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| Is Ina home? |
Mike
and I spent the afternoon at the homestead yesterday (Thursday, March 26). It
was a lovely day – 65 degrees with interesting cloud formations.
Mike
had a list of tasks to accomplish. He installed new innards in the “toilet”
tank. Then he moved outside to dig out a channel for the run-off in the ditch
parallel to the lane. The next job took the longest -- spraying an herbicide on
the lane. (He wishes it were more effective.)
While
he worked, I walked the dogs. I felt a little guilty about taking off with the
dogs and the camera for an enjoyable walk to the mailbox, but I reasoned that
it was best all-round if the dogs were exercised and away from the spray.
As
we walked, I took a lot of pictures – a lot! You’d think I didn’t already have
hundreds of pictures taken along that road, but I see pictures everywhere and
make them as unique as I can. “Oh look!” I say to myself, “that fence is
falling over now. That’s a good shot with snow on the mountains in the
background.” Snap! “Here’s a great picture of the old Dickson/Senter place
framed by a pine branch.” On and on . . .
Meanwhile,
Bess and Nellie were in dog heaven. Bess’ graceful bounce took her here, there,
and everywhere. That girl has stamina! Nellie is slow now but enjoyed poking
along, exploring as she went. She doesn’t tolerate heat well, but I was still surprised
when she plopped right down in her favorite “water hole” in the ditch near a
culvert.
We
didn’t have a lot of snow this year, but right now there’s plenty of water both
standing and running, actually more than we saw last week.
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| Hallie planted these daffodils |
The
daffodils are in the process of opening, and the trees and shrubs are budding
or leafing out. It’s early yet but warm days will bring on more growth.
Arriving
back in the farm yard, Mike asked me to keep the dogs away from his spraying.
This proved not to be a challenge. They headed for the pond to play “catch a
frog.” Having some time to myself, I made good progress in putting away the
Christmas ornaments. |
| Bess in grove above north field |
Later,
the dogs and I gathered on the kitchen porch. Bess spied Mike working in the
lane near the apple trees. She didn’t recognize him at that distance and began
to bark and bark. Then she ran into the field and barked and barked. She
returned to the porch, and seeing that her barks had had no impact on the interloper,
she headed again into the field. This time she gathered the courage to go
closer. Suddenly she stopped barking and slowly began to wag her tail. “Silly
me,” she seemed to say. “I remember now. That’s Mike!”
On
the way to the town house, we stopped at the “Smoke Shack” to buy barbecue for
supper. Someone had recommended the baked potato meal so we tried it. Next time
I’ll bake the potato and we’ll just buy the meat. KW
5 comments:
The Bess story made me "L-O-L" as they say in the Internet world. Silly dog! I bet you had to bathe Nellie after her dip in the mud puddle. ICK!
The mud disappeared when Nellie played in the pond, but the odor lingers on unless they are bathed. Both dogs received a fresh water spray-down when we got back to town.
Mike says that German Shorthair are supposed to be good watchdogs, but Bess is the first we've ever had that seems to notice and care. In fact, she barked at something in the night and Mike got up to silence her. She doesn't bark unless disturbed -- and that's good.
Spring seems to come and go, come and go up here. I did spy some daffodils across the lane this morning! I do love daffodils! Glad you are getting the farmhouse up and running for another year.
That's the way spring is in Idaho, Chris. And the higher the elevation the more it's that way.
Of course, you know that, Chris, having lived here for lo! these many years. Mike's planning a trip and a little frustrated about it. It was 33 this morning.
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