Hello!

Hello!  It's me.  I'm here!

 May snow

 

The winter and the spring was long and cold and snowy for us and we just got so busy and worn out that I chose to stop blogging for a while.  But here it is, June!  I'm so thankful that we are in June now. The winter snows and spring snows and rains have made everything green and beautiful.  We had snows all through to the end of May and our June has been mostly cool too.  The trees didn't even leaf out until June.

Bringing cows and calves in right by our house.

We've got the sheep all lambed out and the calves branded and out to summer pasture.  There's so much grass that the cows and sheep will never keep up with it.  What a blessing it is to see our prairie so green with thick grass and wildflowers.

The winter snows have brought up flowers of all kinds.  The prairie is just beautiful and we are seeing wildflowers that we have not seen in years.  CarpeterSon brought me a wildflower bouquet from the pastures as he was out checking cows and calves today.  He is so thoughtful.

I didn't get my garden in until June and I'm always amazed at how quickly the seeds germinate and come up when the ground is finally warm.  For me, it is never a good idea to plant my garden seeds until June 1st or so.  I put in lots more flowers this year and I'm excited about that.  I mixed several kinds of annuals together with some fine sand and planted them in rows.  I'm looking forward to some summer bouquets for the house and some to share with friends.  There will be cosmos, zinnias, larkspur, Bells of Ireland, marigolds, and sunflowers.  My shrub roses are full of buds and I can't wait to see them in full bloom soon.

The grandkids and I are keeping our lists of birds again this year.  It's so exciting to see all of the migrant birds come back to spend the spring and summer with us.  We are constantly sharing our bird sightings and encourage each other to keep a watchful eye for the newest bird arrival or for nests and baby birds.

I hope you're all enjoying spring where you are. 

February day...

Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while since I've blogged.  Nothing major happening, but I just wasn't feeling it.  I'm giving it a go today and will probably keep it short and sweet.

Outside:
It's extremely cold here like it is for so many of you.  Today's high is 0 degrees and the weatherman is promising that we will dip down to -15 degrees tonight.  It appears that the forecast is for more of the same for the next week or so.  I'm sad about it because we will start lambing this weekend.  Such a bummer -- for us and for the lambs that are born during this cold.  The lambs and their mothers will just have to stay inside the barn until it breaks.

Inside:
There is a nice, hot fire going in the fireplace and a vegetable-beef & barley soup on the stove.

What I'm drinking:
Teeccino.  A friend of mine sent me a few Teeccino tee bags to try and I really like it.  This tea could be considered a replacement for coffee.  It's what my friend did when she decided she couldn't do coffee anymore.  The teas are caffeine-free and are made of roasted chicory or dandelion root and other herbs.  The flavors are amazing if you like a "flavored coffee."  I prefer the Dark Roast and the French Roast flavors, but I also like the Chocolate and the Mocha-Mint for a change of pace.  The best prices I've found for Teeccino are on iherb.com.  You can buy it in tee-bag form or loose so you can make it in a regular coffee maker or French press or pour-over.

What I've been watching:
Victoria.  The series that was aired on PBS.  We watched the first two seasons on Netflix.  The third season is currently playing on PBS.  We really liked it.

What I'm sewing:
A jeans quilt.  It is a memory quilt for my niece in remembrance of her daddy (my brother).  I'm making a circle quilt like this one, using my brother's jeans.

I'm reading: 
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.
Asher Lev is an artist through and through.  He is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prayers three times a day and believes in the Master of the Universe.  He is willing to portray life as he sees it through his art, even if it means blasphemy.
 

I'm sketching:
I'm doing an online class by Alisa Burke called Sketchbook Delight.  It's one of her older classes, but full of good ideas and inspiration.  It includes the addition of a little watercolor to the sketches.  Fun.  I'm trying to keep the habit of drawing every day, even if it's a quick sketch or something that isn't finished.

I check in on many of you occasionally.  I hope you stay warm this winter and are blessed.
Sending my love to you.

First snow...

The first snow fell last night and part of today.  We measured about 2" of snow on the ground with lots of wetness below it.  Our rain gauge measured about .7" of moisture.  By evening the snow was melted off, but the skies continued to be gray and blustery, dropping rain and sometimes snow.  When it gets around freezing tonight, we may wake up to another snow like the one in the picture.  This is a good, wet kind of snow-rain mix that puts all of the trees and grasses to bed for winter with a good drink so roots can freeze.  We still have leaves on many of the trees so they are really weighed down with snow. 



