Snow, blowing snow, weather, play

We had some rather interesting wild weather on Friday with the winds. I walked to the ridge to see if the snowfall was drifting across the ridge roads.

It was.
I cancelled my CrossFit work out because. Well, because I could. I don't have to drive in poor weather anymore so I can relax and just watch the snow pile up and the winds create beautiful drifts.

Our road looked like this:

The winds were picking up the snow and blowing it into fantastic shapes in the roadside ditches.

I talked to a friend of mine who had said they'd gone to town and the roads on the ridges were drifting and visibility was not good.
I figured that because I could barely see across the cropland on top of the ridge.

The winds were whipping the snow like crazy. Video length about 20 seconds of snow-nadoes!

I walked off the ridge and just into the woods. 

It got quiet and peaceful without the roaring winds. Charlie and I walked down into the wild meadow where I picked up sticks, mosses, pieces of bark, and some grass. I felt that I'd probably be spending most of the rest of the day indoors and I felt like making something creative.

It sure looks like a mess, but I had ideas for a diorama of sorts.

I had some quiet time to myself so I got to work with my free materials from the woods.
Sorry, my cell phone takes awful photos in dim light. But I used and old cookie sheet to create a scene just for the camera.

 I thought it would be funny to have a Lego Robot and a Squirrel working in a garden together. 

Hey, IT could happen right???

And after all of their hard work, they decided to have a picnic.

An Acorn for the squirrel and a pizza for the robot. The Robot is the Nanny Droid, IG 11. He stars in Disney's Mandalorian episodes. I thought he was just weird enough to use in this scene.

The fork he is holding actually is an extra piece that was included in the Orchid build. 

It looks like the pair is happy with their work of planting and watering.

After I cleaned that up I wondered what to do with all the extra material I had from the woods.

I had clay, a glue gun, sticks, and moss...

And I heard that Acorn Guy was looking for a little place to live. He didn't like Lego Brick homes, he preferred more wild-like things....

...stay tuned....

We don't stop playing because we grow
old
We grow old because we stop 
playing.

George Bernard Shaw.

Play on!

Thursday's snow

The prediction was for 7 to 9 inches the first time. Then adjusted to 3 to 5, then adjusted to 4 to 7 and gusty winds.

The elder mules got moved to a very sheltered area. The others have the woods. The elder mules get different feed than the youngsters so I have to keep them separate. Fred is now 35 years old and we've discussed getting hay cubes for him. Sort of like babyfood for the elderly. He prefers his senior feed and his regular hay.

My neighbor now does the hill plowing. Rich used to do it, but Justin takes care of it for us. He does it to our property line and stops. But in severe cold weather, he will come down and finish cleaning us out. Good Neighbor!

A look at the driveway from our big shed when Rich used to do it. That is a full sized Skid Steer!

Thursday's view of the driveway from the bottom.

A view from the mailbox on top of the ridge. 

The view looking east, the same road I walked down just the other day with Bear and Charlie.

This made me pleased that I am not driving down to the plant anymore for midnight and 4 am shifts. Our township roads generally don't plow until the snow stops. They used to plow when the buses were on these roads but the school buses no longer travel these back roads. Parents have to take the kids out to the blacktop.

So. I like snowstorms. I love walking and hiking in them. It is made even easier by the fact that I am surrounded by woodlands.

I headed back down through the woods from the mailbox. Part of the way down through the woods the winds started picking up above us.

My face and glasses got plastered with sleet and snow. I was also walking in nearly knee deep snow, but I took it slow and followed along the 4 wheeler trail most of the way down the hillside. 

I just took my pocket camera because I figured the both of us were going to get soaked.

When I got to the end of the hill I just stood and watched the snow get blown and drift across the unused meadow. 

I really wished I could have stayed there all day.

But.

I had to get going. 

Our snowfall? It was about Charlie Shoulder height. 7 inches.

Next up? The Deep Freeze.

