A little bit of snow...

Before our light snow+++

A look at the old trail that heads down towards our creek and valley. Dusty and brown.

Out on the edge of a field, I found a lone milkweed pod that still had some seeds on it. This plant was about 3 feet from the forest and probably protected from the winter winds.
 

We got snow. Not much. Not even enough to have the town plows hit the gravel roads. But still, it is moisture and hopefully it will eventually melt into the ground.

A little bit of snow does change the looks of things and these barberries stood out with their bright red berries in the forest. I stayed as much as possible in the forest because getting out where the wind was blowing was very cold.

This next shot is probably only interesting to me. It is of an old oak stump cut down when this area was logged 28 years ago. Probably not interesting to others though. It's texture with snow on it created something interesting to my eye. Too bad we couldn't see it in 3D.

It snowed a bit on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening so I went out this morning to the summer pasture to get to some shots of the sparkly snow and some shadows. We only received perhaps an inch and a half in total, but it was a nice change from the browns of the day before.

The trail at the top of the hill was much prettier. Plus there were no tracks yet from the critters other than a lone coyote.

The summer pasture did have some pretty spots. I tried so hard to get the snow 'diamonds'. Dad used to call the snow sparkles 'diamonds'. They were there, but so tiny!

The sun was SO bright it hurt my eyes! I had to squint. The temperature was 3 F [-16C]. The sun was shining and I was out of the wind so I did feel just fine.

I think the hardest thing to do with such bright white snow is try to get the exposure spot on. But this was just a little wander around the summer pasture and how it looked with a little bit of fresh snow on it.

In places where the wind had blown, the grasses showed through the snow quiet well.

The shadows of the plants and the textures of the snow were so fascinating.

Of course, Mini Me and Charlie had to check it out too.

According to NOAA [which I hope is not de-funded], we are to get up to 5 inches of snow Friday afternoon and night!

Temperatures will be super frigid come Sunday night.

...oh... parting shot through a window with a screen on it...

The Redheaded Sisters snoozing this morning with their snow blankets on.

Plans for Valentine's Day? None here. Every day is full of ❤️ in our house.

A little bit of fence fixing

Off I go with tangled and salvaged hotwire and some nicely coiled wire to redo the fence down near the creek.

The backpack has gear in it, along with some tools and of course lots of water. I'd had this job in mind since last fall.

Over the winter I keep this section closed off as the deer run through the fence during rut and generally take down the fence.

Last winter, some animal chewed through both the lines and the insulators in some spots. I know that raccoon chew on plastic, but I never figured out who the culprits were.

I thought I'd turn on MapMyHike to see what my walking while doing the job would look like. I did get in a little over 2 miles of walking while restringing the fence.

At one time we had a 'ridge-road' or trail that was made by a bulldozer  all the way to the end of our land. Since I don't drive the 4 wheeler back there anymore... [very steep], I haven't had the trail redone. 

I just walk it and go around the obstacles. I am the only person anymore that moves through the land so no need to clear a new path.

Here is someone else who likes to use the 'critter' trail. It is used by the mules, deer, bobcat, raccoon, and coyotes. When I pull the trail camera about every two weeks we have nearly 700 or 800 photos of wildlife moving past the camera on this trail.

I pulled the old hotwire and began to get ready to string up new wire.

Just to the left of this photo is a steep bank that drops about 20 feet down into our creek bottom. With the past drought, the creek is mostly dry, but in good years it flows nicely.

At my feet is a pile of chewed electric wire. And no, the wire was not 'on' over the winter. I don't keep it hot unless the mules have access. 

The wire needed to be replaced this year anyway. It has lasted 5 years and had been patched quite a few times.

I finished everything up including detangling a big mess of wire that I'd brought with me. It took roughly two hours and a lot of walking back and forth.  

Below is the tangled up wire that had been in another pasture at one time. I had 3 lines with one low to the ground when we had Dexter Cattle in the woods and pulled it after we sold the cattle.

A good chunk of the time was devoted to de-tangling. But the wire was in perfect shape and there was no reason to toss it.

It was a big job I had been putting off for quite a while. All the summer lines have been checked and fixed. Next up? I'll go through and clear off anything that is under the wires.

Forest Fencing can be a never ending job.

Tales of Tails

This is what happens when the Merry Meadow can't be clipped for weed control. The Burdock must have grown monstrous overnight, right?
No, I saw tails getting cluttered up with the nasty burdock heads, but waited to do something about it.

I took a stroll through the meadow and found that the redheaded sisters had been forging down into "The Island" area which is loaded with multiflora rose and other nasty weeds.
They are the adventurous mules who will go anywhere to search for goodies. They will eat the burdock leaves and sometimes even the flowering burrs themselves. Multiflora rose can be a delicious treat as well as thistle flowers.

