Definitely Spring!

(Look at what the Easter Bunny brought!)

Spring has arrived on the Bag Lady's ranch. Here is the first calf of the season, about an hour old:

A few days ago, the Rancher cleared some snow off of the highest part of the pasture, and this cow took advantage of the dry ground there to have her baby.

Being the first calf of the year, he is getting lots of attention from all the cows - here he is, being scrutinized by one of the other cows while his mother watches closely:


The weather was very cooperative yesterday - warm and sunny - which gave this little guy a good start in life!

Mud Season

The Bag Lady spent yesterday cleaning. She crawled up and down ladders and climbed on countertops and cleaned the tops of her kitchen cabinets (OMG, the greasy mess!!) and washed some walls and still isn't anywhere close to being finished..... sigh. Either her kitchen cupboards have somehow multiplied, or she is getting slower in her old age, because she doesn't seem to get nearly as much accomplished in twice as much time as it used to take.

And the cleaning products are not as good as they used to be, either. Mind you, the Bag Lady's eyesight isn't what it used to be, so if she misses a spot or two, she probably won't be able to see it anyway, so it all works out.

The weather has been fairly mild and mud season has arrived! Poor Princess has to have her feet wiped every time she comes in from outside. She is fairly compliant, though, and will lie down and wait patiently while her feet and belly are dried. She does know exactly how many feet she has, so the Bag Lady has to make sure she wipes each one completely before she moves on to the next because there's no going back! The Princess leaps up and runs as soon as she is released.

The Bag Lady has been faithfully checking cows every day, but so far there are no calves. Several of the cows look like they are getting very close - they just aren't ready yet. Which means the Bag Lady has nothing much to blog about! Rest assured, as soon as something exciting happens, she'll let you know!

In the meantime, with tomorrow being Good Friday, she may take a long weekend away from blogland, so Happy Easter/Passover to everyone!

Thpring Thaw

The Bag Lady had a busy day yesterday. She had to go to town to run some errands and do some shopping. She got a coupon book from Costco, and there were several coupons for things she uses, so she picked up a few things that she didn't need right this minute, but will, eventually.

One of those things that she didn't really need at all but will use, eventually was a pack of Febreze. There are three different cans in three different scents. Of course, she had to open it and smell each one to find out which one she liked best. They are all nice, but she thinks the Febreze people are wrong about one thing. Spring does not smell like that at all, at least, not around here! Spring around here carries the unmistakable and admittedly unpleasant odour of poop.

Yup, all that manure that the cows have been dropping all winter is starting to thaw, and starting to smell. It is not nice. The Bag Lady has become accustomed to it over the years, and barely notices it any more. There are worse smells - thawing horse poop smells even worse; at least, as far as the Bag Lady is concerned! But it is a fact of life on a ranch. Spring doesn't smell like flowers, it smells like shit!

But notwithstanding, spring is still the Bag Lady's favourite time of year. She loves the warming of the earth, the melting of the snow, even the thawing of the poop!


But enough about poop....

Here are some pictures the Bag Lady took this morning (and one from yesterday morning) to share with you spring's progress!

This was the sunrise yesterday morning:



And guess what? It came up again this morning!!



This is out in the pasture - a sign of how much it melted yesterday (this puddle was not there the day before!! And yes, there is poop in this picture!):



Still lots of snow on the lawn, though:


But the driveway is peeking through, and muddy!


The best news of all? The Bag Lady saw a couple of flocks of Canada Geese when she was driving home from town yesterday - a sure sign that spring is here! Yippee!!

It's Monday!?

So.

The Bag Lady entered her sunrise picture in the contest. The contest opened for public viewing on Saturday, so she and the Rancher slipped in and had a look. There are over 30 other photographs in the competition, and some of them are fabulous! In fact, most of them are fabulous. The Bag Lady is pretty sure her photo is not going to win, but that's okay.

There are also 14 original artworks entered in the competition, and most of them are pretty good. A couple of them are really good, and one of them is fabulous. The competition is a "people's choice" sort of deal - whichever painting garners the most votes wins. And whichever photograph garners the most votes wins in the other category. The Bag Lady and the Rancher cast their votes for the fabulous painting. And the Bag Lady is pretty confident that her photograph got at least one vote (she peeked at the Rancher's ballot.....)

This is only the second year that they have added a photography section to this contest - in previous years, it was open only to original artwork - but the photography portion has generated a lot of new participants.

In other news, the Rancher's uncle had his surgery on Friday, and is recovering. He did not react well to the anaesthetic, which made for some interesting moments for the nursing staff, but once the medication wore off, he settled down. Now he just has to get healed up and things can get back to normal - well, as normal as things ever get around these parts.

The weather is slowly warming up, which makes the Bag Lady happy. It would make her happier if it would warm up a little more quickly, but she knows there's not much she can do about it, and at least the days are getting longer! There will soon be calves to contend with, too, so the Bag Lady is hoping for some warmer nights.

Friday Foto Fun

The Bag Lady is stealing a page from cousin Leah's blog - Leah posts wonderful photos on Fridays.


These are from the Bag Lady's files - she sees so many wonderful sunrises and sunsets, living in the country, and has a compulsion to photograph all of them! She manages not to do that, but sometimes she can't help herself! Here is a sunrise from last autumn:



And a mid-winter sunset:


Do you get to see sunrises and sunsets where you live?

Princess Swami

Bath time for the Princess.....



This was actually taken some time ago, but the Bag Lady was scrolling through her photographs looking for inspiration and came across this picture. The Princess has quite an attitude about taking baths - she never seems to think she needs one!

Picture, if you will, a cartoon dog with all four feet planted on either side of the shower stall door, and you will have a pretty fair idea of how the Princess reacts when it's bath time! The Rancher has to pick her up and carry her into the shower stall. Of course, it's the Bag Lady's job to actually give the Princess a bath....

Once she is in the stall and the door is shut, she resigns herself to actually having the bath, usually planting herself on the floor of the shower stall with a huge sigh. But if the bathing process takes too long, the Princess will start to protest. Softly at first, but gaining in volume and intensity until it's a full-blown, pathetic wail!

The Bag Lady has learned to hang the towels over the door of the shower stall because as soon as the door opens, the Princess leaves at full-throttle! She heads straight for the living room and crawls under the coffee table, which is her safe haven. This is where she hides from thunderstorms, or other loud noises, and where she disappears to in any and all dire circumstances.

Spring is just around the corner, and it's a guarantee that sooner or later, the Princess will tromp happily through a puddle, or roll in something impressively smelly, with nary a thought to the fact that, in order to live in the castle with her subjects, she might possibly have to suffer through another dreaded bath!

Frame Fiasco

The Bag Lady has had a terrible time deciding on a frame for her picture. She bought one that was black, but when she put the picture in it, she didn't really like the result, so she decided to paint part of it. She then sent a picture of the framed picture to a couple of friends. They weren't exactly enamoured of how it looked, so she changed it.

Here is what it looked like with the first paint job:





And here is what it looks like now:

The Bag Lady has until 5 pm today to enter her photo in the competition.

What do you think of the frame the way it is?