Hello, I'm Mary, Book 2

Mary · Hello, I'm Mary, Book 2

This is a continuation of Book 1, which was getting too long for those of us with dial up service. The first entry with some new happenings will come in a few days.

Mary

My observation about fall weather last week was misguided, or at least premature. It was just a brief cold front going through and now we are back to normal weather. We have had three 90 degree days since then. Hubby was watering the garden for me while I was gone this weekend and was just amazed at how fast the cucumbers and summer squash are growing.

Today is a beautiful day, sunny, not too hot, with a gentle breeze, just about perfect I think, and we can see all the mountains clearly, something that wasn't possible yesterday because of forest fire smoke that had blown in from somewhere. On clear days we can see 2 mountain ridges from our house, the Elkhorn ridge to the west and the Wallowas to the north and east. They are all part of the Blue Mountains which was one of the big obstacles near the end of the journey the pioneers took with their covered wagons. We cross the Oregon Trail when we drive to town.

Hubby and I went out to breakfast this morning since he has the day off. I thought I was going to be traveling home from my rides today, but came home yesterday instead because Patch has a sore tendon and I chose not to ride the 2nd day and make it worse. I'll write more about that soon in the 2007 Journal which is all about the rides and the challenges they present.

Patch was turned out into a nice grassy pasture while we went to have our breakfast. When we got home I cleaned the living quarters in the horse trailer and then iced Patch's sore leg. I use ice boots that have frozen inserts in them. The frozen things look almost like ice cubes in plastic sheets, those fit into pockets in a rectangular pad and the whole thing is wrapped around the leg and fastened with velcro type strips.

While Patch stood tied to the trailer getting his ice treatment, I moved sprinklers and pulled weeds. My oh my, I have some impressive weeds! that's what happened when I ignored them and hoped they would go away. Instead they grew and multiplied like weeds always do. There is another wheelbarrow load waiting to be dumped on the burn pile, I don't want to spread the seeds by composting them.

Three hummingbirds are still with us. This morning I watched one take a shower in the sprinkler, then sit on a sunflower sunning himself dry and preening his feathers. What contortions he went through trying to get the end of his beek under his wings! I'm so glad God made hummingbirds! I'm sure He made a lot of the creatures and plants just for enjoyment, His and ours. Some of them show quite clearly that God has a sense of humor.

Mary

The flower beds are getting cleaner but it is going slowly, probably because I manage to find a lot of side trips to take. I go to empty the wheelbarrow and find something else that needs attention, and it might be an hour before I get back to the flower bed.

Patch's leg does not seem to be sore anymore, so today I will put him on a lunge line and make him trot in a few circles in each direction to see if I can see any difference in his gait from one side to the other. If he shows any tendancy to limp it will be when the sore leg is to the inside of the circle. Going in the other direction will give me a comparison. If he shows no soreness I will switch from cold therapy to using linament to create heat and promote circulation.

Yesterday I saw a fawn that seemed to be alone. It went over a fence and disappeared into some tall dry grass. I might have just looked out the window too late to see other deer it may have been following. This morning a doe was in some trees near my garden, and later I saw a group of at least 9 in my neighbor's field.

When I was coming home from town a couple of evenings ago just before dark, I saw a fox run across the road. A few seconds later I saw a second one running along the shoulder of the road, through an open gate and into the neighbor's barn. My neighbor says the foxes have thoroughly explored the barn. There is almost no activity there except at lambing time.

I'm going to attempt to post a picture of one of the half barrels that I planted with red, white and blue (actually purple) petunias.

Mary

Mary

Wildlife abounds! Today I rode Patch for about an hour and a half. As we went along I noticed a lot of elk tracks and deer tracks. I'm sure the critters that made them saw us but I didn't see them, but I did see one coyote, and also heard and then saw a small rattlesnake. I looked around for a rock to kill it, and found one about 20 ft away, got off the horse, picked up the rock, went to find the snake and heard him rattle a couple more times but he was under a sagebrush and apparently went down a hole. Hunting for a snake is kind of a nervous thing, he might not be alone.

Tonight when I took Patch out of the grassy pasture where he grazes for about 2 hours every day, 11 deer were just about to jump the fence and raid my garden. I ran toward them and clapped my hands and they jumped over the pasture fence and went up a hill and then stopped to watch me. I could see that one of them was a buck with forked horns on both sides. After I moved Patch back to his own pasture I'm sure they came right back.

I took the netting off the grapes a couple of days ago, and by the next morning the deer had eaten what was left of the grapes. We have a major wasp problem down there and they won the battle this year. When I took the netting down I decided that about 2 wasps for every grape was not worth the risk and left them for the deer who probably got stung when they ate the grapes. They also take bites out of my tomatoes and eat the tops off the carrots, and they are fond of squash blossoms. I need a deer fence and then some way to keep the wasps off the grapes.

This morning I did chores for a neighbor which included putting some medicine in a horse's eye and trying to determine why that horse is very lame. I suspect white line disease, basically an infection in a pocket way up inside the hoof wall. It takes a long time to cure it. The infection has to be controlled until the hoof grows out. The owner will probably have me help him soak the horse's foot tomorrow so it will soften up and be clean enough to trim, probe and explore.

I've been hurrying around trying to get everything watered and all kinds of details taken care of in preparation for leaving for a week. No horses are involved in this trip, I am going to visit some friends and we are going camping at a lake where other friends will join us. I love being out on the water in a boat, it is so peaceful if the water is calm and I love to row. I think my friends have a canoe. Now I need to get back to packing and I will tell you all about it when I am home next week.

smokey the dog

sounds like a fun trip!

Mary

I'm home again, and oh what fun it was!

The friend I went to visit lives in Kentucky, so I flew from Boise, Idaho to Denver, changed planes there and was met in Nashville, TN. After a couple of days at my friend's house we packed up their camp trailer and headed for the lake where other people had gathered for the Kentucky Roundup at Prizer Point on Barkley Lake. Nobody knew I was going to be there and so I got to surprise everyone!
We spent Friday evening, all day Saturday and about half of Sunday with various activities and lots of food and visiting.

Sunday afternoon we were back at my friend's place, but just long enough to unpack the trailer and take quick showers. We then went to the Will Graham crusade in Paducah, Ky where we heard 2 contemporary Christian bands and also were treated to songs by George Beverly Shay, he's more my style for sure. After a good message by Will Graham (grandson of Billy Graham) we went out into the back parking lot and were able to meet one of the other Christian musicians, Steven Curtis Chapman, thanks to a personal friend of his who insisted that we had to go meet him. He signed my program which I will give to my son and daughter in law.

Monday morning my friend and I went to a neighboring town and went through a huge flea market that is held weekly. I bought 3 items, spent a total of $3.25. Yeah, I'm a big spender for sure.