My garden is all cleared off now.  My daughter-in-law and the grands helped me dig potatoes and we split them up between the kids and their families.  The potato patch was a group effort this year with both DILs and grands helping to plant, and the men (bless their hearts) brought us straw to cover the patch.  We weighed about 130 pounds of potatoes harvested and we only planted 12-13 pounds of potatoes cut up for seed.  I also dug up all the carrots and have three full grocery bags in my spare fridge.  I cut several grocery bags of late lettuce that I am so thankful for.  I have a wheel barrow of acorn squash in the garage along with a bushel basket of beautiful, perfectly ripe, hole-free, bug-free, red apples.  The apple tree is a "Northern Lights" which is a cross between a Haralson and a Macintosh and it is very cold hardy.  The apples have a pinky-white flesh, are sweet and delicious to eat, and they make a wonderful pie.  I'd say the gardens were very productive this year, minus the tomato failure.  But hey, that's the way gardening is.  We are expecting more freezing cold temperatures tonight and chances of more snow.  The fall moisture is a good thing for us, even if it does come in the form of wet snow.  There are some warmer days on the horizon! 

Has the fall turned cold and wet where you are?  Happy October everyone.

Sandhill Cranes land...

Sandhill Cranes
If you click on the pics, you will get a closer look at the red patches on their heads.
 



Yesterday NumberOneSon called on the 2-way radio and said there were a whole lot of cranes in our Horse Creek Pasture.  I radio'd back for their location and asked if anyone wanted to go with me to see the sight.  A young voice answered back, "We want go, Gram."  So I grabbed my camera, pulled on my mud boots and coat and flew out the door to get in the Ranger.  I met two of the kids who were excitedly waiting outside for me with binoculars around their necks.   Peach and Toodles climbed in the Ranger and we took off, sliding our way through the mud and muck out to the puddly pasture. 

And there they were! From a distance, they looked like a herd of sheep because there were so many of them, and they blended in so well with the landscape like sheep do.  We inched closer and I kept snapping pictures in hopes that one or two would turn out ok.  Then I turned off the motor and we just sat and watched and listened to them talk to one another.  It was quite a sight!  And quite the sounds!  I have never, ever seen this many Sandhill Cranes in one place.  I suppose there were at least one hundred.  I'm sure they are migrating through, and likely a few pairs will stay behind here on our prairie.  We always see cranes in the summer with their long-legged babies walking behind their parents through the pastures.  We often have a pair living fairly close to our home and they will come by our stock pond and perch in our tall cottonwoods in the evening.  It's kind of scary when I walk by the trees on a summer's night to shut the chickens and a couple huge cranes flies off over head with their rattle-y calls.

After our bird-watching adventure, I was telling the girls that I remembered reading a very good book called Cranes in My Corral about an Oregon rancher's relationship with four cranes who lived in his corrals.  I think I borrowed the book from our local library.  I thought it might be a good story for the kids to read. 

Once I dropped the girls off at their house, I drove home and walked in the door and smelled hot rice.  O golly!  I had forgotten all about the rice!  I had set some rice on the stove to boil and ran out the door with such excitement that I forgot all about it.  Thankfully, the rice was not scorched and supper was not lost.  Not to mention, we had ourselves a fine Sandhill Crane Adventure!

Today a large flock of robins were chattering and fluttering around in our three juniper trees in the front yard.  Another migration on this wet, wet snowy day.  The big snowstorm that we were anticipating went south and east of us.  We did get some rain and slushy snow out of it, but the poor folks to our east got slammed with a foot or more of snow along with 50 mph winds.  That's hard work ahead. 

Butterfly...

 

Look who flew by my eyes today!

I had to look it up.  I think it is

Milbert's Tortoiseshell.

 

The weather has turned warm here.  It was 45 degrees yesterday with sunshine and melting snow.  Today we hit 58 degrees with more sunshine and melting.  The little dry creek below our house is running and the overflow culvert by our stock pond near the house is gushing out.  The run-off is really coming down now and reservoirs are filling up everywhere. These last couple of warm days have been glorious even though we still have plenty of snow out and about that has yet to melt.

