A Hint of Spring

Yesterday was bee-autiful! Absolutly gorgeous, which was wierd because when we woke up it was overcast and the wind was blowing. I thought for sure it was going to be another cold, cloudy day. But by noon it had cleared and I swear it nearly hit 70. I drove home from the fabric store with the window down. Of course there were nasty dark blue storm clouds north of us, and I watched rain bands in the sky as I drove. It was pretty, but also pretty forboding. We had sprinkles, gusty winds at intervals, and its started to cool off in the evening.

While I was outside with the girls, I noticed this!

This is some kind of bush near my back porch. I can't identify it, but would you look at those buds!!!! Its covered in them. So, "Yes, Virginia, there is a springtime!" Ok, I know thats not the line, but it fits so much better for my circumstances! I even found two tiny dandilions in the yard out by the shed. Holy cow! Its Springtime!

Sunday we visited a driver friend of ours. He has draft horses and restores old wagons. He's working on a sheep herders wagon right now and Malcolm wanted to see it, so we went to their house and I visited the guys wife and their two yearling colts while he and Malcolm talked wagons. In conversation, Malcolm discovered that Doug needed a piece welded off of his training cart, so they loaded it onto his trailer, drove it to our house, and Malcolm welded it off for him. Doug said that he'll teach me to drive a team sometime. I'm pumped over that. I've wanted to learn to drive for years! I'm holding him to that promise.

After they left, and we ate, we went next door to visit the neighbors and thank them again for their help during my little "incident" last week. We had a nice long visit and while we were there, I noticed she had daffodils blooming, iris starting to sprout, and tulips too I think! She has a lovely garden that she keeps safe by having yards and yards and yards of electric fence all over the place. Deer are our biggest gardening enemies around here. They've nearly eaten all our grass in the back yard, though what they left is turning greener every day! (Go Spring! Go!)

This little guy and his girlfriend have apparently set up house under our roof. I was keeping it secret from Malcolm, afraid that they would be ousted from their loft appartment. He discovered them on his own, but I think he's letting them stay. They perch up there all day on the roof, and every morning without fail, the little guy is sitting on my bird feeding station fussing at me for being lazy and not getting the feeders rehung. I have to take them in at night (another deer issue) and he doesn't like it that I keep it breakfast waiting.

We apparently had a skunk visit two nights ago. I took the girls out around 10:00pm and, wow, the odor hit me like a wall! I was worried that he was still out there so I rushed the girls through their business and back inside. In the morning I noticed that the birdseed bell (its a suet thing that neither the birds nor deer have cared anything about all winter) was half eaten. Apparently Mr. Skunk took a liking too it. Thats the only conclusion I can come to. And then this morning I had about 15 Pinyon Jays out there feasting on all the suet. Apparently Montana birds do not care a whit for suet because I've tryed about three different types, including the home made stuff my mom's birds devour. I figure if the song birds arn't going to eat it, I'll let the jays have it just to get rid of it. They are kind of neat. They are the size of a small crow, but they are a bluish gray color. I didn't get a picture of them, but you can see what they look like here.

And today its cold, cloudy, windy, and we're expecting some snow tonight. So much for Spring!

My girls were playing upstairs while I was working on something, and I had to take their picture. They were piled in one of my library chairs having an old fashioned wrestling match. Carlie and Ella love to rough house around.

Paris gets in on it some, but for the most part she thinks they are way too immature for her to play with that way. She prefers a good game of chase or keep away.

Maybe she doesn't like rough and tumble because she doesn't have any teeth to fight back with.

I discovered a couple days ago that she's lost almost all of her top teeth now. She has the two canines, and then just two of her front teeth. Unfortunatly they are apparently loose. They wiggle a little. So she'll probably be an old gummer, at the ripe age of two and a half!

(FYI: my fingers not dirty in that picture. My finger had a tussle with a pair of needle nose plyers the other day. I didn't realize it was in the picture until I'd put the camera away, and Paris was tired of having her dental disadvantage displayed to the world, so I decided to let it go. Sorry for exposing you to the ugliness of her teeth and my finger all in one.)