More Wet!

 and....

Sunshine is home! 

We got her home just before the rains started. 

Oh and after greetings with her sister, Sunshine settled in as the boss of the tiny herd. I guess the others have been missing her leadership. 

They follow her where ever she goes.

Since it was pouring outside, I thought I'd try something different. I collected some leaves aa few pumpkins and set them on an old mirror I had.

I thought I'd try a reflection-Fall Decoration shot-with reflections.

Not all of the shots turned out, but I did get two that I kept. This was pretty fun to do and I think I could do better but just need to figure that out.

I thought I'd try a Garden Gargoyle with a pumpkin and a red leaf. So I tried two versions.

I made my own 'black box' to try this out also. A light underneath the characters and carboard to keep out the light. Some fallen flower petals from a flower...and...

👇😊

The rain let up and it was a light mist by noon. So I packed up a backpack. I'd been stuck inside for too many days. 

The dogs were not letting me out the door without them, they'd been stuck inside too. So off we went in a drizzle for an adventure.

And we had a good one.

Just as we got to this bluff the rain started coming down hard so I slipped on the poncho which covered my backpack and me all the way to my knees.

We waited out the heavy rain and then ventured out on the bluff.

The view

Here is a shot of the mist coming up out of the woods after the rain. This happens often in our steep valleys and hillsides because of the temperature difference inside the woods vs the air above.

My pals.

We got wet but surprisingly enough we didn't get muddy. We got to see the fall colors in their best light. In my opinion the best light is early morning, late afternoon, or an overcast day. But that is just me.

We got home and dried off. The drizzle kept on off an on. We ended up with about another inch of rain overall. 

This is the new header which replaces the summer view from the bluff.

Today, for the first time in what feels like forever, we have a clear and sunny sky and temps barely in the 40's.

Well, I did it.

I haven't thought much about riding now for two years. I've maintained my mules by making sure they are healthy and well cared for.

I didn't have much time to get back in the saddle and enjoy them.

Over the weekend, the gals got their classic spring haircuts.

Siera was the messiest one. But a bit of trim ....

Cleaned up her ears and mane!

Yeah--she didn't want me

to take her photo.

So yesterday I finally took her out of the pasture and saddled her up. She had some tail swishing but that could be because the flies were still after her or, she was unhappy about the prospect of working.

This mule is basically lazy. She won't do much of anything unless you ask politely. Get rough [my husband used to be rough with her] and she will do nothing. She will become a statue.

Hubby relented years ago that this mule was a lady mule like my mule Badger had been. She preferred my soft spoken ways to his growly gravel voice. Her name when he rode her was *goddammitSiera*.

I am the quiet one. I don't expect perfection every time I saddle her. I expect we get along and have a safe trip.

Anyway, there was no reaction when I mounted and rode her around the yard area. She did everything I asked of her.
Below is her listening to me to ask her to walk. The mule ears are like antenna, they point to what is interesting to her.

I then took her down through the neighbor's meadow and we took a short tour of some of the deer trails. I let her stretch her legs into a fast gait. 

It was a short ride that only lasted about 15 minutes, but she did everything I asked of her. Step out, walk, gait, stop, backup, and turn around.

Another crap shot, but here she is enjoying some yard grass while I put things away. Yes. She will stand in the yard and not leave. 

This is my mule that had never found her place with the other mules. She tolerates them but doesn't hang with them unless she is using their tails to swat flies.

When the Vet was here a few weeks ago he noted that she was a 'people' mule and that she preferred my company over her herd mates.

I like that.

But even more?

It looks like I'll be riding more and more. Siera will go to my friend's farm after June 5th. Then I will be riding with my friend and her horse Johnny Cash. 

Hopefully we will take lots of trail rides through her valley and streams this summer. She also has an indoor arena and outdoor arena. Maybe I can teach this mule a few new things.

I mean...wow....how did I forget how much I loved the sight of those ears from her back????

Snow-bliz-magedon?

These photos were from yesterday. It is snowing and blowing right now and I've been out to check my animals and they are all doing fine. I still have electricity so I think we are good!

 

This is where you can hear the sleet pounding our house while the windblown snow obliterates the view of the shed. I live in a hollow, so imagine what it was like on the ridge in the open!

Sunday was wild. I woke up when I heard thunder, saw lightening, and heard what sounded like glass hitting the house.

It wasn't glass. It was sleet. I've heard of Thundersnow so I posted that we had Thundersleet on the NOAA local site and a lot of folks replied they had the same...at 4:30am.

