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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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