Spring in South Dakota

At the beginning of last week, my garden had over 3 feet of snow over the whole area.  At the end of the week, the raised beds have no snow, and the compost ring is free of snow as well. The snow on the ground around the beds will disappear soon, but the weather temp has dropped, and the wind is cold.
In other parts of South Dakota, it has snowed again in the northern part, and a little south, the water is running furiously.  Houses are sandbagged and roads are washing out. We got a little skiff of snow as well.  I hope to get to Sioux Falls, the Falls Park to watch the water running over the falls there when it warms up a little.  There will be a lot of water surging over the rocks.
At our house, central SD, the tiger lilies are out of the ground about 2 inches, and the tulips are about 6 inches high.  The lilacs are budding, hooray, they were protected from the deer this winter, inside the garden fence.  The rabbits played havoc, tho, since the snow was so high, they worked on a lot of lilac branches, so those ends will not be blooming.  We shall see.  We need a dog to keep the rabbits at bay, our many cats do not seem to bother the rabbits!

Snow Geese

Spring is coming!  Last week, hundreds of thousands of snow geese flew through this South Dakota flyway.  Amazing to watch!  They fly in a V formation, but not as precise as Canadian geese do.  Sometimes the line is longer on one side of the V than the other, or 3 or 4 fly in the middle of the big V.  If you stand and watch a lone goose, it flies harder and faster than the others, and pulls into place somewhere in the line.  They change places frequently, although that is harder to track as they go overhead.  Sometimes they are quite high, another flock might be lower, and almost directly under them.  One group landed south of us to feed and we watched as they took to the air, and got into their V's.  Since their wing tips are black, if they are high, you don't at first think they are white.  When they are lower, you can see plainly their white bodies.  The juveniles are not yet white either.  A sight to behold!

Rodeo

Grandson Brent is currently at  Livestock Show and Rodeo in  Houston.  He is one of the 6 pickup men for the 20 performance rodeo.  It is live streamed every night, so we have been able to watch some of the rodeos.  It is fun trying to pick Brent out of the others, who all wear the same colored shirt, along with a black hat.  They come flying by a cowboy that needs taken off his horse, so you have to look quick.
In addition to all the rodeo events, there has been calf scramble for the 4-Hers or FFA kids.  They release 16 calves to about 30 kids.  These are not baby calves, so it is not an easy task to catch, halter, then they have to drag them over to a line in the arena.  Fun to watch!
Another event they are having is called Chuck Wagon Races.  A wagon, one driver, four horses.  They make a figure 8 twice around some barrels, then 3 teams once around the arena at a furious pace to see who comes in first in a heat race.  Did I mention this is a very large arena?  There are 12 chutes for the rough stock to come out.  The attendance the first night was over 46,000, and on Sunday PM there was over 115,000.  It takes a big place to hold this many people.  The Rodeo continues through March 20, so they are about half done.
Problem with the Live Stream on my computer, tho.  It stops and starts again, and you miss what is going on while it is stopped.  When it is stopped, tho, you can see some spectacular shots of animals kicking, or a cowboy in the air.  My internet provider is no help in solving this problem.
Well, we will keep watching anyway!!  Fantastic rodeos!

Wrestling

We had a nice weekend. We attended the South Dakota State B Wrestling Tournament. Our son Troy and 2 teammates from their High School wrestling team were inducted into the SD High School Hall of Fame.  They were individual wrestling champions in 1989, and their team won the team trophy that year.  They each went on to wrestle in different colleges, and won various honors there as well.
Our entire family was present, except for two grandchildren who were too far away to get to the festivities.  Being with family made the event extra special.  Support also came from my mother and father, 95 years old, as they watched the induction on TV.  We had a great time, visited with the other families, reminisced about the 1989 year. Bob Johnson, the 1989 Kimball High School coach presented the plaques to Justin, Lee and Troy.

