Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Full spring





Busy with pretty much zero attention paid to the world outside my own little patch of paradise.



So we're 32 days from the first day of summer and it's finally become full spring here. Delightful. overnight air temps are falling only into the 50's while daytime highs are touching 80 or better.
Bull snake


Yesterday was quite warm and sunny. The air temperature touched 85 in mid-afternoon before a stout south wind blew moisture laden clouds up from Oklahoma or Texas or some place. The clouds were accompanied by cooler air. The product of this meteorological admixture was cooler air and less sun -- go figure. No rainfall at all, which is disappointing, but nature delivers what she delivers.



Yesterday was also filled with good solid physical labor as I deconstructed much of an old corral to harvest railroad ties for the fencing project.



The ties are far from pristine or perfect. They've been in the ground for 50 years at least, and many of them were entirely rotten below the soil level. They'll still work for what I'm doing and have the advantage of being "free" rather than $20 per tie at the farm supply place. Free in the sense that I have to expend diesel fuel and muscle power to harvest the things.




The mental and physical labor of this kind of ranch work is very important to me. The mental aspect of thinking and planning and executing is a challenge. As with everything else, ideas and plans must be constantly tweaked and altered to fit into nature's reality. The brain work is good for me, and helps keep the cognitive agility going. The physical stuff is a blast. It's good solid muscle building work with lots of sweat and scratches. It makes me tired and makes me feel weak by the end of the day but in the morning my body is ready to hit it again. Stupendously wonderful. My ape-lizard machine is a bit fucked up with this nerve stuff, and the pain is a challenge to bear. Still, bear it I can, bear it I do.

Working out in nature's prairie springtime is a delight.






I transplanted a hackberry a couple of weeks ago. It had grown naturally from seed and was kinds-sorta well established after 4 years. However, it was growing in thin soil over a concrete slab and there's simply no future in that. I was reasonably sure that transplanting it would kill it, but I decided to try anyway.
new growth!


And nature came through.



Springtime sunset.



And morning drive bullshit.



Sights and sounds of a lovely May morning in Kimball County.



And now it's off to do life stuff.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.




12 comments:

  1. I'm happy to see that it's just life that has kept you from your blog. Will watch your videos later, when my wife is awake.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Busy busy. Very kinetic and dynamic these days.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Paul!

      Delete
  2. Had business in Ogallala yesterday so round trip from Greeley. First leg on Hwy 14 and return on I-76. Everywhere the prairie is green.

    Seems the I-80/I-76 interchange wasn't confusing enough so it is being rebuilt. People can't manage a left lane exit?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's very green and lovely just now. It'll stay that way if we keep getting rain!

      I had no idea they were working on that interchange. Your tax dollars at work!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting WSF!

      Delete
  3. Beautiful morning on the Plains.

    Love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get to walk in beauty every day.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Sarge!

      Delete
  4. Spring doesn't seem to last long enough ...or maybe it just get nice soon enough?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spring always seems a bit fleeting around here with winter hanging on into April-May and Summer often jumping the gun with hot weather well before the solstice. Nature doesn't care what the calendar says!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Skip!

      Delete
  5. Got green bustin' out all over here in FoCo. That last snow and 12* weather whacked all the buds on our Spring Bloomers, so that was sad. But as you say, Mother Nature delivers what she delivers, with no warranty of any kind!

    Go to see you posting again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our spring bloomers avoided frost/freeze damage but the chickens ravaged the tulips. Learning process.

      Mother Nature is in the driver's seat and she does exactly what she does regardless of our desires.

      Scant time for blogging but I'll keep trying...

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting drjim!

      Delete
  6. Good morning. Spring is here in North Carolina and beautiful. I hope that you are on a path to excellence that you mentioned earlier. In any event, please let us know what is going on with you, but only on your schedule. We can wait.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll bet it's beautiful there Mark. Spring is such a great season.

      My sked is crazy but I'll keep posting as best I can.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete