No good luck; but at least spring is finally on the way

It has been a rough and very sad two weeks. We lost the white calf before she was a week old and sadder yet, we lost Leah on the Wednesday before she was two weeks old. We tried hard to keep her going (many, many hours worth) but I guess it was not meant to be. Out of the 42 calves we've had so far, this makes only 4 losses, and I'm still wondering what went wrong with these two.
On the day before Leah died, a thought came to me. Perhaps they had a selenium deficiency. This deficiency is very common in our area, and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. We try to keep a selenium block out for the cattle at all times but we haven't checked it lately, and the vet hadn't mentioned it either. Unfortunately my husband was on his way home from the vet with 3 shots for Leah when she died.

This has been a long, sad winter for us but at least spring is starting to show itself. Our valley only has mere traces of snow left in the woods and ditches. The fields are starting to turn green--well, at least they're trying to. My tulips and daffodils are already 3 and 4 inches high, and of course the Johnny-jump-ups are blooming. I think they bloom underneath the snow! How encouraging it is to see all of this green going on.
Of course the chicken yard is still half-full of snow. Yesterday I took a walk in it and some spots are at least 6 inches deep. I've been opening up the coop door so they can go outside if they want to.

These next pictures were taken on March 6th. The snow is over a foot deep here.



It was the first time I let the chickens out this winter and of course no one wanted to venture out into the... eww, ick... deep snow! I was on my way back inside the coop to chase the others out when I noticed that my brave little silky, Snowflake was out in the snow all by herself (She's my favorite by the way).

When I put the other chickens out in it, they were afraid to walk on it. They stood in place. No one can dispute that my chickens hate snow!

                                                                                                              

Another sure sign of spring: the goldfinches are starting to turn gold