You Know its Spring in Wyoming when the snow is up past your knees!

Boy oh boy has it been snowy this spring.

I took this one the beginning of April 

And the one below today, April 25th.   This is the old leaky stock tank I use for container gardening.  Won't be doing any of that for a while!  We seem to have a few warm days and then rain or snow for a few days, which means a good grass year hopefully.  Much better than drought although I think I prefer for the moisture to not be white!

We've had some nice warm sunny days to be sure.   Even a few in the 70's but the nights remain cold so the grass hasn't really taken off yet, although it is green and the cows have NO interest in the round bales of hay anymore.

So what do I do on these snowy days?   Knit of course.   Socks right now.     I ordered the Mary Maxim surprise sock yarn box and was very pleased.  Enough yarn for 3 pairs!

I made these for my oldest son and daughter-in-law.   All the yarns were smart wool (washable but not machine dry!) in fingering weight.  These were the first I've made in fingering weight and the yarn is like knitting with string.  You just knit and knit and knit, and you've got an inch done!  Ha.

This is the final pair from my surprise box.  Obviously, with the pink, they will be a ladies pair of socks.   I am doing a two at a time, cuff down, on circular needles.   I have two balls of yarn in the 'yarn' bowl behind them in the picture.   The trick is to keep turning them fro and then back to not tangle up the 2 balls.  It's relatively simple and I LOVE my addi circular needles.  Size 2 and 40" long. The two at a time is nice so far and then I won't have a sock with an unknitted mate!  I like to knit socks but I also like sweaters and mittens.  Hats are okay but not my favourite.

This is our new Schnoodle, Lucy.   We got her from a rescue in Torrington and love her to pieces.  She is very well mannered and so loving.   Baxter, (below) has introduced her to rabbit running and wrestling, his two favourite activities.   A Schnoodle is a miniature schnauzer/miniature poodle cross.

Baxter is OBSESSED with rabbits and a total character.   He keeps us AMUSED. He lives to hunt those rabbits.   Yesterday before it snowed and it was still pretty warm, the dogs went with Tony to feed the bull in the corral.   Baxter spied a rabbit across the pond and as soon as he spied it, he took OFF, Leapt into the air and came down into the pond with a huge splash and took off swimming to the other side.   Climbed out of the water and took after that rabbit.   Hubby said he looked like the retrievers in the dog food commercials the way he took to that water.   Lucy, however, decided prudence was more in order and ran AROUND the pond keeping herself dry.  Sadly, for Baxter, and happily for the rabbit, they did not catch him.  But it sure wasn't for a lack of Trying!

Took a trip to Belfry, Montana and picked up four head of new cows   Our herdlet is getting aged so these are young replacements.   The trip was beautiful and the people we bought them from were so very nice.  I had packed a lunch/snacks for us but Hubby kept buying jerky sticks when we would stop for gas or bathroom breaks.  He came to regret his choice of snack food that evening........................

Like the guy in the Indiana Jones movie said, "Choose Wisely."

Saturation

SNOW in May??????????????  Yep twice the most recent on May 22 just a skiff but...............snow this late?

Last post I was worried we would not have enough moisture to really bring the grass up.  Now we are considering building an ark.   We have had rain almost every day for the past two weeks.  The ground is now saturated and flood warnings are out for this afternoon.  And it's still raining.  And the grass is knee deep to a tall cowboy - which is great!

Spring in Wyoming is not typical this year at all.  Usually we have snow in March and April.  This year nothing.  It was so dry.  And the grass was not coming up well even though the temperatures were quite warm.

Then in May it became cold.  We have not had a 70 degree day yet  here North of Nowhere and it's almost JUNE!  And the rain started and has continued.  Also not typical.

Livestock is miserable.  They have shed a lot and now they are wet and stay wet.  We had horses in the corral to feed them so they did not get so fat on the new grass but it was so muddy, we turned them out.  I felt sorry for them standing in all the mud in the corral.

The Bull has not been so fortunate.  He has to stay in until it's breeding season.  And the butcher steer is in with him and we are waiting for nice weather to get him in the freezer.

I wonder if this is what global warming will look like?   I suspect we will alternating between very rainy cool years like this year, and very dry severe droughts (not looking forward to those at all!)

