Today is the first day of March, a month that I always associate as having more days of spring like weather over winter conditions. I drove this morning to pick up a load of poultry feed from the farm store in Muscatine, and on my way back I had the windows open. I thought about cruising on the Mississippi River on our boat in just two months. Well, maybe two months and a few weeks, depending upon river conditions. I got home, and sat on the deck with Andy to enjoy a cup of coffee and conversation. Time passed quickly, and soon he had to leave to teach on campus. He gave me a hug and a kiss, then left to change and drove to Iowa City. I debated whether to take the Vallhunds to the Muscatine Arboretum for walk, or to go for a jaunt in our prairie pasture. I didn't feel like unloading the chicken feed bags from my Rav4, so the prairie won. I grabbed the Canon camera, Celine's leash and collar, and we headed out the door to see the start of spring in our own microcosm.
After a full trip once around the trails, Skadi was losing energy but the youngsters, particularly Prins and Dove, were still full of energy. Celine came out of season last week without having ovulated, a split heat, and I am still recovering from the disappointment that we won't have puppies in two months. I called the dogs over to the camping spot under the oak heart tree, near the campfire ring. Last December I began to dismantle the abandoned decorative pond south of the house, which was long neglected before we moved here in July 2015. The pond has steep sides and was once a showcase landscaping feature. In it's heyday, probably sometime in the 1990's, the pond held large koi fish and had a functioning waterfall powered by a strong pump. When we moved here, it was already overgrown with weeds and grass from the surrounding lawn. Over the past few years, I have added trees and flowers around the south pond, and it was time to push the sides in to level the area and eliminate the eyesore. There are lots of decorative rocks and paver stones that I can repurpose in other areas of the farm, and on that warm day in December I moved many to the campfire area under the oak heart tree. We already had several huge slab oak cross sections newly moved to the area for seating, complimentary of the dead oak tree removed from an adjoining neighbor's yard.
Skadi was happy to have a break from walking, though she would never admit as much, and she sat leaning against one of the five oak slabs surrounding the fire pit. I noodled away, moving pavers around the iron tire ring that contains the burning wood. I finished a second stack and started a third before I ran out of pavers from the December demolition day. Though spring is well started in Iowa, the ground is still frozen several inches below the surface, and the surface itself is soft and vulnerable. I won't be able to use the tractor to move more pavers for several months, possibly around the same time boating season starts in May. I took a few pictures of the newly refurbished area and we walked back to the pasture gate, then back to the dog yard, and into the house. Lenka and Bridget, the two large dogs, remained in the dog yard while I had the Vallhunds out, and were excited to greet their now exhausted short legged friends. I downloaded today's pictures from the Canon's memory card and ate lunch.
When I looked at the pictures that I took today, I realized that I only got two great pictures, because I changed the setting to portrait before I left the house and forgot to switch to the sport setting in the prairie. So, I got two really great portrait shots and a bunch of mediocre moving pictures!
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