Our Pack

What -10 F looks like mid morning after the girls have had their breakfast. They take turns taking naps sheltered from the wind and in the full glory of the sun.

Not great shots since I shot them through the doorway...but 15 [her name] is doing the dragon breath thing. Of course the two red headed sisters snooze together. One mule always stands guard and alert while the rest sleep.

They are not cold. They have extremely thick and heavy winter coats which are a total pain starting in March through June with all the shedding they do.  But when one sticks their hands into their fur, they find the skin underneath warm and toasty.

Heated water [pricey, but worth it] lots of hay, and places to get out of the winds are how these girls rock. 

Charlie has taken this weather well also. His out door visits are quick unless we are doing chores, then he is on the hunt for voles or mice. When he needs to warm up, he sits on his rug on the porch in the sun and observes until it is time to go in. If one is curious, he has a thick hound dog/Pekinese coat. It is hard to describe. It is thick and water repellent which I imagine keeps him pretty warm. 

If he wears a coat in any sort of snow over 3 inches, he scoops the snow right through the neck of the coat and ends up filling his jacket with icy snow. 

He does love winter as much as I do. He believes he is a snow plow...

However, with the negative temps, he does spend less time outdoors. Why not? We all do!

I did spend a good part of the morning on the phone yesterday making arrangements for different pieces of business I still need to get done. 

I also began to feel better, I coughed a lot in the morning [masked] but by afternoon I no longer had a cough. I wasn't tired anymore and I was more fidgety than anything else. Fidgety must mean better, right?

As I said I would yesterday, I put seed in the feeder and watched some birds and read some poetry.

Then I got a message through Messenger. "Hey, have you got time to meet me at the Co-op for a cup of coffee or soup tomorrow?"
Indeed I did as I had to go to town on Wednesday to return library books or they'd be overdue. And I had to sign paperwork for my change in Property/Auto/Farm insurance.

I said "How about 10?"

I wore my mask for my errands and into the Co-op. I sat down in the common area and sipped some delicious coffee. In the door came two of the ladies I work out with in our Legends Class. These two gals and I are about the same age and have taken to each other. We don't exactly fit with the younger gym crowd [though we are always welcome], but we have hit on something special in our more Mature Class.

We had coffee and talked about stuff. Not important stuff. Just Stuff Stuff. Grandkids, barns, farms, gardening, food, food I cannot make, our fun at the gym, and ... "let's do this again". The place is convenient for a quick meet up after the gym class and a cup of soup or coffee.

Not to knock the younger gals we workout with, but sometimes they are all about how much they lift, what competition they want to do, what tights to buy, or...what are the coolest shoes.

We Legends are about Stuff. You know. Stuff that is just good to know. Life Stuff. Because dang it, we've been living life a damned long time.

Everyone needs a 'Wolf Pack' [my words]. I think I may have found mine. So this week may have been quite awful in a few ways, but it is working out to be something quite wonderful. 

Sometimes things just happen, don't they?

A little bit of snow...

Before our light snow+++

A look at the old trail that heads down towards our creek and valley. Dusty and brown.

Out on the edge of a field, I found a lone milkweed pod that still had some seeds on it. This plant was about 3 feet from the forest and probably protected from the winter winds.
 

We got snow. Not much. Not even enough to have the town plows hit the gravel roads. But still, it is moisture and hopefully it will eventually melt into the ground.

A little bit of snow does change the looks of things and these barberries stood out with their bright red berries in the forest. I stayed as much as possible in the forest because getting out where the wind was blowing was very cold.

This next shot is probably only interesting to me. It is of an old oak stump cut down when this area was logged 28 years ago. Probably not interesting to others though. It's texture with snow on it created something interesting to my eye. Too bad we couldn't see it in 3D.

It snowed a bit on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening so I went out this morning to the summer pasture to get to some shots of the sparkly snow and some shadows. We only received perhaps an inch and a half in total, but it was a nice change from the browns of the day before.

The trail at the top of the hill was much prettier. Plus there were no tracks yet from the critters other than a lone coyote.

