Adventures in the Snow ~ Or White Knuckle Drive

When I left work this morning, it was just raining in the Mississippi Valley.
I could see the wind blowing snow on the bluffs above me as I turned East to head up the Genoa Hill and begin my long
and
winding
way
homeward.

At the top of the hill was a red car in the ditch...it looked like someone had stopped on a side road and had gone over to help push.

I then realized as I slowly drove down the east side of the steep and twisted hill that things on the ridge were bad.
Very very bad.
I even wondered if I'd get out of Romance Valley.
For on the other side of the valley was a steep hill the locals call 'Harder Hill' [maybe because it is so hard to get up when the roads are bad?...surely not!].

Steep - long - but not as twisted as the Genoa Hill.

And so my grip tightened on the wheel and I 'felt' for how the old '95 Cavalier was responding to the icy slush slippery snow on the road.

Wondering if I should have been more insistent on snow tires last week when it was 60 degrees and sunny.

The valley was nice, even the road was mostly clear.

I approached the bottom of Harder Hill and hit it. I needed to get the speed up while the road way still was clear.

Part way up the hill, it turned to a slick dangerous road.

I could feel the front end slip a bit, eased off the gas..
it took a bite and we slowly lost speed and climbed the hill.

I was using all of my years of experience in snow driving and was grateful that I was not a fresh driver. I felt it slip.
I made adjustments.

By the time we [the Cavalier and I...for we were a team, that is how I feel about winter driving ~ strange I suppose!] made the top of the ridge...
my legs were shaking from the rush of adrenaline.

The rest of the drive was still pretty awful. Especially when a beauty of a buck with a huge rack came charging across the road in front of a vehicle ahead of me.

White outs made parts of the road impossible to find. The wet heavy snow was actually trying to drift in the open areas.
Ice-slush clumped up on my wipers...

I made a mad dash up the gravel road hill after sliding 'down' to the curve.
When I parked and stepped out of the Cavalier, I gently touched its hood and patted it, saying a mental 'thank you'.

Then I turned and admired the beauty that had made my drive such hell.
Well, it was quite stunning.
Two days ago we had been enjoying a beautiful autumn day...
and now...
Welcome to Wisconsin Winter!

Mule Ride to a 'Secret' Place

Well.

I wish I could keep this place secret.
I can say that it is located in the county I live in.

I can say ~~ that it is beautiful?
Hilly?
Demanding trails?
Gorgeous?
Wonderful?
Cool.
Awesome.

For this trip I brought my Garmin and my camera. I wanted to see what the pace of the mules we were riding had on this hilly terrain.

Gathering the data was pretty fun.
Here are the stats:

We traveled 6.9 miles.

Elapsed Time: 3 hrs 23 minutes

Elevation Changes:
Elevation Gain~ 1589 ft
Elevation Loss~ 1582 ft
Maximum Slope~ 40.7% +
Maximum Downhill slope~ 35.1% -
Average Slope for ride~ 8.1%-7.7%

There was a breakdown in average mph for the mules. This wasn't quite important as the overall terrain 'toughness'. On the flats at a walk, they averaged 4 mph.

I'm not sure how to factor in the time spent visiting with other riders or just plain stopping to admire the scenery and to take photos.

The average speed overall was 2 mph. It means almost nothing unless you look at the elevation changes and the slopes the mules had to negotiate.

Indeed this was fun.
I was able to combine some statistics with a wonderful November ride.
We crossed the Bad Axe River more than once.

Siera was nearly perfect ... and at the end of the ride she was very subdued.
She even stood quietly while we were at the overlook!
My husband and I sat down in the truck after loading the mules and looked at each other.

*That was the best ride ever.* I said.
He nodded.
*It was. We'll have to do this again.*

We drove home with smiles on our faces.

Combining Incendia and Apophysis 7X

Twisted:


Sometimes you just have to do some exploration. I've seen some fantastic fractals and 3D fractals come out of both Incendia and Apophysis 7X.

Not quite satisfied with just one program's results or the other, I have decided to see what can happen when you combine an Apophysis 7X flame and a creation by Incendia.
I combined both 'works' in Photoshop for Pipe Dreams and used some help from Flaming Pears Plug-In called 'Flood'.
For Twisted, I used layers to 'twist' and manipulate the original form I'd made in Incendia. I used the Mehdi Plug-In called 'Mirror'.

Pipe Dreams:

The results were quite fun.

I think these two creations are by far my new favorites and shall be for a while.
It will take some real creativity on my part to do something to 'top' these two.

Although, that is part of the great challenge isn't it?

The End of the Laundry Blues

It should be said that the dryer is now fixed.
The belt is on it, and lo and behold...
the thing actually works!

Hubby and I turned the thing on and stood in quiet reverence for this magical mechanical thing that now worked again.

Yet I'm still hanging the laundry out.
I wonder why.

Well, all of the laundry that is, except for the underwear and socks.
You never know WHO might drop by and see all those panties and socks hanging in a row on the clothes line.

Although my reasoning for not worrying about it for the past 11 months has been probably attributed to the fact that we live on the end of a dead end road...

down a steep driveway that doesn't look safe for vehicles to travel...