I stayed with my friend a couple more days and then she and her husband took me to the airport in Nashville yesterday afternoon for my trip home. My plane left at 6:50 Pm, I had to change planes again in Denver. My hubby met me at the airport, we stopped on the way home for a midnight breakfast at an all night cafe, and I got home at 1:45am. It was a long day for sure.

My house kitty, AmandaPanda, is sticking to me like glue, she doesn't want me to disappear again. I won't, at least not for about a week.

Today I was back to watering, unpacking, doing the laundry and trying to get myself back into my own time zone.

Mary

It's definitely fall, there is a nip in the air, some leaves are already turning gold and a few are falling. Our low temperature has been down to 38, which makes corn, squash and tomatoes shiver. Yesterday's high was 79 but today won't reach 70.

The deer have been munching on my garden! I think they had a banquet, not just samples. The grapes are very well pruned, squash have holes eaten in them, tomatoes have a lot of missing and broken branches, carrots have no tops, kohlrabi are just purple things standing there without leaves. Thus far they have spared the corn, beans and onions. Deer fencing is a very high priority for next year!

Last evening, just at dusk, my hubby came out of the shop which is about 50 ft from the house and found a deer standing in the driveway right next to our back gate looking toward the back door. She might have been seeing her reflection in the window since the light from the sun was behind her. I came out of the house half a minute later but by that time the deer had jumped 2 fences and was out in the pasture looking back toward the house. What nerve!

Yesterday when I went riding I saw several deer that had bedded down under a big juniper tree. They got up and went across a hillside and down farther into a small canyon. Some of the slower ones took time to stretch before they left. I was able to count 7 but I think there were a couple more. They were hard to count because of the tree blocking the view of their exit route. A few minutes before that I saw a coyote just disappearing into the sagebrush near the top of a hill.

My horses are starting to look just a bit fuzzy with new winter coat growth. With shorter days, longer nights and lower nighttime temperatures, they are right on schedule.

The weather forecast says we might get some rain today and tomorrow. If that happens I will get part of the garden rototilled, working around anything that is still alive and producing. Meanwhile, I have potatoes to dig, onions to pull up, garden stakes to remove, hoses to coil and carry up to the shed, and some very obnoxious weeds to pull up and take to the burn pile. Enough to keep me busy even if the rain doesn't soften the ground enough to run the tiller.

Mary

We are having low overnight temperatures, this morning the thermometer on the back porch said 30, but apparently it didn't stay cold long enough to cause any major plant damage. I see a few crispy leaves but that is all.

I have picked the last of the green beans, all the corn that is ripe, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and summer squash. The winter squash has been covered with blankets, all the onions are in buckets in the woodshed, potatoes are still in the ground, and that's all I can do until I am home again next week.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Patch and I will be leaving for more endurance rides. I plan to ride on Thursday and again on Saturday, and will help with taking pulses at the vet check or doing other helpful things on the day in between. Hopefully Patch's tendon problem is history, so I picked the easiest days of the 5 day series. The first ride of that series was today and it did feel funny not to be there for it.

Mary

Home again. The weather was pretty good for the rides but I came home sunburned and windburned because I forgot to put on sunscreen, again! My mind was more tuned to staying warm. It's hard to remember everything. I worked on the first day I was there and rode the next two days because the order of the rides had changed. My original plan was to have a rest day between ride days. Yesterday morning I was greeted by thick frost on the truck windshield and ice in Patch's water bucket. Thankfully the mornings of the rides were a bit warmer.

Jack Frost brushed by here one night while I was gone, but it wasn't a serious frost, so the tomato plants and squash that weren't covered with blankets still look pretty much ok. Last night we got some rain, it continues today with showers. The clouds have moved enough for me to see snow on both mountain ridges, that is very good news. I heard the county road grader going up a road near us, so hopefully he will get to our road today or tomorrow. I'm also hoping the rain we got was enough to soften up the garden so I can rototill it after I finish digging the potatoes.

My house kitty was so lonesome while I was gone that she snuggled up and slept next to my hubby one night. Poor baby, she hadn't quite gotten over me being gone for a week when I went to Kentucky, and then I was gone 4 more nights after only being home for a week. Needless to say, she is being my shadow again and is currently helping me type.

Patch's tendon is sore again, so I am back to doctoring it and hoping to do one more ride at the end of the season, 4 weeks from now. By then the weather and road conditions might prevent me from going but I will work towards it in the meantime.

Mary

Now the deer are getting into the yard, but at least they are leaving fertilizer. I saw the telltale signs today, signs that weren't there yesterday. Thankfully they didn't eat much, and didn't find my rose bushes.

The weather was been very nice for the past few days so I am concentrating on getting flower beds cleaned. Some of them are so neglected that they have almost gone back to quackgrass and little violets. Violets, sweet little early blooming, sweet smelling, cute little flowers that should be pulled out right after they bloom because they are so invasive. The root systems just crowd out nearly everything else, everything I want to keep that is, but not the quackgrass! Between those two thugs, a decent plant hardly has a chance.

A large storm is coming into the northwest, we might even get some rain out of it. Today was very windy but sunny and the temperature got up to 70. There won't be many more of those days this year, maybe none.

My asters are blooming, and what a showy plant they are, especially since almost every other plant in my flower beds is trying to go to sleep for winter. I have a few mums in bloom, but I just bought them and they were blooming in their pots. Very few plants have been watered in the past 2 weeks, they need to get ready for winter.

Yesterday I noticed that Patch was standing with one foot at a funny angle, and upon investigation, found that he has a bent shoe. My farrier will be here tomorrow afternoon to remove, straighten and replace it. He guarantees that the shoes will stay on, no matter what is the cause of one coming off or just loose, he comes to fix it without charge. It's been 4 or 5 years since I had to call him to fix one.

Mary

Asters putting on their annual show. I also have one plant that is more of a burgundy color.

Mary

We have a mouse in our furnace! Oh, isn't that nice? No, it's not. I woke up to noises this morning, crept around and determined that they were coming from the furnace cold air return, looked down it with a flashlight and there was the mouse. Having gotten in, now he apparently wants to get back out. Fickle fellow. There's no food in the furnace and no nesting materials either. Hubby will take the filters out tomorrow and set a trap in there. Probably it came in through some venting that exits to the outside, 2 or 3 inch pipes without screen covers. The furnace installer said he was not allowed to put screens over them, but that we can. Well, 'tis the season for mice to start coming inside for winter, and we haven't put screens on the vents. Thankfully, it is not cold enough to need to run the furnace.

Meanwhile, other wildlife, deer to be specific, are eating my flowers. Yesterday I counted 5 piles of deer droppings in the grass between the house and the pasture fence. It is a narrow strip with flower beds on both sides. So far their favorite snack seems to be the gold mum blossoms, the red and pink ones are untouched.

