False Spring?

 False Spring?

 

Sitting here not even wearing a long-sleeved shirt makes me think of spring. If we ignore the forecasts, we could just blithely go about our monkey business and play in the dirt to plant things. My father-in-law would have been out plowing his garden by now. And mother-in-law would be busy cleaning out the brooder house so that they could set up to raise a new crop of chicks. As much as baby chicks appeal to me, the idea of raising more chickens can just go by the wayside. Normally, hens don’t last that long. But mine are healthy and well fed, plus they have the protection they need from varmints and weather. Have lost small chicks in the past to rat snakes, and that still bothers me exceedingly, but just because the right kind of equipment now resides in the coops does not mean that growing more chickens is the best idea around. Sometimes think that a lamb or even a goat might be better than having a dozen or more chickens. Pretty sure the City of WF does not approve of sheep or goats in the city limits. Any larger animal would require year-round hay with our climate. Sigh.

 

The one thing to be dreaded about spring is the storms. Oh, we can have storms any time of the year, but the spring storms are nearly always some variations of tornado or cyclone. We sometimes have deadly downbursts of wind that can tear the roof off of big buildings, too. Sounds quite a bit like what has been happening in England and Ireland for the past couple of days. Really have to feel for them. They have lots of trees that kill folks and hamper travel either by road or by rail. Not so sure about how effectively our Amtrak trains travel in different areas of the U.S., but it does not seem we have as much disruption as they do. Of course, our country is humongous compared to either England or Ireland. Shucks, Texas is bigger than most of Europe! When a large tornado hit us back in ’79, it traveled through parts of Central North Texas to Oklahoma—miles and miles of storm. Don’t remember off hand how many miles it covered while on the ground, but just from Vernon to WF takes about an hour when driving. My guess is that is about 60 to 70 miles. Then it traveled north from WF through the rest of Texas to Oklahoma going east by northeast. When we were in high school, our science teacher told the sisters to take us all to the basement because the barometer was dropping drastically. Sure enough. The north part of WF got hit by a tornado! That was the first time the connection made sense to me.

 

It must be a really nice day for flying. Some of the smaller planes have been going overhead toward the southwest. Think a couple of ranches out that direction have their own landing fields. It’s actually pretty neat that Texas has little airstrips all over the place. But when there are so doggone many miles between places, it just makes sense to have more places to put down a small plane. Eventually folks will have those little private planes that look more like hover craft. When the price comes down to about the same amount as a good motor boat, we can start worrying about the traffic in the air.

 

Someone on this side of town must raise pigeons. The tall electric lines are completely covered with all colors of them this afternoon. Haven’t seen any hawks lately, so those creatures must have moved on to better hunting grounds. They don’t mind picking off a random pigeon, but my guess is that an entire flock might make it more difficult to focus on just one.

 

Jennifer called this morning and told me that she was going to have to drive a different car. Gary drove her car and messed it up somehow. Certainly hope the loaner has four-wheel drive. She also told me that she was having some things shipped here. By the time the next Chewy order gets here and a box of raspberry jam from Illinois—well, the bench out front may get a little loaded!

 

Trying right now not to think about situations that seem too desperate, but know that we all need to consider the lives of those in the Ukraine, those still terribly affected by Covid, those who are fighting orphan illnesses like Nate S. and Jacob the Lionhearted. Then there are the caretakers like Kathy’s husband Stilton Jarlsberg. Let us ask for peace and healing. Only God knows best what we really need.

 

Let us rest and be joyful. We know that we are loved.