I made the Executive Decision to move the mules across the fence to the our pastures. The one wooded pasture is being cleaned by the Dexter cattle who love to eat burdock and nettles.

Anyway, back to the tails.
What a mess! Sunshine's tail was one massive lump. The hair was twisted tightly around the burdock.

I got out Showsheen, a brush, a comb, scissors, some thinners, and some hair conditioner.
I worked for over an hour cleaning out knots and burdock.

I had to cut out the twisted lump, there was no way to untangle the mess.
However, if you didn't know that, her tail didn't look too bad.

She was rather unconcerned about her tail, however since I know she has a beautiful full tail, I'll be working on making sure it grows back in nice and full.

Fred's tail was not much of a mess. He, unlike Sunshine, stood like a statue for his tail grooming.

He and Siera have nice full tails. But that is probably because I haven't had to cut out much burdock from them in the past few years. They have been spared the Meadow area with the burdock mostly because I keep them close in for riding.

Thankfully out of all 5 mules, Sunshine's was the only one that needed trimming. I'd cut Mica's tail last fall to hock length to let the damaged ends regrow. I'd cut Sundance's tail this spring to get out the snarls.
Now the gals and Fred will get some extra TLC for their tails. Siera's tail had to be trimmed as it is long enough for her to step on it when she backs up.

Everyone enjoyed several minutes grazing the nicer grass that is in the yard. I was tempted to just put a hot wire across the driveway and let them loose. However I have a feeling that I'd have mules on the porch staring in the windows.

Checkin' Fences on a hot afternoon

Bunny was in the 'wrong' pasture the other evening, so I decided I'd better get back to walking the fences every other day and making sure all is right.

I found a place where the deer must have gone through and knocked off insulators and twisted the hot wire over the top of some posts.

I'd never seen anything quite like that before. But I went to work. I'd already taken the Weed Chomper to the other section of fence line and this line was nice and clean.
The Dexters do a great job of keeping the fence line spic and span.

I really do enjoy going out and wandering around looking at the fences, it is a great excuse to get outside and take a few farm shots.
Yesterday however, I only had my new Smartie-Phone to use.

It surprised me!

You can see the Dexter pasture, a round bale, and in the distance two red molly mules in the Merry Meadow.

The sky was incredible. I just loved the greens, blues, and the sky of course!

Thor agreed with me and had something to say when I walked past him back towards the house.

I swear he was saying, "Hot enuff for yah?"

And yes, it was HOT and sticky and very humid.

But the fences are cleared, and all are nice and 'hot' again. I think I'll make sure I go more often.
Remodeling has sidetracked us to some extent and ... well, who can resist going to check a fence when the view is like this?

Weed Eater Adventure

I have always shied away from the Weed Eater Machine. It is noisy, it flings grass bits everywhere, and it just is plain intimidating! Plus it uses gas, is smelly, and works with this string thingy that hits weeds and flings them everywhere.

That is...

Until I watched my son Ed use one last year. I was amazed at how quickly he cleared areas under the electric fence. 

Grass and weeds flew. And he made it look easy. 
[Oh yes, he did sweat profusely and get green bits of 'stuff' all over himself.]
Here is a shot of him working last year when he helped me replace and re-fence an area.

However I decided then and there that I would conquer the fear of the WEED Eater!

Well, I would figure out how to get my hands on one and use it anyway. Certainly it was easier at cutting weeds than using the corn knife as I'd done for so many years. 

I could get weeds blasted into oblivion in minutes versus hours, right?

Modern technology is good right?

Normally we don't have many weeds or grass impeding the fence, except when that pasture is out of rotation for a while. This summer we've had an abundant weed/grass issue. June, July, and August have been rainy months.

Normally we have a very dry July or August, but not this year. We can mow the yard and it seems we have to do it again only a few days later or suffer the shaggy yard syndrome.

[Well, we have suffered that, seems this year it has been especially hard to keep up with the yard work while all of the remodeling has been going on.]

I asked my husband this spring for a Weed Eater for my birthday. He was surprised and picked out a Weed Eating thing that he liked. He said he could use it if I didn't. 
I also got a face shield and ear protection. I cannot stand the thought of weed and grass bits hitting my face.

I've used the Machine a few times, but tonight I got after a rather large area that is impossible to mow. And dang it all, it just looked shabby near our nice new looking house.
I'm really not that great at using the weed whacker, but practice makes perfect. 

Hubby stopped me and took the machine away then proceeded to demonstrate the proper method of weed whacking. 

The perfect angle, the perfect pitch, how to angle the head and slowly sweep back and forth while watching the grass and stuff...get chopped up.

I tapped my boot and put my hands on my hips.

I flipped my mesh face shield down and made a 'Gimme' sign with my gloved hands. 

I explained that I needed to practice. I needed to use it to get comfortable with it. 

