Wyoming Warming

Posted by Edith Cook on Monday, November 19, 2012 Under: Reading Life

I've been driving out there to feed the cows, for (unlike in the picture) there's no grass left whatsoever. The cows should be on my wheat field now, but the producer requested we delay for a month. He hopes against all hope that the wheat will grow a bit--but it's too cold at night now, although daytime temps are balmy.

We've had very little snow. Yesterday it rained--a first for mid-November! Still, it brought little moisture to the fields and pastures. All the farmers and ranchers are moaning, hoping from one week to the next that we'll get a winter storm with substantial precipitation.

Come spring Walter will have to sell his cattle herd but for now he still thinks he can get them through calving season next year and beyond. He's been buying additional hay even though he knows, i the long run it's a losing proposition.

Last week he took seven cows to market. He should have taken seventeen.

In the picture, a nest is visible in one of the dead trees, home to ferruginous hawks. Last year the parents raised two young but a few weeks later we found firrst one, then a week later the other of the babies on the ground, dead. One may have ben killed when, in its attempt at first flight, it crashed into a telephone pole. Whenever we visited after that, the parents were visibly upset when we arrived and dove down on us; perhaps they thought we had caused the deaths of their babies.

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About Me

Edith Cook

South Of Wheatland In Wyoming

Though I now live in Wyoming, I make frequent return trips to California with visits to travel club members along the way. At home I play classical guitar, enjoy gardening and cooking, and participate in group yoga. Getting together with family and friends is high on my agenda. I value people who write or make music and love it when my adult children and their offspring play their instruments, sing songs with me, or discuss what they read and write. Such gatherings help me cope with the losses in my life, which have been severe. Next year I hope to visit family in Germany.