WINTER...it just won't leave

[Debi]

OK...I know that March is still somewhat fickle...warm one day, snow the next. BUT....it is 14 degrees, AGAIN....whipping high winds...single digits at night. Maybe someone should mention to old man winter...HELLOOOOOOO...it's March for crying out loud!!!! Yeah, yeah....in like a lion.....enough already. I remember flying kites in March..I'm sure I didn't have 40 layers and my heaviest parka. Does venting help............you betcha! Guess I'll just go get some hot chocolate and NOT look out the windows! This is western PA.....you folks from the south, please push some of your warmth this way...I've got icicles hanging from my nose.

 

[bogolove]

I want some myself. It is only about 30 degrees right now in Tennessee, but it is supposed to get around 45, but still that is cold for us. I think next week it is supposed to get into the upper 50's and lower 60's which I am really looking forward to. We just seeded our backyard and I hope to get some really good grass this year. I am sick of the muddy patches that Brady seems to love to walk in, lie in, play with Jenny in.

 

[Renee750il]

Yell at Saje and Love4Pits. We've got a clipper coming down from Canada giving us all the big chill, lol! Actually, I was kind of glad of it this morning since it's got the ground fairly solid out in the pasture. I had to go out this morning with Charley and roll a cow over. She'd gotten down with her feet uphill and couldn't get up. They'll just lay there and die like that, and she's getting on in years now. Poor old girl. Charley won't say it out loud, but he doesn't really have the heart to haul them off to die in a strange place after they've done their jobs for all those years.

 

[avenlee]

Here in Mass isn't much better. Just got clobbered by a storm and more coming on Friday they say. Who knows. I'm getting seriously addicted to my hot tea and honey though. My hands still ache from grabbing ahold of my steering wheel so much last night coming home from work, and I left early! lol I was thinking I should have stayed at work for a couple of hours overtime. Kids are going nuts with cabin feavor, also. Arrrrrrgh, I look forward to sitting on my deck in the evening eating a nice big 'ole steak with wine just enjoying the brightness and relaxing. Hooooo Hum, it WILL come, right?

 

[Debi]

Ahhhhh, Avenlee....sitting on the deck......what a nice thought!!! AND, just imagining a grilled dinner leaves me drooling. For those folks that grill in the dead of winter.......I have nothing but respect for you....I'm not that sturdy.

Bogolove and Renee.........that's the ONLY good thing...NO MUD to deal with! On Monday we had rain (before it turned to all ice) on top of snow...OMG, cleaning the dogs after a quickie trip out was a serious study of patience! Somehow..and I just don't know how....Hammie just ends up mud to his shoulders.......in just minutes. Such a boy. I wash their doggie towels endlessly in the mud season.........it takes 5 some days. Renee...poor cow, thank goodness you rescued her in time!!!!!!

Trying to find a positive here.........have you noticed the daylight later in the evening??? WOW...AND in the early morning. I guess looking forward to changing the clocks is on my agenda now.......if I can't count on a break from frigid temps. Ahhhhhh, but 'spring' is just a word thus far............remind me of this whining when it is 90 and I'm groaning about being too hot!!!!! LOL

 

[Renee750il]

Don't look for reminding from me! I'll be whining right along with you when it's 90 degrees - and hot and sticky. I could do without summer totally. If it never got above 75 or 80 degrees I'd be contented.

But the girls and I will be looking forward to those blackberries! They love to pick blackberries with me. Shiva picks her own, being very careful only to get the ripe ones. Kharma nudges me when she gets bored with picking her own, which is usually every 30 seconds or so, lol! I don't know which one is smarter: Shiva picking her own or Kharma getting me to pick them for her.

 

[smkie]

blackberry mary wants to come and share you berries..we had to move so no more for her.

 

[smkie]

won't attach for some reason, sorry

 

[Debi]

OH..we have tons of berries, too. Blackberries....elderberries..raspberries......it's a jelly Heaven! lol I pick on my own...the help just wants to nose around mole holes!!!!!!!

 

[Renee750il]

blackberry mary wants to come and share you berries..we had to move so no more for her.

I guess I'm going to have to find out how to ship frozen berries so that they stay frozen!

My friend, Chef Jock, showed me how to freeze them when I sold blackberries to him for his restaurant one summer. I lay them out individually in jelly roll pans and put waxed paper between the layers, then after they're frozen hard I can put them in ziploc bags and they keep beautifully in the deep freeze and they're not mushy when thawed.

