Kite

This has been the most interesting winter. February has been up and down and all around with no pattern to the weather but

CRAZY. Last year at this time we were digging out of a huge snow/ice storm.....

This week we even had red flag warnings because it is so dry and there is so much dead plant material around.

Yesterday the neighbor came down with her two little ones. Her little boy wanted to fly a kit, but he didn't want to go into the field on the ridge to fly it.

I helped put a little kite together and I helped him launch it. He then turned it over to me because the wind picked up. Funny.
I haven't flown a kite since I was a kid and it was actually pretty thrilling to do!

This was about time that the cold front was sweeping in.

Wednesday dawns with temperatures in the single digits and wind chills reading something like 9F below.

Tomorrow on Leap Year Day, it will warm up into the 50's again. One wonders how that affects wildlife and plant life?

Looks like a good day to work on some Still Life indoors and practice some photography skills. After working in 70 degree temps yesterday, it will feel pretty cold out today.

What about those mules?

So many folks want to know how my mules fair in weather like this. These animals have lived since birth on the farm and have always lived outdoors. If you understand the way my land lays, you will know that we have nooks and crannies where the winds don't blow. The mules have figured that out long ago and they are free to go seek shelter or stand in the winds.

With that said, here are the girls digging and browsing in the summer pasture after the first snowfall. 

I thought it would be nice for them to have something to do rather than stand around and look bored in the winter pasture. So I opened the gates to one of the summer pastures.

Their heated water is down by the house along with their hay feeders.

Feeding in the winter pasture [this is in front of the house]:

When they are done there, they head to the woods to browse on items they don't eat in the summer. Apparently multiflora rose leaves are tasty in the winter as well as other dried out weeds.

They are bit more exposed to the weather in this area as it is nearly on the ridge. But it is their choice. The browse, they constantly move and graze just like their wild ancestors.

This is a shot from this past summer in the are where they can browse right now. 

And...

when they feel like moving, they move into the woods and stand together in their own little herd.

At 8AM and at 4PM they show up in the paddock at the front of the house and stare at the house until I appear with loads of hay.

I check them more than once a day in cold weather. I stick my hand under their snow-covered coats to feel their body heat. And it is there!

Well, time to get going. So many adventures from yesterday and more for this weekend. I just got texts from my new neighbor asking if I knew of anyone that could help get his truck out of the ditch up on the ridge.

I gave him names of those who could probably help him and one is a neighbor farmer who is also runs a township plow.

Last night all plows were pulled off the roads due to poor visibility and dangerous conditions.

It looks like we will see the sunlight today for a bit while Mother Nature does her thing to remind us about what winter is like.

So far...so good?

It was kind of a strange night... the winds picked up as it got dark out. There wasn't supposed to be lightening, but my cell phone lit up again and again with new warnings.
Lightening strike 1 mile from your location. 

Tornado watch until 11 PM. [Tornadoes actually happened, but not where I am]
High Winds Warning
Severe Thunderstorm Warning

I think my Weather Bug app just kept them coming. 7 notifications at one time.

I didn't really need my cell phone to tell me that something was going on. I only had to listen and look out the porch window. I could hear the howling of the wind above us and gusts of wind hitting the house.

I listened carefully. There are two tree west of our house that need to be taken down. Had the winds hit in July while they were full of leaves it would have been a different story. I'm positive the trees would have come down or portions of them would have hit the house.

At 5AM, it was 55 degrees here. Within two hours it has dropped to 30 degrees and the winds are still gusting to 45 mph. I think this is called a Flash Freeze. But at least we didn't have rain to go with it.

Finally it is just beginning to get light. I can see the mules and they are standing quietly in the shelter of the hillside. So far so good. I can see a bucket that somehow got blown up the hill to the north. Branches from the pines are scattered in random patterns across different sections of the yard. Some are scattered to the south east in complete opposition to the direction of the wind gusts.

There is a downspout that is not where it is supposed to be and a piece of sheet metal that moved from the junk pile to the outdoor hydrant. 

The mules will have to wait for their breakfast until the winds die down a bit or their hay will be blown away.

I wonder how many folks lost outdoor Christmas Decorations, you know, like those blow up Santas?

Snow Day, Snow Play

Justine came down with his tractor and cleared the driveway and the little turn around. He said his wife and kids were going skiing.
I thanked him and ran inside to change my clothes and grab my dad's old skies.

I did a very quick change and re-dressed from doing chores into a face hoody thingy, goggles, knit gloves, and snow pants!

I got up to the ridge and put on my father's old skies and took off across the crop field. I caught up to Lauren and the kids out in the wide open.
By the way, Dad's skies were awesome. I literally felt like I was flying. I guess I can't help but smile knowing that I am using his skies. Feels like he is with me in a way.

I suggested we go up towards the woods where we could get out of the wicked winds that had Sno-nadoes whipping up all around us.
Lauren agreed and then stopped for a moment.

"I have an Up-day Gift for you!" she said reaching down inside of her coat.
I smiled at that. Up-Day was giving someone a gift for reason other than making them feel 'Up'.
She handed me a package of extra long socks that had little wiener dogs on them! The package had three sets of socks. The socks will go up to my knees and are thin enough to wear under a pair of my wooly socks.

We played for a while and then headed back to our places.

I can say that my neighbor's kids are no strangers to outdoor activities. They take cross country ski lessons in the winter and do indoor soccer.

