My stupid alarm clock, weather, rabbit stew

In all the years I have been getting up at the very early hours that have become normal for me there are only a handful of times I have slept until the alarm went off. It is even less frequent that I have not turned off the alarm before I leave the bedroom to get dressed. Well, this morning was one of those rare mornings that I forgot to turn off the alarm and it woke Mama at 5 a.m. She called me just a few minutes ago to tell me how much she hates my alarm.

The problem with that is that she has never learned how to silence the alarm after it is activated. Even I have to remind myself on those rare instances when I wake to the alarm. I reminded her that the big button on the side will turn the alarm off once it has gone off, but that information should not be required again for many months to come. If I am remembering right it has been over a year since this last happened. All in all, that’s a pretty good track record. It just does not feel that way at 5 a.m. (I will have to spend a few minutes tonight resetting the clock after she punched all over it trying to make it stop.)

We are finally going to get some warm weather this week. Today is supposed to be near fifty degrees and by Sunday the high temperature is supposed to be above seventy degrees. That will be a very welcome change for all of us. My compatriots in the panhandle are looking forward to a morning free of ice and snow; the first in about ten days. No one is sure how long the warmth will last before the next cold snap, but we will enjoy it this weekend.

The large water trough where I put the heater to keep the water from freezing so the cattle would have fresh water every morning was so low last night that I had to unplug the heater for fear it could melt a hole in the bottom of the trough. I was not able to refill it because the hose we have set up for that was still frozen solid. In the interim we use a much smaller container that Mama has to refill several times a day. I love life on the farm.

It is good at times like these to remember that summer is getting close and we will once again be struggling with very hot temperatures. I think all of us, animals included, would rather have the cold – as long as we have plenty of hay to feed them. As it warms I hope to see the grass start growing once again. I am especially watching to see if the grape vines survived through last summer’s dormancy or if I will have to pull them up and replace them.

This should be a very full Saturday coming at me. Last weekend I was looking for things to do. It will not be that way this weekend. Of course when I say “weekend” I mean Saturday. Last Saturday was a dreary wet and cold day so it is a good thing Mama got to go to a baby shower. Before she left however we met the Skills at Trade Days and exchanged some beef for a couple rabbits and some lamb. We have not gotten the lamb yet but it is coming.

As for the rabbits, I fixed one into a soup that very day. I really wanted to see if Mama and Victoria would like the meat. They did; at least enough to let me pursue my plans to raise them for meat. Hopefully, I can get started on that pretty soon.

Processing them is much easier than processing chickens.