Posts Tagged ‘March weather’
Hanging Ball
Lately, there are two very different reasons the horses have been confining themselves close to the shelter of the barn overhang. I was showing off the mud yesterday but that has now turned rock-hard because the air temperatures have plummeted to single digits with a wind that feels like someone set the clocks back to January. The snow down the hill from the overhang that was melting two days ago has become dangerously glazed again with the re-freeze creating a hazard that the horses wisely choose to avoid.
Just in time, I hung up a fresh boredom-busting treat, Uncle Jimmy’s Hanging Ball that Light immediately went for.
The enticing grains held together with a sweet molasses coating are hard to gobble because the ball is hung high and swings away from any attempt to get a big bite.
Sometimes I feel like it’s cruel to tease them with this but watching how they don’t give up over time and eventually the ball starts to show signs they are getting nibbles off it makes me think it is serving the intended purpose of giving them a challenge that helps fight boredom.
Surprisingly, I have yet to see the barn birds claiming ownership of these sweet grain treats. It seems like it would be obvious bird food. Just in case they are chipping away at it when I am not around, the length of time the treat lasts tells me they aren’t cheating the horses of nibbles. In fact, that would probably help the horses out because when it is completely round at the start, all they can really accomplish is to lick it.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of an Uncle Jimmy’s Hangin’ Ball?
The world may never know.
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March Weather
The people in the US state of Minnesota have long associated the state tournaments for high school hockey and basketball with snowstorms. The reason is simple. The tournaments happen in the month of March. Snowstorms this time of year have good potential for dumping a lot of snow at one time which makes them particularly memorable.
I’m enjoying both snow and sports. Being the only one in the house has made for guilt-free overindulgence in spectator sports on television while the snow piles up outside. I’m also feeling like a kid with a new toy now that I have a live camera view available on my phone whenever I want to see it.
We had a fresh blanket of modest depth on Friday morning.
You can see my tracks coming up from the barn after feeding horses that morning.
There was just enough sunshine to dry up the driveway after I had plowed so that just hours later it looked like it hadn’t snowed at all.
The blast of snow we were getting yesterday while I watched two championship high school hockey games made it look like I hadn’t plowed in weeks. Guess what I will be doing today. The snow was falling so fast when I went out to feed horses the last time, my tracks were filling in just moments after I made them.
Good thing I got all the hockey games out of the way yesterday. After the State Tournament games ended, I switched over to the University of Minnesota Gopher men and then the NHL Minnesota Wild games. The Wild were on the west coast so the game started late.
Boy that sheet of ice at Mariucci Arena looks huge compared to the NHL rinks with larger professional bodies filling the tv view.
Since the change to Daylight Saving Time happened last night, I didn’t stay up late enough to see the completion of either the Gophers or the Wild. It’s like changing to Eastern time zone without doing any traveling.
On a sad note, I took a break from all that hockey yesterday to watch several tributes to my favorite NFL head coach ever, Bud Grant, who passed away yesterday at the age of 95.
In the most impressionable years of my youth, Bud made a huge impact on my sense of order and propriety. He was a great leader of professional athletes and they entertained me immensely in the 1970s, despite failing to win the big prize in four Super Bowl appearances.
Rest in Peace, Harry Peter Grant Jr. (1927-2023).
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Satisfying Breakage
You know that almost uncontrollable and usually insatiable urge to pop bubble wrap? I suggest that whatever drives that urge also drives our compulsion to break overnight ice this time of year. The fact that the action can often sound like breaking glass, but happens without the pesky need to meticulously clean up every last shard, probably contributes to the attraction.
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With childlike glee we stomp our way along the driveway, unleashing faux carnage against the aging ice that shatters with each strike.
We can thank the wild swings of temperature for the excellent ice-breaking conditions we have been enjoying lately. This morning it was a mere 1°F outside and felt every bit as bone-chilling cold as below-zero days can feel. I suspect our bodies are already down the path of adjusting to springtime weather. Certainly, our minds have already made that leap.
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In the fields, the snowpack is morphing into an artistic archipelago of grass and snow. The firmly frozen surface now frees us to wander away from the usual paths so we can explore the surroundings at will.
But really, as fun as that is to be able to do, it doesn’t hold a candle to the unmitigated glee of smashing old ice to bits.
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More Melting
A local meteorologist on the radio pointed out the previous two days were our first pair of consecutive days of temperatures in the 40s (F) since December when we experienced a tornado in the area. Two days of melting is visibly changing our snowscape.
As we made our way around the north loop trail yesterday, I found it interesting that no old footprints were apparent along the pathway, yet the trail we repeatedly walk was clearly outlined.
I suspect that blowing snow had filled the path while we were up at the lake over the weekend and now it’s all being glazed level with the surrounding snowpack. We trudged through it seconds after I took that picture, taking the first steps toward reestablishing our typical packed trail.
The first week of March is predicted to bring us melting temperatures during the days and several chances for a mix of precipitation.
We noticed yesterday afternoon that the horses are starting to shed a little bit of their winter coat. The prospect of wet precipitation and near-freezing temperatures is an unwelcome combination when it comes to horses. As is our normal practice, we have closed some gates to separate the herd into two groups of two so there will be less competition over access to the protection of the barn overhang.
After the anxiety they showed the last time we moved them into stalls in the barn, I am not as quick to choose that option for keeping them dry. We are going to make the overhang as available as possible and leave it up to them to take advantage of it, or not.
You know the old saying… “You can provide a horse some shelter from the rain, but you can’t make him (or her, or them) use it.”
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Relative Something 