our way, got up and then calmly trotted off through the field to the west.
I reported to Bill that I had also seen deer and turkeys at Betty Berger Pass on North Kootenai Road.
It appears that critters and humans alike were loving the brief springlike retreat from the winter battle.
I'm not in to a big climate change here at the Lovestead, but a little more sun, a lot less snow, NO more ice and only rain that washes off the snow------that's what I'll order from the weather menu.
Whether or not I'll want to send my serving back to Mother Nature's kitchen, we'll see. If she does come through, I'll be happy to tip with a few smiles and a whole lot of praise.
Regardless of weather, it's another good day cuz the ZAGS play Pacific at 1 p.m. PST on KHQ/Root this afternoon in the Kennel.
The ZAG faithful will certainly be ordering up another win to make it 28-0. And, if that happens, we can take whatever Mother Nature doles out to us today.
Happy Saturday. GO, ZAGS!
No comments:
Post a Comment