Here the mule gals choose to rest while eating with their butts to the wind. By afternoon they'd taken snow baths and rolled off the snow blankets they had. Yes, they were warm and dry under that snow. I know because I go out and put my hands on them.

I am pleased to say that Hannah had no qualms about going out with Charlie yesterday to do dog stuff. Eventually the sleet turned to snow, then to rain, then to snow, and then we had a lull in the weather.

During the lull I took the two 'kids' out for a walk. They actually did great in the crystalized snow/sleet that covered everything. 

They ran, they chased and they played. 

They wore themselves out. We headed back home for supper and some quiet time.

With the dogs asleep, I was able to take out stuff from my 'creative' boxes and do some toy photography indoors. 

I was in the mood for dinosaurs. I did use a spray bottle to imitate rain but it just made the T Rex angry, so I used an overlay of rain to keep things from getting out of hand.

Maybe that's how I felt about the weather and why I chose and angry looking T Rex.

😂

This morning our gravel road is impassable even after the town grader came through. The drifts on the roads and around buildings are at least 3 feet or so.

I wonder what the day will bring.

I stayed home sort of

We had some very heavy and wet snow late Thursday through Friday mornings. Enough so that our county actually closed a couple of roads due to accidents. 

I knew it would be a while before our driveway got plowed out. Frank and his red truck showed up and Charlie gave the alarm.

I enjoyed seeing the snow once more as things were getting pretty dull around here. I shoveled a path for the boss dog to get out and do his business without trying to snow swim and did the chores early so the gals had plenty to eat.

They ate, took snow baths, and then slept in the sunlight when it cleared up.

Charlie and I decided to make use of my snowshoes and check out our woods.

When we hit the back pasture, Charlie took off running and bounding through the snow. He literally charged along.

I followed at a slower pace but kept him within eyesight.

 Our planned short walk became a long walk. 

We headed to the valley and the creek to just check things out. I learned to snowshoe on this land with all sorts of obstacles since this wild wood has no groomed trails.

Charlie is relentless and full of energy while we are in the wooded areas. He leads along the routes we've taken all of his life and seems to know exactly where we should be going. Sometimes, I just let him pick the route.

One would think he'd get cold right away with snow up to his chest and walking through the creek. That is rather rare for him. 

The temps have to be below 10 F for his back feet to get cold. He has a water repellent thick hound dog coat which keeps him insulated. 

He'll actually sit in the snow to wait for me when he gets ahead.

We followed the valley and came to the snowmobile trail. It hasn't been groomed or used all year long. But it is an old logging road that is nice and wide. We chose to go up that 1/2 mile climb to get to the ridge and circle around to go back home.

Charlie found deer tracks and gave them a good once over as he headed up the hill.

I followed, very happy that I'd chosen to use my snowshoes.

It was interesting when we got to the ridge. The fields that for years had been corn and soy beans were rotated to hay last year. The fields were snow covered but at one point as we were coming across the field it looked like this.

It was as if the sky and the land were almost one...except for the clouds moving in.

The deer had been out digging for food. We saw coyote tracks along with a trail going down into a sink hole where the racoon den up.

This was probably the hardest leg of our hike. Open fields, snow, sky, clouds moving in, and cold winds in our face.

The valley had protected us from the winds.

We made it to the road and I took off the snowshoes and we went home. I had a cup of hot chocolate and Charlie got a treat.

This past week I purchased a 'dog stroller' for Charlie. Eventually, he won't be able to do long walks with me but he still will want to go just like Morris did in his elder years. 

So I figured we'd eventually use this to walk on the easier paved and graveled roads. He does drag his feet on those trails so ... here it is....

And this is the look I got. If this doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what will!

Weather Report ---> Kinda Cool

Well. We are doing a Polar Vortex thing here in our area, again. Last week the weather was mild and rather comfortable.

We are now celebrating when the temps rise above 0 F. This morning, I didn't do chores until it was -10 F, and yes, I stayed quite comfortable outside. It may look goofy, but there is something nice about not being cold while out in the cold.

 We are in a Cold Watch which will become a Extreme Cold Watch Thursday late through Saturday. My girls seem to have everything under control with their lovely thick winter coats.

More snow is supposed to happen tonight and Wednesday. -20 to -40 windchills are forecast to go along with that. Looks like a good time for a nice big pot of homemade soup.

