Spring-like weather
February 18, 2010
Enjoying the effects of an El Nino year… .
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An ongoing chronicle of meeting the expectations of the land…
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Beautiful pictures! That’s one of my favorite things about your blog, you always have wonderful pictures to share.
Janice, thank you! Pretty good subject matter 🙂
Gorgeous! I could be quite content with a life of simple beauties such as these…
Maggie, it’s always fun to look back at the photos and see the everyday things. A small, but they add up to quite a bit. Thanks.
love the picture of the cows in the fog!! thanks for sharing
Rachel, the fog is hiding the dirty look she is giving me!
I love the third and last one the best! But the green grass…makes me sigh. All your photos are lovely!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlifelwordpress.com
Linda, yeah that’s some ferocious cattle dog – chasing that wild cow! I’m glad the grass is starting to show some green. I’m afraid this warm won’t last too long, but I am not complaining. 🙂
Feel my envy: all it did here today was rain! But I got a cherry tree planted. What sort of squash is that? There were some in the local market earlier this year but I opted for the golden hubbard instead (and it was lovely, too!)
Rose, we usually have rain, but not this week! That’s a Sweet Meat squash, similar to a Hubbard – but smaller about 12 -15 pounds and keeps until May. Makes a mean pie!
Sure you get a nice spring day and I get 4 inches of snow to go on the already existent 2 inches of snow. I haven’t seen grass (and not healthy grass) in months……
Love your pictures.
Tree, I knew I would be inviting some envy – it’s unusually warm and it is nice!
ooooooooh, MY.
a gardening girlfriend and I used to call the winter onslaught of seed/plant catalogues our “gardening porn” because we were so giddy and excited at the arrival of each new catalogue, and stared and drooled and drooled and stared…..
this is surely the farm equivalent!
wonderful.
Hayden, it almost feels like we are at the magic 38th parallel instead of the 45th! It is nice, but surely won’t last. But I’m not complaining!
I AM OFFICIALLY PISSED!!! NOT NICE WHAT SO EVER….I’ll be sure to rub it in when it reverses! Oh man, how I would love to see the ground about now. Did you know as of the other day we’ve officially had 80″! More than any city in the country this year. Baltimore Rocks….we could of held the Winter Olympics right here in Charm City!….ok…minus the mountains like Vancouver BC! But at least we had the snow! Major question to ask on the application!
I love love love Della’s picture!!! So beautiful! Josie tried to mount me through the gate today! Not looking too good for her. I’m wondering what damage might of been done to her reproductive system from the still born. Joy for sure seems to be preggie and I ought to test her soon. She would be 2 months at the end of Feb. I don’t want to stress her with anything tho….Josie’s doing a good job at that on her own!
Enjoy your early spring! And think of me….warm and happy thoughts! 😀
Diane, I feel your pain 🙂 We had deep snow last year for a long time. A friend got stuck in Baltimore during all your blizzards. He picked a bad week to go home to visit!
I’m wondering if Josie might have had reproductive problems that led to her still birth. Just a thought, sometimes we need to think the opposite of what we see. Are you going to bio-track Joy?
Soon you will be in early spring and we will still be cold and frosty here. I would be surprised if this lasted much longer…
Stay warm!
I feel for your friend…I’m not sure I’d want to be snowed in Baltimore! 😉
I am going to Bio-Track Joy. I just wanted to give her some time and not stress her. Good thought (of course) about Josie…I’m not sure what to do. We are thinking of one option…like you had to do. I feel better about that then sending her to auction and letting someone else do it or deal with my problems, that doesn’t seem right.
Today is a beautiful SUNNY day with LOTS of negative ions. I love smelling those healing little ions! But I’m wondering what they’ve got up their little sleeves….more snow? Hope not!
Lots of lovely sights to behold. Would love to smell the green grass and farm smells!
Mrs. Mac, thank you, it is actually warm enough that you can smell the soil starting to warm.
It looks warm there! Will you plant your garden now?
Kathy, it is nice this week, but it is too early to plant any garden. It’s tempting but I’m not much of a gambler 🙂
Those photos are stunning! I wish it looked like that here! We’ve had snow falling every day this week….
Anna, the storms are splitting and going north or south so it has been unusually warm and dry for a while.
Sorry about your snow 😦
Your photos are always so beautiful! I envy your grass, though. We haven’t seen the grass since before Christmas.
(sigh) I know spring is coming… The calendar says so. I just wish it would hurry up. We’ve had snow cover for so long the rabbits are going after everything that’s above the snow- even mature tree trunks aren’t safe!
Judy, I couldn’t take your cold weather – I’ll take mud any day! When we has such cold weather in December I was a little worried we would have a repeat of last year. Then lo and behold, it has been very mild. Loving it…sigh.
Where is that pie crust tutorial? 😛
Annette, it’s way back in December! Including a dorky picture of me and my favorite teacher 🙂
Gorgeous pics! We are having some spring like weather right now too. Nothing green yet, but plenty of brown ( mud )! My favorite pic is that Della and the dog pic.
Looks like you’re having a nice, mild spell…lovely!
Hello. I read your blog quite a bit, and I have a question: Is it necessary to pasteurize milk? I trust your insight more than I do most others.
Kay, wow – any answer to that loaded question is sure to invite some comments! My usual answer to most questions is: It depends. I don’t think it is necessary to pasteurize milk, IF the cow is not sick, she is clean and the milker practices good sanitation practices. However, all those factors are subjective. What is clean to me would not pass for a grade A dairy, but is fine for a family. Here’s a good link for raw milk: http://realmilk.com/
It’s good to see both sides – raw milk is one of those subjects that really gets people’s dander up though… .
Hello! Thank you so much for your reply. We have a small farm – well, I guess I should say, we have been easing our way into farming. Two years ago we bought chickens, and they have been a resounding success, along with lots of comedy relief (they are funny, and pretty smart IMO). This year we are beginning our gardening process, so that will be a huge hurdle. We want to get our own dairy cow, but not this year. I think the gardening thing will keep up occupied enough. Can I ask one more question (sorry): Do you breed your dairy cow once or twice a year. I need to really start reading up on dairy cows before I take the plunge. I want to do it right.
Thanks again!
Kay, a cow is meant to have a calf every year. (Despite what you may read elsewhere.) Their gestation is nine months like us. A quick thumbnail sketch into a year of a cow – dairy or otherwise. A cow calves, begins lactating, and rebreeds within 60 – 90 days. After 9 months lactation the cow is dried up (you stop milking) and has a rest for at least 8 weeks before calving and milking starts again. I like 12 weeks rest for my cow. So it sounds easy but actually the breeding can be difficult, because the cow may not come into heat due to illness, poor feeding, or many other things. A modern dairy cow is a handful of management. The easiest way to breed a cow is with a bull, but most people don’t have a bull available or don’t want one so artificial insemination (AI) is used and that comes with it’s own set of problems. I don’t want to scare you off of a family cow, but it isn’t a relationship to be entered into lightly. When it goes right it can be a wonderful thing – when it goes wrong, it is terrible. This subject is near and dear to my heart – and much more complex than I can convey in a comment.
Congrats on your success with your farming – it’s all baby steps 🙂
🙂 Thank you again for the information. I love your blog!
Nice pics! I especially liked the shot of the cow and the dog together.