Stuck indoors

The winds were absolutely wicked and the snow is like concrete in places. I shot these turkeys out through the front door in the wide open summer pasture.

I was bored inside. I wanted to go hiking but Rich said he was feeling a bit off, so I stuck myself to inside the house.

I just purchased a Infrared converted digital camera that is a pocket camera. Look forward to some wildly creative shots after I get it!

Meanwhile I got out my Olympus which is on it's last legs and fitted the IR lens filter I had for it.
Now IR is really meant for warm sunny days, not cold winter days.

But I don't believe in rules...so I started to play.

Infrared shot of the sky out the back door...the green on the pines do reflect white..

Edit to black and white from the Infrared filtered shot.
The pine needs are white as well as the bark which reflects the heat.
Cool huh?

And then I decided to play around with Rich's old torn up gloves and a wrench thingy I found in the shed.

I like the white one better and I used a 'paint effect' on it too. PSP's Painter Essentials 6. A pretty easy program. I let the program paint the photo and then saved it. There can be a bit more to it, but I didn't work super hard on it.

Pink Whisperly Dreams.
I shot this with the infrared filter on too. Just experimenting with colors and different stuff.

Lastly the Nisse that was hand made for me with a mini bottle of wild grapvine curls.

The raw winds continued to blow outside on Monday and it just felt bitter. I kept busy indoors. Vacuum, dust, and balancing the books. I think for sure that balancing the books is the worst job ever.

Yesterday was appointments day. PT at the VA and other appointments which led to more appointments.

Well that is the way it goes sometimes right?
We came home to a slew of messages on the answering machine. One was from
the VA Fiduciary Field Examiner, she wanted to set up a meeting.

Well.
Now let me be clear. I am glad that the VA does protect its veterans that are incapable of handling their finances by their system. There is a potential for abuse. But it is a bit intimidating too.
I don't know anyone who has done this, but I am reading up on it.

I've been keeping spreadsheets on our expenses and handling our accounts for quite a while ... so ... well. I'm nervous.
Time to go do some more reading.

Still Doing CrossFit

I took some time off with the wicked weather and the non stop bad weather.

I considered taking March off and maybe just starting back up in mid-April. When I talked to my oldest son he told me I shouldn't do that. It would be too darned easy just to not sign up again.
We talked a bit and two things happened.

The weather got a bit better and I decided to switch to the 8:30 class. I get my chores done and coffee made for Rich before I leave. Generally he wakes up and goes back to be by the time I leave. He generally is just getting up when I get back so I consider that a really perfect time for me.
[Bonus! This past week he has experienced a slight improvement in his knee and has less pain!]

Today we did something called AMRAP. As many reps as possible in a set time.
I was pretty happy with what I did today. I didn't think about it until I got home and added up what I did in that AMRAP 25 minutes.
I won't bore you...
Oh yes I will.
I had 3 sets of 50 Air Squats, 3 sets of 200 jumps with the jump rope, 3 sets of Dead Lifts with a personal record of 45 lbs. That doesn't include the other items we did as the rest of the program. How did I feel afterwards?

It didn't bother me to haul a 50 lb bag of dog food to the shed. I felt good and refreshed ... well, I did need a shower too!

I'm glad my son said something to me and gave me that bump of encouragement when I really needed it.
The magic number right now seems to be 3. I've been going 3 times a week as long as things are working out.
I hope to catch one day a week this month to go to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

I hiked there last Friday and took a short drive to check out some trail heads and ice formation.


I feel things are on a more even keel right now. And that is good.

If you haven't guessed by now, I am a firm advocate for moving and doing. I met a gent who I work out with now that has an incredible story to tell about what courage and determination has done for him. Let me say that he told me that two years ago when he joined CrossFit, he just gone from a walker to a cane.
He no longer uses a cane and each day I work out with him and others I am reminded what exercise can do for the body and the mind.

Crazy Crazy Me!

Do you remember this cute little guy? My neighbor's offered him to me. I said yes.
And then I had to figure out how to tell Rich who doesn't care that much for goats that we were going to have a goat.

Sven was born on the 16th.

Here he was 4 days later when he met Charlie.

And here he is on the 28th. It was warm enough to take him outside with a harness on.
Sven will be coming home...down the driveway to our place once he has been weaned and the weather turns. [We have another frigid polar thing going on this week!]

