Out like a lamb

Today was a perfect spring day.  This is one of the few times I can remember March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb.  Usually it's lion all the way from start to finish!  60 degrees today, blue sky and sun and just the slightest breeze.  Two days ago I was wearing long underware, a wool scarf and three layers on top, just to survive working outside on the harrow.  Today was a delight!

The shop daffodils came out to play and make us smile.

It was so warm and sunny that I hung the sheets on the line to dry and they actually dried!  Oh, the fragrance of line dried sheets.

We took a long drive in the gator today to check our fields.  Here's what we found....

Snow mold

This is what can happen when the show lays for too many days on the wheat.  

Ir will come back, but will never be healthy and won't produce a good yield.

The lighter color in the field is the area that has snow mold.  

More snow mold.

And another shot.  Most of the south facing slopes have this amount of damage.  The wind blew from the north east, causing large drifts on the south slopes.

Winter damaged wheat

The bronze color on the leaf tips show that wheat plant suffered some winter damage.  This is the wheat that was uncovered when the wind blew the snow in to drifts on the south slopes.

Some really pretty wheat

This is what healthy wheat plants are supposed to look like.

This is a nice slope, but up at the top right you can see a pocket of wheat that is winter damaged.

Also looking healthy is the cheat grass.  That's the tiny green plants that are growing on the top of the furrow.  If left unchecked, this would cause some yield loss.  But look at that residue!  We have lots of composting straw between the rows of wheat which is a good thing.

Water where there isn't supposed to be water

We were buzzing along in the gator and almost got stuck in this draw!  Yikes!!!  And this wasn't the only spot that this happened today on our drive.

There is actually water running in the bottom of this draw.  A spring that only runs when it's very wet like this year.  We've never seen this before.

A balloon.

The next time you feel the urge to release a balloon in to the air, give some thought to where it will end up, and the fact that it's actually throwing thrash out in to the environment.  We find several balloons in our fields every year.

And to top off the day, a beautiful sunset.

Saint Francis finally emerged from the snow bank!

The first, of hopefully many evenings on the porch with a glass of wine after a long and productive day of work.