It Only Happens Once Every Four Years...

... and I'm not talking about leap day.Today was absolutely gorgeous!

It wasn't the kind of day you would expect to find in February around here. It was unique. This kind of day doesn't happen very often.Normally this time of year Mother Nature shows us grey skies and freezing mud spotted with splashes of white where snow has drifted into piles that don't want to melt. Normally I'm sloshing around in freezing slop and I'm in a constant battle to keep that muddy slop from invading my house. Normally I'm washing pants, coats, mittens, scarves, and even hats, all splattered with that same darn cold muddy slop.

But this year is different. This year has been mild. The sun came out today and I took my coat off to feel the warm breeze it brought. It actually smelled like spring today.And even more impressive, I cleaned the garden well enough last fall... today it looked almost tidy in its emptiness! It was really lovely today, this last day of February.

Even the hens seemed to know that today was special.

Hello Wet Winter

Winter arrived at 12:30 in the morning, when all good countrygirls should have been sleeping (unless rain was knocking on the windows too loudly for sleep which was what happened to me).

I've complained about the rain a lot this year. But it turns out that my complaints are not unfounded as this has been a banner year for rain. The previous rainfall record has already been broken and more rain is on the way.I sloshed across the muddy yard just as the sky started to lighten this morning so I could snap some pictures of flooded fields. Hello wet winter!

I guess I should just be glad that all this precipitation isn't snow.But I hope Santa's sleigh can magically morph into a boat so he can get to all his destinations.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Something Mysterious and Creepy

I found this creepy-crawly on my fence the other day.

He turned away from me when I got down close and started taking pictures.I've seen his kind around here before, but I don't know exactly what he is.I think he looks a bit like a dragon (or an insect dressed as a dragon for halloween).He moved slowly, one tentacle like leg in front of the other. His body was about an inch and a half long. I think that he has wings but he wasn't using them.

He is a mystery to me...... can anyone identify this bug?

Autumn Gratitude

I took this rainy picture first thing this morning to welcome autumn (although I think it officially arrived some time with the storms last night).

Thankfully those circles and white spots are raindrops reflected by the flash...
... and not debris from the falling NASA satellite.

Autumn is my favorite season. I like the crunch of dry leaves under my feet and the cool crisp smell of an autumn breeze. I like sleeping with the window open on colder nights and how a mug of hot coffee warms my hands in the morning.

For some reason autumn always makes me feel grateful.I like the foods that autumn brings in my garden, like winter squashes, peppers, sweet potatoes, and popcorn. And I'm grateful for the fields that will soon start to be harvested all around me.

I like to watch my landscape change. Not only will the trees change color but plants in the garden and the fields and the pasture transform, too. Some things, like sunflowers, wilt and turn brown while other things, like kale, thrive in the chilly damp weather.I'm thankful for the flowers that hang on with the chill.(And I'm thankful that sometimes bad pictures of those flowers still turn out looking pretty.)

This year I'm thankful for this one particular silly little apple tree. This tree makes me laugh. It must have thought, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..." and somehow it made one (and only one) apple. I think that now I'll name this apple tree "The Little Apple Tree that Could." Do you think the other apple trees will be jealous that I gave this one a name?If they were to be jealous, they should be jealous that "The Little Apple Tree that Could" made such a good apple.Speaking of good apples and gratitude, I'd like to thank sweet Candy C. from Lazy J Bar C Farm for recently giving my blog the Liebster Blog Award... this was a flattering and delightful surprise... thank you so much, Candy C!

Sideways

I talk about the weather often.

I can't help it. So much around me is connected to the weather. And I'm in awe of all the things that Mother Nature creates... a gorgeous rainbow, the hoot of a night owl, the crunch of dry autumn leaves under my feet, and the way a fresh winter snow softens the whole landscape under a clean blanket.But we all know that Mother Nature is not always gentle. She's not only about rainbows and owl hoots and pretty snow. She can cause some serious damage.

I hesitate to write about the rain here (again) while there are folks in Texas right now who are suffering from the longest drought they've ever known. But they always say to write about what you know... and this year rain is what I know.

Several weeks ago Mother Nature sent so much spring rain that I thought that maybe I was going to have to build an ark. Each day brought a new storm. The ground became saturated. Lakes formed all around me. I sloshed and splashed all over this farm.

