Saturday Slight

 

The kildeer are back. 

They've been squeaking, screaming and screeching all around the barn and yard for the past few days. 

Such fun and noisy birds, especially when they're outwitting humans as to where their babies really are located. 

I've spent many a time trying to track down a kildeer baby nest in a farm field with Ma or Pa watching my every move, deftly diverting me by scamperingfrom one place to another and letting out painful sounding screams, as if I'm getting too close.

It's always a fun part of spring and early summer, having these birds join the many others who spend weeks or months hanging around the Lovestead, once the dead of winter is past. 

Hearing the kildeer has added several other signs of spring this week.  We've also lost a lot of snow, and we have a lot more that needs to melt. Tips of daffodils are starting to jut out of the ground. 

As always, after snow comes mud, and the horses are taking on new frontiers in ugly after each new mud roll. Thankfully, the blankets take the hit, keeping their bodies relatively clean. 

My horses also had their regular farrier visit yesterday.  Only CB needed a trim.  Steve checks every hoof when he comes, and so there were eight which went untouched. 

He'll come back April 28 and put front shoes on the horses. 

The week has been fairly productive with most of the house windows washed inside and out and a whole lot of soggy dead leaves hauled off from the yard.

About half of my potted starts have moved to the greenhouse AND lived.  

I even used one of my lawnmowers yesterday to mulch up several thousand leaves that appeared in the yard after the snow melted. 

The lawnmower approach to all those leaves had to wait until the ice covering a pathway to the bare sections of lawn thawed. Yesterday it was gone, and the lawnmower started right up and easily maneuvered down that pathway.  

More melting will mean more mulching, which I much prefer to raking eight million or so dead leaves. 

We're at the half and half stage around here in regard to bare ground vs snow-covered ground.

I'm hoping by this time next week to have some patches of green grass to report and am hoping, like everyone else, that we've seen the last of the snow. 

It's been nearly six months, so it's time. 

These past few days, I've really enjoyed having the ability to see progress in my outdoor work, and there's a lot of that yet to come.  Well, let's be real----on a farm when weather allows you tackle it, there's always hope and always need for progress.

I told Bill this morning that we'll be starting the process of withdrawal today, with no college basketball games to watch until evening. 

We've been dealing with our ZAG and college basketball addiction for a long time. Some may recall that a good portion of the wallpaper in our house is Gonzaga basketball posters, men's and women's.  

From my trip around the house this morning, I can report that I first started collecting the posters 15 years ago. We've been watching ZAG basketball since the mid-1990s. 

We never tire, and we know that our affliction for this season could end tonight or NOT. 

We prefer the latter, but we also know that the ZAGS are facing a really tough opponent tonight when they take on the UConn Huskies.  

The nice part: the ZAGS know how to win, just like the other seven teams still playing in the tournament. 

So, it's anybody's guess as to how far any of them will go, and that's what makes the Madness of March so much fun. 

Today I've added my ZAGS socks to my ZAGS earrings to my ZAGS fleece and my ZAGS hat to the day's ensemble.  

Maybe adding a new piece each game will do the trick to keep them going until April 2. 

Whatever the case, as usual, it's been a fun run. 

Tip off tonight is at 5:49 p.m. PDT on TBS.

💓💓💓🏀🏀🏀🏀💓💓💓 

GO, ZAGS!

Make it easy on us.  

No near heart attacks, please!