The winds of change are blowing.
We are expecting a weather change tomorrow. The highs are only to be in the upper 60’s. The lows in the 40’s for the rest of this week and into the next. Thank goodness. It’s 84 degrees in the house. I have a slick of sweat over my arms, face, legs. And it’s 10:00 pm. AT NIGHT. Yuck. I don’t care if it’s a “dry heat”. 84 degrees in my house is hot. I’m hot, damn it!
The animals must be feeling the change. Moving the cows to the barn tonight was a bit of a rodeo. I usually lead Maisy to the barn and Maggie just follows behind on her own. But tonight, Maisy was a bit surly, jerking her head back and forth, pulling the lead from my hand. Of course, the lightening skittering across the mountains didn’t help. She’s not really an excitable cow. So her jumpiness tonight was a surprise. And instead of ambling into her stall in the barn, Maggie ran to the corner of the paddock, daring me to try and catch her. I didn’t try. After running here and there, she gave up and trotted to her stall remembering she had a nice little bowl of rolled barely with molasses waiting in a place that’s just for her. She was happy to eat her portion and settle in for the night.
It must be the wind.
Or the full moon.
As I sit here at our desk, I can hear the wind blowing through the house. It’s a mournful sound. Kind of a lowing that peaks into a loud whine. The whistling really unnerves one of our children and he asks to close the windows up tight. And so we shut the windows to the living room and his room and he relaxes.
I don’t think our warm days are completely finished. I’m still praying for green beans and summer squash to ripen yet. But I think we are speeding toward fall. I’m grateful, however. There have been many years when we get a killing frost in the third week of August, wrecking all the long’s year work with one clear night in the upper 20’s. But looking ahead at the weather, I only see lows in the 40’s this year. Yay!
Willow’s in heat and the whole neighborhood knows it. She goes about her day huffing and puffing. Trying to blow her fencing down. Pushing. Shoving the gates and her sweet little house. I’m not sure what she would do if she suddenly found herself freed~ running about in the pastures and forests.
Her only romantic option right now is not physically mature enough to handle this work ~ at least not for another month or two. So she remains a little frustrated. Until October. Then we will see.
All the while the work of the farm goes on.
Tomorrow we expect rain and coolness to follow.
I’ll be in the garden after that. Cleaning up and getting ready for “the great harvest” such as it is.
Today’s count: 32 eggs, 1.75 gallons of milk
What’s for supper: We ate at the Flathead County Fair tonight. Not very healthy but VERY fun!
Weather: A cold front moving through the area will bring gusty north to northeast winds to the Flathead and other area lakes late Thursday afternoon and Thursday night. Winds are expected to reach 20-30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Thursday~ A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. Northeast wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%