The summer pasture did have some pretty spots. I tried so hard to get the snow 'diamonds'. Dad used to call the snow sparkles 'diamonds'. They were there, but so tiny!

The sun was SO bright it hurt my eyes! I had to squint. The temperature was 3 F [-16C]. The sun was shining and I was out of the wind so I did feel just fine.

I think the hardest thing to do with such bright white snow is try to get the exposure spot on. But this was just a little wander around the summer pasture and how it looked with a little bit of fresh snow on it.

In places where the wind had blown, the grasses showed through the snow quiet well.

The shadows of the plants and the textures of the snow were so fascinating.

Of course, Mini Me and Charlie had to check it out too.

According to NOAA [which I hope is not de-funded], we are to get up to 5 inches of snow Friday afternoon and night!

Temperatures will be super frigid come Sunday night.

...oh... parting shot through a window with a screen on it...

The Redheaded Sisters snoozing this morning with their snow blankets on.

Plans for Valentine's Day? None here. Every day is full of ❤️ in our house.

I have only this...

I got out yesterday. It was still below that zero point when I took a walk up through the woods to go get yesterday's mail. Charlie did go with me as did Bear.

It has been a while since Bear and I went on adventures together. Silly me. When there is no one to hike with, I can always take Bear.

He never complains...

Even if he gets stuck trying to get over a log. 

I had to give him a hand of course and we went on our Merry Way.

In the afternoon we decided to go for a hike along the creek to see what was happening since the Big Chill from last week.

We didn't find many tracks other than a few deer tracks and quite a few rabbit tracks.

I left Charlie home as we were going deep into the forest and this is the beginning of coyote mating season. Mostly the coyotes will leave us alone or run off. But over 30 years of hiking these woods, I did have two instances where the 'yotes followed me and a dog during the day time.

Bear and I stopped for an updated photo of one of my favorite spots on the creek. The trees that lay across this section are now on the creek bottom. The creek no longer flows where I am squatted. It has moved to my left.

Much of the creek had ice on it and in some of the places where there are springs, it was open.

This section had slow moving water from a spring inching its way across the ice. It flows up and over the ice and then freezes.

Layers of ice build over each other.

This 20 second video shows how the water creeps over the ice.... 
I sat in the snow next to the creek and was amazed by how quietly the water just seeped onto the ice.

Overnight, it will have created a new layer of ice and will rearrange the pattern of the snow on the creek.

The ice wall got a face uplift and the colors of the ice seem to glow yellow in all that bright snow!

I spotted this little beauty in among other winter flora. I think it is the tiny hulls of the Fleabane flower.

The next few days will be beautiful with temps still below freezing, but above frigid. I hope to get out and enjoy them....

I have only this left to say....

I do not wish to be ruled by fear. 
I wish for compassion and freedom from fear.
Is that too much to ask for?

A good day for attempts and failures...

First off, we are pretty cold right now. I mean the weather is always a great subject right? I can't recall any conversation lately that didn't start without the comment, "How 'bout this weather?"

Last Friday it was 42 F  and by Monday...the air temperature is -8 here and the wind chill is -25 F. Why not? It is weather after all. Tonight, we will get to -12 or so. Well, there we go. I've seen -20 F a few times, so I know what to expect. 

I am SO grateful that when we remodeled, we were able to reinsulate and upgrade the windows and heat.

There was a time in our little cottage when our doors were covered with frost on the inside and the windows all had plastic over them. Our hydrant outside that we had for watering our stock froze up. Running a hose from the bathroom wasn't an option. But I did carry lots of water that time.

The weather service has put out an 'Upcoming Extreme Cold Warning'. 

Today is Martin Luther King's Birthday and it is a Federal Holiday. I'm going to celebrate it and not the other thing. I may even watch the Puppy and Kittens! Being featured during that thing.

Or I may just shut everything down and work on something creative to keep my mind occupied since I can't go for a hike.

Yesterday I had the bright idea of building trees out of pipe cleaners for a spooky scene with my minifigures or something else. Being quiet in a small cottage requires me to do quiet things. I built some cool 'trees' and utterly failed at doing a good job of photographing a 'scene'.