Happiness

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

February in South Dakota

Spring??  Yesterday my friend saw a robin on her lawn.   Robins are our first sign of spring.  However, considering today is the middle of February, spring seems unlikely. We are still walking thru snowbanks. Then I came home and went out to fill the bird feeders, which were completely empty.  Some of the snow next to the house, east side, is gone, and lo and behold, little sprigs of tiger lilies are pushing up green.  Go back, robins, it is too early!!  And lilies, you may lose your tips. Most of the bed is under snow yet. 
These two notifications made me curious enough to go look at the lilacs.  They have buds, but they don't look like they are anxious.  Alas, I can see the rabbits have been tasting lilacs this winter.  The fence protects the lilacs from the deer, but not rabbits.  The weather man is promising us snow and low temps over this weekend, so Mother Nature better put the skids on!!

Black Hills Rodeo and Stock Show

We spent 4 days last week at Stock Show and went to 5 PRCA rodeos.  The rodeos, produced by Sutton Rodeos, were great, good entertainment.  One of the rodeo's  in between acts was Tomas, a charro, who showed his skill with a rope on a beautiful palamino, with a mane that came nearly to the ground.  After demonstrating his skill with the rope, standing on the horse, jumping up to let the rope under him, he continues twirling, letting the extra rope out into his hand, until the loop gets very large and is big enough to encompass him and the horse.  Then he gallops the horse around the arena, all the while swinging the rope, exactly right, so the horse stays inside the loop, and does not step on it while he is running. They played beautiful Mexican music all during this impressive act.
We also visited the very many booths, with all things related to agriculture, ranching and rodeo life.  Equipment, clothes, jewelry, machinery and anything else you can think of.  The Stock Show part was housed under the same roof, with different breeds of cattle shown each day, and Supreme Row, for the top bull and heifer was awarded on Saturday night before the final rodeo began.
South Dakota is proud to the home of 2011 Miss Rodeo America, McKenzie Haley, a beautiful representative of SD and Rodeo.  Her sister, Mallory Haley sang the Star Spangled Banner before one of the impressive openings of a Sutton Rodeo.  The rockets and stars are boomed into the sky, the horse carrying Miss SD and the American flag stands at attention in the middle of the arena as this noise and flashes go on above his head.  The opening ends with Miss SD riding the horse in one lap around the arena, and it sets off a spangle of fireworks at fixed places along the arena fence.  I have watched this many times, and it is always breath taking and impressive, what a tribute to our flag and our country.
Hats off to Sutton Rodeo!

Bird Watching

A snowy, blustery day in SD.  We watched a lone bird at our feeder today.  We could not identify the species, so looked in my Birds of the Dakotas book.  We determined it is an American goldfinch.  The males are bright yellow in the summer, but in the winter, the male looks like the female, a pale brown breast, a little darker brown head and back, black tips on the wings. There was a very slight yellowish tinge to the breast, and those feathers were very puffy against the cold and wind.   They are year round in  South Dakota, and also summer in North Dakota.  We see these, especially in the spring, and they are so very pretty, did not realize they wintered here, as they are not yellow in the winter.  We had quite a few this past spring, wonder where the rest of the crew is hiding out?

Dad's 96th Birthday

We had a party for Dad's 96th birthday.  He and Mom live in their own home in town, and manage quite well.  I have 2 talented nieces who prepared the main dish.  Crackers and dips were munchers before the meal.  We started with an appetizer of provolone cheese dipped in egg and bread crumbs, and lightly browned in olive oil, served with homemade salsa.  Dinner followed with fruit salads, delicious roast vegetables and Italian beef sandwiches on French bread rolls. The bread was filled with tender roast beef, cheese melted over the meat, and dipped slightly in au jus sauce and warm from the oven.  Carmen  made Giardiniera relish. It has finely cut up marinated vegetables, including hot peppers for some zip. This topped the meat and cheese.  The meal was a delight to eat! 

