First Snow

I know, hard to believe, huh?  February and we're just getting our first snow??

But it really is our first snow!  The precipitation will be good, we need it SO bad.

In honor of this special day, here are a few unretouched, straight out of the camera shots...

As the huge flakes of snow began to fall, it was a very unusual snowfall in that it was falling straight down.  There was no wind whatsoever.  That, my friends, is very unusual here on the Kansas prairie!  The rain and the snow are usually hitting the ground sideways!

It's been falling straight down all afternoon.  No wind.  So odd to stand outside and hear the silence.

Yes, there's a bit of blue cast to this last photo, and I'm not fixing it.  At least not right now - maybe later.  You can check my photo blog later to see if I play with it.  You can see how much more snow we're getting now.

By tomorrow I imagine it will all be gone since it's forecast to be in the 50s. It's a very, very heavy and wet snow.

The chickens and guineas are nowhere to be seen outside.  I guess they've decided that the coop is the place to be today.

Time for me to bundle up and head outside to give the horses some dinner!

Our Canada Geese Return!

What a surprise, when I heard honking overhead this morning - especially since I had been wondering lately if we might be lucky enough to play host to our pair of Canada geese again this year.

Hubby was outside feeding the horses and when he returned to the house, he confirmed that two Canada geese had landed near our pond.

Could it be?  Were these OUR Canada geese, the very same pair that had built a nest and spent significant time on our property last year?

We had been wondering lately .... would they return?

About an hour had passed and again, I heard honking overhead, so I went to the front of the house, and lo and behold, they had moved from the pond to our front pasture, west of our chicken coop.

This was almost a sure sign that this pair was indeed "our" geese, since we had often fed them with chicken scratch at this very location west of our house last year.

We currently don't have any scratch feed, but we do have bird seed, so hubby took a scoop and scattered it for the two geese.  They were hesitant to come too close to him, but once he left, they commenced pecking at the bird seed.

The guineas have been having absolute fits all day.  They are not happy to see these big birds re-invade their turf.  Several of the guineas have been fluffing up their wings and charging the geese.  Last year, the geese put our guineas in their place right quick, pulling out quite a few feathers in the process.  This year, the two geese (so far!) have been pretty complacent, just watching the guineas and their defensive antics.  It is almost as if the geese are yawning and saying "really? is that all you got?"

It will be fun and exciting to see what our pair of geese do this year -- how long will they stay?  will they build a nest by the pond again?  will the eggs outlast our resident coyote population this time?

Only time will tell.

They've been hanging out near the chicken coop in our south and west pastures today. It looks like they might stay awhile.
 

Prairie Love

Storm cloud over pond
Nikon D60 ~ Topaz Simplify effects

I haven't been very photographic for the past year or so.

It's not that I don't WANT to play with my camera it's just that I never seem to have time anymore.

Well, things are going to change this year.

I'm going to MAKE the time.  I enjoy it so much, and I sure do miss it.

So there's going to be lots more photos on both blogs, and there's going to be a lot more playing around with Photoshop Elements and Topaz software.

I'm just warning you.  Watch out.