Below is just after I 'failed' at getting what I wanted...

Failed again! It looks like she is getting attacked by octopi??

Some toy photographers draw out a scene and plan and plan...on how they are going to execute it. I don't. 

I wing it. Seriously.
I never quite know what I am doing until I arrive at something that makes me happy.

I fail a lot with the light with the scene, and with the ideas.

Then I tried this version and it looked awesome in the camera...

The processing afterwards was horrible. Dark, awful, full of all sorts of artifacts. 

So last night I thought I'd just delete it all and start again.

However...

This morning I decided to try something different. I dropped the file into ON1 and hit the button that I never use. The program then 'reads' the photo and adjusts it. Most of the time the AI adjustment sucks.

Then I scratched my head and added something called LUTS.

And I liked it.

The final:

Now this was what I was going for and by golly I'm going to keep it. Even the goofy Tree Monster turned out okay. Maybe it still looks like the minifig is getting attacked by an Octopus, but if one uses their imagination and it looks a little scary, I did my job.

In other news. 

I'm not going to get into the politics of things. But I will be following the news with the sound off so I can read it. During today's events I will be mostly offline and creating things indoors.

The mules are doing fine since they can get out of the breezes. Yesterday they took naps in an area close to the house. They looked like sleeping dragons.

They have heated water and plenty of hay and very fluffy insulating winter coats.

Little Richard is doing well also. He napped next to the shed yesterday the sun reflects its heat off the wooden siding and he was protected from the wind. 

It looks like another quiet day spent mostly indoors thinking of creative things to do.

Stay warm.

Domestic Goddess

Brrrrr. Brrrr.
Brrr.

It was cold cold and beyond frigid. 

Let's just say we hit another cold spell. Out came the heavy coveralls, balaclava and goggles ---> I nearly typed 'googles'.

That is how I dress for morning chores. It makes things easy when you step into coveralls and just zip up. I also have snow bibs for ultra cold days like this. My normal clothing for below zero zero often includes my fox hat.

This shot is from the Polar Vortex in 2022. The chill factor was -39 F. But I still had to go out and take care of our animals. I had on coveralls AND a vest and an insulated flannel to combat the wind chill. 

It wasn't that bad today though. With the NW breezes at 14 mph, I was able to feed the critters in a sunny breezeless pocket in the woods. 

The fur hat with fur earflaps are the style for cold weather. The goggles keep my eyes from tearing up  and feeling dry. I have over the glasses snowmobile goggles on. They work! 

I have a wonderful warm pair of homemade mittens that my Grandmother made years ago. A cousin of mine sent me all of the mittens she found when she cleaned out my Aunt's house. No one else wanted the mittens. I scooped them up. I have a supply of warm homemade mittens to last the rest of my life.

To answer the questions in the back of your minds...NO. I did not go out to hike and challenge the subzero windchills. In fact, I did chores and then laundry, then sorted medications for hubby cleaned house, .....and did all those fun and mundane indoor tasks that one has to do.

I finished up 'cuddle blankets' for the neighbor boys. Little soft colorful finger loop 'knitted' blankets for Olive's littles. The theory is that they can carry these with them and not drag them on the floor? I don't know...it is worth a try.

It looks messy. I haven't finished the second one. I plan on putting 3 rows of wild colors at the top of this second one so the boys can figure out which tiny blanket belongs to who.

Olive said her boys like to put their faces into very soft material. Maybe they will like it? Maybe they won't. It was just a fun idea I thought I'd try. Plus, I get to practice my 'finger looping'.

I even made a huge pot of homemade soup. 

I was a Domestic Goddess for a day.

Hi Ho Winter! I love you!

 Finally!

After so many days of being stuck indoors. I grabbed Charlie and we went on an adventure of sorts.

We went wilding. Not a savage thing, an untamed sort of hike. Through the brush, brambles, burrs, prickly ash, and multiflora rose. Charlie is 7 inches tall so he has it easy, he can walk under most of the brush. I have to bust through it.