 

And guess what?

Thursday and Friday we are expecting

more snow.

And more cold.

Temperatures in the teens are expected for the weekend.

What will this poor butterfly do, I wonder?

Perhaps he will find a nook or cranny to slide into during the cold snap.

 

We have lots of baby calves running around and they are good and healthy. There are many ranchers in our area who are having a rough time. They are losing calves to the elements and sickness is breaking out in their calves too. It' been a long, tough winter for many.  We've been blessed to have three men working around the clock to save calves and keep everything fed and cared for.  We've also had to buy extra straw and hay for the cows and calves.  Straw for keeping calves dry and hay for hungry cows and sheep.  We could stay in this weather pattern for a while.  Our wet season is April, May, and June so we'll see what's in store for us.  We can't complain about the moisture when others not far from us are not getting any, but the warm sunshine sure felt good! The children keep praying for moisture (rain and snow) at their table prayers.  It has been engrained in them, I suppose.



Merry Christmas! (April Fools!)

 

April 2nd and 3rd's weather deposited 8-10 inches of snow.

And cold.

Every night our temperatures sink below 10 degrees.

More snow on the way tonight and tomorrow.

 Brrrrr.

I thought when I washed my wool pants,

 I was done with them, 

but no, 

I'm sporting flannel shirts and wool pants, socks, hats, and mitts.

Serving up lots of coffee and kukicha tea. 

Birds & no bees....

Hello from the frozen tundra of the North!  We are just days away from the Spring Equinox, better know First Day of Spring, and we just keep getting slammed with snow.  I don't want to complain --even though my natural man would like to-- because I'd really like to see some green soon, but I do know that this wet, wet snow that's coming down is what's going to make it green, green, green when it's all melted down.  The men here keep having to get up in the wee, dark hours of the morning to move enough snow out of the way so we can drive and have a little space for the sheep and cows to have somewhere to stand and eat.  There is no grazing happening at this point. Just standing and eating and walking a little bit to the water tanks.  As you can see by the first picture, the sheep and the cows in the background are pretty much snowbound.  We try to make it as bearable as possible, but it is what it is right now.  Thankfully we are warmer than we were in February -- staying mostly in the 20s and 30s -- which feels ok.  We are also thankful that the mature cows have not started calving yet.  We hope that we are going to get some warmer days to melt this snow off so they can have a little bare ground to have their babies on instead of the snow.  Hubby is planning to contact our county road plow neighbor and see if we can hire him to plow some bare spots in the pasture for the cows. 

Despite the rather wintry weather we are having, it does have a feel of spring to it.  Yes, it does!  It is wet, sloppy, good snow that's falling and there's a good deal of slush, and mud underneath the whiteness of it all.  And the other telltale signs are the birds that are arriving.  The Canada geese have been here, standing around in the hay field looking for something green or buggy to eat.  It's so funny to see them just standing out there in the snow looking around.  The meadowlarks have come in and can be found out in the pastures where the men have cleared snow away for the cows and sheep.  They are turning over every bit of hay or cow pie to see if there might be a bug underneath somewhere.  The robins have come too and so have the red-winged blackbirds.  Juncos are usually thought of as winter birds to most people, but they never stay here for the winter.  They do come though in early spring and again in the fall.  I think they are pass-through birds for us.  The red-polls and a few American goldfinches have stayed through the winter and are still here for our so-called spring.  But you must know that oftentimes, this really IS what spring looks like for us.  Heavy, wet, spring snowfall is typical.  It's just that we haven't had it in a few years, and it comes on top of our previous, hard, winter snow so it feels like the never-ending winter.  But.....spring will overcome winter.  The sun gets nearer and it will prevail!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the snow.  I've been strapping on my traditional, wood snowshoes to test them out on this wet snow and they work beautifully at keeping me floating on top of the snow.  The modern, aluminum snowshoes are a bit heavier and they tend to sink into the softer snow.  They are great for hard snow, but not so much for this stuff.  The dog, Heidi, and I are enjoying the walks.  She thought she should bring the frisbee along.  She sinks in to her belly, but doesn't seem to mind.  I try to tell her to walk in my tracks, but she doesn't care.  She wants to chase jackrabbits!

