Rounding Third And Heading For Spring

Reader Contribution by Keba M Hitzeman
Published on February 17, 2020
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Photo by Keba M Hitzeman

There’s a meme going around that says, “January was a tough year, but we made it.” Maybe you’re nodding your head in agreement. I know it was a long, strange month for us. It’s not that it was horrible weather or anything catastrophic happened. According to accuweather.com, the warmest day was 67*F on the 11th, and the coldest day was 26*F on the 19th. Many days were in the 40s. It was overall a dreary month, and it rained a lot more than it snowed. I went through a 4 foot by 4 foot round bale every 5-6 days with the sheep and goats, since they didn’t have anything else to do but eat hay and bellow at me when the level got below the “magic line” and the feeder was TOO EMPTY, OHMYGOSH WE’RE GOING TO STARVE! To be fair, there are 32 of them, and a lot of pregnant girls, so they were eating for two (or three). I’ll cut them some slack. So why was it such a long month? No specific reason, but it seemed like it would never end, and we would be stuck in a Groundhog Day-style repetition for all of 2020.

January was indeed a “tough year,” but we made it to February, and even though I know we have a ways until spring and warmer weather, the signs are there that spring is on the way. I take our farm dog, Lola, on a walk in the pastures every morning. She runs around sniffing at all the things that tickle a dog’s nose, and I’m usually lost in thought planning the day or mulling over a project/problem. Yesterday is when I first consciously noticed – the blackbirds and bobolinks were singing. Who knows how long they have actually been there, but I noticed them, and suddenly, I was able to see more signs of spring. The air has that wet, “warming up” smell; there is an oh-so-slight tinge of green under the dry brown-and-tan stalks of grass (and even a couple of brave dandelions!); many of the bushes and trees have a reddish glow as new branch growth emerges and the buds start popping out.

Photo by Unsplash/Yoksel

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