Snow? You Call That Snow?

""Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while."" ~~ Kin Hubbard

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
~ Robert Frost

Last night was calm and bright, full Moon. This morning on the weather forecast the predicted snow totals kept creeping up: dusting, 1 - 2 inches, 2 -3 inches. He wanted to take the AWD RAV4, swapped out my purse, the keys, hang-tag, etc., and off we went.

About mid-day it started snowing, lightly. Then it stopped. I heard it was snowing in Gettysburg, the grass was covered, but not sticking to the sidewalks or roadways. It snowed again, this time with gusto. The Federal Government issued an optional closure.

Later in the day the forecasted totals were downgraded. By the time we left work it was barely snowing, sort of drizzling. Nothing was sticking to the roads, the grass was showing.

It had stopped by 7, I let the boys out for the night at 9:15 with extra hay in the shed.

Monday Catch-up

Being dark when I leave in the morning, being dark when I get home makes it difficult to take decent pictures of the latest projects.

A picture is easily worth a thousand words.

Super Bowl Sunday

Once again, got no dog in this Super Bowl fight.

Got up early, fed everybody but the dog, and promptly went back to bed.

Had to do a few things - go to the old house to put Drano in the kitchen sink and place the cover on the de-humidifier. Why our tenants cannot do this, I don't know. She is obviously expecting a baby, don't know how they are going to be good parents when they can't help themselves out of a wet paper bag with instructions.

He's really tired of her passive/aggressive method of making him jump - and when he does she's unresponsive - like today: not answering email or the phone - he ended up banging on the door - at Noon-ish - and they were sleeping, taking a nap - (that's ok, they can do what ever they want), but you would think that they would be expecting us to take care of the backed-up kitchen sink.

I never went into the house - she came out to give me three 'Florida oranges,' which were actually tangerines, full of pips, more seed than fruit.

A bottle of Drano was left under the kitchen sink at our old house. He asked her if she had it, she's non-committal. She goes into the bathroom, retrieves the Drano, and leaves it on the kitchen counter. In the meantime he had gone downstairs to check out the noise she had been hearing.

She had complained about a strange noise in the basement and also that the knob had fallen off the de-humidifier. She was afraid to place the knob back on because then it might change the setting. There is only one way to put the knob on, and it won’t change anything.

We thought the strange noise maybe was the smoke detector, chirping. She also didn't know how to turn off the de-humidifier and we got a chuckle out of that. I believe the fastest way would be to unplug it, right?

He suggested to her to keep the de-humidifier off until late May, save on electricity and don't really need it now. The noise was coming from the de-humidifier; without the cover it was making a whistling noise. He put it back together, put the knob on. When he got back to the kitchen he saw the Drano on the counter.

He filled up a pot that was in the sink with hot water, poured the Drano in, chased it with the hot water and hit it with the plunger. The sink drained immediately. He filled the bin with the fish food we had picked up Thursday night and we headed to the dump.

While we were in the neighborhood we had planned on a dump run, getting rid of lots of cardboard from our recent closet and hallway projects and a tire still on the rim. The 'dump' is actually a huge recycling center, everything gets recycled so particular care is taken where you actually place your cardboard, paint cans, sticks and leaves, electronics, etc.

Got home and he swapped trailers and we headed over to Todd's in Sunshine to get hay. It was like Grand Central Station.

The big deal today was getting another 60 bales of hay, this time from Todd Greenstone instead of Sunny Ridge Farm. It's like a hay buffet at his place; different grades are in different barns or sheds. A couple trucks were parked in front of the biggest barn, but we decided not to get that hay, we chose another kind.

We had just loaded the last bale on the flatbed, counting and counting again, and Todd pulls up and says, "I showed up at the right time." Yes, he sure did. He said we'd need to tie that load down, and Tom assured him we had lots of straps with us. Todd walked up the hill to another shed to see the others that were there unloading a trailer of fresh hay. Todd also mentioned that the keys are probably in the trucks, so move them if you have to. Placed the check in the box, honor system out here in the country, and hit the road.

