A Hazy Shade of Winter

(Thanks Diane for the title idea!)
(And many thanks to Simon and Garfunkel for those lyrics.)
"Look around... leaves of brown... and the sky... is a hazy shade of winter."


I wish I had written the words, but I will just have to be satisfied 
illustrating them instead.


As you can see, our snow is almost gone.
50 degree weather will do that!


After the melting of each snowfall, comes a massive manure clean up.
That which was buried beneath clean white snow
suddenly surfaces.


Our neighbor, Kathy, came over yesterday morning to help with barn chores.
Rain was predicted for the day, but since it had not yet started,
we decided to seize the opportunity to clean the pasture.


It was impossible to drive the gator through the wet, slippery snow in the front pasture last week,
so there was a bit of an accumulation to be dealt with.
We covered every inch of the pasture... filling the back of the gator 
with manure.

I had a talk with the horses and implored them to keep the pasture clean for the rest of the morning.


Of course, they ignored me...
they had more pressing issues on their minds.


Eat, eat, eat...


Eat, eat, eat...


totally oblivious to the gastro-colic reflex that would inevitably result in 
another gator-load of clean-up to be done!

It's a good thing that I find manure clean-up to be such a therapeutic activity.


Regardless, the rewards are great:
The front pasture looks good.
The horses are healthier.
And I receive lots of donkey cuddles while the task is being done.

Comments

Louise Stopford said…
You have illustrated those beautiful words wonderfully and done that lovely song justice.
This N That said…
Love your pictures...Your babies are so lucky that you take such good care of them..Glad that you find it therapeutic..I used to feel that way about mowing!!
What a fine portrait of those two Tom Turkeys!
Lynne said…
You must build a hearty compost!