So, my friends, from the country where the snow seems to never end, I wish you happy winter and will very soon wish you a happy spring!  What's happening in your neck of the woods?

The cows come home (and new calvies)

 

On a sunny and mild Wednesday, the men and I went over to The River Place and gathered the cows to bring them home.  The men had made a trail for them with the tractor through deep snow cross-country.  We couldn't have done it otherwise.  It was a 6.5 mile trek for the cows.  I led the way with the pick-up and cake feeder to coax them, and Hubby followed behind with the Ranger with the tracks on it.  The girls came home in pretty good time and were glad to find hay and water ready for them.

On another note, the heifers have started calving and right now we have four cutie pies in the corral with their mamas.  These are Hereford/Red Angus cross.  I love their splotchy faces.  So far, the heifers are calving with ease, and most of the time we don't know they are even calving until we see a calf on the ground.  Now that's how we want to do it.  

There are still three or four head of ewes at the barn left to lamb.  This past week we docked three bunches of lambs and so far we've had good numbers.  We still have the youngest lambs left to dock.

Tally:  115 ewes, 184 lambs equals 160% lamb crop.  These number don't account for the number of bum lambs we've had.  We took another 8 lambs to Dr. Liz last night and she is happy with her bummies.  We are hoping we can buy back some of the ewes from her when she gets ready to sell them in the summer.

It's been a mild week here which has been so wonderful.  I even took a little snowshoe walk around and enjoyed that.  On Sunday and Monday we are expecting more snow with high winds gusting to 70 mph which means BLIZZARD.  Thankfully, we have all the livestock fairly close by and have plenty of shed space for young livestock.  I suppose the county roads will blow shut with drifting snow, but we have stocked up at the grocery store and have our barn supplies so I think we're ready.  When I look at all the snow around us and the snow that's coming, I just imagine green grass and full reservoirs in spring!  One needs to keep that perspective.

Today I got to be at home for most of the day, being a housewife.  I enjoyed it so very much.  I've been tidying up, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, and catching up with the laundry.  I even washed my chore coat, hats, and gloves so they smell and look so much better.  Supper is in the crock pot and I'm looking forward to soaking in an Epsom Salts bath this evening.  Ahhh.  I hope your Saturday has been just right.  God bless you and thanks for stopping by.

First lambs are born...

 

The first lambs have dropped!  Twins were born last night, the first set of 2018 with over 200 more ewes to go!  We got another dumping of snow last night which made our county roads pretty drifted.  I have to admit, it was a beautiful sight to see the prairie road drifted over like waves on the sea.  Much more wind and more snow will make roads impassible.  Thankfully, we know the man with the road plow and he plans to make a pass down our road today.

 Going out with no trail.

Coming back with a drifted trail.

 Image from American Sheep Industry

If you like wool like I do, be sure to notice the U.S. Olympic Team's official outfits for the opening and closing ceremonies in South Korea this February 9th and 25th.  They will be sporting American-raised wool sweaters, hats and mittens by designer, Ralph Lauren.  Korea is expecting very cold temperatures during the ceremonies and so wool will be a good fit for keeping our athletes warm.  If you'd like to read the full story in the Sheep Industry Magazine, click here.  I just love watching the Winter Olympics, and I look forward to checking in on all the events and the stats in the days to come.  Are you a Winter Olympics watcher?  What's your favorite event?  I like the downhill skiing and snowboarding.  I do love to watch the luge and bobsled and never miss the speed skating or figure skating either.  How about curling?  That's a funny one to me.  The biathlon (cross country skiing and shooting) looks very hard to me.  As you can see, I really love ALL of it!

Time for tea...

  

Looking out my window.

It was so cold here yesterday that I only got to take a short little walk.  It was 0*F when I went out to gather eggs at the coop and go walking.  I was dressed for it and never felt cold except for my face.  I wear a wool Buff neck gator which really helps, but you still have to see and the cold makes my eyes blink and blink to keep them from freezing.  Going back to the house, I hung up my cold and wet things and decided to make a hot cup of green Kukicha tea and spend some time sitting in the sunny south-facing window with my embroidery.  It really was a beautiful, clear day, but it was deceivingly cold.  I sat on the floor because the sun was low and so I made my chair into a little table to set my things on.  It was nice to feel the warm sun on my skin and to have the sun shining in my eyes.  The light was terrific for embroidery.

