the morning after

As of now, it looks like we got around 6 inches of snow, and since it is currently 8 degrees outside, it isn't going anywhere. We should be getting up to 36 later in the day though, so I hope things melt down a bit. Tomorrow we're up to 50 and I suspect that will take care of the rest. Back to mushy ground.

The thing about snow, for me, is that I find it comforting and beautiful as it falls, and I love seeing it before anyone walks in it or drives through it. Once it's marred up by traffic, foot, sled, and otherwise, it simply looks messy to me and I get the same antsiness I get when my house is messy, except I can't exactly go out and straighten up the landscape.

The worst is when you drive into town and see big chunks that were plowed off to the side, dirty and compacted, and there until the temps get high enough, for long enough, to melt them away.

My husband, who was home yesterday, is back to work today, and I hope he makes it in and back home again this evening without incident.

And I sure hope the mail gets delivered today. We didn't get it Monday due to the holiday, it wasn't delivered yesterday because of the snow, and today, with 3 days worth of mail to deliver, on rural roads that haven't been cleared, it will surely take the carrier 5x as long at least.

In the south, having a decent snow means a lot of things grind to a halt, and that's another reason I like the kind that comes and goes quickly.

Yesterday afternoon the geldings had a huge party in the back field, trotting and cantering, grabbing branches on trees and standing with their faces turned up while the snow fell on them, rolling over and over again. We kept Salina and the donkeys in their own paddock, which is big enough for all sorts of frolic, but they mostly stood and watched the gelding entertainment. Rafer Johnson and Redford did finally emerge from the barn, and walked around tentatively with Salina, who looked absolutely regal - her black head emerging from her emerald green blanket.

This morning the donkeys made a dash for the round bale when they got morning hay, so it seems they have embraced the snow and have no fear of setting off into it.

The Corgis chose to stay out half the night. They love the cold and the snow. They even like the rain, and I sometimes find them lying flat on their backs, letting the soft rain fall on their bellies.

The cats are in and out at their own whim, doing what cats do. Stalk. Eat. Nap.

I dreamed last night that I had a new job as a sort of "diarist" for President Obama. In the dream I had done the same job for former President Bush, and was talking over the ropes with President Obama, telling him that generally we stopped the diary-keeping around 11 p.m. so hopefully he wouldn't mind going to bed then, because if he didn't, I would have to stay later and I already had quite a long work day as it was.

LOL.

Then I dreamed I took my kids on a field trip to a small factory that made styrofoam packing peanuts. We could see the peanuts flying out of the machine like.. yes, snow.

Then the factory owner asked us to participate in a test run of his newest invention, which involved grabbing stickers off an assembly line and sticking them correctly onto paper. Not sure what the point was, but he had all his workers lined up, practicing, and he wanted us to try and see how we did. His target goal was to get 6 done in a certain amount of time, before they rolled past us on the line. No one had yet been able to do it. Even with my perfectionistic placement of each sticker, I did it easily. He was trying to figure out the exact movements I was doing that allowed me to accomplish that.

I think I prefer my current job, thank you very much.

snow!

We're getting a lot for us, and it's quite beautiful. Thus far, the Corgis are having a blast, the cats have mostly all had sled rides courtesy of my daughter, Salina and the geldings have been out, but the donkeys are staying warm and dry in the barn.



The mystical snow kit:



Why we sometimes call the pony Tangerine Dream:



A wonderful ice picture M. took this past week:



Often enough, when we get snow it melts within the day, but this is significant enough that it will apparently be here at least until Thursday. Husband found deer tracks up to the tree by the barn this a.m. I guess at least one deer wanted to say hello. :)

beginning of a quiet week

We're back above freezing, with night temps going to the 20s and the possibility of a few inches of snow tonight, and although I'm ready for drier ground, it might be fun to see the horses and donkeys and cats and Corgis play in the white stuff.

In a little while, I'll head out to do the chores, which I suspect will include adding some shavings to stalls, and I need to make a run to the feed store later in the day as well.

Last night I watched Legends of the Fall, which I originally watched during what we call the "sleepy years" - the time during and after pregnancies when most movie watching in the evenings involved me dozing off after a short period of time, no matter how engaging the movie.

There are a number of films that, when asked if I've seen them, the answer is "sort of." Often I would wake up at odd moments, see a bit of a scene, then fall back asleep. I usually caught the final credits when nudged by my husband that the movie was over.

Anyway, I had a vague memory of Legends of the Fall, and that I had been quite captivated by it, and it has been in my Netflix queue for awhile. Since it was a "watch instantly" movie, last night I decided it was time to watch.

What a story - I loved the farmhouse and the setting particularly. It was one of those movies that had me racing to Google after, putting Jim Harrison titles (I've read a few already) in my Amazon cart for future reference and reading interviews.

He said something that I love, about writing:

I think it's interesting what someone there said to me once -- it's something that I hadn't thought before, and it startled me. He told me that (the French) read me because in my fiction you have the life of relative action but also the life of the mind. In so much fiction we have one or the other, but never both. We tend to try to separate them. You find that in Barry's work as well -- this marvelously convoluted thinking system but yet people are still doing something.

Nice to begin the week feeling inspired and justified in my writing style. Maybe I should be querying European agents. :)

The life of the mind. I just love that.

the highlight of a very cold day

On this cold day, I fretted over icy troughs, hauled many buckets of hot water from the house, adjusted blankets multiple times, fed a warm lunch to the herd in the event they didn't have enough hay (we now have a new round bale and an extra coming tomorrow), fussed at my children when I felt I was doing all the work (I wasn't), and got very upset when a neighbor's ATV cut a rut in the lane.

However, there was a very bright and warm spot that made all the rest of my day better, and this was it:

busy and cold, sending warmth

Yesterday was busy with kids and activities and getting ready for the cold dip last night, and today my aim is to keep horses warm and happy, and to come back in frequently to a warm spot by the woodstove and work on edits.

Right now Kyra the Corgi and Dickens the cat are sharing a dog bed by the fire, a nice image on a cold morning.

Since so many folks are having extremely cold weather right now, I'm going to keep thinking warm all day long, and hope some of that energy finds its way to anyone who needs it.