My farrier came to fix Patch's bent shoe, which, by the time he got here, had come off the foot and is who knows where in the pasture. I walked around and looked for it but I think it is probably deep in the mud next to the little creek that is fed by the overflow from the spring. And now there is a charge for replacing shoes, ouch! that wasn't a nice surprise.

I'm still digging out quackgrass and replanting some flowers that needed more sun or more space, or less sun. A friend gave me a hosta last year, and it got too much sun this summer, so it has a new spot now with less sun where I hope it will be happy. There is so much to do out there that it seems overwelming, but it is that way every year, and I never do get it all done before the ground freezes.

Yesterday morning the valley below us was full of fog. We were above it all. There is one house with trees around it on the top of a small hill that looked like a castle with the fog around the lower part of the hill and behind it. We got clouds from the recent storms that have come into the west coast, and higher humidity, but no rain. Apparently there is enough moisture, combined with low temperatures, to produce some fog.

Mary

Our beautiful fall weather continues. The leaves on the poplar trees behind the shop have turned to gold and are fluttering down everywhere looking like a carpet of gold coins.

This past weekend I went to another ride, this time just to help for the day. The leaves were pretty in that area too, and the weather was just perfect for riding. It was nice to go to a ride, visit with the people, assist riders at the vet checks and be able to drive home and sleep in my own bed. It always feels funny to go to a ride and not be taking a horse and riding.

Yesterday I was tieing my shoe and something in my back popped. I felt the muscles stretch and today I am quite sore and moving carefully. When I originally hurt my back about 5 years ago, I hurt for several weeks. I ignored it as much as possible and hoped it would get better on it's own, then spent some months and money going to a chiropractor. He would adjust it and I would feel it slipping back within a couple of weeks at the most. The funny thing was that I could hear and feel the adjustments but nothing ever hurt.

I gave up on that treatment and just decided to live with it and pray that God would straighten it out and keep it there. Yesterday's pop might have been the answer. How many times have I repeated this same motion? There had to be something more.

Anyhow, today I am moving slowly and carefully. I need to go take a good walk, and since the weather is nice it is a good day for that. Then I will see what easy things I can do in the yard.

Mary

Weeds! Quack grass! Bah, humbug!

Well, it's my own fault really, for ignoring this flower bed for a couple of years, and now I really have a horrible mess. Ignore it and it doesn't go away. However, I am making progress and the part I have cleaned and replanted looks so much better, of course that makes the uncleaned part look so much worse. It's like washing part of a wall which produces a nice clean place and then the clean place shows up worse than whatever was washed off.

Our weather has been nice, yesterday was sunny and 60, today is forecast to be even warmer. Perfect weather for yard work. Yesterday I worked outside until mid afternoon, then went to town and made a few stops for feed, discount store stuff, met hubby for dinner and then did grocery shopping and came home to feed the horses after dark.

Lately I've seen evidence of a raccoon. Some corn ears had the tips bitten off, and I saw tracks and droppings. I've suspected that he was getting into the cat food which is just outside the back door. A few years ago we had the starlings stealing it, so I put a 5 gallon bucket on it's side and put the food dish inside it. Last year I had very little problem with starlings, the old ones have died off or forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.

Then a few weeks ago I would find the dish out in the grass, and the bucket moved around. Dog? Coyote? Raccoon? another bigger cat? When I saw the tracks a few days ago I knew what it was, so I have been bringing the food dish inside before I go to bed.

Last night when I went to get it I turned on the light before opening the door and there he was. Well, most of him was sticking out of the bucket. If I had been really quick I could have grabbed his tail, but I didn't want to loose a finger so I just chased him away. Tonight I will set the live trap and maybe I can catch him and give him a new place to live several miles from here. I'll bait the trap with, what else? Cat food.

Mary

So far I haven't caught the raccoon, but last evening when I went to bring in the catfood dish, I saw a mouse run into the bucket! Here kitty, kitty. She watched the mouse in the bucket and when it ran out she caught it and then left it on the doormat for me. How thoughtful.

Yesterday just barely before dark I put the last of the daylilies and bulbs back into the flower bed. At least I think I got them all, have to go out and water it this morning and will check to make sure they are all tucked in for winter.

Today I will be leaving for the last endurance ride of the Northwest Region season. The weather is forecast to be good (dry) but about 22 to 25 overnight. brrr. My start time will be just after daylight and so I'll need my gloves for sure.

Mary

I endured! What a weekend it was! The low temperature was 17 on Saturday morning when I got up. Kinda chilly to be going for a ride.

Sometimes these rides are pretty much uneventful but just getting there, having everything we need and back home again is the challenge. And so it was this weekend.

I got about 150 miles from home and was missing my cell phone which I remembered clipping to my waistband shortly before I put Patch into the trailer.

After I got to the ride I decided to turn on the furnace early enough to warm up the bedding so I would be warm when I got into bed. The fan went on but the burner didn't light. One of my teammates checked the reset switch and then the propane tank. Woops, it was empty. He loaned me a spare tank, installed it for me and it worked. He said that would get me through the weekend.

Overnight the trailer stayed warm but my arms kept going numb and waking me up, so I had to keep getting up about every 1-2 hours all night.

Saddling Patch was a challenge, he didn't appreciate the cold saddle pad and saddle, and kept moving sideways. I wore an extra jacket, some chemical toe heaters, gloves, a polar fleece neck warmer and a helmet liner.

Patch was good for almost 50 miles but is lame again so we got no credit for the ride and no team points either. I decided that I wouldn't stay another night and risk running out of propane in the borrowed tank, so packed up and started home before the sun was down, and about half way home took an hour's nap on a side road and arrived home about 2am.

Parts of it were fun, like the ride itself visiting with folks and seeing the creative Halloween costumes some of them wear. More about all of this in the 2007 Journal in a day or two. I endured!

This morning I went down the road about half a mile and fed my neighbor's animals, then was checking the hay stack to be sure none of another neighbor's cows were snacking there. They weren't, but I did find my big ole Neut cat sunning himself on their haystack. He got a ride home in the pickup. I had thought about walking down there but was glad not to have to carry a 15 pound cat back home. I guess he just got bored over the weekend and went visiting.

Mary

Success! The Have-a-Hart trap was closed this morning when I looked at about 5am, and a cute masked face was looking at me. After daylight I took a picture, loaded the trap with it's unhappy occupant into the back of our old pickup, and took him for a ride to find a new home. He was let out of the trap about 10 miles from home, up in the USFS land next to a small creek. I just had time to get one picture before he was out of sight. There is enough time before cold weather sets in for him to locate food sources and find a warm place to call home for the winter. If he gets hungry he will probably follow the creek downstream and find more houses with cat, dog, or people food. And if he does that he won't be coming toward us.

My neighbor says he saw our cat at his place earlier today, but I didn't find him when I was there. He wasn't at home either. After living here for 4 or 5 years, I wouldn't expect a neutered cat to be wandering like this.

