The weather changed with a rush in Manitoba a few days ago -- a southerly wind began to blow and daytime temperatures soared. Rivulets of melt-water started to flow everywhere, and for a few days it was pretty messy. The wind just kept ramping up, though, and dried things out nicely. It rained just a bit for one evening, but today was sunny and brisk. The snow isn't ALL gone yet, but the bulk of it has just disappeared in three days or so. All that remains is what's left of the big wind drifts.
So yesterday and this afternoon were spent in re-seating the T-posts of the puppy pen that was thrown up hastily in mid-winter, adding more wire ties at the bottom, and assembling a "SOME assembly required" chainlink pen kit that we bought in the late winter, thinking it was modular. NOT -- bunch of pipes, clamps, and a big heavy roll of chainlink. Only the door was pre-assembled. We could never have erected it in the cold! Well, it's erected now. But instead of the Chinook litter occupying it, as I had hoped, the big daft friendly stud dog who came down from the barn in early winter and has been driving up nuts in the house is now OUTSIDE so we can have peace and quiet in the mornings.
And Jeffrey started building doghouses this afternoon. I'll probably be building doghouses all spring and all summer, too. For starters, though, I just want to get two houses done so we can stake out Turov and Tsarko, who are all of five and a half months old. Amazing we've been able to go so long without staking them, actually. But they are giving each other a hard time now, not to mention their smaller brother and sister, so it's TIME. Tikhon and Tatka can probably stay in the pen a few more weeks.
It was a hell of a winter. And it's going to be one hell of a busy summer.
Winter came to a sudden end here in eastern Idaho. We had 4-5ft. of snow in our yard. 3 days later we had 5in. MUD SEASON! Chris
Posted by: Chris at April 19, 2008 08:41 AM