Just some thoughts from Muddy Wyoming!

Spring Sprungs

It's been a while since I've posted but a lot has happened.  We took a quick trip to North Dakota to pick up this, the cutest most gentle little white mare named Jeannie.  She is shedding and the sparrows love her as she is providing plenty of nest material!  When I take the shedding blade to her, it's like it's snowing.  And she closes her eyes and sighs.  It must feel very good.

I think the grandkiddies will like her and I love her!  Jeannie reminds me of this:

Heidi was my first pony.  She was my birthday present for my seventh birthday and she was only about 9 months old when I got her.  She started me down my 'horsey' path.  I was devastated when I lost her 18 years later, she had gotten tick fever and just couldn't recover well from it in spite of numerous trips to the vets.

The trip to North Dakota was interesting and we really enjoyed it.  We discovered we are only about 7 hours drive from the Teddy Roosevelt National Park (South Unit) and we are thinking we need to go ride the trails there one of these days.

Spring sprung early in Wyoming,  early and dry!!  We had some moisture this weekend but not near enough.  We did not get our usual big snowstorm so the grass is really struggling to come up.  The drought monitor doesn't look real good for our neck of the woods predicting we have over a 50% chance of being abnormally dry in April, May, and June.  These are our critical months for pasture growth.

This is after the rain and look how dry it still looks!

Plans to buy some more cows has been postponed indefinitely.  We are now hoping we don't have to sell what we have!

My three guienas have been hard at work hunting all day every day.  I have noticed a huge reduction in mice this spring so between poison in the house and barn and the guienas it appears we are winning the 'mouse war.'  Thank goodness.

Odie is now officially a gelding and I think he is much happier.  He isn't escaping out the gate when we leave trying to get to the mares anymore.  We will finish breaking him this summer and then may offer him for sale. We really don't need another gelding and I have both Trystar and Ember to ride.  My mare, Tyrstar, is 23 this summer.  My goodness!  Odie is very nice and very gentle when we started him so he should make someone a nice saddle horse.

Bound and determined to have chickens and have a coon-proof coop; I set 6 posts today.  My goodness, who made cement so durn heavy?  I feel like my shoulders were going to pull out of their sockets hefting those bags and buckets.  Next will be cement floor on the 4 x 12 coop.   4 x 4 will be for the guienas to separate them from the chickens.  Then 8 x 4 for the chickens.   I have six guiena keets ordered for mid-June and I already have my golden-laced Wyandotte chickens but they have to stay under the brooder for a while yet.

And not last and certainly not least, we almost lost our Dubber to snakebite.  I didn't get a picture of him while he was so swollen but he spent a day at the vet's and had garden hose up both his nostrils.  I'm sure if we had not done that we would have lost him.  Horses cannot breath out their mouths, just their nose.  If it swells shut from snakebite; you lose your horse to asphyxiation.  

Dubber today singing "Nobody Nose the Trouble I've Seen!"  He is feeling much better and his nose is almost down to normal.  Although he is NOT happy about the medication in his oats and refuses to eat them.

And that's the News from Sixty Miles North of Nowhere!  

I am hoping to find the time to sew this spring but it ain't lookin' promisin' is it?

Its a Conspiracy or the Unraveling of America!

I think it is a plan, an evil devious plan.  It's being pushed on the American Consumer by the Asian Fashion Manufacturers.   Have you every noticed, you need to sew back on every button before you can wear your new shirt?  Or sew this or sew that?

The other day, I was getting dressed at my gym and I stuck my foot into my office dress pants.  It felt weird, just a little too much resistance so I tugged a little more.....AND UNZIPPED THE ENTIRE SIDE SEAM of my pants!!!!!! I had snagged a thread from the continuous style sewing on the seam and pulled the threading completely out of the leg of the pants!  Sheesh.......fortunately, there was still an inner seam holding it together on the very edges of the material, the overlap seaming.  Otherwise, my reappearance in public would have had to have been in sweatpants!  I think it's a conspiracy by foreign powers to make sure Americans wind up buck-naked in the cold! Somewhere in the Indo-China Map Area, a little wizened citizen sits at his home sweat shop sewing continuous seams on women's pants bound for America laughing manically at the thought of us running around with flapping open pant legs.  It's his only amusement in a bleak world, but it does amuse him greatly. Consider this fair warning.