He demonstrated a bit more and when I started jumping up and down and flapping my arms...he finally got the idea.

...and let me loose with the grass/weed munching machine.
I didn't do a perfect job but I annihilated the weeds near the big shed and around Lil' Richard's Winter paddock. I was happy for the face shield as I even found smeared slimy slug parts on it.

I finished up after about 45 minutes. My arms are not used to holding a weed monster.
And then I looked down at myself.

I was covered head to toe with grass/weed parts. I even had green stuff in my hair. My neck and shirt were plastered with it.

Note to self. Keep the same old crummy pants and shirt for weed eating. Also swap the newer glasses for the older glasses.

I am less concerned about the flying bug smeary parts that get through the mesh with my old glasses.

I looked over the job I had done after putting the Wonderful Birthday Gift away in the shed. 

Hubby looked at the job. He didn't say anything negative so I take that as evidence that I did 'okay'.

He mentioned that he'd have to get out his commercial weed eater to get the really tough stuff. He could put a blade on it and it would cut through small woody weeds.

He did mention at the time we were getting this machine for me that he would not get me a blade. I was simply too dangerous. The string trimming would have to suit me.

Tomorrow? That pasture fence line that has been annoying me with a growth spurt of weeds. 

HOT~and Humid.

I like summer, truly I do. But sometimes we get these streaks of Hot & Humid weather and I decide that I am not going outside again until...

It cools off a bit!

Morris and I did go for a walk the day before the heat wave struck. It had been so long since I'd gone exploring at the creek.

We crossed the fence into the neighbors pasture as our woods were so thick with growth past the mule's fence-line.
Note to self. When fall arrives we need to repair that one section!

We followed the creek and climbed rocks down into our bottom.
I had expected that the recent hard rains would have washed some of the weeds that are crowding the creek away. 

There is water under these plants! The bottom was covered in Jewel Weed. A quick word about Jewel Weed, the soap made from this plant will put a stop to most any kind of itch and is wonderful to use on bug bites too.

This is how the larger sections of the little creek looked.

And this is how it looks after some cold weather.

Morris and I got quite warm and decided to go home rather than explore anymore in the creek bottom. There was simply no air movement at all and we both were quite hot.

The only good thing I can say about all of this hot and humid weather [and the rain] is that cool fungi will be popping up in the woods here and there and it is rather fun to go hunting them with the camera.

However, our little 'hot' trip was not in vain.

Morris and I found dozens of places where Indian Pipes were coming up out of the ground.

I usually don't look for them until the second week in August, but there they were!

Hopefully the weather will cool off enough so that I can go out this weekend and find some more!

So today, after chores, it looks like another day of working inside on pulling down the old dark paneling in the living room.

The animals all have nice cool shady spots to get into and plenty of fresh cool water. 

What about ME? By Morris

I bet you think I've gone and disappeared off the Earth.  Nope, I still am doing my duties.
Did you know that I turn 11 yrs old this July?

According to some sort of funky pet calculator I am a senior dog.  Huh. I only feel tired and worn out after a long day checking pastures and nosing around. SHE says the chart says that I am aged equivalent to a 60 year old person. 
Imagine that I am about the same age as HER!  She isn't quite 60, but darned close enough, and SHE still runs around like she thinks she is a pup.

I am also known as the weed commissioner:

Spot me?  I am counting thistles and Queen Anne's Lace and also checking to see if there is enough 'pickens' for HER to rotate the pasture for the gals.

It looked pretty good to me.

In fact I had to do some leaping to get through parts of it!

I do enjoy my inspections!  Can't you see?

It is an incredibly important job on a farm and it calls for someone like me.  A Jack Russell who lets nothing get by without notice.  I am always ready for something, even if I don't know what something is.

I even know the girls.  Strider sure was interested in what SHE and I were doing.

After a couple of hours out 'inspecting' SHE took us back to the house.

I immediately decided that I should find my red blanket and adjust it 'just so'. The love seat looked like it needed some serious 'holding down'.  I promptly laid down and got comfortable.

Geesh, and she worries that I am getting old.

Harrumph.

Do I look OLD to you?

The Big Move.

Last week was a marathon week of getting fencing repaired and checked so that the mares and molly mules, along with the donkeys could move to the 'Merry Meadow' also know as summer pasture.

I moved the Dexter cattle into their summer pasture and so far they have been very content and quiet.

I made a hot wire lane up the driveway and into the Meadow.  The 'girls' have done this for a few years and they pretty much walked quietly until they hit the meadow.

Then Sunshine and Sundance broke out in a gallop and snorted and bucked.

The donkeys trotted in a group while the mares whirled and pranced.

All settled in after a while.

I think I'll move Fred, Siera, and Dinah in a day or so.  Then all but the geldings will be on pasture.

Yesterday's skies were incredible.
The expected storms didn't happen here.