Hope springs eternal

March can be a tricky month.

It fools us into thinking that the snow is over and the April showers will bring all the May flowers out. Ha! That is what I say.

Living 1,000 feet above Creemore has taught me (rather roughly at times) that spring and summer arrive much later up here on Mount Zion.

When I first heard the name Mount Zion, images of blue water and pristine white buildings, you know the ones you see in the Greek Islands. The only blue and white that I can see from this Mount Zion is the blue of Georgian Bay fringed with the last of the white snow and ice.

What March does get me thinking about though is seed catalogues and livestock sales. The feed stores have lasted this long so the end of worrying about hay and silage is hopefully coming to an end.

I have a good friend who once took me to New Listowel (although most people just call it Listowel) to the Carson’s Sale Barn. This friend was once queen of the Limousines. This was a Limo sale and I was excited to see what would walk through the ring. The prices started quite high, which is the norm, so I had to wait patiently to get something in my price bracket (cheap).

One of the last cows to wander through the ring was a registered one named Expertise. Bonus! She had a young calf at her side. Bigger Bonus! They took Visa as payment so that meant I got Air Miles to boot. My friend thought I was crazy but laughed when I mentioned the Air Miles. I won’t tell you what the CEO said, due to coarse language content, but, I was happy, my first cow and calf.

The cow knew her name and would follow me around the yard gently mooing when I said her name. I eventually had to ship her, but I still have her great granddaughter who produces a fine calf each year. See, March can be a fun month even though it can also blow you away.