Cold Turkey

How times change. The first weekend of October, 2008 we experienced 42 inches of snow at the Circle B Bar T. The same weekend in October, 2009 we had 24 inches of snow. This year, 2010, the same weekend in October the temperature was 83 degrees. This fall has been especially mild, the leaves on the trees was not hampered by the weather, and they were beautiful. It changed on November 18th. It got cold, the snow started arriving, and the expression of "cold turkey" took a new meaning the morning of November 20th. This is a picture of the trees along the Grove Creek. The dark images at the top of the trees is the flock of turkeys you saw in our last post on this blog. This time, it was too cold to be on the ground, so they flew to the top of these 40 and 50' tall trees. This is "cold turkey".
After taking this photograph, I decided to drive around the Fishtail - Absarokee area and observe was else was happening. As I said already, it had been a great fall, the livestock had not been feed hay as the pastures were still very attractive to both the ranch livestock as well as the deer. On this day, with over 8 inches of snow on the ground, and still falling, I fed our horses hay for the first time this fall.

They weren't the only animals that needed to find something to eat. As I drove the 20 mile circumference, I expected to see lots of deer in the fields. I must have been too cold for them as well. I would normally expect to see at least 200 deer on this trip, but this day there were only a few, and the ones I saw had found something to eat, as this one had.

Most of the ranchers had been out feeding their livestock, prior to me venturing around south Stillwater County. However, this herd had not been blessed with hay and as you can see they were roaming through the pasture looking for something to eat.

But these sheep, covered with snow, if you look carefully, were fillng their stomachs with hay that had been harvested this past summer.

and finally, there were adventuresome animals like these who didn't wait for the rancher to bring them hay, they sought it out on their own. Whether it was the smell of the nearby bales or this bale just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and they went no further. They might say they were luckier that cattle you observed looking for hay, certainly they got their bellies full.

If you made this same trip today, there was hay in every field and every animal in our area was feasting on some good hay as the temperature had tumbled to minus 10 degrees last night. The weather forecast indicates it will not get warmed until Thanksgiving. In the meantime, there is more than enough excellent hay for our livestock to make the transition to winter.

"Cold Turkey, captured in real time

As we awoke and went to the windows facing the south I observed something that is reserved for extremely cold weather. The temperature was minus 16 degrees. When I saw this image, I said, now that is what I call "cold turkey".
I knew I needed to get a closer image if you were to believe the creatures in the trees were really turkeys. It was too cold to walk toward them, so I approached them in the pick up truck and took a series of pictures. I was sure that if I got too close they would take flight and I would miss this opportunity. I was wrong. I got close enough to take the next 2 pictures which should convince you that it was cold and they had no intentions of leaving their perch, especially with the sun shining on them.
This flock of turkey's have been in a number of postings on our blog. Just yesterday they were in the foreground of the picture of the Grove Creek, on December 19th they had ventured away from the creek and were found near our house, and if you go back as far as November 19th, you will see this guy on a much warmer day.
This is really, "cold turkey". I had to search the context of "cold turkey" to see if there was any correlation to my pictures. There were 2 phrases that I found which I believe are applicable.

"to immediatley and completely give up"

"an extreme means of quitting something that we find hazardous to our health"

For a turkey to fly into a tree, 15 to 20 feet above the ground, they were giving up the cold ground and at 16 degrees below zero it was hazardous to their health. I also learned the term was used by humans in the context of giving up an addiction. I can relate to that as well as in June of 1980 after many prior attempts, I quit smoking, "cold turkey" and have not indulged since then.

On the other hand, I can assure you that the expression of "cold turkeys" will be used again at the Circle B Bar T Ranch the next time the temperature plummets to below zero.

Have a good day.