Yes! It! Does! All the Time! WIND!
It starts around the last week of February or the first week in March. And it doesn’t stop blowing.
Oh. That maybe a bit of a stretch, but, I think you get it.
Mom is silly. She likes the wind. Well, most wind.
She doesn’t like the kind of wind that picks up buildings and flings them here and there.
But she does like the kind of wind that lifts her hair off her head and flinging it everywhichwayandup.
Mom is crazy.
Just say’n.
TLC Cai-Cai
First…yes, each and every time…first is Dad getting one of the tractors out and hooking it up to something. More than likely to the disk.
Then he uses the disk, after which he will plow, then roll, then level, then mark out.
Yep…each and every day in each and every field Dad will do this.
ALL except to the alfalfa field. That requires something different.
In-between all that ‘tractor work’ Dad will figure out something he wants to do BEFORE everything gets too busy.
There will be — hauling stuff to the dump,
or hauling a load to the metal buying place, or maybe even finishing up something he started in the winter.
Spring gets to be B.U.S.Y!
In the meantime, when Mom isn’t helping Dad do something, Mom is getting her yard ready for Spring. This means, raking EVERYTHING, spading up the ground where she wants to plant something new,
plus keeping on hauling in wood.
Because, You See, March is still COLD!
Which works for me!
Because I LOVE the COLD!
Just Say’n.
TLC Cai-Cai
Mom says snow is one of those weather things that is—well, a person had mixed feelings about. (Cats don’t have mixed feelings about snow…just so you know.)
Snow is beautiful to look at.
Snow is necessary to have water…. water to drink,
water to irrigate with, and for the land —it nourishes the roots of all the plants…weeds, and good plants.
Sometimes we get blizzards. I’ve really never seen a blizzard, but I have been in the WIND full of SNOW!!! Mom says THAT is a blizzard!
When a cat (or a person) is in a blizzard there is so much snow and wind you can’t see ANYTHING!!
Nothing! It’s scary.
AND YOUR FUR GETS VERY, VERY WET!!!!
That’s when I meow to come inside and stay inside.
I let Mom and Dad go outside and do all those ‘outside’ things they like to do.
After the snow ends…then we start one of a couple of different types of Winter—SO COLD YOUR PAWS STICK TO THE GROUND or Mud Season.
I don’t know which is worse. Mom calls horrible cold an inversion. She says it is pretty. And it does kill all the nasty bugs, but oh, my is it ever cold!
Then there is everyone’s dreaded season—melt. Snowmelt. When that happens, you get MUD!
On your paws, where you have to take your teeth and pull it out, on your lovely fur, where Mom gets a wet rag and washes you all over–
and MUD ON MY TAIL! Horrors!
Then there is mud on shoes, boots, in the house from the back porch to the stool where the shoes and boots are removed.
Mud season is pretty messy.
That is for sure!
TLC Cai-Cai
Mom always checks the weather on the weather apps. She says it gives her an ‘idea’ of what the weather is going to be.
Then Mom goes and looks at the Uncompahgre Plateau—if there is a line of huge big black clouds over the Plateau in the west…
Then Mom knows a BIG STORM is HEADING OUR WAY!
If Mom sees a mass of clouds already in the canyons, dumping moisture then she knows in a few minutes we are going to get ‘it’.
And Mom is always right! The only thing Mom can’t predict is how COLD it’s going to get, by looking at the canyons or the Uncompahgre Plateau, but she can tell by the feel in the air, the crispness,
the look of the sun, as it shimmers through the sky, and sometimes by seeing Sun Dogs.
Then Mom starts warming up the hen house by putting in a red heat lamp. Red—because if you don’t use red the hens will start picking on each other. Something about seeing everything better, I suppose.
She makes the heat lamp turn on when the temperatures drop way down to 10* and stays on until around 9 in the morning when the birds can start taking care of themselves.
As for keeping me warm, she says I’m smart enough I can go outside if I want, or I can stay inside, or I can come and go. She says I decide since I’m not living in the hen house.
Mom is funny, don’t you think? I would never live in the hen house.
Ever!
TLC Cai-Cai
One thing I’ve learned in my FULL YEAR of being alive…is outside is FULL of WEATHER!!!
I see it every day…sometimes it’s wonderful, sometimes not wonderful.
My perfect day of weather —is soft and a little on the cool/cold side. When it’s like that I think outside is BEAUTIFUL!
Other times it’s, well, AWFUL! There is wind—I detest wind,
there is rain…it’s the worst,
there is snow…I can do snow if it doesn’t melt on my fur, but the most horrid of all-weather is
HOT! I spend all my time panting just like Black Beauty Dog!
Miserable!
BUT I can be outside (I LOVE OUTSIDE) much, much longer than in winter when the days seem very short!
So, for this wee series, I am going to tell you about the weather, here on the farm,
and how Mom, Dad, and I deal with it!
TLC Cai-Cai
I am a WHOLE YEAR OLD!
I came from the city where I was wandering in a parking lot by my human sister’s work—to Mom and Dad and the FARM
I missed my mom and my brothers and sisters, but I must say
Life is good!
I have lots and lots of stuff to do
And lots and lots of love.
Happy One Year Old to me!
TLC Cai-Cai
Okay.
There is nothing to really do when it’s terribly cold.
AND
There are some BIG! SCARY! THINGS on MY FARM!
They scare me so much I growl at them and run to the house!
MOM!!!!
I’m ready to come in.
TLC Cai-Cai
There is something that is the bestest thing
in the whole wide farm to do—
YES!
Pounce!
See Mom!
SNACK!
TLC Cai-Cai
I was just minding my business—
you know, checking out the farmyard
Looking for mice
Chasing a bird or 60
When Dad came out,
got into that big THING that makes lots of noise
And headed to my CORNFIELD
Everything is TERRIBLY SCARY right now!
RUN!!!!!
TLC Cai-Cai
The field next to our long farm lane has a
HUGE! BIG! GREEN! MACHINE in it!
Totally and
completely SCARY!
I’m having a very hard time staying outside!
TLC Cai-Cai
