Along the Road; At the Court

 

Just seconds after I told Bill I was going to head out with my camera to see if I could find some photos, I received a text from our neighbor Colleen.

"Hi, Marianne. First new calf of the season born last night. She's in the nursery with her mama."

Bill and I had both noted a day or so ago that it was about time for Filipowski's Hereford calves to start arriving. 

And, so No. 1 has made her appearance and within 24 hours of her life on earth has had her picture taken. 

And, I have satisfied my desire to see baby calves in the early spring. 

Speaking of farm life, I've been wondering why we haven't received a Gooby Ranch Report lately.  Seems Dick's been too busy with his TV programs, while Mary Ann has been shoveling deep snow at their Montana ranch. 

Gooby Ranch Report:

 

We had a blizzard that totally drifted us in. It was the worst blizzard we’ve had since we moved here on the ranch.  We have a dog yard that’s five feet high.  The snow drifted over the fence and the dogs can walk right over the fence.  We now have free ranging dogs.

The weather was so cold Mary Ann couldn’t start the tractor to clean out the road. She spent days shoveling us out.  Our blizzard wind aways come out of the north.  When Mary Ann shovels the snow, she always piles it on the south side of the road.

A couple weeks later it snowed about six inches and the wind came blasting out of the south.  We had a raging blizzard for a couple days.

  The snow drifted as high as  Mary Ann had piled the snow from the last blizzard.  We have some drifts ten feet high.   I don’t think Mary Ann will be able to shovel out the road.  There is no place to stack the snow. 

I finally came up with an idea of how to get rid of the snow.  I got the metal sled out and put some kindling in it and started a fire.  Then I put some wood in the fire and Mary Ann got four buckets and filled them with snow and put the buckets by the fire.  

When the snow melted, she would dump the water in the stock water trough.  After Mary Ann melted snow all day, she had cleared nearly a foot of the road.  Since she has a mile of road to clean, we decided melting the snow wasn’t such a good idea.  At least Mary Ann didn’t make me take a bath in the water trough.

It will be months before the snow melts so we can get out of our place.  In the meantime, Mary Ann takes her cross-county skies and pulls a toboggan sled to go to town to get groceries so I will have plenty to eat.  

I would really like to help Mary Ann.  But I have so many TV programs to watch I just don’t have time to help.

 

I've seen smoke plumes similar to this one a few times in the past several days.  Yesterday I saw the reason for the smoke.  

There's a logging job going on off from Center Valley Road.  Whoever is in charge seems to be very meticulous in all aspects of the job. 

Below:  the duck population seems to be rising at a home along Center Valley Road. 

I love these ducks, which roam the fields, the area around the house and occasionally the road. 

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While we're on the subject of water fowl, the Spokesman-Review reported this morning that the first annual goose hunt at Sandpoint City Beach netted ONE goose.

Still, it was deemed a success cuz they learned a lot about having a goose hunt at City Beach. 

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/feb/02/with-only-one-goose-killed-the-first-time-around-s/

I still say go back to the Border Collies. 

In the small-world category, Annie posted this picture last night, explaining that she was hosting a geocaching event at her favorite spot in Fremont, Wash.

Soon after its posting, Elli Susnis of Sandpoint commented, "Haha, that glass was screen-printed in Sandpoint by me!!

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Meanwhile, in the "At the Court" department, a good time was had by all locals at last night's final season game for the SHS Bulldog girls varsity basketball team.

The Bulldogs defeated Kellogg and ended their season with an impressive 15-5 record.

Willie's team plays next week in post season tournament competition to determine who goes to State in the IEL 4A division.

Congratulations, Bulldogs. 

Bill and I were happy to learn that we could attend Willie's game and arrive home in time to watch the ZAGS defeat Santa Clara.

Definitely a fun night to watch our teams. 

Grandpa and Grandson Moore at scoring table. 

 
Game announcer and LPO principal David Miles. 

Edna and Dick Neer, proud grandparents of a Bulldog varsity player. 

And, Dick likes to have fun. 

Marilyn Brown Ward and Marianne Brown Love are both proud to tell folks they were voted Best School Spirit their senior years at Sandpoint High School---Marilyn in 1963 and Marianne in 1965. 

Marilyn was a cheerleader; Marianne just had a loud mouth. 

Ironically, both of us have brothers named Michael Joseph Brown, and, of course, we grew up as Catholic angels, attending St. Joseph's Catholic Church. 

We, along with Debbie, did our best to cheer on the team last night. 

Below, our hubbies:  Bill Love and Duane Ward, calm and quiet fans. 

Duane has been a wonderful mentor and friend of Willie's. 

Wishing everyone a Happy Friday.  

It's sunny, and the sky is fairly clear this morning. 

Am headed outside to see if the Chinese balloon is up there in the sky so I can wave at it.