Hay, Rain, and Lambs

One noble-looking ewe

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The hay bales are still lying scattered across the fields.  They wouldn’t be, of course, unless they were old, cut at the end of last summer.  People who’ve been here a long time and know about farm practices don’t think much about someone cutting all that hay and then letting it sit through the winter (so we’ve been told).  A waste.  Much of it is salvageable more than likely, but there’s still waste.  Hay bales have their uses, though, especially for Carly, Audrey and Ben.  (And Hans and Olin when they were here.)

The pyramid from top: Carly, Ben, Hans, Audrey, Olin
on the first day of hay bale games

 We learned some about mowing after following up a lead from the man who farms at the corner of our road and route 17.  He said there’s a conservation program that helps people who want to hold off mowing in order to encourage ground nesting species, many of which are endangered, something we’ve been thinking about doing.  After following this up we ended up talking with two genial agriculture guys at the Middlebury USDA office.  As with most transactions here, they took their time with us, as if there was no one else they’d rather be dealing with. There’s a small subsidy available if you don’t cut the hay until after nesting time, around the end of July.  You can’t avoid mowing entirely, or unwanted species will start to grow and that’s the end of your perfect meadow.  As it is, mowing only once opens the field to invasive plants.  We have yet to meet the farmer who presumably did our mowing, see how he wants to handle this.  At any rate, he can’t easily pick up the old bales now, because the ground is still too wet.  And probably will be for a while, given all the rain we’ve been having.

The hay bales and meadows during a bit of sunshine after the rain

Lake Champlain is still at flood stage (or at flood stage again) according to the weather service.  That doesn’t mean much for most people, only those living at the water’s edge in low-lying areas.  Still there were notices like this:  “If you live or travel near streams and rivers...seek higher ground.”  Otter Creek, which we can almost see from our house, is muddy and flowing fast.  The nearby waterfalls are powerful with water.  Our little creek (can we dub it “Bear Skull Creek” in honor of the dead bear?) now has a noisy waterfall.

Yesterday through heavy rain we spotted a pair of wood ducks on our pond.  Once again, I think they are just visiting.  I heard quacking later the same day but couldn’t see any ducks. Today there are no ducks.  There were a few other interesting sightings, though.  While eating dinner at our dining room table we saw a lone deer run across our neighbor’s field.  On our way to Vergennes to pick up the newspaper we saw a moose sauntering across someone’s lawn, heading toward Otter Creek.  Otter Creek, no mean creek by the way, runs through Middlebury and Vergennes, and cascades over dams in both towns, as well as another dam in between at Weybridge, before it empties into Lake Champlain.

Wood ducks visiting, in the rain

It’s nearly Easter, a holiday I would hardly have given much thought to except for the fact that Easter and lambs go together.  Lambing is happening right now up our road at the Mitchell’s place and we were invited to see the babies.  Audrey and Ben were here one (rare) sunny morning so we all went to see them.  I’m glad there’s no lamb on the menu this weekend.