Well, it looks like spring has finally started to settle in here in north west Alberta Canada. We have had a good week of sunshine and mild temperatures so the snow is starting to melt nicely. The Canada geese and seagulls have started to return; I actually saw the first goose fly over a week ago. The poor thing must have been worried as there is no water anywhere, it would have been looking down at a whole lot of white.
Like I was saying, all this snow has really been melting and you can tell how much wind we had over the last half of winter as some patches are still feet deep and in other places the ground is already coming through. But you can also tell how very dry it has been as much water is seeping straight into the ground, very very quickly. Unless we have a damp spring, in a couple of months it could look like we had little runoff at all. It will take years of this much snowfall to restore local water levels, including our precious slough. We may find ourselves missing all the mud that we will spend the next couple of weeks slopping around in.
My parents made it back from their trip so the farm has been passed back into their hands. No more prime responsibility for me for now, and despite getting snowed in and wrenching my neck BADLY, there were no real reportable occurrences. No spring calves have yet appeared although 3 heifers and one old cow are looking quite close. Given how badly I strained a group of muscles in my neck, its a damn good thing nothing happened. That first day I was in more pain than I ever remember feeling before. Thank goodness my sister was able to help me with feeding the pigs and cattle that morning, as I don't see how I would have been able to do so all on my own. It was a real lesson in just how hard it would be, trying to run a farm by oneself.
In regards to my sporadic blogging, I suppose I should just say right out that it is unlikely that my posting will accelerate here anytime soon, if at all. I had originally meant for this blog to be a place for me to rant and share some of my passions in a relatively anonymous fashion, and to explore my ideas about balance. I still intend to do these things and sometimes will want to do so anonymously. But I am also feeling a need to be less anonymous for various reasons, not the least being my desire to advertise and write about happenings on the farm and that part of my journey. As such, I am trying to decide just how to move forward.
And its not that I have nothing about which to rant or try to foster conversation. Quite the opposite. There is soooo much shit going on out in the real world, so much to talk about, mourn, even to yell about. So much that I often don't know how to start talking about it here. And I think it might be time for me to stop being quite so much of a chicken shit, and say my piece a little more openly.
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