But really!!!!!!  Is this a good plan to sew a seam on a pair of pants like this??? I say NO!  But I can sew them back up.

Wyoming spring has hit the past week, green is slowly peaking up through the winter browns, rearing it's head inspite of cold, windy, rainy days....and it feels good.  Mud feels GOOD.  The snow stick is buried in the mud now. We have several calves on the ground.  No foals this year though and I haven't replaced my chickens after the raccoon killed them all. So no baby chicks either.

I did start the casserole carrier so will post how to make one in the next few blogs.

Till then I hope to see a LOT more clouds that look like these!

Springing into Wyoming

I think this guy was Under Our Bed

(You can find this here at toonpool.com)

Been busy 'spring' cleaning and had every intention to walk on my treadmill over the weekends but after I'm done moving furniture so I can clean under it, I'm too pooped!  Well maybe when I am done cleaning.....

Spring has almost sprung - snow in the am today but that will help the green stuff just barely peeking out of the ground.

These have returned to raise their young down at the ponds: the Canadian Geese.  All of our dogs have learned that Mr. and Mrs. Goose are not to be trifled with and have short fuse with those of the canine persuasion.  Each new dog had to have the lesson impressed upon them, which Mr. Goose has quickly supplied.  We have about two nesting pairs that return each year.  Did you know geese mate for life?

Yesterday, Hubby spied a Sandhill Crane in the pond.  They pass through twice a year on their migrations north and south.  Another sure sign of spring.  And he saw an otter that day also, but they are year around residents of our pond.  Sandhill Cranes are very common along the North Platte River which runs 60 miles south of us into Nebraska.  The Oregon Trail followed the North Platte through Nebraska into Wyoming until just west of Casper, Wyoming where they left it near Independence Rock.

One of the perks living north of nowhere is definitely seeing the wildlife.  These guys are so used to seeing me open our gate in and out to the house, they will stand within 30 feet and not move - just watch me to make sure I'm not going to do anything else.

This large bunch of pronghorn antelope are a 'winter' bunch.  They group together in the fall to form large herds, but then scatter in the spring to have their fawns and you see them in groups of three or even less through the summer.  This is the hill they watch me from near our gate.

I have promised myself TODAY I will start sewing my casserole carriers...I'll try to remember to take pictures and post in a blogpost so you can make one too!  I find them fun to make.

Global Warming? WELL at least Statewide Warming in Wyoming.........

Hooray!  Its warmed up to almost 40 degrees ABOVE zero.............boo, the wind is blowing like a banshee, really ripping out there.  I saw on a blog where the guy does not believe in WIND CHILL. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at that, he lives in South Texas.  He's never SEEN wind chill.  But I tell yah, if you've ever been outside at ANY temperature below zero even with a slight breeze, you will become an ardent believer inWind Chill and it's effects.  It can be BRUTAL.


Remember I said Hubby had probably been able to plow our road for the LAST time as the plowed piles are now a lot higher than his snow blade?  Well here is an interesting 'experiment'.  Let's see how long it takes for ol' man SOL to decrease those piles.

Please NOTE I have inserted a sun.  I am being optimistic that WINTER will end one day, and the sooner the better for me.


So today I trundled out in the wind (and it was only about 30 degrees when I went out this morning so with the wind, that made the wind chill minuz mega zillion degrees BELOW comfortable).


Here's the road --- it has already melted some from yesterday and has dirt peeking through.

Starting to warm --- dirt peeking through but No Mud yet.  Hints of Possible Mud.

Wow is the snow deep like that all over?  Nooo - we can thank the Wonderful Wyoming Wind for it's work.

There's a hillside under here somewhere...

Where did it all come from?  Probably from here...............

And the 4' pvc pipe marked in 1" increments.  The pile along the road is 41" tall here......

Updates to follow................................

PS I got the idea from Far Side over HERE and her 'snow stick'.  But I do believe her winter in Minny-Soda is colder and rougher than ours because their snow stays alllllllll  damn winter.  At least we get a reprieve from a for a few days at a time, like now.

In fact, a lot of ranchers in Wyoming are seeing these arrive.