Mule Attitude

So the big snow is occurring. I don't think it is going to be a 5 to 10 inch snowfall here, however ... the 'event' is not supposed to end until this evening.

I added bedding and hay to Sven's indoor pen. I considered shutting the door to his pen but the other day when I did have it closed he 'locked' himself out. He has access to a rather large area outside and spends most sunny days observing his Kingdom from a mound.

Here Charlie is checking for yummy goat poo.

I loaded a huge hay net for Mica and Sunshine to put in the large stall I built.

Suffice to say that Mica turned into an evil beast when I put her in the stall and put Sunshine in with her for company. She kicked at Sunshine and shoved her around.
I think a few factors entered into this. Mica has a paddock next to the shed and I separated her about a month ago from the others. She has Sven on one side of her and Little Richard on the other. I've been giving her a bit of sweet feed twice a day.
One: Mica wasn't in Sunshine's herd anymore.
Two: Mica preferred Little Richard and Sven to Sunshine's company
Three: Sweet Feed has helped her maintain her weight but has not helped her attitude.

Hmm. I may have to start thinking about using some beet pulp.

Anyway, I got them calmed down and dumped the hay out of the net and separated it into the far corners of the large stall.
Meanwhile, the storm did rage on outside with high winds and blowing snow.

The other mules huddled around their piles of snow and then disappeared into the woods to get out of the stinging winds and snow.

Morning:

Sundance says good morning!

Fred. No good morning.

Get my breakfast!

Fred is 33 yrs old.

Siera and 15

These two are nearly inseparable.

The Breakfast Club

This morning it was obvious that Mica feuded with Sunshine all night. Sunshine was dry as a bone and calm. Mica was sweaty and high strung. I had to tie Mica up in order to take Sunshine back out to the pasture.

Sunshine met up with her herd mates, and walked calmly into the bigger pasture and took a snow bath.

I brushed Mica and fluffed her coat. I walked her quite a bit in the shed to cool her off and at times she wanted nothing to do with me. Once I put her out in her paddock she went and stood by where she gets her morning sweet feed and paced the hot wire.
I ignored her and put out hay.

I'm happy to report that she is back to her peaceful self. I'm guessing the old saying that sometimes when you try to be super nice to a mule, it backfires on you.

Well that was fun!

After chores I headed up the driveway. We were supposed to get about 3" of snow.
Three inches had already fallen as it was chest high on Charlie when he'd gone out on the porch. Three inches had blown into there.

It was over ankle deep and even though that is not an official measure, it was deep enough to call it 4 to 5. No matter, the snow was there and it was deep enough and the winds on the ridge were howling.

I can't resist trying to take some photos of snow blowing and snow drifts....

The road is out there. Just not very visible.

After Rich decided to take a nap, I headed up to feed Sven and introduce him to Charlie.

Charlie tried to play with him like he would another pup. Sven tried to butt him in the head. After a bit, everyone got along with a lot of sniffing. Charlie even went in Sven's crate with him.

We felt it was too cold and snowy to take Sven outside we all got dressed and ventured out. The temps were pretty mild and soon the kids and dogs were at play.

I keep forgetting how much fun I had as a kid with huge piles of snow. Huge piles are the best for throwing yourself down and over the side.

The dogs just ran and chased and rolled in the snow.

Dixie must have heard us from her big bed in the shed down at my house. She appeared and joined in the fun. She watched over the kids like she was their mom.
As the kids dropped over the steep pile of snow, Dixie went down to make sure they were all right. They used Dixie to help get themselves up.

Charlie and Dixie had a blast. Lauren had to take Basil in as her legs got so full of snow balls she could barely move. Dixie and Charlie have hound dog coats so they don't collect the snow.

But we all had a blast and too soon I had to take my dogs and head back down the hill and return to my mundane tasks of chores and supper.

It was a great snow day. Sure the schools were closed and the roads were terrible, but we made the best of it.

Good neighbors are the best.

Basil....

All dogs slept soundly last night.

This morning brings sunshine and we can prepare for another 'event' this weekend.