We ended with ice cream and a decorated chocolate cake, made by Mom who is 95.  And of course, we had a cup of coffee.
Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Weather

A little reprieve today.  Temp this PM was 36, which means some of the snow and ice were melting, hopefully enough to clean off the roads a little.  This also might put a crust on the snowbanks, so when the wind comes up again, the snow will not blow willy nilly, creating a mini blizzard.
Just have to report on the wind towers again.  They, all 107 of them are up now, and many of them have red lights on the top.  (They don't all have to have lights, but enough that they do not create a flying hazard.)  At any rate, there are a LOT of red lights.  They blink off and on, all at the same time, and can be seen for miles.  Our farm is lower, so we can only see a few from here, but when we came home last week from Miller, a town north of here, we came to a rise in the elevation, and there they were, blinking and stretching along the horizon for miles.  We were more than 30 miles away when we saw them.  We tease our neighbors that live close to the towers that they now live in the Red Light District!

Women in Blue Jeans

WIBJ was held this week, giving farm women a couple of days to relax, listen to great speakers, and attend short sessions on a variety of subjects pertinent to life on the farm. This 8th annual conference was held on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University in one of their great facilities. (The conference was not held last year due to the weather SD experienced in 2009.)  WIBJ was a time to, as their slogan this year stated, Renew your friendships, Recycle your knowledge and Regain your spirit.
The key note speaker told us we were Super Heroes, and gave us some tips about Balance, Endurance, Strength and Flexibility, and she was not talking about the physical things those words mean; rather gave us suggestions on how to use these attributes in our busy lives.  The committee gave us a fun little Farm Fashion Show, and provided a Spa Night with various providers giving chair massages, facials and hand care.  Delicious meals and lunches were provided, and vendors were in attendance to answer a myriad of questions.  Hats off to the committee of women who worked so hard on this event!

Tie Dying

I met my sister, cousin, and 2 friends for lunch at a neat little sandwich and coffee place in Mitchell.  After lunch, we went to Flavia's B&B for a tie dying lesson.  Lelia had previously dyed silk scarves, 60 inches long, with a dark, pretty blue.  We folded and retied them with rubberbands, and then put them in another color dye.  Two twisted scarves went into the magenta, the rest into yellow.  We cooked them for 60 minutes and Lelia showed us many dyed pieces, done on all kinds of fabrics.  We had a tour of this very large 1880's house, its many rooms and interesting history.  We finished up by rinsing the scarves in clear water.  The magenta came through the dye as expected; and the yellow color on the other scarves which should have been green at the end, was more a brownish green, rather than the forest green we expected.  What a fun day!

Weather

Here we are in SD on January 10 with lots of fluffy snow, about 6 inches, that came yesterday, and an inch or so today. It was kind of like someone was up there with a sifter, sending it downward.   Luckily, we did not have our typical SD winds, so it has come down and pretty much stayed put.  Of course this means that farm yards and calf pens are retaining a lot of snow.  I scooped off the back step twice, the second time, the snow was harder, and will get harder as the wind picks up tonight.
When Roger fed cows this AM, he noticed in the tree belt south of us, there were a lot of pheasants, mostly roosters. Some were on the ground, but mostly were in the trees, which is not very usual.  As he unloaded his hay, he noticed a very large coyote, rather mangy looking come running out of those trees.  This explained the pheasants in the trees, so I'm guessing some of the birds got wise, and others made a good meal for the coyote.

Seed Catalogs

January, and the seed catalogs are in my mailbox with their beautiful, colorful pictures of flowers and vegetables, enticing me to think of spring, while the wind howls outside and the weatherman is promising very cold weather all next week.  Never mind the weatherman.  I will sink into my soft warm chair to browse the catalogs and dream of black soil on my fingers, what I will plant and in which bed,  and look at ideas for something I have not tried before. What worked last year, did I have too much of something, not enough of some other plant?  Should I plant some new flowers?  What should I put in my herb bed?
I have time to plan, after all it is only January, and this is SD, where the garden soil will remain cold well into May.  Dream on!

