It’s Spring In Kansas
By Katie McDougal
The green rolling pastures around our rural Kansas neighborhood are filled with baby calves sleeping contented under the watchful eyes of their mothers. The air is filled with the sounds of birds calling to one another, while others are floating high in the sky. Gardens are being planted and lots of flowers and bushes are or have been in full bloom. Horses are grazing on green, lush pastures. Country lawns are green and pretty. The sounds of farm implements in the fields are comforting. For me, it is the most beautiful time of the year. I love it.
Putting all that aside, I must mention one little pest that I could do without – the bothersome little tick! Those little pests are going to be extremely bad this year. If you haven’t found one on your pets or your person yet, you have been lucky. I have found two or three on the puppies and one embedded on myself. Another member of the family has also been lucky enough to garner at least two of the little devils.
I am in love. No, I don’t have that kind of announcement to make. There isn’t anyone who would have me! I am in love with a bobcat — you know the kind that you can dig post holes, cut brush, load hay bales, clean barn lots and much more. A nice young man who I have watched grow up gave me a wonderful Mother’s Day gift Sunday. He brought his bobcat to our house and cleaned up a tree that we had cut down. I watched every minute he was working with absolute amazement. I had more fun than a barrel of monkeys. It took him less than an hour, but if he had been here much longer, I would have had to try it.
The tree that we had cut down was planted about 70 years ago by my father Clark Ellis. I remembered following him around as he planted three soft maples at the east side of our corn crib and barn. “These trees won’t last a long time, but they will make a lot of shade,” he said. He was right. Little did he know that in time they would provide shade for the home of his little girl who was following his footsteps that day in history. Tears fill my eyes as I write this. Only the stump of one of those trees remain to remind me of that day.
Mother’s Day was quiet at our house otherwise. However, it was a good quiet. With a daughter who is a traveling preacher on Sunday mornings, we strive to have some quiet in the afternoons. We did some lawn work which we all enjoyed. I was treated to new hanging flower pots of red petunias and a new red reclining lawn chair, all of which I love. Douglas, our son, husband, father and brother, fixed us a steak dinner Monday night for Mother’s Day. He is a good cook and his baked beans were to die for. Don’t ask for a recipe though. He learned from his mother.
Bird watching has been my main occupation. I have been treated to the sight of humming birds, finches, blue buntings, an oriole, red birds, mocking birds and many more. I talk to the mocking birds. “Momma is out there talking to the mocking birds again,” I hear the kids say. It keeps us busy filling the feeders, but it brings us lots of joy too.
Our clematis at the front of the house is booming profusely. When Marti set it out one Mother’s Day, she was worried if it would live. Live it does. It is so hardy and blooms almost until frost. I don’t think we could kill it if we tried. We need more of those kind of flowers at our house. Our peonies are about ready to burst into bloom, as are the rose bushes at the back of the house.
As I said before, it is spring in Kansas and I love it.Happy trails to you until we meet again!
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