Once during that soggy time there was a howling wind that shook the house all night. I heard creaks and shrieks that I'd never heard before.

The next morning I looked across the garden to a little area that I generously refer to as "the orchard." (It's not a real orchard. It's just a few struggling fruit trees that would like to think that they're an orchard.)

After that tremendous wind almost every one of them was leaning sideways.One of them had even been broken in half.So I walked out there to see what I could do for the survivors.

I used the post driver to sink some T-posts into the ground next to the sideways trees..And then I tied the trees to those posts with strips of cloth ripped from an old sheet.Not very pretty, (and definitely not very professional looking) but so far, so good. These little trees seem to be staying straight as we've transitioned into drier summer weather.

Ironically, it is raining right now as I write this... and the garden actually needs a good drink of water right now. But I wish there was a way to share this rain with the folks in Texas.

At Last, Part Two

In my last post I wrote about how good it feels to hear the rumble of tractors around me because it means that the crops are finally getting planted after an exceedingly wet spring.The farmers needed a few dry days so that they could finally get their tractors into the fields.But it seems that one minute you are praying for one thing (no rain), and the next minute you are praying for another thing (rain).So you can imagine how excited I was today when it began to rain on all those newly planted seeds.

I was so happy that I grabbed my camera and went outside. I snapped a few pictures and then I turned to look in the other direction, and as often happens out here, there was a entirely different view when I looked the other way.There was a beautiful rainbow...... actually a double rainbow... can you see it?

At Last

Things have been busy around here.After one of the wettest springs ever recorded we were graced with some dry sunny days and everyone can finally get their tractors into the fields.The wet weather put everyone behind schedule. Prior to this week only ten percent of crops had been planted. (Ninety percent of the crops were already planted at this time last year.)But now it feels like the world around me has let out a sigh of relief. People are happy. Farmers who I don't even know wave with excitement as they pull their implements up and down the road.

Maybe they are just slap happy from sleep deprivation... because they are working around the clock to get caught up.When I step outside at night I hear tractors rattling and rumbling all around me. And I see tractor lights in every direction.Seeing those lights and hearing that rumbling in the darkness around me is comforting... fields are being worked. Crops will get planted. And I know that at least one thing is right in the world. At last.

Spring Cleaning

I'm going to show you something embarrassing...Wow. What a mess the garden is!

But it's spring, and time for spring cleaning, and I might as well keep it real here and show you the spring time mess... and how I go about cleaning it up.

First I make a big pile of all the dried up debris..And then I set it on fire.I enjoy doing this... burning up the garden debris smells like spring to me.

It smolders and smokes because some of the debris is funky and wet, especially this year. We've had rain after rain after rain around here. Some whole towns are under water. Everything is soggy. Fields are waterlogged. And farmers wonder if they'll ever be able to get their tractors into the fields.

My garden is soggy, too. This debris fire smoked for hours.But it sure feels good to get the garden cleaned up!

Signs of Spring!

After what seems like the longest winter ever, some sure signs of spring appeared this week... like these gorgeous lilac buds. I can hardly wait to smell this lilac!

Other flowers began to emerge, too, like these dafodils...... and these grassy looking wisps under a pine tree that will soon produce some pretty little white flowers. I think they are a kind of creeping lily.But flowers were not the only signs of spring this week.

Another sure sign of spring... monsters lounged in the warm sun.And! I had to mow the grass!

Chickens enjoy the grass clippings.But it was the surest sign of spring that really got me excited this week......finally! The forsythia has bloomed!

Welcome, Spring! I have missed you!!!

Vernal Equinox

Spring is officially here now. I walked outside with my camera to take a few pictures of it's arrival at 7:21pm, the very moment of the vernal equinox.It was warmer today and the chickens were outside.

Hello, there!I was looking at how the curly dry grape tendrils wrap beautifully around their support wire......when a little white tailed rabbit jumped out of a shallow hole and ran across the garden. I didn't get a picture of the rabbit, but its hole was under this big dried loose weed.I peeked at the shallow rabbit hole underneath the weed...Somehow this old sunflower remained upright through the brutal winter.But look, new growth! There are a number of patches of rye trying to grow.And new buds on this tree...Things still look brown, though.And clouds were moving in, as you can see in the sky behind this prickly weed.These little dried flowers sure are pretty...I recognize these red stalks... blackberries!Welcome, Spring! I've missed you!