Is it spring? Or is it winter? Or has it made up its mind?

Winter really didn’t come this year, and so we are all still waiting for it and because of that it seems like spring is coming too early. It really isn’t, this is turning into a very normal spring. But let me take some time to point out the harbingers of spring I have noticed. 

First the cheat grass and the six-weeks grass are growing like crazy, and I noticed some kochia germinating today. The grasses I mentioned are the aggressive cool season grasses that have spread here recently. 

Then there are the birds. A lot of the meadow larks never left last fall, but they didn’t sing all winter either, we would see them in the fence rows, but mostly just hunkering down. But they are out and singing again, and the ones that did leave are back. The Sand hill cranes are coming back, there aren’t a huge amount of them yet, but they are hollering up and down the river, and a photographer friend from Powell has gotten some awesome pictures of some of them in mating mode. The geese really never left this year, but hung around all winter because we had open water all winter and the fields were never covered with snow to cover the feed, but lately I have seen them congregating more and more on the fields that were in grain last year. I am assuming that the grain is sprouting and they are enjoying the small green shoots. The red-winged blackbirds are back and singing in the trees near the bogs and drains. They nest in fields near those places. And I saw a whole flock of robins, not just one or two, but a whole flock. My chickens are also enjoying the longer days and warmer weather. Egg production has gone up quite a bit, as it always does in the spring. 

And the rabbits; when spring comes the cottontails near the wrecking yard start to pair up. We are seeing quite a few of them in twos now. Last night I counted 5 pairs from Angie’s house to the shop. It looks like we are going to have a pretty good bunch of cottontails this summer. 

One thing I am excited about, and yet I laughed at him a couple of days ago. Our jackrabbit population seems to be on the rise. I have seen more of them this winter than I have for many, many years. But the poor things must be feeling confused. All winter when it was brown and there was no snow, the poor jackrabbits were white. There normal color during the winter for camouflage. Then on Saturday after the storm passed and it was all white out, I saw one and it had turned brown, it had shed into its summer colors. The poor confused hare. He just didn’t know quite what to do, He was hunkered down out of the wind with his ears pinned back against his head and was looking very dejected. 

So yes Spring is here, I think we thought it was early because we kept looking for winter and it never came. I now hope we get a very wet spring and early summer to make up for the lack of winter moisture. 

Turkey Tostada Salad

1 pound lean ground turkey

2 teaspoons each chili powder and ground cumin

1 teaspoon onion salt

1 8-ounce can tomato sauce

1 15½- ounce can kidney beans

6 cups torn iceberg lettuce

½ cup sliced green onion

1 large tomato, chopped

½ cup Italian salad dressing

8 tostada shells

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown ground turkey, add chili powder, cumin and onion salt. Cook and stir until turkey is browned. Stir in tomato sauce and kidney beans, heat through. In a large bowl, combine lettuce onion and tomato. Add salad dressing and toss to coat. Heat tostada shells place on individual plates, spoon salad mixture on shells. Tope with turkey mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.