Sven has grown in two weeks!

He is a Lamancha, which is the funny looking tiny eared goat. His one job will be to eat weeds along the fence-line and clean up areas of nettles which goats love along with another weeds.

But I thought what could a whethered goat be good for? I've had goats before but really just raised them to milk them. After the kids no longer liked the milk, I sold the ones I had.
That was many years ago.

I like to hike. So for whatever reason, I looked up 'hiking with goats' and found out that full grown goats can be trained to be hiking pals that carry packs! How fun would that be to go on a hike and have Sven carry my water and lunch along with a tripod?

The training is pretty straight forward. Bottle fed goats just like Sven are the best candidates as they form a bond with their human handlers.

Yep. I go and bottle feed Sven whenever I can.

Yesterday we did some 'training'. I wanted to see if he'd come to me without me trying to ask him too.

After a bit of exploring the snow [see the harness? He knows he is going out with me when I bring that out now!]

So I waited.

And...I sat in the snow bank....

And Sven came to me and ...

snuggled? He closed his eyes while I petted him and loved him up.

Here is some reasoning to have a goat carry a pack for you. While hiking you have company and someone to talk to --- yes, Charlie also! Two, if you are hiking and pass another hiker it will cause a conversation.
Goats are easier to work with than a mule or horse and a lot smaller!

Sven won't be able to fully pack any significant weight until he is 3 yrs old. But the experience of trying to train him would be a very fun thing.
After all, I have tons of trails in my woods and surrounding area that he can hike with me.

He is a perfect candidate for this sort of training. He was rejected by mom, and has been bottle fed by humans. He has no idea that he is a goat.

This will be fun!

I have figured out where we will have to put the Sven Pen, now I just need my Kenosha Gang to help me make it work as soon as the weather gets decent!

Stay tuned for more stupid and crazy ideas from the mule/goat/dog lady.

I am an attack dog! by Charlie

So Val thought it was hilarious to put a winter coat on me. Seriously? A coat?
Oh.
And then she added the rest and as you can see, I laid quietly there on the couch and ignored her giggles.
Silly woman.
Silly silly old lady!

We went out to do chores and thankfully she did not try to make me wear the hat or the gloves. Too big.

I supervised the hay sleds and the sweet feed to Mica. I take a nibble just to do a quality assurance test before she gives it to the elderly mule. She says that this spring maybe I can ride with her on Mica.
We shall see, that is a far ways off the ground.

We got to the water pump thingy and she filled up some buckets.

I started to hunt around and pretty soon found a new playmate. It moved very slow and did slimy icky poops and hissed a lot. It wasn't one of Basil's cats it was something big and it had tiny eyes and big white teeth with a bare tail.
So I grabbed the tail and then it pooped and then I let go and then it hissed.

Suddenly Val did a shout and told me NO NO NO!
Oh my dear, I heard the first NO. You don't need to repeat as if I am a dolt with deaf ears!

I looked up at her and then back at my new play mate who had stopped in the yard. It did the poop thing again. It then laid down and was super still.

I sneaked up on it and was going to grab its tail because this was one of the best 'chases' I'd ever had in slow motion. Birds were fast, skunks were fast [yep I got yelled at for that one too], and chipmunks are amazing, squirrels go up trees...but this thing, it was slow and nasty. Much fun-ner.

NO CHARLIE!

Aww come on!

She whisked me into the house and then did something. She told Rich that the possum got away and was probably in the old red shed.

Next morning while we were feeding Dixie, there was my playmate again! It didn't move! Just hunkered into the deep snow and lay still as a ... Val... said still as a possum. And Dixie ignored it. Some hunting dog she is!

Well. My poopy playmate is gone. I don't know where it went but Val went around with a shovel and cleaned the slimy poo off the snow and chucked it somewhere so I won't eat and roll in it.

Instead I went on a walk with Basil and Logan. We walked with our people on the road as the snow was soft on top and very deep.

At least I did not have to wear that embarrassing coat. Basil wears hers because it keeps the sand and slush off her underbelly. Mine wipes clean I guess because I have a different fur coat.

The snow was deep!

We climbed snow mountains with Logan.

And then hurried home before then next snow came.

I hope my slow chase animal comes back. It was too fun and the poop would have been delicious.

