Temperature, slush hazards, meetings, soon

Last night the temperature hovered at the freezing mark. When I got up it was one degree above freezing. I still marvel at the dynamics of the laws God has put in place. One degree above freezing and we have slush. At 32® exactly the slush turns to ice. The effect is dramatic! One little degree of temperature and what was an inconvenience becomes a hazard; mush turns to rock and wet pavement turns to black ice.

Things should melt away a little today. I am praying that the slush is gone by tonight when the temperatures will once again plunge well below freezing. It is predicted to stay below freezing for several days followed by another warm couple of days. So goes the temperature roller coaster of north Texas winters.

Probably the worst part of the slush and the mud it creates having to wipe off the dogs feet every time they want back into the house. They are like a bunch of little children. They go out for fifteen minutes to see what is going on outside. Then they want back in – and have to be cleaned to be allowed to do so since we cannot make them take off their shoes.

Once back inside they look through the windows and think about what it would be like to be back outside. So, off they go and the process repeats itself over and over throughout the day. When the ground is frozen it is much easier to keep things clean, but that is a short-lived reprieve. We have to stay thankful through the frustrating cycle since we need the moisture; this too shall pass.

I was supposed to be in offsite meetings tomorrow and Thursday but it is looking like the weather will force us to cancel those meetings as they had been scheduled and settle for doing the two day meeting via the net. That makes for a very long day when you have to do twelve hours of meetings by phone; unfortunately it is something we cannot put off. All of us have deadlines to meet and this meeting is necessary to get our goals finalized as a business unit.

Mama’s eyes are doing much better. In fact, she was feeling so much better that she fed the calves yesterday evening. If she is allergic to something in the hay it should show up in the next couple days. I would rather she continue to allow me to do the feeding so we can avoid any complications but that is not Mama’s way; besides, I probably do not do things the way she likes for them to be done for her little herd.

January is now behind us and February is flying by. Soon the farm will be waking from its winter sleep. We will be cutting hay and worrying over the lack of rain. We will be planting trees and hauling water to them to give them the energy to combat the blistering sun. We will be planting and the garden will take up a lot of our time and attention, very soon.

I am looking forward to that.