Caught up on some laundry, watched some of the Super Bowl and the commercials. When I went out after 10: p.m. to check on everybody Skip was having a lie-down in the shed, sleeping like a dog. Hay all around and to bed for me.

Saturday - Multi-Seasonal Day

We had planned on riding because the weather was SUPPOSED to be clear and in the high 40s, better weather day than Sunday. The weather forecast deteriorated on Saturday morning, starting out clear, but quickly becoming overcast and the temps never getting much past 40. Ride out time was 10:00 a.m.

Martin and Tracy got there first, unlocked the gate. Joan and Filip also were there. After that several more trailers came in.

We had thought, briefly, about riding to Beck's, but none of us wanted to ride to somewhere that we hadn't been before, plus some of the way was on the road.

Instead we rode to the Woodstock Inn, planning on taking a longer way there, but with the weather going South, we made a bee-line instead. On the way we ran into the League's 'official' photographer and he said he had put pictures on his website of us when he last saw us. He had taken a picture of me, taking a picture of him!

When we first came out into the meadow Tom and Skip had a slight missunerstanding, ground work ensued. Tom also cut a stick off a tree, every single time he touched Skip with the twig, Skip kicked out with one leg.

In the open meadow we all decided to canter up the hill and KC decided to buck. I immediately popped him in the mouth with a one-rein stop and he slammed on the brakes. I managed to stay on, miraculously. He was pretty good the rest of the ride.

With the weather going downhill there were not too many bikers at the Woodstock Inn, however, there were bicyclists parked in front of the hitching post. They rode up while we were getting our horses settled in and were completely unaware that that was a hitching post and that they shouldn't park there. Tom thinks he should make a sign and attach it to the post.

The other hitching post recently had the top rail replaced; the horses that are tied up there are eating the wood like hungry Beavers. It won't be long before it's whittled down to nothing, again.

The Woodstock Inn was not busy and service was great! The 'chef' was creative and we really enjoyed our lunch. The weather has not improved, getting chilly. We hurry back to the trailers. I feel rain drops, here and there.

It was lightly sprinkling when we got back to the trailers, we said our good-byes, hugs all around and hear a kerfluffle on the other side of our trailer. It sounded sort of metallic and then we hear yelling. Tom and Martin run over and another rider now is on the ground, yelling. Her horse kicked her in the gut, knocked the wind out of her. Eventually she does get up, but we're all freaking out. Skip in particular is upset about this.

It is raining in earnest while driving home. We put them in the barn with hay and water, running for the house. It then started snowing, huge flakes. Didn't put their blankets on until late in the evening, after it had finally stopped snowing and they were dry. They all spent the night outside.

Shavings vs Dust

Rookie mistake. In anticipation of the rubber mat installation we bought 6 bags of wood shavings. They smelled great, and looked good, too. Nearly impossible to sift or sort manure from, and not really absorbent for urine.

When we exhausted the bags we replaced them with dust. These bags are so heavy, I can barely lift them, but take up just as much room on the pallet in the shed.

What a huge difference dust makes! Absorbs the urine so quickly it is not easily detected that it was wet. So much better sifting manure, even tiny pony biscuits.

Why didn't we realize this before? Don't let this happen to you.

Groundhog Day

Overcast, mild and cloudy. I heard that Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow, and lots of news cameras and reporters. Another six weeks of Winter, but we haven't really seen any true Winter weather this season. Our snow-blower is unused and dusty, just like I like it!

2*1*12

February came in like a little kitten - soft and warm. Can you believe this weather?

Too early yet to start truly chasing daylight - we would both have to learn work really early to catch a ride after work. February has the good grace to be a short month, after that Daylight Saving starts and we will (promise!) have good rides through the week.

After we build the indoor arena (haha) that won't be a problem.

Last night he tried to figure out the bio-thane Amish-built pony harness. We honestly don't have the vocabulary for these pieces and parts, the pictures on the internet are not clear enough or not the right angle. Now the harness looks like black licorice whips coiled on the living room floor.

I also noticed some daffodils showing their tops. Wahoo!