Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

indian summer and back again (and 5 friday photos)

An especially lush few months in Oklahoma made the end of August feel like June. The pond was high and glassy, the gardens verdant, almost tropical. All the way through Labor Day we luxuriated in one gorgeous week after another, scooping up a cool, mild daybreak here and there, just for extra credit.

Then we noticed the zinnias and gomphrena fading a little and the basil going to seed, even as the deep green leaves grew as big as your hand. The pond stayed high, but the goat head stickers finally made their unhappy appearance. (They were several weeks late, so we will try not to complain, but this is a sure sign of the end of the salad days.) We eventually halted daily pool maintenance and braced ourselves for the inevitable sight of that 20,000-gallon green lagoon. We knew fall was creeping up, but the afternoons stayed so humid. Pumpkin spice erupted on the scene, too. It was a mixed-up couple of weeks.

I was on the verge of making peace with the season change from summer to fall when the season changed again, back to a veritable heat wave. The wildflower meadows burst again with pollen. Overnight the pepper plants grew heavy with red, green, and purple treasures. The horses grazed lazily with sweaty bellies and swooshing tails. The afternoons were noisy with cicadas, and I was into it. I had even made peace with the grasshoppers, for chewing up my cannas.

 

When my husband noticed a “peak hours” electricity price event and the weather station said we could expect another heat wave, he cleaned the pool with feverish delight. I bought the last watermelon still languishing at the store, and we rallied for at least a few more days of summer. In late September.

Carpeing the diems, you know?

Well, we enjoyed two more swims this past week, and that watermelon was pure, sugary heaven. I made sure to feed the rinds to the horses slowly, knowing it would be many months before another such offering. I saved two big hunks for filling with seed for Shoulder Chicken. We made eye contact, and she understood the importance of this treat.

And now, our second summer is over. Nobody who has lived in Oklahoma very long is really surprised. The temperatures can swing from season to season effortlessly. We just take each week as it comes. Carpeing the diems to the best of our abilities and imaginations.

Today the skies slid opened and poured out all the promised floodwaters. The temperature at daybreak (72 degrees) was probably the warmest we will see for a while. And I am drinking coffee in the afternoon. This never happens when it’s hot outside. Yesterday I added some fall plants to my containers outside and some Halloween fun to a few corners of the house inside. We bought ingredients to bake for an upcoming pie contest in the City. And our bookshelves are loaded with good reading for when it’s too wet to enjoy the outdoors.

Summer 2018 was beautiful, satisfying, and pleasure-filled. We miss it already. I also learned a lot and felt like the work here was well done. But Autumn will bring her own smorgasbord of pleasures and work worth doing. I’m eager to sink into it all. 

“Slow down, you move too fast.”
Simon & Garfunkel
XOXOXOXO

 

smack between two equinoxes

I recently finished a book Jocelyn gifted me, Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places by Bill Streever. The book was unlike anything I’ve read before, smoother than a documentary, more informative than a personal narrative, way more fun than a science textbook, and all of that together. I liked it.

Anyway, it’s about cold places, the cultures that grow there, the implications for the planet’s future, you name it. The book includes all kinds of fascinating lore and weather explanations from around the globe and all throughout history. It also more or less follows the calendar, telling stories month by month.

When the author gets to February he offers some anecdotes and little known facts about Candlemas Day, February 2nd, what we know now as Groundhog Day:

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter won’t come again.

I offer you this because apparently the groundhog saw his shadow this morning, and everyone thinks that means another long chapter of winter. But at least here in Oklahoma, the skies are dark and moody. No shadows! Also, consider that the Old Farmers’ Almanac predicts the next two months to bring us some moisture, possibly even snow, but overall above normal temps.

All of that and my irises are about four inches high already. So. For the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring solstice, I’m optimistic.

even a false spring

Bring on spring.

XOXOXOXO

 

 

where will you spend this early spring?

We sat in bed yesterday morning slurping our first cups of perfect coffee, braiding together our legs, and fighting off the bouncy and space-invading affection of our 95-pound puppy. Slowly I recalled the overnight thunderstorm (it was glorious!) and hoped that during chores at daybreak I would still be able to smell ozone and see damp flower beds and pastures. Handsome clicked on the morning news, and there he was. Puxatony Phil. The prognosticator of prognosticators. The groundhog of all groundhogs, hoisted up in all his fatness, ready to tell us what kind of weather to expect next.