Years ago, Mike was the owner of the land. His cattle kept the forest clean and made nice trails. Since his death in 2005, his brothers have abandoned the land except for the deer hunting season. They lease out the farm land and lease out sections of the forest for a few trophy hunters to bow hunt deer and hunt turkeys.

The land has regrown in many places to invasive underbrush. I still get around on deer trails and always wear heavy coveralls to get through some of the rough stuff. 

Its getting harder to get to the special places I do like. Oddly enough, I don't even think Mike's brothers know of these cool spots. I like my secrets. I've walked and ridden this land for 30 years. I know the trees, the creek's secrets, and cool rock formations.

Charlie and I did get to our favorite spot in the creek though.

I had quite the surprise. I was following coyote tracks along the creek bottom and found this.... ----->

I swear that it looks like a coyote slipped and 'biffed' it. Doesn't it look like the back legs spread eagle as its chest hit the ice and it scrambled back to its feet?

It is very possible that this did not happen at all. But I'd like to imagine that it did.

Charlie sniffed the tracks and then walked to the edge of the ice. He knows better than to go off the edge. The water in that spot is over his head.

Another surprise met us at this spot in the creek.

An Ice Fall.

Closer..

The color in the ice is from the reddish sandstone in this area and the dirt. The moisture seeps out over the rock wall [which is warmer from being underground]. It hits the frigid air and makes these beautiful ice formations.

Another shot of a different section.

I can't help it, but this absolutely fascinates me. I run my hand over the ice ripples and marvel at nature's art.

I mean who doesn't love this? I love this. I can't wait for cold weather to see this phenomenon.

The creek is the main lifeblood of this forest and it is evident by all the animal tracks that can be found there.

In this section we found a nice set of coyote tracks.

If anyone is worried about Charlie. Don't fear! He sticks to me like glue when he smells these guys.  

If all goes according to plan, I plan to look for some more ice falls in another place soon. If the temps stay below freezing ice falls will develop. I sure hope they will!

Oh winter, how I love you!

How Lego Minifigs Saved Christmas

There sure was a deep freeze going on after the Big Snow. Santa's big red truck had gotten stuck and of course so many helpers showed up to get him going again.

Then Mz. Clause came along and helped everyone celebrate just outside the Christmas Village.

After the party, Santa and a couple of his elves decided to go for a walk. They ignored Mz. Clause's warning about the cold cold weather and told them to behave and stay home.

Of course they never listened and they went out. And they got a bit cold!

Thank goodness there was Bobba Fett and some elves that came to the rescue.

Even the Mandolorian came to help with his lazer gun.

Happily, Santa and his helpers were rescued from the ice.

Mz. Clause came by with her newly rigged up - super powered- sleigh.

She had convinced a Thestral to assist her flying reindeer.

Santa had a better idea. You do know that Santa was originally from Iowa and had a huge farm right???

I mean, who doesn't know that?

His solution?

Well. He paraded his new John Deere all Wheel Drive Flying Tractor and Spreader through the Village with Mz. Clause in the back.

And....

...that is how Lego folks saved Christmas.

Don't believe any other stories you've heard.

I know this one is true, I photographed it.

The allure of the open ridge...

 

Here is the view from our neighbor's woods. We share a driveway with them. 
The next nearest neighbors we have are much further up on the ridge.

Our 'hollow' generally protects us from the most cold north winds. The mules often enjoy laying in the snow and soaking up the sun. At night they move into the woods and hide from the cold drafts.

This morning we are sitting at something like -10. 

Charlie and I went for a walk yesterday after chores to get the mail. Mr. Short Stuff and I went through the woods to avoid the wind.

When we got to the road, Charlie sat down and waited while I did some photography.

One should not waste a trip to the mailbox by leaving a camera at home. Something might be interesting and ... something may not be!

Charlie hardly ever passes up and opportunity to pile into the snow and hunt for the ever elusive vole.

The sun was bright and the cropland just begged to be explored.

But first, I needed to take the mail home and drop Charlie off. I needed snowshoes and some different gear.

I wanted to try some 'stark' winter photos. Artsy Fartsy stuff. 

The deer tracks that lead off into no-where gave me an idea....

Stay tuned....