A Lovely Day

Today was a nice day. After having weather nice enough to get the baby chicks outside for a few hours a couple of days ago, we had an overnight snowfall, yesterday a miserably cold, cold, cold wind, and then a low of 15F (-10C) last night. Today was chilly but no wind, and the sun was shining. I had planned to sit down with my garden seeds and start planning this year's garden, but decided I needed to be outside instead.

So I bundled up and went out on an inspection tour around the yard. The crocus that were flattened yesterday by the snow had perked back up and were looking lovely. There are buds starting to form on the earliest daffodils, and a few tulip leaves starting to poke up through the dirt. The buds are starting to swell on the apricot and the plums. They need to be pruned, but the nights are still too cold to start on them. The apple trees should be pruned now, but I didn't feel like tackling any of them today. But I did prune the Reliance and Himrod grapevines back to their four-arm kniffin shapes (note to self: I should write a post about taming a grapevine).

I wandered over to pick up the eggs, and had to go back up to the house for a basket. Nine eggs today! Aries got home from work, and I headed out to meet some friends for a walk. After getting some blood tests taken at his Employees' Health Center a couple of weeks ago, I'm now under doctor's orders to get more exercise and lose some weight, or face the possibility of having to go on medication sometime in the future. I don't even like taking aspirin - exercise it is! So I've been lining up exercise buddies to make sure I get out and do something.

This evening's hour-long walk was over at the Silver Saddle Ranch - a 700-acre ranch from the 1920's now part of Carson City's open space. The ranch lies east of Prison Hill, with the Carson River running along its eastern edge. We walked from the parking area outside the gate up around the ranch buildings and then on a trail along the Mexican Ditch, now part of our city trails system. At Carson River Road, we started to cross the road to continue on the ditch trail farther north, when a car stopped to tell us there was a bald eagle in the field just a bit farther east. We walked over to see - I'm so sorry I didn't have my camera along. The eagle was standing about 30 yards from the fence, a cow with a new-born calf still unsteady on its legs standing nearby. The eagles come here to feast on the afterbirth during calving season. As we walked back up the road to the trail, another car stopped to let us know about the eagle - this town is so friendly that way. Later, as we continued our walk, the eagle circled overhead, eventually disappearing to the south along Prison Hill.