Yesterday I found our neighbor's ram at grazing near my greenhouse, all alone. It's very unsheeplike, but this guy is a loner and an explorer. Last summer when all the rams were pastured here, this one kept going through or under fences and grazing wherever he pleased. Well, breeding season is over, he's bored and he's at it again.

I chased him back over the fence, and he only got halfway over the fence before his forward momentum stopped and he was hung up on the fence. He kicked and struggled and managed to get over to his own side, except one hind foot got hung up for a while. Eventually he got loose and I thought that would teach him that he couldn't do that. Wrong!

Today I checked a couple of times to see if he had returned, but didn't see him grazing anywhere. Paul, his owner, came over to look at the fence where he went across yesterday, and found the ram with his foot caught again and laying upside down. Apparently he had been there several hours, and had fallen down into a gully and not been able to get up. Paul got his foot loose and turned him right side up, but the ram is too weak to get on his feet.

So far I haven't gotten over to the endruance journal to write about the ride, but I will get there eventually.

Mary

Here is the trap with the unhappy, scared racoon. He? she?
appears to be about half grown.

Mary

When I opened the trap the racoon made a hasty exit across the creek. Look closely among the rocks, you will see a brownish spot with a striped tail. I only had time for one picture, even though I had the camera in one hand and opened the door with the other.

Mary

Last night I had something in the trap. Had, not have this morning. I think it was a big racoon, he left some hair and blood, and has bent parts of the trap in his effort to escape, and probably made a lot of noise, but my hubby and I didn't hear a thing. Apparently the cats did though, they are not hanging around the back door this morning. This critter will be too smart to get in that cage again, but there may be others, so I will keep setting it.

Most of my garden is rototilled now. I took one of my compost piles apart and spread it around, and found quite a lot of material in it that was not composted. Some of that was spread around as mulch next to the new aspargus row which was planted last spring. A few of the plants didn't come up so there are some gaps in the row, but most of the 25 plants did make at least a couple of little stalks. Next year it should do better. I would have had better success if I had soaked the roots in water for a couple of hours before planting them.

The compost in one pile that was pretty much broken down was spread around part of the garden and has disappeared underground now along with most of the cornstalks and other miscellaneous small plants. I had pulled out the tomatoes, potato vines, bean plants and squash because they just wrap around the tiller tines. Cabbage and brocolli roots turn into blocks of wood and are also pulled up. All these things will eventually rot, but it takes a couple of years in a pile that is not turned to keep the biological activity level high.

My compost piles get turned with the tractor bucket if they get turned at all. Technically it is not compost if the temperature doesn't get hot inside the pile for an extended time. Mine heats up but then when I don't turn it every few days (too much work!) it just rots like materials would on the forest floor. Frequent turning keeps the biological activity at a high level, kills weed seeds and pathogens, and produces finished compost in a few weeks.

The winter squash patch is still under blankets while the squash fruits ripen for winter storage. The plants have black leaves and mostly black vines, but the squash themselves look ok. One morning our temperature was 18, and a couple of other mornings were down near 20, but those were not all together. I think that was a good thing. The ground is still reasonably warm, and with some sun every day they have survived. I watch the forecasts pretty carefully, and the night we had 18 was supposed to be only in the low 20's. Our days are mostly in the 50's and lower 60's and sunny. Yesterday I was comfortable working outside in a sweatshirt for most of the afternoon.

My neighbor's ram managed to get up from his fence entrapment predicament, and went under another fence into my horse pasture, then was moved back to his own side of the fence via a couple of gates with the help of Nip, the Border Collie. He is kind of crippled in his hind leg, but getting around well enough to eat and not well enough to be going through the fence again, although he keeps looking at it like he is trying to decide if he wants to risk it again. A sheep's brain doesn't have much space reserved for this type of information.

This ram is the oddest guy. Most sheep panic when being alone, this one leaves the flock and goes to find the greener grass on the other side of the fence. I sure hope he hasn't fathered any lambs with this wandering tendency.

Mary

Something is digging up my newly planted garlic. At first I was sure it was racoons, but yesterday I saw the squirrel again. He was running across a limb with an apple in his mouth, stashing them away for winter. We only have one squirrel, he is a migrant from the forest which is far enough away that we rarely get squirrels. Anyhow, it occurred to me that squirrels dig to hide things, so I wonder if they also dig to find them. If he has garlic breath at least he hasn't got anybody to repel with it.

I've transported my wandering cat home from the neighbor's place again. He seems to go to visit their male cats, maybe just needs some guy time as our other outdoor cat is a female. The half mile trip takes a lot of steps with kitty size legs. On the trip home he looked out the pickup window and purred all the way.

The neighbor's ram is staying on his own side of the fence, although he looks at it a lot. I think the only thing keeping him over there is his sore hind leg. He uses it a little, but holds it out to the side between steps, so he probably is reminded continually that the fence caused the pain.

Today I'm going to town to meet my sister for lunch, and when I get home I will work on the weedy flower beds until it is too dark to tell what I'm doing. Progress there is slow, but it is progress, and every bit I can get done this fall is that much less to be done next spring.

Mary

Sunrise a few mornings ago.

God's Warrior

That is a beautiful and awesome picture, Mary.

Your kitty sounds like a "happy wanderer". He really has it made when Mama comes to drive him home. No wonder he was purring.

Mary

Thanks Elena. My camera needs it's clock reset, that really was a sunrise.

On my way home from town I stopped at the neighbor's and brought Neut home again. He was right outside our door this morning and ate his breakfast, then left to go visiting. Happy wanderer is right, and he has chauffeur service!

Mary

We had a very stormy day today, with wind and rain and a little snow. No snow stuck here but when I look out my window at a hill a couple of miles away, it is white.

Today being a holiday as far as government agencies are concerned, my hubby got the day off. He works in the county courthouse. So, we went out for breakfast at our favorite restaurant, and made a couple of stops at stores. Snow was falling but melting in town, but on our way home it was sticking to the road. The car doesn't have snow tires yet, but does have 4 wheel drive which we didn't need to use. The forecast is for snow and rain showers for the next few days, so the tire places will be very busy.

My wandering cat had one more trip home in the pickup, when he went to visit the neighbor cats, total of 3 or 4 times, but has stayed home for the last 3 days. This weather should curb any thoughts of walking down to the neighbor's and hopefully by the time the weather improves the habit pattern will be broken.

Yesterday I worked in my greenhouse for about an hour. I had noticed that I had some beets with powdery mildew, so I gave the plants a severe haircut and put the leaves in feed sacks. Good thing I did, because they also had aphids. Now those 2 bags of leaves are on the burn pile. The beets look pretty sad. These plants are growing in a long raised bed on the south side of the greenhouse, along with chard which also got a pretty drastic haircut, and a tomato with blight that needs my attention next. I sprayed the beets and chard with a mixture of water, rubbing alcohol and a few drops of liquid dish detergent, which should take care of any aphids I missed.

