Spring Update

Spring is finally here! The robins are back with their "Heeeere, heeeere, birdie birdie birdie birdie". The redwing blackbirds are making their ruckus way up in the maple trees. The prehistoric noise from the sandhill cranes can be heard floating down from high above. The steelhead and walleye are on the move, and the bald eagles are perched in the cottonwoods below the dam just waiting to pluck a nice fish dinner from the waters.

Mud is everywhere. The horses are in a perpetual state of crusty. We bring them in, curry them and brush them and comb them only to let them back out to roll in the mud again. Having Paints seems like a silly idea this time of the year. While Oliver and Mater are mostly brown, Hank is about 50% white. Which means he's about 100% mud color 100% of the time. He's going to spend some quality time with the brushes tonite.

As is normal in Wisconsin, with the beginning of spring comes another snow storm. Six to ten inches of heavy wet slop are predicted to make a mess for the next two days, followed by highs in the 20's and lows in the single digits. I have crocuses in bloom and tulips well on the way. I hope the snow and cold doesn't hurt them much. I got the urge to go thru my seeds for the vegetable garden yesterday, but I saw the forecast. It'll be two months before the soil is warm enough to plant, so why rush.

Can't complain too much about this past winter. We only had four decent snow storms, with this one in the forecast making number five. We never had the severely cold temps that we experienced over the previous two winters. I think the coldest morning I recorded was -19, and we never had a significant number of cold days in a row. I think we're still on our second propane tank for the winter.

Show season is still a few weeks off. Sara has decided not to push it so hard this year. She was gone to shows at least two full weekends per month last year from May thru October. We got Mater registered Pinto this year, so they'll hit those shows. They only have six shows all season, and they are held over three weekends. It's a nice schedule because you're not running to shows all the time, but they are expensive. Each show has six judges, so the out lay for the weekend is huge. So if you have a bad day, you just made a huge donation to the club. But if you have a good day, you can bring home 100 points in a weekend. Oliver may not be ready for the APHA shows this season. They seem to have hit a flat spot in their training progress. If he's not ready, we'll take him to open shows and see how he does there. We've got lots of trail rides planned, and he loves to ride in the woods.