On Skookumchuck Pond...

I really like the idea of a farm pond, the type our (future) children could fish or swim in, the kind the family could enjoy the view of, a place where I, the harried working woman, could catch some peace. Alas, we really don't have the property for it...neither the room nor the bucolic setting I envision.

So, thanks for trying to appease me, Mother Nature, but the sight that greeted me when I returned home from work today is definitely not what I had in mind!! (It's in the middle of our sacrifice paddock, a mud bath on it's drizzly days. The torrential downpours of the last 24 hours have really created a mess! Do I need to describe it? It's slightly more than ankle deep (I know from personal experience last year), mucky bottomed with some manure and urine mixed in, courtesy of the cows. Ooo, it's nice (said with sarcasm). The cows aren't necessarily digging this new paddock feature, pretty much steering clear of it all together. I am curious whether the chickens would be interested in it, but they didn't get an opportunity to free range this evening.

The weather forecast for the next 10 days shows only two "clear" days with no precipitation. I wouldn't mind at all if things turned around and dried us out. Then again, it's only November, the beginning of another La Nina weather cycle (the cause of the January 2009 floods), and here in Western WA, we can expect rain from now through early March...or worse. It's gonna be a wet one, folks. I'm very thankful for my rubber boots!

No, Cowboy, that's not a swimmin' pool. Don't get too excited!