After the greenhouse job I worked in a flower bed until it was getting hard to see what should be kept and what needed to come out. I'm hoping that after this 3 or 4 day storm goes through that I will be able to work outside some more before winter really comes.

I went back to the chiropractor last week, after not going for almost a year, because my hands and arms were going to sleep so much at night that I wasn't getting much sleep. The adjustment only lasted a few hours, and now with the holiday and weekend the office has been closed. Poor timing.

Tomorrow I'll call for another appointment. I emagine it will take several times before my bones want to stay where they belong, they have been out of place for a long time. The longer things have been out of place, the longer it takes to convince them to stay where they belong. Muscles and ligaments stretch and shrink, so it takes a while to change that. Nerves in the back run clear down to the fingertips, so when something gets out of line in the spine, it can pinch the nerve. Most of the time it's pretty comfortable until I sleep for about 2 or 3 hours.

Mary

Time marches on toward winter, and in the foreground, Thanksgiving! It's all too soon, I still have too much to do before I'll be ready for either. But since I can't clone myself, turn back or slow down the clock or the calendar, I just resign myself to the fact that some things will not get done, and some will not get done as well as they should be.

We had a little rain overnight, probably just enough to clear the air a bit. My poor husband has had allergies for months, and is way overdue for having some relief from the pollens, mold and dust in the air. The little shower we had a few days ago helped temporarily.

Late yesterday afternoon when I was working outside, Nip, my neighbor's Border Collie, got bored with what was happening (or not happening) at her house, and came to visit me. She showed up with a nice stick in her mouth which she expected me to throw for her. When we went down toward the garden and orchard, the deer were already there for dinner, and she saw them start to move. Off she went like a shot, and ran them up over the hill and out of sight, then came back just as proud as she could be! She's a good dog. I called Paul and he came to get her.

Today I'm cleaning the oven and doing some neglected cleaning in preparation for having a housefull over the holiday and weekend. I'm thankful that I have a house and an oven to clean, it's just not a whole lot of fun.

This afternoon I have another chiropractic appointment. We have decided that it is better to have a few adjustments in rather rapid succession instead of waiting until something is getting intolerable, which was what I did last year, trying to save money. The muscles need to be reeducated about where my bones really belong. I picture it being something like teaching a dog to sit, at first you have to push the dog into the proper position, and then when he gets the idea, he will do it without being pushed. I wish I could just say "sit, stay" and have it happen, but then we all want instant results.

Mary

We woke up to a white world this morning. At 5am the cats were already camped out on the back porch mat waiting for their breakfast. I'm still bringing the dish inside before I go to bed, just in case the racoon is still around. This morning I can walk around and see if there are tracks in the snow.

Yesterday I went in for another chiropractic adjustment. We are making progress, the shorter muscles are starting to get stretched and the longer ones are relaxing. Three or 4 day intervals between adjustments is apparently what they needed. I should have done this last year.

I didn't sleep well last night, woke up at 2am and my mind got busy, so I finally got up just before 5. One of the things that I remembered was that gallon of milk and bunch of celery that I forgot to bring in from the pickup. Thankfully, when I did retrieve them they hadn't frozen yet.

Our housefull of guests will arrive tomorrow evening and will stay until Sunday. There is still much to do before then.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mary

Thanksgiving is over and the turkey is pretty much history, too. I boiled the bones and made homemade noodles for soup in my 20 quart soup pot for dinner the last evening everybody was here. The next day I made dumplings to go in the leftover broth. Now there is just broth with carrots, onions and celery in it. Since there is enough for a couple more dinners, I might make more dumplings since they were so good and we haven't had dumplings for a long time. It's much easier than making more noodles, even with a noodle press and cutter. Before I got that handy little machine, we hardly ever had noodles because of the work and space involved in making them.

We had a great time with all of our guests, and certainly ate very well all 5 days that they were here. One evening some friends came to visit so there were 11 of us for the first night of the turkey soup. The guys had a shop project going all weekend, the girls had schoolwork, and the local food service was almost nonstop! Our one bathroom was a busy place with 9 of us here full time, and the first thing that got washed when everyone left for home was the damp bathtowels. Next load was sheets. I'm out of holiday laundry now.

We have had snow the last 2 nights, but not very much. Our overnight low temperatures are 10-15 degrees with daytime highs in the 25 degree range, and with moisture in the ground now, the flower beds are frozen. I need to dump the last wheelbarrow load of weeds, bring the rototiller up from the garden and call it a season. The hoses are coiled up and stored away in the garden shed. I kept 2 out to leave in the heated shop so I can refill water tanks for the horses.

This morning I noticed Neut, our big cat, wandering toward the neighbor's place again. He hasn't made any trips in the last couple of weeks, at least none that I am aware of. A while later I wondered if he kept going, so I bundled up and took a walk down the road. Sure enough, there he was, so I picked him up and carried 15 pounds of wiggly cat all the way home. Half a mile is a long way to be carrying him, and even though he was good for about the first half of the trip, he was getting quite heavy by the time we reached home.

The new snow on the mountains looks good, but we have firewood to cut on Friday, the last chance before the Forest Service closes the woods for the winter. More snow is in the forecast, so we can only hope to be able to go get at least one good pickup load. Two would be better. We have enough wood for about half the winter, but thank God this year we have the propane furnace, although I really don't want to have to use it for about 3 months. Actually, what I don't want is to have to pay for using it.

Mary

Winter weather has certainly arrived in force. Yesterday we had strong wind all day, first producing a ground blizzard rearranging the snow we already had on the ground, and causing very low visability. Later in the day it started to snow but the wind continued. By dark there were some interesting snowdrifts in the flower beds and pastures, and much of Breezy's morning hay was sticking out of drifts that went across the driveway.

I decided it was time to put Breezy into Patch's pasture so I could feed him his hay in an inverted tire feeder, thus getting most of the hay into the horse instead of into the landscape. This move means that I can't give Patch his grain and supplements without either moving Breezy out while Patch eats it, or taking Patch out to eat his goodies tied to the trailer. Neither one is very convenient, especially if the weather is nasty like yesterday. Breezy doesn't get grain because he has a metabolic problem with the starch. Another alternative is to give Breezy some alfalfa pellets as a treet, while Patch eats a reduced ration at the other feeder. This works if they don't change places.

All day we watched the birds trying to eat at the seed feeders which were swinging quite wildly in the gusty wind. Their aerial acrobatics were very entertaining. We expected to loose power sometime durning the day or evening, so had the wood stove going in case I needed to heat something on it for dinner, and we had plenty of candles handy. The heat from the woodstove felt good and we never needed the candles. There is something phsycological about needing more heat when the snow is flying past the windows and getting plastered on them, and of course the furnace will not work if there is no power.

