Would you rather have it be very cold or very hot outside?
It is easier for me to get outside and be active when it is hot. I love the outdoors and all the activities that go along with the outdoors. When it's warm outside, we stay outside until late in the evening, and then once we get inside the house and get cleaned up and fix something to eat, then it's almost time to go to bed. Warm weather will make it difficult for me to get to the computer to blog.
I'll post pictures later of our garden project that we worked on today.

Snow Resentment

How do you feel about snow?

I have a snow resentment this year. This is about the greatest accumulation we had in our area.
I managed to get a snow day off work, but it didn't last very long, and there just wasn't enough to have fun with. The wild life and livestock appreciated it, I'm sure. But I'm always wishing for some good snow every year, I guess because we only have a little snow occasionally.

I like to stay home and not go anywhere. If I don't have to work, my goal is to stay at home as much as possible. So to have a snow day, and be "trapped" in the house, is bliss for me! Where I come from, since we don't have much snow, we don't drive very well on snow or ice. And we tend to get more ice than snow usually.

Bear laughs at me and says that I have a "snow resentment" when we have snow forecast, and then it doesn't snow enough to miss work. He says that I'm worse than the kids. He might be right!

Now the winter before last, we had several good snows of several inches. It was just lovely here.

Love this tree. It stands outside the bedroom window of the old farm house, overlooking the pond.

Another great scene from the old farm house.
Love this barn in the winter! Love this barn in the summer!

Here the cow girls line up to eat hay and try to stay warm during the snow.

This is a scene from where I work. Can you believe I had to go to work with this much snow on this bank? This reminded me of a Bev Doolittle painting. There's nothing "camouflaged" in this shot.
Was nice to remember my snow memories, especially on the eve of an 80 degree day ahead!
Thank you!

Where it begins

How do you feel about rain?

I feel very passionate about rain.

But not very vocal tonight.

The Bear says I wasn't too passionate about the rain when it rained all through my Spring Break.

But I didn't complain.

I really didn't mind.

I felt like the rain was so needed, and it washed some of the nasty yellow pollen away.

It nourished the green grass and the trees.

There's been so little of it the last few years.

I try to never complain or criticize inconvenience of the rain.

I love a wide open space, where you can see the rain travel across the horizon.

There's nothing better than to see it coming.

I have one memory of being caught in the rain on horseback.

I was on the back of the property, and could see the rain approaching me.

I know why they call it driving rain and sheets of rain.

That's how it falls, in sheets, when you can see where it begins and ends.
I'll never forget that experience.

Confession

So, the Bear was right, I was wrong.

He made a prediction last Saturday, the beginning of Spring Break, that I would be frustrated and exhausted by the end of the week.
Oh, he's only partly right.
But don't tell him I said that part!
I am exhausted, but not totally frustrated.
I'll not bore you with the details of what I did accomplish, though that would be the "healthier" approach for me to take.
See, I have this problem, yes, another one.
 I try to fit ten gallons of "stuff" in a five gallon bucket, as my husband refers to my "problem".
I get it from my father, he's the same way.
I have ten hours of daylight, so I plan a thousand chores!
Then when the day is done, I have trouble appreciating the things that were accomplished, because I was unable to complete all my tasks.
Is this a pessimistic attitude? Half full/half empty kinda thing? Hmmmm.
I hope not, because I think I'm actually rather optimistic for the most part.
But I like to get things done.
So, just to indulge myself at the end of my week off work, here are some of the things I didn't complete in relation to blogging:

1. A picture of the Italian Cream Cake from my dad's birthday party, that went very well.
2. The taxes, not related, but bothers me as April 15th approaches!
3. An introduction of myself on my blog. I've never finished setting my page up!
4. I didn't get to read all the blogs that I wanted to!
5. I have no pictures for today, nor any of the events I have in mind to blog about.

So, I'm feeling better, as I reflect on all the accomplishments we did make.
Looking forward to a new day!

Waylon, hay bales and fiddle heads

Today was a beautiful day!

Blue skies, nice breeze, and comfortable temperature.

I spent most of the day by myself.

That was a good thing.

I did make a short trip to recycle and pick up a birthday cake for my dad.

