the remains of the very snowy day

Out doing chores yesterday afternoon, I was faced with all the remains of the snow. There are still large areas of ground, roof, and deck that have large amounts of the white stuff, some of which is packed and hard, other spots which are still soft and surprisingly fluffy.

In between the white patches there are border areas of lacier white lying on top of cold, brown mud. A few areas are red mud mixed with white. Beyond the lacy areas is the bare ground, nothing but mud and wilted winter grass. Strewn helter-skelter across this vista are what I'm calling hoof packs. Many of them. Apparently, when horses are barefoot, as ours are, the snow packs into the hoof until it reaches a certain overstuffed point and then it simply pops out. That big clot of snow and earth has the perfectly formed hoof on one side, and brown on the other. They will be the last to melt, as they have now frozen hard as rocks.

I have to say it: as beautiful as the snow was, it is now the ugliest I have ever seen it here.

In an effort to find some lasting beauty, and to get rid of the manure and hoof packs I'd mucked, I trekked the wheelbarrow down the long path several times. The path hadn't melted, and the snow in the woods was still fairly pristine. It was a wonderland of animal tracks: deer, birds, the bobcat. Most had blurred a bit but were still quite visible. At every fence and gate I saw something which amazed me: the deer tracks would go right up to the obstacle and then reappear directly on the other side, as though they had walked up nose and nose with the fence or gate and then popped over as if on springs.

It occurred to me that each time I went up and down the path, it got harder and slicker. And then I remembered the best time of sledding I ever had, when I was 12 and a neighbor packed down our road from top to bottom with his 4-wheel drive jeep. We had two weeks off from school, we had good sleds, a bonfire, treats at every house along the way, and a sledding track that seemed to go on forever, with curves and a few dangers (our creek was one of them) to avoid.

I called my daughter, who was in the barnyard giving sled rides to the Mystical Kit and Dickens. She brought her sled to the path and down she went. Had we thought of this the day of the snow, we could have something akin to those luge courses I used to watch on Saturday afternoons on TV. She convinced me to take a turn and down I went, laughing and shrieking. When I emerged back up at the barnyard all the horses and donkeys were looking, ears pricked. Salina especially was riveted on me. I've seen her run with the donkeys, moments when she is with them, but recalling something from her youth, a long stride, the pleasure of movement, a buck and a head toss thrown into the mix. She understands, I suspect, the pure unbridled joy of an experience from childhood, shared with one's child of close to the same age.

When we finished the last of the barn chores, a bit before sunset, the geldings came in from the field where they'd been playing. There was 5-year old Cody, the 8-year old pony Apache Moon, and 19-year old Keil Bay. Who do you think had the muddy legs up above the knees? I guess all of us middle-agers found some fun yesterday, even in the melting mess of snow and mud.

warming up and chinese fortunes

This morning it's 20 instead of 6, and going up to 49/50 by the afternoon, so more meltdown and mush, but no blankets and ice in troughs. A reasonable trade, imo.

Although if I could trade for sunshine and dry ground, I'd take that one.

I'm having a hankering to do one of my stone runes this morning, but as I'm still downstairs and my runestones are upstairs in the garret, I resorted to the Chinese Fortune Sticks which are sitting on this desk.

This red can is full of sticks that have fortunes on each one, and you're supposed to shake them half out of the can, and select the one that protrudes the furthest.

The thing about these is that they are NOTHING like the Chinese fortune cookie fortunes. These are rather brutal and often say things one doesn't want to hear.

My question was simply: what can I expect for today?

The answer:

A long delayed package of value will come to you.

Well. That's a relief!

I'm expecting a new box of Adequan for Salina. A couple of special writing notebooks for the upcoming retreat. Neither of which have been long-delayed.

We'll see what happens.

If anyone has questions and dares consult the brutal sticks, ask it in the comments and I'll shake one out and type it in for you.

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.