Low and behold, as by now you surely know, Phil did not see his shadow and we are all set for an early spring. Or are we? No matter what Phil’s prediction, the news anchors are always quick to dismiss the folklore, citing that Groundhog Day is rarely accurate. So let’s compare Phil’s 2016 declaration to what the trusty almanac says. The farmers’ almanac, after all, is correct more than 80% of the time, and the science behind its construction each year is kind of mind-blowing. Here is what I see for our area over the next two months:

FEBRUARY 2016: temperature 50.5° (2° below avg. north, 3° above south); precipitation 1.5″ (avg. north, 1″ below south); Feb 1-3: Sunny, cool; Feb 4-10: Showers, then sunny, warm; Feb 11-13: Showers, warm; Feb 14-17: Rain to snow north; sunny, mild south; Feb 18-22: Showers; cool north, warm south; Feb 23-29: Snow north, rain south, then sunny, cool.

MARCH 2016: temperature 60° (1° below avg. north, 3° above south); precipitation 2″ (2″ below avg. north, 1″ above south); Mar 1-10: Sunny; cool, then warm; Mar 11-13: Rain, then sunny, cool; Mar 14-21: Sunny; cool, then warm north; warm south;Mar 22-24: Sunny; Mar 25-31: Sunny north, rainy south; cool.

That looks like an early spring to me, friends!! And if a chilly morning surprises us here and there, remember what Hemingway said…

even a false spring

 

Start surveying your life for the happiest places to spend springtime, okay? It’s so close.

See you soon.

“When spring came, even a false spring,
There were no problems except where to be happiest.”
~Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast
XOXOXOXO

 

 

marathon monday: snow at the halfway point

Monday has rolled around once more, this time bringing along a thick, swirling snowstorm and frigid temperatures. Oklahoma is so beautiful beneath a blanket of new snow, and I am crazy for the muffled quiet. It’s rare and deeply calming. And yes, we know that much of the country, not to mention our neighbors to the Canadian north (Hi Heather!), have been dealing with weather worse than this for a long time, but the Midwest has behaved so springlike since the holidays that this true snowstorm is a surprise. A troublesome but magical surprise.

Romulus, King of the Snow. Emperor of Ice. Purveyor of the Cold.
Romulus, King of the Snow. Emperor of Ice. Purveyor of the Cold.

Also because it’s Monday, my mind is on the upcoming marathon and how training is going. Today begins the tenth week of the program I’ve been (mostly) following, which is just past the halfway point. Wait, what? Already we are halfway there? Life has been so busy otherwise that I’m kind of shocked.

Surprised by snow. Shocked to see that we are halfway to the race. These are good feelings.

Except…

Except that the snow and bitter cold make running impossible, which is frustrating because I’ve really hit an endurance stride here lately. The long runs feel amazing both mentally and physically. I’m to that familiar point where the long run endorphins (they are unique) put me in an amazing mood! Afterwards I feel refreshed, depleted in the best way, and strong. There’s a 17 mile run on the planner for this coming week, and just thinking about it makes me giddy. Nervous, but happy. My legs get bouncy. Of course there’s no telling yet how the weather will cooperate, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

The elliptical machine is great but it doesn’t feel at all the same as running; nor does it really prepare me for the long runs. It’s better than nothing for staying warm and active, though, so I grab time there anytime temperatures or wind chills are below 29 degrees or when my trail is iced or snowed over, which was certainly the case today! Probably tomorrow too. We’ll see after that.

The guineas drop black and white dotted feathers all over the farm. This morning in the snowy gloom, these errant feathers are all I could see on the ground. An hour later they were deeply buried in cold drifts. Now as I type, the sun is out and reflecting brilliantly on all the snow, blinding and gorgeous.
The guineas drop black and white dotted feathers all over the farm. This morning in the snowy gloom, these errant feathers are all I could see on the ground. An hour later they were deeply buried in cold drifts. Now as I type, the sun is out and reflecting brilliantly on all the snow, blinding and gorgeous.

Everything will work out great, of course. Far more serious runners than me are navigating much steeper challenges than this and getting ready. Having fun, running faster all the time, logging miles no matter what. Plus, a super sweet rumor is floating around that Handsome might be shopping for a treadmill.

So I’ve got that going for me. (wink)

‘CAUSE EVERYTHING IS AWESOOOOOOME!!!*
XOXOXO

*Raise your hand if you watched the Oscars Sunday night and the Lego song has been stuck in your head ever since. Yay! That’s not even sarcastic. I kind of love it. The End.

 

mid-winter farm update

Well, friends, we are past the holiday season as well as the winter solstice, and there are only eleven cold, barren weeks standing between us and springtime. So I think it’s safe to say we are mid-winter. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. We can endure anything for just eleven more weeks, right? And there is so much to do before then, anyway. So much to enjoy. So many cozy pleasures. How about a little mid-winter farm update? We’ll take a Lazy W tour, starting at the front.

