And The Melting Continues...

I blogged about the melt down back on January 9...and it's still going at it! It's warmed up, gotten cold, snowed, warmed up again...but, most of the snow is gone now except for the piles.

But the ice remains in the shaded areas, so the horses are still confined to the barn. The sun rises and shines on the north side, but the strip along the rim rock is quickly in the shade by noon.

One slick sucker!

So, Pierce, Colt and Whiskey are confined to the barn area. It was 24* this morning and the afternoon high is 40*.

The water fall was really strong on Thursday. I love hearing the sound and watching the water make its way through the rocks and sagebrush...then heading under the snow to come up in a small stream flowing toward the gates.

The temporary water fall...maybe we need to name it!?!

Being in the high desert, I miss having water like over in the west part of the state. But, I'll just enjoy this when I can...every two to three years.

Flowing water over the rocks and under the snow.

We've got ditches made now (since the top layer of soil has softened up somewhat) so, that is keeping the majority of the water out of the barn.

I turned Colt into the round pen with Pierce yesterday afternoon, and they had a great time kickin' up their heels. The footing was good enough that they didn't slip.

In a couple of weeks, we'll be moving cows from Princeton to Diamond for Rancher Dan, so I've got to get a couple of horses legged up at least a lil' bit...I'm ready to get back into the saddle again!

In other news...

It looks like moma owl has taken to nestin' in the Hole in the Rock. Both of them had been gone for a couple of days and now, for the past two days, only papa owl is in the tree...which leads me to believe that Love is in the Air!

The Hole in the Rock Nest

Can you spot the owl? Mother Nature's camouflage.

Papa owl will have to work double hard...hunting for himself and her...and then for the lil' ones when they're born. They've had 3 to 5 owlets in the past...wonder how many they'll have this year?!

Papa owl...waiting patiently...

Baby It's Cold Outside!

(been humming that song lately)

We've been having a long spell of cold weather, but this is more normal for SE Oregon than we've had in the past few years. Global warming? I don't know...you get what you get I think.

But Christmas Day and the day following, we got 8-10 inches, and it's not going anywhere.

It takes 10 minutes to get dressed to go do chores...of course Cindy Sue is another couple of minutes. She's wearing a fleece Snuggie under her coat...she really wants some booties I think!

Quite a Pair of Hooters!

The owls were totally lookin' awesome yesterday! They don't normally sit next to each other in the tree...they had positioned themselves so the breeze was coming toward their back, but they had the tree trunk behind them to block some of the wind...and they seemed to be snuggling. So very cute!

The herd is getting lots of extra hay to keep the internal heat turned up.

Yesterday's high was 15 and this morning it was -5. Forecast is a high of 23 by 11 AM (I'll believe it when I see it) and will go down quickly in the afternoon with a breeze picking up.

Afternoon Snack

Pierce had an accident yesterday afternoon. I didn't see it, so I can only surmise...Colt and him have been turned out together during the day, and I think they got to running and playing...of course Colt is a lot bigger than Pierce. Pierce ended up going over/through a fence made of field fencing in a corner spot, caught up both rear legs in the fence and got scraped and cut pretty good. Doctoring in sub-freezing temps is not fun.

He's pretty swollen and stiff this morning. I thought I was out of Bute, but I'm not...so I'm going back out now to give him a dose. He should feel a bit better with the Bute, but I'm concerned with the cuts and scraped hide in these temps. Any suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday ~ Winkin' at You Babe!

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Wordless Wednesday

and

Wordless Wednesday Again

The Rebel ~ There's One in Every Family!!

It's hard to get the three owlets to get together on the same limb...and once they do, one's gotta be a rebel about the whole thing!!!

A family portrait...including the rebel !

Maybe he was sleepin'...Oh well...they're still cute!

When I go out in the evening with the dogs for the night-time potty, there's owls flyin' every which way...it's really pretty cool!

Sunday Stills ~ Music Groups or Song Titles in Pics

Well, I just couldn't pass this Sunday Stills photo challenge up...fun!!!  The challenge was to take photos that would represent either a music group or a song title.

I opted to go with song titles on my photos...the first couple should be pretty simple, but the others are a bit more difficult. Give 'um a guess...but I've put the titles in the comments.

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Check out the other participants for this week's challenge at Sunday Stills!!

Sunday Stills ~ In Honor of Ed

It's a potluck photo challenge today at Sunday Stills in honor of the photographin' truck driver...Ed at Thoughts From the Road. It was his birthday on the 18th!

Instructions are to use any of Ed's past challenges...well, I'm sure there were "birds" in there somewhere...so, knowing that these are one of Ed's favorites...may I present this year's brood of Great Horned owlets that live at the Rough String Ranch!

Momma owl looks on with pride.

Let's crop this off and get a lil' bit closer

I see three!! There could be more back in behind.

Sorry for the bit of a blur...that's all my camera can do with it's 20x!

Happy Birthday Ed!!

Check out the other Sunday Stills participants in the comments HERE.