 Italian Cream Cake from Ambrosia, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I made the Pioneer Woman's White Chicken Enchilada's and Restaurant Style Salsa.

I also stopped in down at the hay barn to meet my husband and son, who were hauling hay.

I got to see Waylon. He's a sweet boy. His daddy is Trigger. But he looks more like his momma Oakley.

These are the hay bales they were hauling.
We found a good deal on fertilized hay from last year that had been kept in the barn.
We decided to buy them because we had a really difficult time growing and buying hay last year.
Our area has been in a drought situation for a couple of years now.
Though not as severe as Texas and Oklahoma has suffered.
I needed a "hay smuggler" last year.
Do you know, that I actually spoke with someone that knew a "hay smuggler" from New Jersey.

So, I can't imagine how you smuggle hay. I guess I don't have a criminal mind!

On to the sweet little fiddle heads!

Aren't these sweet? The Bear thinks I'm crazy!

Maybe I am, but when I cleaned out around this fern in the ground and saw the new little babies coming up, I just had to get a picture!

And this is why they're called fiddle heads.

Off to bed I go, it's been a long day!

No clothes

When is it good to have no alternatives?

The best time to have no alternatives is in the morning for me. Not just any morning, but on the days that I get to go to work or I have an appointment or deadline to meet. I'm actually thinking of my closet, my clothes and the choices I have to make every day regarding what to wear.

I've found that what works best for me, is to leave myself with no alternatives in the morning.  Hmmm, how can you accomplish this? Well, I began going to the gym several years ago. I tried to go after work in the evenings. But it seemed that it was often easy to convince myself that I was "too tired" to go and work out or too busy that day. And often it was difficult to find the time in the evening after work to go to the gym, then get home, cook dinner and get ready to do it again the next day.

 I began going to the gym in the mornings. This was not an easy thing to get into the habit of doing, if you're not a morning person already. I was never a morning person, I prefer to stay up late at night, and sleep in the next morning. When I awake, I'd prefer to eat cereal and drink coffee, watch a little news on the TV. In case you're wondering, I'm still trying to get to the point of no alternatives!

 My largest obstacle, and most time consuming daily task was making a decision about what I would wear to work. Remember, I said I was not a morning person, so here's what happened in the mornings, I would stand in my closet, with a cup of coffee in hand, and stare at my clothes. Still kind of in a sleepy haze. I would finally make a decision, then change my mind. If I picked out a pair of pants or a skirt, then I'd have to choose a blouse or top. Then I'd second guess myself, and start looking for a better alternative. This could go on long enough that I would end up being late for work or having to rush to get to work on time.

In order to meet the six a.m. exercise class at the gym, I had to streamline my routine at home. Since I am not a morning person, I wanted to stay in bed as long as I could. I began choosing my clothes the night before, and this is not something I have ever perceived myself doing! I always wanted to wait and see how I felt that day when I chose clothes. Back to picking out my clothes at night, this was a great motivator to make a choice, because by the time I was in the closet picking out clothes, I was tired and ready for bed. So it became easy to make a decision, because I could then go to bed.

The best part of going to the gym and getting ready for work there is that I have no alternatives regarding my clothes at that point. I have what I have to wear. Not to say that I might have to make a mad dash to the store for a necessary item, because it's too far to go back home.

Would you rather make decisions alone or try to work them out with another person?
If I have enough information to make the decision, I'd prefer to make it myself.
I'm just kinda stubborn in that way.


Here's what's been happening on the farm:

This is Trigger, my neighbor dog, belonging to my son, sits patiently outside. He's keeping an eye on my grandsons, just waiting for them to come out and play.

Out in the field you can see a tree has fallen. The boys were out on the porch when the tree fell.

The ground was saturated, and it just fell over.

My son said that we were lucky, our firewood fell practically at the front door.

 While we were rained out, there was a multi-generational war taking place in the house, with the major battleground on the desk.

Here we see the army snipers on the roof shooting at the cowboys, Indians and civil war soldiers.

Notice on the left, we have an Indian in full head dress mounted on a Charlois cow.

This was a tough battle!

Here the cow girls gather around the fallen tree to strip the new, tender green leaves from the branches.

This was one day I could say I had cows in the tree tops!