Front Field:

The bachelors (Chunk our buffalo and Chanta and Dusty, our two horses) are doing great. They are faring very well in this cold weather, having grown nice and fat as well as quite furry ever since, well, since around Labor Day weekend. We’ve been periodically buying extra bales of “free choice hay” to keep them constantly fed and warmed from the inside out, and since the truly frozen days have been few and far between, keeping their trough filled with clear water has been a totally manageable chore. We may have to swing a sledgehammer to break the ice once in a while, but it seems like every time the water level drops, the temperatures are just high enough to open the faucets. The Lazy W has seen far worse winters than this.

 

f5f dusty shades

 

When Jocelyn has time to visit the farm she makes sure Dusty gets some exercise, which I love to watch. She is so confident, and he is so playful. You can tell just by watching them that they love each other dearly. If she parks her car in the gravel driveway between his field and the house, he whinnies and bellows until she relents and walks over to him. (Such a tough sell.) She is teaching him some basic footwork here and there, and he is teaching her that he prefers bareback rides, no saddles please and thank you very much. All of this, of course, always results in extra cookies from me, whether she approves of my methods or not. : )

Yard Birds:

The geese are still patrolling these nine acres noisily, with unfathomable angst, honking and strutting with their wings extended like sky gliders forever anchored to the earth. Duck Duck in particular has put on an obscene amount of winter weight. He is barely recognizable now, no longer the fuzzy yellow baby we rescued in summer! But to a goose, at least to a goose who’s never heard of Norwegian winter feasts, this new-found obesity is excellent news. Duck Duck struts around the farm waddling his fat belly and shimmying his thick, flightless wings. He and Momma Goose laugh haughtily when I go out back to run miles against whatever sugary indiscretion I have most recently committed.

By the way, Duck Duck the adopted Canadian Goose is the main character in our first children’s book effort! I am so excited about this. Really excited. But I think he knows how excited I am about his story and is using it against me, like, emotionally? Instead of showing any appreciation? Geese can be very manipulative. Most people don’t know that.

 

??????????

 

Despite the cold temperatures our Lazy W hens are laying consistently. I am so grateful for this, because their eggs are absolutely divine. Heavy, yolky, delicious. And such pretty brown shells! I collected seven eggs on Monday morning and found one of them to have hairline fractures. Really beautiful. Not crushed, but frozen apart like burst pipes. I know! Frozen eggs. Completely edible. I couldn’t resist pressing my thumb against the vulnerable spot.

 

egg cracked

 

The Middle Field

This is the only sad news I have to report this week.

I may or may not have written this for you here, though I’ve whispered it to visitors, but I have for a while believed our young female llama, Dulcinea, to be preggo. Just judging from her behavior with Romulus (or, more to the point, his behavior with her AHEM), her increasing appetite, growing midsection, and overall neediness with Handsome and me but aversion to Meh, I was placing little bets with myself that she would give birth before Easter 2015.

 

dulcie in snow

 

Well, unfortunately, she couldn’t keep her little baby that long. We walked out to the barn this past Saturday morning to discover that she had delivered her very first baby far too early, and he did not survive. I’m glad she took herself to the warm barn for delivery at least. The tiny, clearly premature cria had exactly the colors and markings of Seraphine, our recently deceased matriarch of this gorgeous llama clan. Seraphine would have been the new baby’s grandmother. The cria was absolutely precious and so fragile looking, so thin. Dulcinea had expelled the placenta in tact and was not too bloody herself, only swollen, but also sad and ravenous. Once Handsome had removed the little thing for burial, she looked and looked and sniffed for him, crying in a way I’d never heard from her. It was incredibly sad. So we feed her heartily and give her as much affection as she would accept. Though needy, Dulcie had grown skittish since her coming of age. Ever been through that, ladies?

Life goes on. Death is certainly a part of life, like it or not, and we may never get all the answers we want or understand exactly why we have to endure so much of it. What we can do is continue to earnestly love those who are still here, those who are in need of what we can offer.

So that’s my mid-winter farm update! Thanks so much for visiting. We certainly collect more joy here than sorrow. More beauty than work. And that is why we stay.

Now I am going outside dressed in three million layers of warmth to feed and talk to our menagerie! I hope your day is cozy and productive. I hope your animals, if you have them, lend you some of their magic today.

Hang in there.
Winter is halfway over.
XOXOXOXO