Except for the socks and underwear thing [it dries my uniforms nicely...though], I really can't say that I missed it.

Perhaps it will come in handy on those days it seems to rain without end, or those mornings that it is -20 outside.
Yes, perhaps then again I can appreciate that miraculous thing we call a clothes dryer.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy the fresh scent of laundry hung out on the line.

Oh to ride the the sobreandando!

Do you want to ride smoothly?
Do you want to ride fast AND smoothly?

The Purvian Paso has two gaits.

*The paso llano is a broken gait. It consist of a permanent, harmonic, and rhythmic tapping in which the animal makes a gentle and pleasant alternating movement. It is a quick advance in which the center of the horse's gravity stays almost immobile, producing a smooth ride.*

*The second gait, the sobreandando, is faster. Instead of four equal beats, the lateral beats are closer together in a 1-2, 3-4 rhythm, with the pause between the forefoot of one side to the rear of the other side is longer.*

From the site: Peruvian Horses at Fox Creek Homestead




Combine these gaits with a mule who is intelligent and you have something quite special.

This sounds stupid, and to those who don't really 'get' an equine it will make absolutely NO sense.
I looked into Siera's eyes before we rode.
I saw something there, like a window into my own soul.
...and it was free.

While we rode, Siera sought re-assurance from me when we got 'into a scary' place. Where the creek ran hard over the rocks and the footing was soft.
I asked her to step over a downfall which was hidden in the grass.

She did.
She sighed.
She stood quietly.
My hand brushed her neck, my fingers played across her withers.
She was content.

We moved on and explored many of the trails that Badger and I have done over the years.
I had to recall, that these were new to Siera.

We had a great ride.
Her eyes and body language told me this was so.

Riding Siera with a Garmin GPS

The day looked promising for getting in a ride. It was a tad bit windy, but I decided to throw caution 'to the wind' and saddle up Siera.

I'd just bought a Garmin eTrex GPS handheld unit. Did I need one? Not really.
Why?

Well because I am able to figure out how to operate the Trip~MPH~Distance menu.

And I wanted to see just how fast Siera walks out even in the rough woods of PeeWee's.

Oh.
Was I ever surprised.
Siera is a gaited Peruvian Paso Mule. She can walk extremely fast ... and she loves it. She has a very hard time backing off.
More than once I did make her stop, just so I could get a photo of her.

Not easy on a mule that averages 7 mph in the rough.
That my friends, is FAST.

We exited the woods, after doing my normal 'work out' route for Badger when he was being kept in shape for Limited Distance rides. She seemed to cover the route in a blink of the eye.

We headed out the road and gaited our merry way to the black top and back home.

Our average speed which included 15 minutes of being stopped [visiting with neighbors and taking photos].
Was 9 miles per hour.

We covered nearly 10 miles in an hour and a half. My count isn't truly accurate though because I'd forgotten to delete the previous 'trip'.

When I got home ... hubby came out and we tried Siera's new-old Stonewall saddle on her. Hubby has totally refurbished this.


It fits like a dream and weighs less than 12 pounds.

What a fantastic ride.
Thank you Siera.

Don't Marry a Handyman if...

You ever want anything new.

Today we got the Dryer out of its cubbyhole.

Last time I wrote about the 'Great Laundry Experiment' was in March of this year.

I'd been without a dryer since the beginning of December in 2010.

He looked at it and called to see if he could get a belt to replace the one that had broken.
I meanwhile cleaned floors and washed walls and did laundry, hanging it out to dry with cloudy gray skies.

I was used to guessing the weather and getting laundry dried successfully between the outside line and the inside clothes rack by now.

I was sort of hoping that the old machine was 'un-fixable' which means I could get a new one ...or
get some more storage space in the house.

My husband hung up from the appliance store in town saying that a new belt would be ours in a day or so.

I looked at the torn apart kitchen/dining area.

The dryer was taken apart and looked as if to be the victim of some violent wretched crash.
Its door hung off kilter, the drum was laying on top of one of Morris's hedgehog toys in the living room. The top was leaning up against a door.

In short. It was a mess.

I glanced up at him while scrubbing the floor where the dryer used to sit.
*Not 2 days!* I exclaimed!
*Yup, only 2 days!*

Okay 2 days of walking around pieces of the dryer sitting around the house, most definitely in the way. Most definitely ~~ in my book ~~ an issue.

*Hmmm, we don't need a new one?* I asked pointing to the old machine. I was eager in any way to get it out of my way. This is part of the reason it has taken so long to address the broken belt.

*Nope,* he replied, *it'll be as good as new as soon as the belt goes back on.*

I tossed dirty water out the door into the dooryard. Sometimes my well meaning and wonderful handyman can take 2 days or 2 years to fix an item.
But it does get fixed eventually ...

See Why You Must Eat Ice Cream!

He is awfully good at fixing things. In fact very good. He can keep a lawn mower going long past the time it should go to the junk yard.
However.
We did get a new water heater 3 weeks ago because the old one is not doing very well.

He was going to install it right away.

It is resting comfortably in its box, in the shed. Nestled between the tractor he is going to fix and the old Toyota that needs a Master Cylinder.

In my house, patience is the key.
The handyman can fix it.
But it is on his time, not my time.

...and so it goes.