Ides of April
With a surprising .38 of an inch in the gauge this morning, it’s still sprinkling. Low and heavy clouds shroud the ridges and shrink the canyon down to look and feel more like February with a fire in the woodstove. Some south slopes in the ‘dobe have been brown for weeks, north slopes holding, west heading-out and turning. But higher in the granite where most of our cows and calves live, the feed still grows as fading skiffs of popcorn flowers have all but shed their petals.
With less than 50% of average precipitation, we have been approaching an early end to our grass season ever since the two weeks of mid-80 degree days in March, but it has been a season of little miracles, well-timed sprinkles and rains, a long battle of hot and cold extremes that has made our feed strong – a season well-suited for native cattle, judging by the cows and calves where Robbin and I put salt out Friday.