I don't care much for surprises, as generally they are not good. Today I had several surprises, the two bearings I needed for the front hub of our TW 35 were $600 apiece, that was a bad surprise. The weatherman put a 70% chance of snow in the forecast for Friday night and Saturday, with a low of 25F, after the last two relatively balmy weeks that have tricked the vegetation into believing warm weather was here to stay, this will be a rude awakening for the fruit trees. Given our ability to dodge moisture, I will not be surprised if we get very little snow(although they are calling for up to 6 inches in western Kansas). The snow being in the forecast is a bad surprise, not getting any would be a good surprise, having them miss the low would be an even better surprise.
Life also gives us big surprises, and little surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. Saturday I had a very big surprise, of a personal nature I will probably regret sharing. My sister-in-law posted pics of my nieces on Facebook, I am leery of getting on such sites(surprising eh?? given my love for this one) so Mrs. KF joined so we could view the pics. Everyone is on Facebook, in this nation anyway, including most of my family my age and younger, I learned. Coming in from fieldwork I was met by my ashen faced wife who said, "there is something on here about your cousin you will not like". It was from Facebook I learned my cousin (age 20 who is much more like my niece) had gotten married to a young man not in this nation legally. Mrs KF was right, I did not like that, that is an example of a big surprise, that is not necessarily good. I am hopeful after digesting this surprise for a week or so I will look upon it with more favor, which in itself will be a surprise.
I got another big surprise this afternoon. Fall of '07 we had what I refer to as a "train wreck" driving my fall calving cows down from summer pasture. I have learned, the hard way, that the cows remember where they are headed in the fall and spring, and know that both times the feed is better at the end of the journey. When I open the gate to move them they make the 2 mile journey at a dead run. Not a problem when the calves have been pulled off, but a big problem when they are trailing baby calves. The plan was for my dad and another fellow to block the road with their pickup trucks to hold the cows back, and make them walk the road down to fall quarters and not outrun their calves. However, one snakey old rip evaded dad, dad broke ranks to retrieve her, failed and in the process lost the entire bunch of 70, leaving 70- month old calves wandering aimlessly. We managed to bring part of the cows back, but in the resulting chaos ended up with cattle strung the entire length of the 2 miles, and part of them got in with my dads cows, including one heifer calf "with a little ear", here in the states that means she has some Brahman in her, I think you know it better as Zebu. "A little ear" makes a Limousin look calm. I ended up leaving her with dads cattle, she got bred too young, and for two weeks I have watched her, wondering if she could possibly calve unassisted at 18 months of age. Thursday morning(last) to my surprise she stood with a baby calf sucking eagerly, a nice little surprise. That little bit of ear made her very protective. She was in a 7 acre "trap" and had crossed the creek onto a corner of about an acre, I figured I would leave her since she was a little mean and the calf was new, and come back in a bit to try to drive them both across the riffle and into the pen, to take her to the other cows with new calves. Upon my return, the calf was gone, my conclusion after searching the entire 7 acres was he had gone into the creek and drowned. This was a bad surprise. This afternoon, after getting the hit for the bearings, I was amazed to find the heifer in question with the calf in tow, I haven't a clue where that calf has been, but it was in excellent shape. Finally, a very big, very good surprise. Hopefully I have had my quota of surprises for the spring.