During the night I woke up several times because of the storm. The wind blew hard all night, but the temperature was rising, first enough to change the snow to sleet, and later to rain. The driveway had a layer of slush this morning when my hubby left for work, and he called later to tell me that the road between home and town is good, and the streets in town are ok. I have a chiropractic adjustment to go to later today, and then we will find some dinner in town before we come home.

Mary

This afternoon I took a nice walk down our county road. Snowdrifts are all that is left of the storm we had on Sunday, but there is something very unusual about them. They are dirty! Snow is supposed to be clean. I know that in other parts of the country the snow does get dirty from pollution, but ours stays clean. Until now.

As I walked along I realized that our strong winds had picked up the soil from a neighbor's field that had been plowed this fall. There hadn't been enough moisture to hold it down. The strong winds had moved the snow we already had into drifts and sprinkled it, or rather, blasted it with dirt from the field. Very interesting and different, but I prefer to have my snow white, thank you. It's much prettier that way.

As I was coming back home, I could see breaks in the clouds on the west side of the valley over the mountains, with the sun having already decended below the horizon. The clear places were a pleasant gold color. I wonder why it is gold some days, pink some days, and sort of a peachy color at other times. They are all very pretty so I enjoy them all.

Our temperature warmed up to almost 50 degrees today, and the sun played peekaboo behind clouds. My greenhouse got warm enough for the automatic vent system to operate. Tonight of course, the greenhouse will cool off enough for the furnace to come on.

I did some probing with a shovel today and discovered that our frozen ground has thawed enough to do more flower bed clean up, but by the time I discovered that, it was almost dark and time to feed the horses. If we don't get more rain or snow, I think I will try to do some flower bed cleaning tomorrow or the next day, something I have never done in December!

Breezy was moved back into his own pasture again today so Patch gets his grain and goodies as usual, without the inconvenience of having to move one of them just to feed the other.

Mary

Yesterday I hung the laundry on the line, knowing it probably wouldn't get dry yesterday, but thinking that today it might. The weather forecasters called for some rain and snow, but with their track record, I didn't take them too seriously. I didn't need any of the laundry soon anyhow.

And so this morning I looked outside, and snow was covering the ground and flying past the window. There had been a bit of light rain last evening, the Lord was giving my laundry a second rinse with soft water. How nice! But then he froze them and added snow which froze in the wrinkles and made everything look interesting. The clothespins looked like furry little men dancing on tightropes with the wind making the clotheslines bounce as the laundry flapped in the wind.

After getting the fire started, I set up the folding racks next to the woodstove in the living room and went out to take the laundry off the line. Not as easy as all that, the clothespins were frozen to the fabric and to the clothesline as well. I broke two of them trying to get them loose, and finally brought the frozen sheets and towels inside with many clothespins attatched. Little things can be so amusing sometimes.

And so why do I go to the trouble of hanging laundry on an outside line in the winter? Because I love the smell of laundry that has been outside in the fresh air. And because sometimes they do get dry. No clothes dryer here either, so if I can get them mostly dry outside, they don't require so much time inside on the racks adding scenery and obstacles to the living room. A few years ago we had a cat that loved to climb up on the racks and ambush us from there as we walked past.

Today I won't be taking a walk anywhere, the wind is blowing hard, snow is coming down at times and the snow on the ground is moving into low or sheltered places. Hubby came home from work early, said it was snowing hard in town and the streets were dangerously slick. The freeway was closed at our exit this morning. He called before he left work to ask if I needed anything. He says we have some drifts across the driveway, and I can see them forming elsewhere.

It's a good day to work on our Christmas letter, which will serve as cards this year. Ah, the wonder of computers! I can get the letter written and select the pictures, then get my daughter in law to help me put it together next week. She is between semesters in her nursing program, and today was the first day of her break. Good timing with the roads the way they are to not have to go 40 miles to class.

We had hoped to have breakfast with them tomorrow since we haven't seen much of them while she has been in school and studying almost nonstop. That might have to wait, depending on the weather. Lots of things depend on the weather.

Mary

What a beautiful day the Lord gave us. My greenhouse was so bright and sunny it collected enough heat to activate the automatic vent system by mid day. However, since I had wired the winter insulation over the vents a few days ago, they didn't open, so the fan was working hard blowing hot air at an unresponsive vent. I turned the system off, something I should have done when I did the other half of the job. It was cold and windy that day and I was in a hurry to get back into the house.

Today I got rid of the excess hot air by opening a roof vent and opening the sliding window on the screen door. I'll have to watch it carefully on sunny days. The north wind makes the louvered vent flap, letting out the heat from the furnace, so in an effort to save some money on propane, I close and insulate the louvered vents in the winter. When we built the greenhouse we should have put the furnace in the other end. A baffle next to the exhaust vent might help, if I can figure out a way to put one there.

I walked on the county road today for about half an hour. In spite of the nice sunshine, it was, in a word, invigorating! The air temperature was about 25 degrees, but with the wind chill, that was feeling like about 0 on my face. The rest of me was very well protected. When I got home I closed the greenhouse vents.

Our son and daughter in law came out for visiting and dinner on Saturday, so I got help with the Christmas newsletter. It only took her about half an hour to put pictures on two pages and make everything fit with the letter I had already written. Computers are amazing, but mine looks pretty dumb when it is me operating it.

Neut, my wandering cat is wandering again. Yesterday we were putting up Christmas decorations outside and I saw him coming home from the neighbors, following the fenceline for most of the trip, probably for security so he would have a place to hide if he needed to do that. He must have gone back today because I haven't seen him, not even this morning when he is usually camped out on the back doormat waiting for his breakfast.

Mary

As I mentioned before, the deer have been coming into my yard, sampleing a few bites of this and that, leaving piles of fertilizer (neatly pelleted little marbles), and not really hurting anything. Yesterday morning I noticed that they have been pruning the honeysuckle bushes that climb an arbor at the back gate. It needed to be done. I also picked up some uneaten hens and chicks, a succulent that I have growing in a container group over the septic tank where nothing else wants to grow. I can plant those pieces and have new plants by spring.

Today I casually glanced out into the pasture and saw a deer grazing on some weeds about 50 ft from Patch, who was eating at the feeder and didn't care. Hmmm, kind of close to the house for the middle of the day..... and then I walked to the back door and looked toward the woodshed and there was another one. Something to my right moved and I saw another one under my clothes line, about 20 ft away. I got the camera and started taking pictures.

Here is what I saw.

Mary

This shot was taken though the back door window, the lighting is bad but you can see the deer. He is a spike, has antlers that are about 5 or 6 inches high without any branches.

Mary

The closest one was under the clothesline.