About the tea....I've started leaving off my afternoon cup of coffee for tea.  I really, really love coffee, but it gives me the jitters and if I drink it too late in the afternoon, I have trouble falling asleep.  And I really do like my sleep.  I picked up Blueberry Green Kukicha Tea at the health food store on a whim.  I opened the tin and smelled it and was convinced I'd like it from aroma alone.  And I was right!  When I got home I steeped a cup and since I really didn't know what kukicha was, decided to Google it and see.  Kukicha, also called twig tea, is a Japanese tea made of the stems and veins of the tea plant.  It was considered "peasant tea" because the leaves were always the money-maker for their tea sales and not so much the stems and veins so tea growers kept those for their own tea making.  As it turned out, the twig tea has an even greater nutritional value than the green tea leaves and a lovely, nutty, creamy taste.  Add in the dried blueberries that my tea has and you've got a real winner.  I'm also happy that I can steep the tea 2-3 times.  It is said that Kukicha has 6 times more calcium per cup than a cup of milk, and not only that, it's loaded with minerals, has twice the vitamin C of an orange and contains A, E, and B vitamins.  It is almost caffeine free since it has less than 90% of the caffeine in a cup of coffee.  If you'd like to read about Kukicha's many health benefits, click here and here.  I'm so glad I found this satisfying and nutritious dense beverage.  I hope you try it.

Last night's low temperature here was -20* F and this morning we woke up to -14*, but it's warming up now already to 9* and climbing.  

Bully bulls...

All of us jumped into our rangers and went out to the pastures to move one bunch of cows from Chuck's to the East Pasture this morning.  The bulls are still in the cows and sometimes when you gather them all up together, the bulls and even the cows will fight a little.  I think they fight when they are left to themselves too, but when they get bunched up close like this, it's likely someone picks a fight.  The one picture we didn't take would have come at the end of this series when the smaller bull butted the bigger one right in the keester and he had the last word!  It was really quite funny!  No animals were hurt during this performance.

As you can see, it's getting really dry out on the range.  There is still plenty of grass in our pastures, but it's not soft and green anymore.  It's hard and dry.  In all truth, the grass in our area of the plains is called "hard grass" and it's got decent protein and is very nutrient dense.  It's good for grazing cattle which explains why they look so good.  We'd love a little softening of the land and the grass though.  So far we've only had clouds with lightning and wind.  We do think our north pastures got a decent rain one night, but the rest of the place is pretty dry.  We just continue to pray for rain.

My garden is doing ok.  At least I've picked a few zucchini, and today I picked my first head of broccoli.  I can't wait to roast it on the grill and see what kind of flavor it has.  The cucumbers are blossoming and so are the beans, but nothing to pick yet.  I dug up three heads of garlic that were going very dry.  Two were small and one was larger -- about the size of a 50 cent piece. I'm leaving the rest to see if it grows a little more.  My dad, whom I shared some garlic with for planting, has this GINORMOUS garlic growing in his garden.  I tell you, he dug one up and from the bulb to the top of the leaves was 5 feet tall!  And the garlic bulb was almost baseball size.  Incredible!  He must have the right stuff for growing garlic.  My tomatoes are  S L O W  to set fruit.  We'll be lucky to get a ripe tomato by September at this rate.  Oh well.  That's how it goes with gardening.  You have different successes in different years due to the weather conditions and many other variables like soil, bugs, dogs, and kids.  Farms near the sheep sale barn got hailed out last week.  It was a total disaster.  They had baseball sized hail and 90 mph winds to go with it.  Devastating.  We don't have anything to complain about.

I hope your summer is going well.  My zinnias are just starting to bloom so I hope to have some colorful flower photos for you soon!  God bless you!

Spring snow...

 It snowed all day yesterday.

Heavy, wet stuff that melted at first and then accumulated.

We received about 6" on top of the slop

 which amounted to .6" in the rain gauge.

The low temp last night was 25*.

Brrrr!

 I spent most of yesterday indoors sewing.

I made these stretchy headbands for the little girls using

girls' tights and made clip-on flowers from silk and cotton voile.