Night Skiing

Text: Meet me at the mailbox at 8:30?

Me: Yes! Skis?

Text: Yes skis please!

Me: Okay!

I hustled around the house, made supper and then gathered my gear together. GG gave me that funny look, as though I had two heads.

"Are you going on the ridge and skiing in that ice and blowing snow? You guys nuts?"

Me: "Ahhh yup."

At the top of the ridge is 65 acres of cropland with gentle dips and dipsy doodles of strip crop planting. We've had snow, then rain, then melt, then snow, then sleet-rain, and then freezing and tonight it was snowing and blowing hard.

As I walked up from our house I could hear the wind in the trees. It sounded like an ocean above me! 

I met up with Lauren and we headed right into the brunt of the wind and snow. We laughed behind our scarves. 

We wobbled across ice crust patches and soft gushy snow drifts and several times we both had great 'runs' of pushing and gliding. 

I went down a hill and hit a soft spot. Poof. Nearly a face plant. Lauren started laughing and lost her footing and we both lay in the snow just laughing at ourselves. 

Our skis made horrid sounds as they went over glare ice and the poles came in very handy. Balance on ice was a bit interesting especially when one ski would go straight and the other one sideways.
Corn stalks were just another added obstacle, especially while going down a grade.
Take my word for it the tall alfalfa was easier to get through than some of the stalks.

By our second round we were flying in the good places and pacing ourselves.

If we ever get on a groomed trail we might even be awesome. We both would like to ...ski or snowshoe at least two times a week [at night of course]. 

There is something wildly free and liberating about skiing at night on ice/snow in a snow squall.

I can sleep well tonight.

Cool backdrop and cold weather fun.

As the temperatures dropped and the winds picked up I decided to work on my Christmas Cards.
I found out that I was short some.

What to do? What to do? I don't like most choices in the boxed items they sell in the stores and ever since I found out I could print them out myself, I've done it that way.

Well I had an hour or so to kill before going to get and delivering groceries chores to my mother in law, so why not 'make' some?
I had read somewhere how aluminum foil on cardboard pieces made good reflectors and interesting back drops. Even more fun was to add glitter via glue to the aluminum.

So I found a box. I cut the flap off from it and made a 'reflector'.

I even covered one in pink, red, and silver glitter glue.

Then I went to the 'magic creative room' and set some things up. An old box, some parts of cards from years passed, and the foil backdrop.

This shot shows the pinkish glitter glue on the foil. A white board leaned up against my chair. The table is a plastic tub with a white piece of board on it.
Over that is an old lace table cloth.

Well I had a bit of fun with it.

I 'developed' it with an Antique look in ON1RAW2017. I even liked it enough to send it to print.

Then I tried this one.

This one is my favorite. The yellowish golden glow is from an old lamp with those now extinct bulbs in it...for light.

The items that are poinsettias and Merry Christmas are things I pulled off from old cards that my Aunt and Cousin had sent me a few years ago.
The old paint cracked box makes for a wonderful texture and the foil added a bit of zip.

I sent this one to print too. Walgreens and Walmart offer easy 1 hour pickup and you cannot beat the prices.

Then it was time to go to town. The winds were howling and the snow was blowing across the open areas.

I got strange looks when walking around the stores. I don't care, I wore my heavy coveralls and was nice and toasty warm. I don't get the ladies who dress with skinny jeans or those who wear capris and a light top with no hat or gloves in very cold temperatures with extreme wind chills.
They must live in town and not have to negotiate snow blown drifts.

I know if I get stuck in the drifts I can still safely walk somewhere or sit in my car and be very comfortable.
I carry a sleeping bag and a space blanket along with tea lights and extra clothes.

Friday afternoon until midnight I am working. If the roads and the snow and drifting are bad at midnight, I'll pull all the sleeping blanket and take a nap until the roads are clear.

No use risking my neck to drive 30 miles of twisted roads that go in and out of steep valleys and windblown ridge tops to get home until it is safe to do so.