Rural Thursday ~ Calves, Woodpeckers & Owls

What a combination...calves and birds huh?

The mother cows and the yearling needed to be wormed and vaccinated, so we ran them through the squeeze chute. As usual, they were none too happy. But, they're done for the year!

The old squeeze chute...it's old, but still works good enough for us!

The process didn't bother Paddy or Tumbleweed...as week old calves, it's all about the milk!

Tumbleweed has plenty of milk to keep her satisfied.
Her momma, Annabelle, is 1/2 Jersey.

Paddy and Tumbleweed are too young, but in about 3 weeks we'll get them vaccinated and branded.

The weather was fairly nice for a couple of days. After the busy day with the cows and other chores, I took some time to sit on the deck...first time this year to sit on the deck. My Man and I have two favorite spots to sit and chat...winter time it's the wood stove...summer time it's the deck. I've had plenty of "stove time"...I'm ready for "deck time"!!

As I sat, I spied these two Northern Flickers in an Elm tree. They're pretty, but I do hope they migrate on through...destructive lil' buggers!

Northern Flickers...yes, there's two...one is quite camouflaged.

On the Great Horned Owl front, momma is sitting on the nest...I'm thinking that by now the eggs should have hatched. But, it will be a little while before the lil' ones start peeking out over the edge.

Momma owl sitting on the nest.

Enjoy more Rural Thursday participants...come along on the blog hop!

Finally Winter ~ And It's Almost Spring!

While Nancy over at A Rural Journey  had amazing 80 degree weather and Lisa at Two Bears Farm is getting ready to plant her garden (our gracious hosts at Rural Thursday blog hop), we are finally getting some winter!!

About six inches of snow fell Wednesday night, and as I'm typing this on Thursday mornin', it's all gone...and it's still raining. What we have now is lots of mud!

Without much moisture to speak of all fall and winter, we can't complain...we really need snow pack in the mountains and some good spring rain on the desert. The spring grasses will grow nicely for the grazing ranges. The ranchers need to feed the cattle...and our lil' herd will do nicely on our grazing hill too.

But, the snow was pretty while it lasted!

Gus is waiting patiently for breakfast.

Gus in his camouflage suit...he blends right in with the rim rock.

Snow Dog Red!

Red had snow balls stuck in his fur bigger than golf balls...that had to hurt! I took a bowl of warm water and got them melted off...the mud room was quite the mess!

Have a seat?

I'll try to remember this shot when it's 100 degrees this coming summer!

All Puffed Up!

This lil' guy is stayin' nice and warm.

Papa Owl

And papa Great Horned owl is still waiting patiently in the elm tree while momma owl sits on their nest.

Please come join us for a rural blog hop across America!!

Sunday Stills ~ Trees

PLEASE...if your blog is hosted by Blogger, turn OFF the nasty

new word verification. Here is a great site that tells you

exactly how to do so if you don't know how:

Ramblings and Photos

Just Say No to Word Verification

You may not even know that your comment section

is asking for word verification. Check and see.

Personally, I'm almost to the point where I won't leave

a comment if there's word verification...it's that bad.

OK...on to the day's post!!!

Inadvertently, I ended up with a sub-category for this week's Sunday Stills photo challenge...birds. Trees and birds do seem to be seen together quite often!!

Sunning in the Lilac tree

I think Lilacs are probably more of a bush than a tree, but this one is as big as a tree! It's right outside my kitchen window and is a very popular hang out for these lil' guys (who don't sit still for very long).

The Elm and the Owl

Looking almost straight up into one of our Elm trees, you can see papa Great Horned Owl perched in the tangle of branches (center about 1/3 from the bottom). He's waiting patiently while his mate is sitting on the eggs in their rock hole nest...one of our first signs that spring is around the corner!

A failed shot that I like...Northern Flicker woodpecker

I almost deleted this shot, but after a while I decided that I sort of liked it. I took it through a window from the house. This Northern Flicker was just passing through...thankfully. Last year they punched numerous holes in our barns...needless to say, I'm not overly fond of woodpeckers ;~)

Head on over to Sunday Stills and in the comments you'll find links from the other participants for more "tree" photos!

Wordless Wednesday~Whoo Whoo

Wordless Wednesday

Mornin' Ritual

Unless I'm heading off to help a rancher work cows or working at the PostOffice, every mornin' is sort of the same...

Watch the sun come up for another beautiful day~

Feed some hungry critters~

Listen to the lil' birds chatter on the electric lines and fence lines...
wondering what they all have to say~

Checkin' to see what the owls are doing. Momma owl is on the right,
but we still don't know if it is Pappa owl or one of the owlets
sitting with her...I'm beginning to believe (and we hope) it's Pappa owl~

It was a serene, pretty mornin' an hour ago...but now it's snowin' 'n blowin'...we'll see what the day will bring.

Happy Friday everyone!

Participating in Skywatch Friday ~ Farm Friend Friday ~ Farmgirl Friday!