Snow & Fire

We had our second real snow of the year today. I know, the date is February 4th. It's crazy, but that's just the way the world works sometimes. We have something around 2 inches on the ground.
So do you know what these tracks in the snow are?

If not, then before I tell you I have to mention how a friend of mine refers to her cat. She calls him a "dirty little dirt cat." As soon as I heard that, I loved it. It applies fully to Nermal. He is a dirty little dirt cat, who believes he is a dog. 


But back to the tracks in the snow. Ryan and I went out to visit a lamb whose mother can't decide if she wants it and also toured the building. It's nice and warm in there! I'm so proud of Ryan for that one, he really did a great job picking the site, orientation, and construction method to make a great chicken building. He's concerned it will be too warm in the summer, but we will have to see. On the way back from the tour, we made those tracks. They are from the bottom and body of a snowman.

So maybe you can see why I was talking about a dirty little dirt cat. Apparently, Ryan and I made one!
Several years ago we made a bunny,

let's just say that this time Ryan stuck ears on our snowman and they were not big enough to be bunny ears. Hence our friendly neighbor guardian snow cat.

Guard us, o dirtiest snow cat I ever did see.


This week Ryan's been burning piles of brush near the house. It's been clear and impossibly warm with very little wind.

Here is a picture of the 6 or so ash piles he left behind. Each spot of gray used to be a pile of brush taller than I am.

And I took this picture this morning of the kidlet and her daddy. That's his oatmeal. Not hers, his.

It shows true love that Ryan is willing to share his food.

Keep to the forest, stay out of the trees

Ryan's working on fencing still, and in this case it involves clearing some trees. I think he's learned a few things from the last time he tried to burn a pile of timber, so this time he hooked up the hose first. And he watched the fires.

Of course, he still had a few going at once. I saw three.

When he came inside later he told me there were seven. 

Ryan also went to visit his grandmother last week (she lives about an hour's drive away), and she gave him her mother-in-law's leftover quilting fabric.

This is Ryan's great grandmother, Hazel's namesake. There's actually an almost-finished quilt here. It's even a pattern I thought about making some day. I think I'm going to finish it. Here's the thing: all of this fabric is amazingly ugly. Deliciously ugly, even. 

As I unpacked it I was talking to my mom and telling her how ugly the fabric was. So she asked me why I want to finish this quilt. I never knew this woman. But she was important enough in my husband's world that I named my daughter after her. And she's the only quilter in either of our families (in the direct lines anyway); I feel a connection to her. So I laid out the quilt to take a look at it. 

Then Ryan, beer in hand after coming in from burning the piles, mentioned that the quilt isn't so bad as a whole. He told me not to focus on the individual, ugly fabrics; focus on the overall picture. I also admit it's already growing on me. Even the individual fabrics don't seem as ugly to me as when I first unpacked them. 

 Someday if I leave a half-finished quilt behind, even an ugly one, I hope my great granddaughter-in-law picks it up and finishes it. 

Ditch burning & new sheep

Ditch burning actually appears to be a very common thing in South Central Iowa. So this is a more intentional burn we did in our ditch, and is more like what it is supposed to look like! It has been just astounding how much burning people do down here, there was never so much up by Ames. It seems like every ditch and pasture down here gets a fresh burn. It's nice though, because burning can be very good for the native grasses. 

We also got three new ewes, who are between 5 and 8 years old. Ryan was really worried that the 5 younger, stronger ewes (shown in the foreground) would take over all of the older ewes' feed. Instead, the older ewes push the younger ones around! We are weaning them off of the winter ration (hay and a little cracked corn) as our grass greens up. We will start moving them around the pasture soon, I can't wait! We are also supposed to get chickens this week, we hope they come Wednesday instead of tomorrow. We're just not ready for them yet!