Mary

He moved toward the other end of the house, so I moved to the bedroom and took this one though the window.

Mary

Then he saw me and left, taking the others with him. All together there were 7, 2 were young bucks, the rest does. The bulky figure on the left is Patch, he has his head in the feeder. I can count 5 deer in this shot.

Mary

My kitchen seems to be the local cookie factory! Today I think I baked the last of them. Well, I might make just one more kind. I think that's what I said yesterday. Now I can make up gift plates of cookies to take to neighbors and to send to work with my hubby. One of my neighbors has moved about 40 miles away, but I think I will make up a plate to take to her anyhow, since I haven't seen her new place and I miss her.

Today I had an appointment with the chiropractor, but called and rescheduled it for the end of the week. The weather was horrible when I called, and now, just when I would have been there, it looks pretty good. However, when I looked at the local weather forecast page on the internet, there was a big red banner that said WINTER STORM WARNING, with strong winds and more snow through tonight, and I have no desire to be stranded in a snowbank. The road to town is not heavily traveled, and it is several miles between houses, the longest stretch is about 6 miles, and cell phones don't work for much of it.

The deer thought about coming back yesterday afternoon, but Nip, the neighbor's Border Collie, was here visiting (bored at home and came to see if I wanted to play) and so when I went out to do the afternoon chores we walked toward the deer, they started to move, and I told her to get 'em, and she ran them off the place and out into the sagebrush, then came back a couple of minutes later looking quite proud of herself. They didn't come back, and I don't see them today.

Our tweety birds are eating very well and are a joy to watch. I'll post a picture of the feeder which is just outside my kitchen window. Lately we have had some bald eagles sitting in the trees below the hay shed, they show up about this time every winter. One of them is an immature bird, he doesn't have the white head and tail feathers and still has the light colored body blotches. He sits on a lower branch than the mature one. I don't remember to look for them every day.

Mary

Gold finches at the feeder outside the kitchen window.

CajuninKy

Mary

Where are the sheep at this point in time?

Love the birds. I can imagine how much they appreciate that feeder.

Mary

The sheep are about half way through their pregnancys and are looking woolly enough to be nice and warm. They get hay every day. I should take a picture when they are being fed, if I get there at the right time with my camera. The cattle also get a big meal of hay every day. The deer move in and eat with the cattle and sheep, or clean up what they leave.

CajuninKy

Can sheep breed at any time during the year? If so, why breed them to give birth in winter?

How much is hay selling for there and is there a shortage? Did you guys have a drought?

Mary

Sheep are seasonal breeders. The ewes start estrus cycles in the late summer and fall, and most have just a few cycles and then no more until late the next summer or early fall. The lambs are born starting at the end of February and through March. The ewes and lambs are fed very good quality hay to get the lambs off to a good start. If left to their own devices, the ewes would be having December or January lambs.

When the grass starts to grow fast in the spring, the lambs are about 6 weeks old and ready to eat it. We have a very short season here for growing grass. They are sold or butchered at about the time the grass is dying off for the summer, and by that time they weigh about 110 pounds. All of this is the reason for having most of them born in March. Sometimes the weather is bad, sometimes it is good.

Hay has more than doubled in price over last year. Yes, we are in a serious drought, last year was the dryest year in 75 years. There were no replacement lambs kept this year as there is not as much hay available to feed them through the winter.

CajuninKy

Very interesting stuff. I have wondered about it ever since I read the first James Herriot book. They must lamb a lot easier than cows calve. I would think the weather must make it harder. Do you lose many lambs?

It seems the drought hit all over to some degree. I don't know if we caught up yet but it has been raining a lot lately. I am so thankful my horses are all at the new place and inside a big barn. The work hardly seems like work at all, now.

Mary

Good morning. It's the day after Christmas, and some of the evidence is still in the living room; new books on a table, a pile of other gifts next to the couch, and a pile of boxes, wrapping paper and bows that I will sort to see what can be salvaged and reused. I haven't bought any paper or bows in years, and when I did they were at bargain prices when the stores had marked everything down to half price. My family thinks I am a bit nuts in that department, but it does save money. Cheap? no, frugal, it's a matter of perspective!

One of my gifts was a cute little garden bench with the figures of a boy and a girl sitting side by side, barefooted and sharing a book. It is about 15 inches high and will look nice under a small tree or shrub. I haven't decided where it will go.

We will also have some forced hyacinth blooming in time for an early spring indoors. This came in a kit with a heavy clear vase, white stones, 3 large bulbs and directions for forcing them into bloom. I put it together and it is now on a shelf in my dark fruit storage room in the basement, out of sight where it can be growing roots at 50 degrees. Hyacinth blooms are very fragrant, and these will be purple/blue if the picture is accurate. Maybe I can find some paper white narcissis to go with them, at a bargain price of course!

Our son and daughter in law came out from town in the morning and spent the whole day. It was nice not to have to be hurrying, but we never did get the 1000 piece puzzle out of the box. They helped us with a photo taking session, outside, in 15 degree weather with a strong wind blowing. It is for next year's Christmas letter and involves a horse with decorations. It sounded simple enough but I hadn't counted on the wind blowing the decorations around and scaring the horse a bit. We made it quick and nothing got really out of control.

Dinner was turkey and all the trimmings again. I know, most people have ham or prime rib, but we like turkey and dressing so well that we don't mind having it again a month after Thanksgiving. Besides, we didn't have much leftover with 10 of us here on Thanksgiving and the weekend. I will freeze some of it, and boil the bones for soup with homemade noodles, probably for New Years. Maybe our son and daughter in law will come out again for that and we can work on that puzzle.

Meanwhile, hubby is back to work, and every day I get to trudge through the snow to feed the horses and chop the ice out of the spring in the big pasture, keep the bird feeders full, put wood on the fire, and spend too much time on the computer. But now I have new books to read, too. One of the new ones is a true story about a lady who was in a terrible accident, and how her horses became her therapy for getting well. It looks like a good one. I also have a Catherine Marshall book to read while I nibble away at leftover Christmas goodies and then have to take long walks to work off the calories.

Mary

Cajun, I neglected to answer your question about lamb losses. We don't usually loose very many. We get them into the barn as soon as we can after they are born, hopefully before they have time to get chilled. Once they get a warm meal in their tummy, they usually do fine. We keep them inside for 3 days, then they go out to a sheltered corral or pasture. We have to watch them carefully for pneumonia, especially in the first couple of weeks and if we have an extreme weather change, and a few of them need shots of antibiotics which usually cures the problem if administered soon enough.

One year we had a blast of really cold air at lambing time but didn't loose any more than the usual numbers because we were out there watching extra carefully, checking them sometimes hourly. Any ewe who looked like she was in labor was brought inside so that the lambs would be born in the barn. If the barn had been large enough to accomodate the entire flock, they would have all been brought inside. The temperature was down to about 0 with strong winds for several days and nights. Poor timing but how can we know that 5 months in advance when breeding season begins? Normal weather is much nicer.

