Marking Time

Aladdin Ranchers moving a herd 20 miles south to begin calving. Ten miles a day is the goal. Many of the cows are mothers by now..

April Fool's Day is right around the corner. I don't enjoy the thought of it as much as I did when I was a child, or when my own offspring were children. Now it simply marks time and will be my 73rd April Fool's Day.

April 1st. The beginning of yard waste pick-up by the city for those tree trimmings and fall leaves that didn't get bagged before the service ended last fall.

I see sump pumps in the pool lowering the water level for that yearly patching. Both the back and front yard get an April soaking, with or without rain.

April is a month to convert a winter yard to one ready to greet warm weather with green things emerging from the earth and tips of branches. The robins are back and the noisy blackbirds are eyeing the trees for nesting spots. Even a chick-a-dee or two have come to the feeders. We had such an abundance of them before West Nile disease hit them hard. I think it might have gotten our owl family in the back corner, as well.

It is time to see if the squirrels have left a few tulip bulbs to bloom. I planted a couple of planters of them last fall and I have seen busy bushytails digging in them over the last few weeks. If they got them, I will switch to daffodils next fall.

The son that moved in a couple of months ago has obtained employment and is moving into a rented place closer to his work at Mid America Energy across the Missouri in Iowa. He will be teaching OSHA and environmental rules and regulations to 500 new contractors coming in to begin an expansion of the facility.