And freezer jam is the BOMB! Or would that be BOMBE? lol - just a little cooking humor there

 

[Barb04]

I've never picked blackberries but have gone blueberry, raspberry & strawberry picking. I love how sweet the fruit is when you get it fresh at the farms.

I don't want this cold & more snow Friday night, but I have to admit it's a break from last week when I was cleaning mud off their paws and the rugs!

 

[Renee750il]

We've got the same forecast here, Barb! Another clipper coming down from Canada . . .

I need it to be dry and sunny for awhile, no matter what the temperature is. Shiva's coming into season again and it's so much easier when it's nice outside and Bimmer and Kharma can stay out and play. Shiva gets so cranky and clingy when she's in season - PMS to the max! Charley had some chocolate peanut clusters last night and she was even trying to sneak and steal his chocolate - and she knows better than to try to come between Charley and chocolate (or any food for that matter) She even tried to snatch a Girl Scout Thin Mint out of my hand - is that pure PMS or what?

 

[ChiliBeans]

I'm right with ya! As a matter of fact when I woke up to more SNOW this morning I said, "It's MARCH for goodness sake!" Here in North Dakota we can only dare to dream for warm weather, even in March. I'll be so glad to move back down South where poor Chili can play outside a little bit!

 

[smkie]

Renee..are you planning on ever having a litter a few years down the road, or is this a one time thing.

 

[Renee750il]

Charley wants one litter out of each of the girls - two at the most. Frankly it scares me a bit. I think about the possibility of something going wrong and losing one of them . . . and I don't want either of them to have a large litter. I'm really 'iffy' on the whole thing, but I understand that he knows what he's looking for in a farm dog and is used to breeding to get exactly the dogs he want. He bred some outstanding Euro-Dobes years ago. His were excellent companion dogs that could function socially but were very protective. One man who bought one for his daughter when she moved from home called him to thank him effusively. He'd bought his daughter the smallest female. When the dog was a little over a year old, the young woman came home to find the front door to her apartment had been tampered with. She got a neighbor to call the police and when they got in a few minutes later, they heard someone crying in the bathroom. There was a man standing on the back of the toilet, crying. Her dog was standing watching him. There was a gun laying next to the door . . . with two of the man's fingers. It turned out he was wanted in a string of home invasion/rapes.

Good little dog, hmm?

 

[k0tt0n_kandee]

Snow... Grrrr I've had enough of it now too. One day it was warm long ago, I think this Michigan weather gets worse and worse every year and it drags out longer and longer. I'm trying not to get my hopes up for warm weather soon, 2 years ago in April we got a ICE STORM, no power for 8 days I almost went nuts. LOL I miss my sandels... =( lol Altho Zoe and Ginger like to play in the snow, Jaidee don't care for it much, and I want warm weather so I can even think of taking Buddy outside to play. =( With these temperatures I wouldn't even think of taking him outside, poor guy. =(
Please send some warmer weather to michigan anyone or everyone LOL

 

[Love4Pits]

lol trust me even IM sick of winter by now. Theres really no races going on from March on so im pretty much sick of the cold. Now the dogs im sure wish it would never end the hose is their friend in the summer lol. I would'nt mind warm weather about now im sick of being sick lol.

 

[Debi]

We're having lots of snow today....again. It is warm (32..yeah, sadly we think thats warm) tho. I'm gunning for that rodent, Phil. Sorry, I am an animal lover....but he's really ticked me off. I swear, I hear rodent laughing when I go outside. Then again....maybe cabin fever is messing with my brain. I can't trust myself around any groundhog...or weatherman at this point.

 

[avenlee]

We got another 5 inches of snow overnight. Poor Tony's been working 3 am - 3pm shifts all week only to wake up this morning to go plowing. I think I will probably see him eh, mid April??? lol Maks it hard on all of us.

Wish we could all get together for a sleepover with all our animals. lol

 

[smkie]

i started my seeds today..at least some of them only to find out this lovely 67 degree day is a single show..dang it. Now i got to drag it all in and put it I don't know where. I need a green house so badly.You would laugh if you saw the teen/adults when they come over coming in each with a plant in hand. If i dont' harden them to the soft march sun they will burn come may (what may? )good grief i better get back to the paint..daffodils are blooming here and the forsythia isn't far behind. not much longer now friends.