Baseball and Cows

Thursday was Kyle's second game of the season. The game ended in a tie. Normally the kids would play until the next run came in to break the tie, but the wind was kicking up and it was getting late, so the coaches left the score where it was. I wasn't in the dugout, so I didn't try take any pictures of the actual game through the fence. It was too dark. Here they are there before their game started, though, listening to their coach. Can you tell he has their rapt attention?

And there he is again watching the first team that played. The kid loves baseball, and baseball loves him. I can foresee many years of cleats, grass stains, and leather lacings in our future.

I love that the weather is finally balmy enough that I can go outside and just walk around the property now. Jack and I walked down to the pond the other day. It is so full from all the rain we have had, and it is teeming with life. The wind was kicking up and I could see the huge ripples from it all the way from the house. We ended up with tornadic weather that night, so this was literally the calm before the storm.

This mama-to-be wandered over near the fence to see what we were up to. All the neighboring cows and horses are getting ready to calve and foal, and I cannot wait.

Who'd have ever thought I would see so much beautiful, green grass with dismay? This is the length of the property, and the grass is growing wild and free. We had it all mowed a week or so ago.

I found these holes as we walked back up towards the house. I am going to pretend they are frog holes, because the alternative is to admit that they are snake holes, and that gives me heebie jeebies.
So then we wandered over to our garden to talk about our gameplan for getting it ready to go . That was when we noticed a couple of these lovelies. My asparagus is growing! There are only two stalks, so only one person gets to eat asparagus at a time.

And then, to my utter dismay, I found this. I was warned this would probably happen, but denial is a powerful thing. See, last year, when a pack of maurading pumpkin plants took over my garden and left me with a full and complete pumpkin patch in JULY I didn't know what to do with them. In the end, I left them in the garden and let them mulch throughout the winter. This seemed logical to me... afterall, they are organic material. I didn't put much thought into the fact that pumpkins have seeds. Lots and lots and lots of seeds. And I had lots and lots and lots of pumpkins. So lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of seeds are all cozy in my garden bed, plotting evil plans for another garden coup I am sure. And then I found the proof. It looks small and innocent enough doesn't it? But it's not... oh no it's not. Pumkpins should not be blooming in May... it should be against some type of law of nature.

As I came back up the side of the house this cow took a moment from chewing its cud to stare me down. We are hoping to get a few of these this year to eat down the grass that literally grows faster than we can get it mowed down.

In the meantime, we have a herd of these, and they won't eat the grass that I have growing in abundance. I can't make steaks out of them either. So I sent them outside to live where they can earn a living by keeping away things that live in... frog holes.