Friday, March 21, 2014

Signs of Spring


Yesterday, it was like the daffodils woke up and knew that the calendar said "spring." The day before, the yellow blossoms were tucked firmly inside the green leaves. But yesterday, on the first day of spring, a few opened.
Two purple crocus also opened their petals to the sun.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had it right:  "Came the spring with all its splendor. All its birds and all its blossoms. All its flowers and leaves and grasses."

At our house, the birds are sandhill cranes that make a racket as they feed in the fields or fly overhead back toward Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in the evening. 

But Wadsworth missed one of the sounds and signs of spring, at least as it applies to life on the County Line. Today will be the third day of working baby calves.
Here are the sounds of our spring. You may need ear plugs!

We separate the moms and babies so that we can work the calves. The moms are none too pleased to be on the other side of the fence, and they vocalize their protests rather loudly.
They don't realize that they will reunited after their babies' "doctor appointments."
Round three of working the calves begins later this morning.  It's springtime on the County Line. The flowers say so. And so do the calves.

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Today, I'm linked to Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom's Country Fair Blog Party. Click on the link to read other blog posts from the country. 

4 comments:

  1. Kim,
    You are branding calves and our cows haven't started calving yet! The official due date is April 5th. With short gestation Angus we will be on full duty by then. I will say we have 2 heifers in the barn calving and 2 to go.

    Hope your cattle working days have been going good.

    We had a typical March day, wet flurries that left us with a little accumulation this morning, wind and 28* high. Sounds like temps will be similar over the weekend.

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    1. We had our last calf from a heifer today and Randy worked it in the lot. We don't brand; rather, we tag and ear notch. More calf working is on the schedule tomorrow. It's supposed to be a colder day. I guess we'll bundle up. Good luck with your calving!

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  2. Thanks for linking up to the Blog Party! I just love your pictures!

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