I like hats. Hats.

If I could have been and Indian Brave, I would have been. They had cool hats.

 I've always been a Hat person. I love hats. 

Many times my parents would let me dress in whatever I wanted to go out and play.

I think my mom took away that red furry thing on my head eventually. She thought it was nasty. I thought it fit me perfectly. I was more of a Wild Thing than a child.

I loved that nasty scrap of fur on my head. It disappeared.

Sometimes people gave me hats and I'd wear them a bit, but I always liked picking my own.

My Skunk Hat is my most prized hat. Rich bought it for me for Christmas.

And I have my fall/spring hat.

Or my Fox Hat with a Tail. I love having a tail on a hat. This hat is for subzero weather.

My chores hat.

I've nearly worn this one out. When I hold it up to the light I can almost see through it.

If you are wondering why I don't wear stocking caps ... I just don't like them.

I went to replace this hat and darn it.

I could only get this style in white. Not my choice, but it is warm.

A fall/spring hat that is just fun. It keeps the hair from getting in my face. My go to town hat. I can pretend to be fancy.

And then my super warm Mongolian [not real fur] hat. I wore this instead of the Fox hat while hiking the Reserve. Rich always points out that hunters might see the fur as something to shoot at. 

I wore this in very cold weather with some wicked wind chills.

This week this is my favorite hat.

For summer? I have a collection of Baseball caps. My favorite one used to be a black plain hat that has faded to some ugly brown now.

Look at it this way. I don't have to worry about bad hair days. I can have them all of the time and cover it up.

I like hats.

Guess I will always be that way...

Dislike this Ice Winter, But...

I have yet to spread our dwindeling supply of sand/rock/salt mix on this trail that I use 3 times a day to feed, water, and take care of our hounds.

I've taken to tying my Yak Traks onto my boots with laces. I could wear my snow shoes with their giant teeth that will grip and dig into the ice, but the Yaks are slightly less cumbersome.

In 3 weeks we've had 3 ice storms. There is another one scheduled for Monday some time. Well, okay the weather is snow/sleet/rain mix.
Since I have our Subaru now parked on the ridge, it will stay there.

I've used hay chaff and dirt from the shed floor on some of our worst walking paths. I've even taken it by the sledfull to the large heated stock tank so the critters could get some grip on the ice.

Amazing how the equine are dealing with it. The mules lead the way and the horses follow carefully. No one has slipped.

Under the ice crusted snow is about 3 inches of ice. Our lane for the skid steer is almost totally useless.

It is so nearly iced up that even with ice picks, the skid steer nearly has an impossible time negotiating the path.
Going up this hill is impossible.

We've decided to use another route for moving round bales for the cattle. That worked okay, but is now fast becoming nearly impossible also.
The ... ahem old skid steer with double the ice piks may have done better, but at this point? I'm not sure.

The Dexter cattle also have adjusted quite well. They have trails that they use and mostly hang out near the feeder.

However, this ice and melt and rain and ice and more melt, then freezing has created some incredible beauty in the creek area.

I finally had a little time to get down and explore. I didn't go far as chores would beckon me back home within an hour.

Many parts of the creek were frozen over completely and in other sections where springs came up kept it flowing.

Water...
Ice...
With water flowing beneath it...

I could have wandered about all day.

And here is the Ice Wall. I would love to get over to the Ice Cave.

However, I can be happy just messing around not too far from home.