None of ours will hit the ground until April when it's a TAD warmer.  You need pens and barns for Momma cows to calve this early and we don't have them for our small herd-let.

I have decided I am tired of trying to haul my lard-ass  butt up on my horse so am starting a low carb diet today.  As of 5 pm, I am SURE I have lost at least 45 pounds because I am hungry enough to eat the south-end of a north-bound skunk--but at least that's low-carb! so I would not be breaking the diet.

 So that's my challenge, lose enough I can Hop Up on the Ol' Pony by Summer.  Now it's a boost, heave HO up.  Not pretty, no not pretty at all.

Okay Mr. Sun - here's your challenge.  MELT THAT SNOW, MELT THAT SNOW, MELT THAT SNOW.  C'MON MUD, BRING IT ON!  I'M READY.

You Know You've Had Fun

When your mother gets your ready for bed and tells you in the bathtub, "Munchin, you've got lollipop and sunscreen stuck in your Hair!"  (Thanks to #2 Son for sharing this with me! This was after they spent the day putting in the garden.)


North of Nowhere is experiencing a WET and COLD spring, certainly one of the coldest we've had!

We've gone from this on May 12th to this only eight days later..........

The temperature has been very cool, however.  We've never got much above 60 degrees yet which is keeping the grass growth down.  So cool, in fact, we bought more pellets for the pellet stove as we are still using heat!  However, the predictions are for 85 degrees on Thursday.

 

Odie, our Cremello Morgan stallion.

And HOW muddy has it been at North of Nowhere.  Well if you are a White Horse, you are not very clean, at all........

But we have Canadian Geese who successfully hatched their young in all that snow and now are waddling around with their goslings, I saw the Sand Hill Crane pass through briefly two days ago, and my hens are threatening to start setting.  Yep, in spite of it's best efforts, I do believe we will have Summer in Wyoming!

Seriously? This is Global Warming In Action?

Dear Mr. Weatherman:
I really felt I have been patient with you this year as we suffered through winter.  Then Spring arrived and in spite of your dire predictions of Global Warming the past several years along with the impending drought and grasshoppers, I thought we had a serious shot at a nice green spring.

I've been very very patient the last few weeks especially after the 65 mph winds you sent the other day which blew everything on the North of Nowhere Farm that either wasn't nailed down or weighed less than 50 pounds over to the east fence line.   Then this morning, May 6th, we woke up to THIS:


Two inches of the white stuff and it was cold.  Have you not heard that people are calving and lambing?  That some of us were (notice the past tense) planning on putting out tomato plants or actually trying to grow something?

So what's up with this?  Is Global Warming over and we are now living in the Land of the Frozen?  Down to a two week growing season?  You just DID this very same thing on April 30th.  Could that not have been our last snow for the season?  When is the next one? July 4th?  Are we to snowmobile on Memorial Day?  Do you think I can take the Global Warming thing seriously after this?  You are a sadistic old curmudgeon, sir.

Really, this was uncalled for and most unkind.  I'm looking for my rope........

Spring in Wyoming and Snow on the Ground

The last day of April brought snow!  We woke up to this.....   But snow brings green grass and mud.  I try to not complain about the mud after ten years of drought moisture is a big plus!

Had two new shorthorn cross calves yesterday.  I bet they are not impressed with the weather, poor babies!

Been working on my sewing projects.  I made matching mother/daughter outfits for the granddaughter and my daughter-in-law for their birthdays.  This is the Granddaughter's outfit.  Mother's is the same only larger.

I used the smocked material for the mini-dress and nice soft knit cotton for the capris & shrug.  Might have to redo the shrug as I made my own pattern so it matched mothers' and I think the armholes are a wee bit too tight.  Felt strange to finish them this morning with snow on the ground. 

A quilt is my next project.

First Day of Spring and A Rarity in Wyoming!

IT FEELS like spring and is not snowing! Windy and Sprigs of green are starting to show up under that brown layer of grass.

And look what the stork brought us!

The first one of 2010!  His Momma wasn't impressed I was putting fingerprints on her baby, though, and butted the fence.  So I gave him back.

The chickens have been laying for a few weeks, also another sign that SNOW BE GONE is just around the corner.  Now to go clean out their coop....