Since my last Acreage Update posted January 10^th we here in Iowa have experienced light snow, a “snow squall”, blizzards, frigid cold, heavy snow, wind gusts of 35 to 45 mph, whiteouts, drifting snow, road and school closures and an Arctic air mass. When it finally began to warm up we had a dense fog advisory every day until the end of January. Now we are experiencing some record high temperatures, with highs from the 40s into the low 60s. So far it looks like it really is a leap year, skipping over February into March. In some places it has been reported flowers are blooming! Some are predicting we will get “payback” for our current nice weather. That could be, but I am thinking we have prepaid for it with that horrible January. And we have Phil on our side, having predicted an early spring this year.

I saw a cat prowling around the acreage recently but I think it has moved on as I see no scat or tracks. However, we still have no mice in the garage or house. And I filled up all the bird feeders before the crazy winter weather hit, and they are still full. Strange…something different is going on this season.

At the end of last year we received an oil and gas lease offer from an Oklahoma company for our acreage, which is part of a 640 acre area where they want to drill. We have zero experience with this kind of thing, so we will check with our neighbors first to find out what they think about the issue.

One night recently I let our dog, Steve, outside and there was a opossum scrounging around the outside of the garage. Steve immediately went after the animal and it dropped into a ball before Steve even got to it. He picked it up in his mouth a couple of times, and I heard some cracking sounds, but let the opossum drop on the sidewalk each time after a few seconds. The playing dead worked and Steve lost all interest in it and wandered off to explore his yard. That left it to me to finish off the wounded animal.

We just experienced our first winter storm of the season. As usual people were worried about what might happen, stirred up by the forecasters. We received around 5 inches of snow, with some wide drifts whipped up by the wind. Down south of us, in lower Iowa, areas received 10 to 12 inches. Of course, by the end of winter we are not so much worried by the snow storms but sick of them and ready for spring. Another one is blowing through starting tomorrow.

I think we have almost finished winterizing the acreage. All of the flower pots have been gathered and stored away in the machine shed, along with extra chairs and cushions and whatnot that we don’t want to leave out in the elements this winter. For the first time I called a local John Deere dealer to service our 420 that we use to clear snow. We have been here five years now and I figured it was time to have the pros look it over. They changed the filters, spark plug, oil and lubed it up. It runs great, so I think we are prepared for the snow to fly. I also bought a new snow shovel to replace the one with the broken handle from last year. Just hoping there is not another three day blizzard like last winter. We had our first measurable snow this season a couple of days after Thanksgiving. Around one inch fell, but the ground was still too warm to allow that to remain for long.

There was some action around our area a couple of weekends ago involving a fugitive. We noticed a Sheriff’s car closely, but very slowly, following a white pickup truck on our road. There were no lights or sirens involved, which left us wondering what was going on. A couple of days later Shelly was talking with a neighbor who explained what happened. It turns out there was a car accident on Hwy 20. One of the occupants was a service dog that was able to get out and run off. A service dog wearing a pink vest was spotted in our area and a family member of the dog owner (white truck) and a deputy went looking for it. Our neighbor was enlisted to help with the pursuit because his ATV could traverse the muddy corn fields. The chase went through the little town nearby, back out to the country, across fields and acreages (including ours) until they were finally able to corral the poor frightened dog under an old car parked behind an outbuilding on a nearby acreage. According to Facebook the dog, named Koda, was reunited with the owner and all are okay.