Headbands     Flowers

(I didn't cut my flowers as fussy as M. Stewart did)

They turned out quite springy.

This is my second time making this Dutch Almond Puff.

It is so delicious and feels very fancy, but it's easy to make.

I spread mine with apricot jam and then drizzled it with a glaze and sprinkled on nuts.

So good with coffee or tea.

I found the recipe on Bonnie's blog:

Danish Almond Puff Pastry

(Thank you, Bonnie!) 

Danish Almond Puffs

 Cut together until it resembles a coarse meal:

1/2 cup of butter 

1 c. flour

Add 2 Tbsp. cold water

Mix into a dough.  Then press into two 3x12 rectangles on an ungreased baking sheet. 

Next boil:

1 c. water 

1/2 c. butter

add 1 tsp. almond extract

Remove from heat and add:

1 c. flour

3 eggs one at a time beat them in.

Beat until smooth.  Spread over the pastry rectangles and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.  Combine:   2 c. powdered sugar, 4 Tbs. cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/8 tsp. salt.  Beat the frosting until smooth.  When the pastries are out of the oven spread jam down the middle.  I use raspberry jam and caramel apple jam.  The when cooled drizzle the frosting on.  If you remember sprinkle with ground nuts. 

Rainy results...

Over the past week we've had some warm temperatures, snow run-off, and rain!  There are puddles in the pastures, goopy gunk under gates, waters in the wadis, and we are happy as Herefords in a hay yard!  Yup!  It appears that we are going to get some spring showers and some wetness.  Even today we've had a few sprinkles and there's more in the forecast. 

We worked all the mature Hereford cows through the corrals and barn a few days ago and sorted them up by calving dates, three ways.  I was the gate swinger and all that muddy goop was where I was pushing cows through to their appropriate pens.  I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my job because not only was there mud to slog in, but there was warm sunshine too.  Perfect for this ranchgirl.

All of the cows are now out in their designated pastures doing what they are supposed to do:  eating grass and having their calves.  So far we've had no problems, but there are about 400 head yet to have their babies.  Driving out to check cows is like a daily Easter Egg Hunt, our eyes search and search looking for wet baby calves with their mothers licking them off and suckling them.

Around the home and gardens, I've been raking up dead willow branches in the backyard and digging out clumps of grass and weeds from amongst the tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth spears that are shooting through the moist soil.  It's so exciting to see the new life happening right before my eyes.  It's days like these when we are so glad to live in the country and watch cows calving in the pasture right out of our front windows.  I told Hubs the other day, "People would pay to have our views and see what we see out of our kitchen windows -- even for a weekend."

On the topic of birds -- Peach, Toodles, and their Mom spied these Eastern Bluebirds in the tree patch next to their house.  They were  so kind to share their photos with me!  Will the bluebirds stay or migrate further south?  I don't know, but they do like rotted trees with holes in them for nesting, so it could happen that they decide to stay with us.  We have a large amount of flickers who like to nest in our  rotted trees too so time will tell.  No matter what they decide, it's so fun to see their bright blue wings flying amidst our leafless trees.

On another note, the septic system is clogged.....again.  Likely the roots from the Willow tree are interfering.  We will find out tomorrow.  Bummer.

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." 
~Doug Larson

ring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/douglarson107646.html?src=t_spring

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/douglarson107646.html?src=t_spring

Chinook wind...

 

 From blowing, drifting snows...

....to this on 2.10.17.

The Chinooks (as we call them on the Northern Prairies) blew warm and hard, cutting ice and snow in just a night and a day.  Chinook is an American Indian word that is translated as "snow-eater."  We went from a daytime high of 15 degrees to 45 degrees in less than 24 hours.  The Chinooks continued into the next day and warmed us up to 55 degrees.  With all that wind and warmth, we've now got mud and puddles of fresh water everywhere.  The cattle and sheep are so happy to be able to walk away from deep snow and find little sprouts of green grass to graze and snow-melt to sip.  Yesterday it even rained here a little bit.  It just feels like spring is arriving, but I know we are likely not out of Winter's grasp yet.  The thaw is a nice reprieve though!

Lots of baby lambs are arriving daily.  

This one below was exceptionally BIG!

Do you have warm winds that blow in your area?

Is there a name for them?