Kathleen, your walk was bittersweet. The cows had been a part of your life for so long. I even get sad feelings when I look out over our pasture and the neighbor's fields and realize that after 40 years, there will be no sheep on them any more.
Our weather is doing what weather in the spring does, changing from day to day. Warm, then cold again, windy, and now today, rain showers and possibly snow showers are in the forecast. Some field work has begun around us, plus irrigation water is feeding sprinkler systems. The irrigation season will be really short this year, as it depends on snow melt, and there is not much snow in the mountains. Our irrigation district has no reservoir.
I have been digging surviving clumps of garlic, separating and replanting them, trying to salvage some of each of the varieties I planted in 2013 and thought had all frozen out. What has sprouted up this year has survived 2 winters without mulch or snow cover, and a hot, dry season without irrigation. I have money and work invested in it, so I am giving it another chance to do something. It won't do much this year, but I will tend it, dig and dry the bulbs, separate and replant the larger ones this fall, and mulch them! With care, in a couple of years, I might have something that was worth it.
A neighbor has ducklings.
