Spring comes on like a freight train. The calving routine just
starts to let up when the irrigation water needs turned on, the cows need put on
grass, fences need fixing; the list grows each day. Just as the grass was looking good, we had a couple of nights of hard frost that burned it back. You can see it as golden flecks across the pasture and it especially stressed
the plants because they were dry. It directly affected the feed bank in front
of the cows.
With Jesse and Milee's help, we managed a fun, final visit to the University of Idaho as
parents. Anna and Cole graduated together and we had a lovely
celebration to mark the occasion. It was bittersweet packing Anna up for another
move. I don’t think many folks leave the idyllic setting of the Palouse without
some melancholy.
Like every spring, we’ve had fun watching birds out our
kitchen window. There are some brilliantly colored western tanager and lazuli
bunting pairs making their homes here. We had fun going through the bird book
and learning to identify a western wood pe-wee and a yellow-rumped warbler.
Though Mark won’t like this memory, this was the spring the
older calves got sick just before we headed to the hills. We were bouncing
around the pasture one evening just before it got dark. I was driving and Mark
was on the passenger side with the door open and his lariat poised. We were
trying to sneak up on some sick calves to give them a shot. We treated a few,
but found more sick than we could get hold of. We went to bed that night with a
sick feeling.
This was the spring we started using a new irrigation tool,
a pitchfork with tines that curve downward and is handy for collecting debris
that piles up as the first water runs down the ditches. I found it in an old pile this winter and it didn't have a handle, but that was easily fixed. Mark thinks someone modified a regular pitchfork. How many generations of
Pratts have been flood irrigating here and never used this tool? (Which reminds
me that I left it someplace and need to retrace my steps!)
It’s stressful - this spring weather, as much as we love it.
And this life, as much as we love it. In the middle of the night when we’re
both awake, worrying, we hold hands silently, hoping that with joint
concentration we might reassure one another and fall back asleep. And every
morning things look better and we start again.
We’re thankful to have kids here to help, at least for a few
more days. We’re thankful the weather has cooled, a blessing for trailing
cattle. Tomorrow the herd starts for the mountains and things are what they
are. Wishing safety for the crew, health
for the herd, and that all the rain in the forecast materializes.
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| evening on the Palouse |
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| the graduates and newly engaged couple |
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| my Dad would call it a "man needer" |
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| Dot is not much help |