I did some indoor crafts yesterday. I experimented with polymer clay. I've never worked with the stuff before, but decided to have some fun. I watched some tutorials on making a fairy house and little mini mushrooms and thought I'd try it with the air dry stuff before actually making the home made material I'd seen being used in the videos.

These can be painted after they dry.
I tried making a fairy house which used things I had around the house.

Don't laugh:
Peanut butter jar
Foil
craft sticks

So. Overnight the tiny 'mushrooms' I made have dried out nicely. The lady in the video I watched had said that air dry clay would crack as it dried if used on the project she was doing.

Um. Yep, she was right. This morning I have a cracked up gnome looking house.

I don't see it as a failure as I can let it dry and then fill in the cracks....or I can leave the cracks and paint it so it looks cracked and gnarly!

The materials for making a air dry paper mache clay with household items is pretty neat. It involves toilet paper, oil, glue, and patching plaster. Who knew?
I can see making that and trying it on one of these wicked awful cold and blustery days.

Then again.  I would probably have to take a walk to the creek to see what has frozen over also.

Oh. One last thing. I was feeling so crafty the other day I bought some felt pieces. When we were kids we made clothes for our trolls out of felt.

I made LIL Bear a jacket, hat, and scarf. After all, LIL Bear needs to be protected in this cold weather too!

One must bundle up properly while walking your dog!

The Magic of Winter

I sometimes go on and on about how wonderful winter is and how much fun it can be.

Huh.
Well, it was fun this weekend in a wicked odd sort of way.

Saturday it was snowy and drizzly and warm, so my Kenosha friends and I went hiking. Ugh. Amanda and I broke trail with snow shoes. It was deep soft smushy snow, hard to walk in. Charlie jumped from one track to the next all the way down to the creek.

There the walking was easier as we could walk in the water or on the rocks.
We all took a break mid valley. It started to rain lightly and busting through the soft snow that was knee deep was tiring.
Amanda was cuddling Charlie while the girls discussed making a snowman.

And....

The snowman was completed!

We thought we'd try cross country skiing after dark, but the rains came hard and driven. With the deep snow we already had, it was not a good thing. The weather forecast said the heavy rain would change to snow and the winds would become wicked.

The forecasters were right. The rain did turn to snow and the winds came.

So after chores, we went out to see how the driveway looked and how the ridge looked.

Justin came down and did a bit of plowing over the slush in the lower driveway. All that rain combined with draining off the hills collected as slush and water in the lower part of our driveway. It would later freeze into a horrible mess of ruts and footprints. 
Such is winter.

The ridge view was incredible. In this shot you can see the trees are iced and frosted with snow. We didn't get much snow but what snow there was was being blown by the high winds. There is a spot where slushy water was across the road from the night's rains.

The kids had to go check out the road. They were amused at the fact that there was no traffic.

I took photos of the beautiful ice.

We discussed the sanity of my friends driving back home. They said they wanted to do some cross country skiing and then they would make the decision.

Amanda and I stayed out of the winds and watched this scene unfold...

I must say it looks like they are explorers forging their way in no man's land!
The town plow had been through and had busted up the drifts, but with those winds, the drifts came back rapidly.

Lauren and her oldest son joined us.
And the adventure was on...

We stuck close to the woods where the winds were blocked.

But even close to the woods we had snow tornadoes...

Then Lauren and the kids took off down the long slope to the Tree Tunnel.
I didn't.
I watched.
I knew how hard that trip would be coming back up the hill and against the winds....

I tried to point out the humans...

Our guests are gone.
The winds died down.

And this morning I saw this as I was making coffee.

Winter.
I love it.
I hate it.

It sure can be magical.

Last thought added....after chores.
Wicked. Driveway drifted. Subaru iced in its parking spot. Roof vent is covered buried which has never happened before.
Can't get to it.
Can't get out.
Sigh.

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.

2 Days of Winds

Since I felt human again and could smell and taste again for the first time in over a week, I thought I'd take a few minutes and try and hide from the wind after I watered the stock tanks.

The cattle were sleeping comfortably on their fodder pile.
It seemed as if Houdini was trying to get WhoDunnit up from his nap.

Rich was taking his afternoon nap which I can usually count on like clockwork. Feed him a nice lunch and it is nap time. I could count on at least 2 hours of quiet time.

The skies were amazing so I thought I'd better see what I could accomplish.

I used my little point and shoot camera to sweep the Merry Meadow while I was waiting for the tank to fill. The clouds were racing across the sky and the winds were howling.

It looked like it could be an amazing afternoon.

So I found a spot out of the wind to sit on a log.

The north facing hillside has finally let go of all of the snow. The meadow grasses are green and because of the hard rains and the winds the ground is fairly stable and not the usual mush that we find this time of year.

The view to the east was pretty amazing also. The sky was rapidly changing.

These shots were taken within just a few minutes of each other. To the south were blue skies, to the east were these ragged clouds.

To the south east the blue was quickly disappearing.

After the snow/rain/wind squall came through, I went back out to do chores. There was Bart standing against a backdrop of blue skies and white clouds to the north west.

Bart seemed rather unconcerned about the strange weather. He stood quietly until I brought his hay to him.

I thought we'd have a magnificent sunset with all the wild weather coming in and the rapid conditions changing so I kept my camera ready.

Just before sunset, dark clouds swept in once again and we got sleet/hail/rain/snow mix with heavy gusts of winds.

And this morning I woke to clear skies, cold temperatures and wind gusts up to 50 mph. Looks like this roaring is going to continue today.