Meanwhile, I think I will hold down the couch and dream of big adventures.

Just a bit of wandering...

Yesterday I took a break from watching Rich watch Netflix.

I can't take that much TV and it is loud!
I did CrossFit at 8:30 for two mornings in a row and had set everything up for him. Meds, coffee, and whatnot.

After we had lunch, I was going stir crazy so I grabbed the camera bag and set out for a short walk.

The little sandstone wall where the trout like to hang out in the deep pool....

Just beyond the wall. This tiny fall changes daily. Tomorrow it will be frozen over with water running under the ice....

A slightly different view of what I normally take. The trout spot is just in front of me and the icy wall is what is on the left beyond the log.

The cold was ferocious here and a cold wind skimmed over the waters.

I didn't linger long and hadn't brought snow shoes so I could only follow my trail from the other day.

I'm skipping CrossFit today for a muscle rest and going to try and get out to the Reserve to look at Ice formations on the bluffs along the Kickapoo River.

A change of scenery would be helpful.
I'll come back to this spot in the creek after the next arctic blast and snow and see what has changed.

I think I am going to have to find Rich some more programming. He watches TV so intently now that he rarely moves from his spot.

I feel like I am sitting in limbo. Just waiting for something.

Sven got de-budded yesterday and as soon as the weather breaks and he can come here, he will start his leash training.

Making Peace with Winter

Monday morning I was rather displeased with winter. I had 5 drifts covering the lower section of the driveway. The drifts were like concrete and two of them rather deep.
The temperatures were hovering at 3 degrees, my Subaru was parked where the water flowed before the freeze up. The driveway near the house was one huge mix of ice ruts and I couldn't see the roof vent for the toilet.

I was so frustrated I took my little shovel and walked towards the biggest drift. I heard the town truck go by up on the ridge and sighed. I considered running up there and asking for help but decided that IF necessary, I would warm up the skidsteer or plea with my neighbor to help.
Soon the plow made its turn around and he backed down our driveway sanding the hill.
He stopped and got out to look at the drifts.
We talked for a few minutes and he was kind enough not to laugh at my little puny shovel.

He drove back up the hill and came down and plowed the drifts with a vengeance. Snow flew high and into the yard. He'd asked if I cared about my yard ... I said Absolutely NOT! Dump the snow in it, mess it up, I do not care at all. Yards can be fixed.

By the time he left my mood had brightened. I returned to scrapping snow off the roof so it would slide down. I made lunch for Rich and announced that I needed to go for a hike. The snow was crusted enough for Charlie to walk on top and perfect for snowshoe hiking.

Mister Charlie. He is wearing his beeper collar. He gets distracted by his nose and sometimes doesn't want to come. It is a good way to break his concentration. Plus the rattle of the treat bag helps.

My cousin has a Dachshund and she calls them low riders. Most Dachshunds are known for a bit of a stubborn streak. She also said that cold was tough on little Low Riders. Indeed. Charlie seems to be okay so far and I don't take him out in subzero weather no matter how much he asks. And he is getting a coat, it just has not arrived.

Charlie got stuck in a trail and didn't want to forge through the soft snow in the creek bottom here. He waited for me to break a trail for him.
Smart little dog.

We did walk down along the creek edge. Saturday everything was melting. Monday though, it was as if a flash freeze had occurred.

Walking on the edge of the creek wasn't too bad. I carried my snow shoes which was awkward.
We didn't go far and Charlie kept running ahead 'rock leaping' across the water and leading the way. He seemed quite confident in knowing the way to go.

I wanted to get into the other half of the creek to take some more shots but having Charlie to watch over and getting distracted by the scenery was something I decided not to do. I'd come back and do that part solo.

I put my snow shoes on and literally climbed like a rock climber up an old deer trail, knee deep in snow and sliding backwards with each step. Charlie followed me.

We made it home following the trail I'd broken on Saturday, the surface and the edges were very crunchy, the result of the heavy rains and then the quick freeze.

So I looked down as we left the valley and decided that perhaps winter wasn't such a horrid thing after all.

Charlie bounded ahead on the trail. He knows the paths now and seems to be a bit more adventurous. He came back and asked to be picked up when we got to the meadow. Over the years I've known that the woods to the east have had coyote dens in them. I picked him up and we forged our way home.

Both of us pleased and refreshed.

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.