Have you read my lambing journals? The pictures from the older ones have been lost due to a web provider thinking that something like 30 days was long enough to display them, and me being slow to learn how to post them on the new system, but this year I will be posting new ones as I write. Lambing starts about the end of February or first of March.

CajuninKy

I will be looking forward to the new pics. I have read your exciting stories of lambings past and enjoyed them very much. I look forward to new installments as the little white woolies begin arriving next year. Get plenty of rest before they start knocking at the door. LOL

Sounds like you had a good Christmas. Nice you could be with your family.

We weren't able to make it home to the bayou this year but are planning to go next month. We moved 23 bales of hay today but have about 175 more to move. The weather is not helping but we will chip away at it until we get it done.

We had a good Christmas here in Ky. Knock got a new (to him) saddle. Red, white and blue. He loves it.

Mary

The sky is bright blue, the sun is reflecting off the snow, and the wind has finally stopped blowing. We had a snowstorm last night so today we have lots of pretty snowdrifts. I took some pictures but haven't downloaded them yet. Snow is a hard subject in some ways, it is hard to get depth preception to tell the size of drifts but today I think there were enough shadows.

We still have a stack of Christmas CD's that are being played. A while ago I was listening to the Vienna Children's Choir, and now it is the Salvation Army Brass. Yesterday it was Celtic style, lots of variety! These are mostly CD's that I bought at the Salvation Army thrift store for $3 or $4 each. They don't sell too well in the summer.

This morning I walked down into the big pasture to chop out the little spring for the horses, and had a bit of trouble finding it. The snow was covering it very nicely which also helped insulate it, so there wasn't much ice to chop out. The trip down there and back up the hill through the snow in my calf high winter boots takes a bit of energy. I can sure tell that my feet weigh about 4x as much with boots vs tennis shoes.

Today my hubby is working half a day and then we will be driving about 40 miles up over the mountain pass to another town to a wedding rehersal and dinner. Hubby will be performing the ceremony tomorrow. He does a few weddings every year, sometimes in parks, homes or in a social hall. Some people just don't feel comfortable in churches but still want a minister to marry them. He sees it as an opportunity to inject a bit of Christianity into the life of a couple who are just beginning their journey of life together.

Mary

Wind blowing the snow through the fence makes an interesting landscape out of something relatively flat.

Mary

Of course, Neut had to see what I was doing, and when the snow is deep he takes the high road.

Mary

Here is a story in tracks. In the foreground you can see where the quail landed and pushed the snow with his chest, then he walked for a while, and flew away.

Mary

Snowdrifts formed by the rockjack at the corner of the fence next to our driveway.

Mary

Here is the same view this morning before we drove up the driveway. You can see by comparing the pictures that the snow got a bit deeper. The drifts at the bottom of the lane were about knee deep in yesterday's tire tracks, and the ones at the top by the gate were almost 3 ft high. I thought we should drive up first with the tractor so we would have new tracks to follow with the car, but hubby decided he would take a chance going up without them and maybe get the car stuck, but we made it on the first try. It did get a little bit interesting along the way, we went kinda sideways but hubby just kept going and steering out of it.

More new pictures on The View from My Place. Enjoy.

Mary

More snow storms are coming, we can see them on the tv weather map. Big storms. By this afternoon the first one will be here, it hit the west side of the state yesterday and overnight, then in a day or two we will get more that are aimed at California, but are so big that we will get the edges of them and that will give us more snow. We have about 10 inches on the ground now but have deep drifts. I stepped into one while I was feeding the horses and could just about sit down on/in it without changing position.

Yesterday I had a chiropractic appointment so I combined grocery shopping with that trip to town. The store had a coupon for $10 off on $50 worth of groceries. It sure doesn't take long to spend that much. I have another coupon just like it that is good next week. When I have those coupons I stock up on staple items when I have filled my list, and I take the calculator along to keep a running total.

Gas has dropped a few cents, was $3.16 about 10 days ago, and is down to $3.09. A gallon of milk costs about the same. Bread that sold for about $1 a loaf last year is $1.19 on sale now. I buy the good stuff, but should make some now that I have time on my hands.

After my appointment I walked about 6 blocks to my hubby's office. We went to have dinner at the Chinese restaurant, then he drove the pickup home so I could have the car which is an automatic, for the trip home. I fed the horses in the dark, put the groceries away and lay down on my vibrating heat mat. It didn't take long for it to put me to sleep, but I slept well overnight too. I must have needed the extra sleep.

Today I will do greenhouse chores, watering, and bug killing. Every winter I get an infestation of aphids. I have tried to control them somewhat organically with homemade sprays, but have now bought a product called Safer's Soap which is not as lethal and foul smelling as other insecticides on the market. It's time for another application to kill the ones that hatched after last weeks spraying. I have some repotting to do, three of my miscellaneous zygocactus will be repotted together since they are all the same color and have finished blooming.

Periodically I will work on a 1000 piece puzzle that was a Christmas gift, it is about half finished and going very slowly. It's on a card table which doesn't have enough room to really spread it out, so some of the pieces are still in the box. The picture is of running horses with dry grass and dust all around them, and mountains and sky in the background.

Mary

The first big storm has blown through and we are enjoying a break before round 2. Some communities in the area lost power but ours stayed on all day and night. My greenhouse roof vents which measure about 18 inches high by 36 inches wide and have steel frames were flapping in the wind. I wired them closed with baling wire (from hay bales).

The day started with our usual wind, and then all of a sudden wooooosh, the storm hit. Snow that was already on the ground was blowing around making the surface look similiar to waves on water, then the rain started. After everything was quite wet it changed to snow. Back and forth from rain to snow, rain again, snow again, all day.

Hubby called from town about 2 hours after the storm hit and said that the freeway was closed due to 4 semi trucks being blown over. Later there was also a motor home in some kind of major trouble. Power was out in communities in the next county.

My day included using the vacuum while I could, (although I secretly hoped to be rescued from that task), mopping the floors which I can do without power if necessary, and working on the big puzzle. It's still not done but getting there, maybe in 3 more days. I'm getting down to the hills and sky, and the grassy foreground where it is mostly a matter of working with shapes, only 2-300 of them. I saved the worst for last.

We had planned to go to my sister's today or tomorrow to visit, but probably will postpone that until next weekend. My sis called yesterday and said she was caught in the storm on her way to town. One bad place had almost whiteout conditions, the other was the mountain itself, which she described as "pretty wild up there near the top". The road is steep and winding, with several switchback turns and about a 6000 ft summit. 12 miles of the road kind of hang on the side of the mountain, with very few guard rails. We'll wait for a better day, but my freshly baked raisin bread might be gone by then.

Mary

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