Blowing in the Wind

My townie friends are all excited about flower buds starting to peek through the muckiness of early spring soil.  In the country, we run about two weeks behind in getting to spring, mainly because of the wind, since we have fewer obstacles for the wind to hit and slow down, it stays cooler out here.

I was not prepared for just how windy country life is.  We went through three sets of gutters before we finally gave up, they will not stay on the house, and yes we were promised, it could be done.  Nope.  It probably didn't help our house has 11 foot ceilings both down and upstairs, so it sets right up there.  It wasn't until we needed to paint the house we finally got the rest of the last set down, some spots were not conducive to a ladder, so you could hear them swing and scrape with just the right wind direction, but it normally took me an hour before I figured out "what that noise was". 

You really have to plan for the wind, because even after we planted 20 plus trees, it would probably take 40 more to lessen this breeze.  Mowing the lawn, ooh baby, my face looked like i just got back from weeks out on the range on horseback when I get in.  I have grass and dirt in far reaching places, the shower is enlightening.

Having an attached garage would be heaven, but they did not make these old farmhouses to attach such things and look "ok" plus you already have one over yonder.  I just got a driveway after 19 years to come up to the back door, this was a huge deal for me.  For years I took a mighty run with those groceries and not always did they stay in the bags.  Its no wonder you find things in ditches that don't belong there. 

I do make the best attempt possible to "decorate" seasonally our wonderful wrap around porch, only to have things fly across the floor, down the road, hair in my eyes as I try to batten down the hatches.  I use a bungy cord to keep the front door from getting sucked open.  Sometimes a good wind is so helpful in drying up the wet muck, other times you wish you could hear those tornado sirens in town.

Here is a great country blessing, we rarely have mosquitoes, this makes me so happy!!  Flies are another matter, but with cattle, there are a couple of weeks, you simply don't go and sit out.  Here is a fun fact, if you pile up all the manure into one big heap, it creates so much heat it kills the flies. Moving the cows to pasture helps too. When you see the cows all bunched up in the heat of summer they are creating a thermal blanket out of their own body heat to keep the flies at bay.  Ya, that's why they do that, I always wondered, why would you want to be touching another hot body, nature is so smart!

We also relish our bonfires, but had to cancel many due to it being too windy.  I have started the grass on fire twice,  had giant ashes fly onto the roof (it is metal, but still) singed nearby tree leaves and bushes, so it isn't like we don't give it the all American try.  But when the wind has stilled, and the stars are bright, there is nothing so beautiful as a crackling fire, seeing cow eyeballs blink at the firelight, hearing the coyotes howling (as long as they're far away and not numerous).

I both dislike and love the wind.  "The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind and to sing"...Jerry Jeff Walker sang that verse, and his tunes have attended many a bonfire.