Is winter over yet? Oh that’s right it technically has not even started yet. *Sigh*. I hate to be a weather complainer for many reasons. The biggest being Mother Nature could really careless how you feel when it comes to weather especially here in the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington. The old joke around here is if you do not like the current weather just stay around for more than 10 minutes because it is likely to change. I really doubt this is much different than anywhere else in the country but days on end of the same weather here are very rare. Maybe that is why I want to complain today. It has been cold and snowy for a week and I have not even turned the calendar over to December yet.
It has been quite some time since I remember having snow on Thanksgiving but it is not unheard of. I am hoping this turns out to be like the winter of 2008-9 when we had snow and cold the first week of December and then had a pretty nice winter with some cold but very little snow in January and February. I am always trying to work on finding the bright side of any situation. My dad was really great at just taking life as it came and finding the optimistic side of most situations that looked dire on the surface. I keep thinking if I had gotten my calves weaned earlier I would be feeding less hay in the snow. This has some truth to it but there is also another side. If I had weaned my calves earlier I probably would have sold them earlier and the price has gotten better and they have gained well.
I also feel that even if I take cows onto corn stalks later it will just mean they can stay longer if the weather cooperates. In a few days it will warm up and some cows will be stomping cornstalks in the mud while my as yet unharvested corn will be in good shape for later grazing. I just get antsy anytime I am feeding much hay to cows. This ranch has to make its money by running cows cheap. No matter how cheap you find hay it still costs money to feed it. I prefer my cows to do their own harvesting and feeding as little supplemented feed as possible. The way I am going I will feed three times the hay this winter that I want to and twice the hay I find acceptable. I keep living on the optimism that in this country you only get 30 days of bad winter snow at a maximum and this year it is just early. Time will tell I guess.
My high school alma mater had a state playoff semifinal football game today in Kennewick. I was going to skip out on it but I just could not stand to tell Dakota that we were not going. It was a cold game but it worked out well as Connell beat Omak 55 to 21 and won a trip to Tacoma to play in the state championship next week. They have a real chance at repeating as state 1A champions. Congrats to the boys, the school, coaches and community on a great season. Is this blog post as boring as it seems? I really am trying!
We had a great family Thanksgiving at my youngest sisters’ house. Yesterday Christine helped me feed in both the morning and afternoon and other than that we took it pretty easy as the snow came down sporadically. I started a new book and watched a few episodes of the Sopranos late last night. I watch the whole series about 3 times a year because it is one of the few television programs that I enjoy. I did do something new on Wednesday night that I had never done before. No, it is not some wild monkey sexual move, nor some new food or drink. I am feeling this particular blog post is so lame that I am planning to do another one later tonight or tomorrow and will share what new thing I did.
Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Nashville warbler aka Vermivora ruficapilla.
Today’s picture is of fall pairs coming to feed in the snow, up close and personal fall pair 6066or and her calf 0066w, and Ram tough but cold!
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