Regular temps are predicted to look like this  👇

Brrrrr.

Thursday during the day looks decent enough that I might get out and do a bit of hiking with Charlie, but I doubt I'll be out and about Friday other than chores.

The shots below are from a bit of wandering around our forest today.

I just don't mess with extremely cold temps. I had enough of that when I was working night shifts at a place 30+ miles from home. Driving home in -19 temps in the middle of the night was concerning. 

Things break in the cold. 

Thank goodness, my old beater didn't mind cold weather.

The summer pasture wasn't full of tracks but the forest had many tracks. Deer had been browsing and making beds inside the woods.

Charlie didn't want to go with me for some reason, so I took Chippy.

Chippy rather enjoyed the adventure.

He always looks happy!

Well, there you go. There is the WI weather report for SW WI.

It's gonna be kinda cool.

It's been a few days

I decided to divide my time between with some more fun with the Medieval Village.  After all, I have to do something while waiting for paint to dry.

Below. The Elfin Twins enjoy a morning chat with Charlie who happens to adore their herd of goats. Charlie wants the goats to come out to play. The Twins say, "Not today!"

Yet, this happens. Below Charlie explains to the Blacksmith that he thought he'd just take the goat herd for a walk. He assures everyone that he has everything under control.

Sometimes my brain does these things. It seems the chain of events just pops into my head and I have to set it up. 

Many Lego Photographers usually highlight just one character in a scene. I admit, that is much easier to do.

But I like to create a scene that shows more.

Lego 'portrait' scenes look like this:

I try to make the scenes epic. Well, at least so the viewer thinks it looks like something out of an epic movie.

I had a brilliant idea. Well, I thought it was brilliant. I took a Lego Building in a tote through the woods [not far from the house] to try a scene I thought of in my head.

I wanted it to look like it came out of the movie The Hobbit. I had everything set up and the sound of shots from a mile away echoed through the woods.

Charlie who was with me, jumped through the wizard's cart and knocked things around. I spent the next 20 minutes digging through leaves to recover minifigures. Charlie kept trying to get in my lap and shaking. 

So, my epic shot never happened. I packed everything up and walked back to the house. However..........

IF I go back to this spot after the hunting season is over, I will rake all the leaves away and prepare the sight for the next day that I can try this again. It will take quite a few tries to get what I imagined. I'd like to do this once more on a very foggy day and see what happens.

Note to self. Do not take Charlie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, that was earlier this week and now I can make a quick comment the chair I am doing. I've gone with some blues for the main part of the chair with a 'shimmering Rose Pink' color for the very top. It looks red, but is a rose pink.

Gold and silver nobbies and hues of blues for the rest so far. I'll finish off the top and seal coat it before the weekend so the chair can be used if my youngest son and his crew come to visit.

My Lego build is going well. 

Here is a hint at what I am making:

Each day I think about getting out for a walk and just as I think I can go, I hear gun shots. Yesterday morning someone very close shot. Close enough for us to feel the concussion. The mules actually had a bit of a freak out while looking west at my neighbor's farm.

The next morning I got to see what the ruckus was all about.

My theory from the mess in the snow was that the deer that was shot at came through my winter fence and knocked down  a section by getting tangled in the hot wire. 

My mules took the opportunity to go looking for greener pastures last night.

They were fine and not too far off. They were in a section on a knoll which is not where I want them when hunters are out shooting.

They had gathered quite a bit of burdock in their tails and short manes.

They enjoyed their time out overnight and were happy to find a huge pile of hay with some grain in it when I walked them back to the winter pasture. They are good girls, I just came up and asked them to follow me back and they did.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. Normally we don't do anything after it became too difficult to haul both hubby and his mom to his daughter's house. I couldn't do it with wheel chairs, oxygen, and medications. So in the end Rich and I would have Lasagna, pie, and build Legos together.

I had an invite to go to a friend's house [actually a few friends from the gym invited me --isn't that incredible of them?--]. 

We've had a good friendship with Kristi and her family for nearly 10 years. Her husband was my husband's Hospice Nurse.

I'm pleased to decide to go. There was a point in which I thought I'd turn down invites so I could stay home and relish some time to feel sad and sorry for myself.

How nice. I'm not going to!

Tomorrow will be a busy day, IF my youngest decides to fight the snowstorm and come on Saturday, then I need to get some things on Friday. This means I will break my rule of NEVER shopping on Black Friday. 

But this year has been full of changes and adjustments for me.