"Of Bees and Mists"

The Undercover Page Turners book club met tonight to discuss  the book, "Of Bees and Mists".  It is a fable that chronicles three generations of women under one family tree, a mythical town, spirits and spells, clairvoyance and prophets, witchcraft and demons.
We agreed we would not have picked this book if given a choice, but nonetheless, after you started reading, and put the book down to absorb what you read, there was always the urge to pick up and  read some more.  The author, Erick Setiawan, certainly knows how to spin a tale and keep one's interest. 
We had a lively discussion about life and how these families lived, died and survived.  It was, as the book cover promised, touching, truthful and memorable.

Happy New Year--2011

Happy New Year to my friends out there.  Roger spent the morning moving snow, then I went out in the calf yard to be the guider, as he tried to clean off the cement "apron" that the calves stand on to eat silage.  The calves had it so packed and frozen, he was only able to take 4 or so inches off, but it will help.  Don't want them to stand higher than the cables that keep them in the yard.  The wind had gone down, so only my feet got cold.  I am not used to the cold anymore!!  He loaded and filled the bunks up again, so their stomachs should be full to stand the cold, which is going to be with us all week.  We got about 5-6 inches of snow, but the northern part of SD got much more, 12 and over in some places.

Days Fly By

Ah, yes, the days do fly by.  Christmas has come and gone, with family and friends, food, visiting and games, watching the youngest at age 5 1/2 enjoy his new toys and entertain the adults sitting around.  I gave everyone a jar with a homemade hot chocolate or a coffee mix, so I hope they remember the good times we had on the 25th, 2010 when they drink a cup of brew.

We attended the funeral of a friend with whom I went to country grade school for 7 yrs. and to high school.  She had some rough times, including cancer and an amputation.  I visited her a few days before she died, not knowing it would be the last time.  She had enjoyed life, however, and that is what I will remember.

2010 is promising to go out with some bad weather.  We are in a weather watch from Thursday night to Saturday morning, with promises of snow, maybe ice, and wind chills of 10 to 20 below.  Now that is cold!  It is a balmy day today, tho, at 43 degrees and no wind.  That is the saying about SD.  If you don't like the weather, just wait a day or so, and you will have a change, no promise if for better or worse, however!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day, and preparations are going well at my house.  We are expecting 23 people.  The tree and lights are sparkling.  Tables are up with red cloths, gold napkins and gold ball centerpieces.  The turkey and ham are thawing, the squash is in the oven, to be put in the crock pot for tomorrow.  Homemade ice cream ingredients are ready to be put together.  Potatoes will go in the oven to be baked. Garden carrots yet to be cleaned and sliced.  Buns and a pumpkin roll are ready.  The rest of the great dinner is made by the families coming tomorrow..green bean casserole, dressing, salads, candies, desserts.  Salami, cheeses, crackers, rolled pickles, veggies and dip on the appetizer table.
We will be doing a matching game to find your dinner partner, should be fun, along with fun favors on the table. We are grateful that all of our children and grandchildren will be here, along with my Mom and Dad; and that the SD weather promises no snow tomorrow!
Church services are at 5:00 tonight, to remember why we are celebrating at this time of year; for Jesus Christ, who was born and died for us.
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Marshmallows

A young farm couple in our neighborhood have a baby I have occasionally watched while her mother is gone. She dropped me off a gift today.  Some delicious ginger cookies, a pretty Christmas mug, with a jar of homemade cocoa mix and homemade marshmallows!  Have you ever tasted homemade marshmallows?  They are very good, and no ingredients with strange names!  How many people are making a gift for a neighbor this season? And how many people know how to make marshmallows?!
Thanks, Trudi!  You are a sweetheart!

Snow

The snow fell all morning, and when I walked to the mailbox, there was no wind. It was a beautiful afternoon.  The snow had fallen straight down, about 3 inches of big flakes, was pristine, white, and had no marks on it yet.  No animal tracks, deer, rabbit, possum or cat;  no human footsteps; no tire tracks.  I picked some snow up, and it was almost sticky enough to make a snowball, which I did.  When I walked back, the snow was disturbed by my previous steps, but still beautiful.
Of course, those in northern SD or in MN were probably not calling this beautiful, as they got a lot more, and had more to begin with.