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More musing on winter…..

Unfortunately the snow did not continue past the first week of January. But the past two days have brought us a little bit (2 or 3″); hopefully more in the mountains.

No Michelle….the sheep were not buried like our cars! Those little feet make myriad paths in their winter pens, and we try to stomp out what they don’t get.

Here is what it looks like at the beginning:

The lambs love the snow! And I often see snowy backs in the mornings, knowing that some of them prefer to sleep out even though they have the choice of straw-bedded shelter; so toasty in all that wool.

But here is a photo from last year, showing what the pens look like after a few days
(I love feeding on clean snow):

The snow in the horse’s feeding corral is a real blessing:

But like last year, there is a down-side to this much snow; the snowload always threatens to collapse the roofs of some of the things which can’t be undercover (at least not yet). Brook did the sheep trailer and the camper; I volunteered for the horse trailer….and afterward took several doses of arnica. My old bones came out unscathed!

As I think about another two weeks away next month (working in AZ once more), I treasure each moment here. I always do, but being away from home makes me even more grateful for my blessings.

It is such a joy to see the smiling face of my best friend in the world every day…

And to be with our four-footed family.

More catching up to come….

It has been weeks since I last wrote! I hardly know where to begin, but I will try to give only the highlights. Even so, I need to go WAY back to the second of this month:

The day that I finished my work in Tuba City, I had to leave the beautiful red rocks of AZ behind…

and the people so connected to this land….

and make my way to Flagstaff that evening. All at a much later hour than I had planned (the work-day had been busy). Fatigued as I was, I followed Kathy’s good directions to the motel, checked in, and promptly locked myself out of my rental car! The keys had fallen into the trunk as I was pulling out my suitcase…ugh!

I had an early AM flight to Boise the next morning and was mildly (well, more than mildly) panicked about getting to the airport. I had to leave the motel in the dark, drive on unfamiliar roads (both bad enough by themselves)….and now I had no car to get me there!

I had planned to meet Kathy and Ralph for dinner that evening, and so I walked to the restaurant, and called Hertz to see if I could get another key. I tried to focus on the moment (not my distress): The meal and the company were wonderful…so good to sit down with friends after a long day and a long drive. And it would have been completely relaxing except for my stranded status. Thanks to an efficient operator at Hertz, a locksmith was sent to rescue me. One stressor off my list….now just to get to the airport in time and get home alive! (I am NOT a happy flyer)

Joys of joys: by just after noon the next day, I was meeting my sweetheart in the Boise airport…having once again escaped the grim reaper of airplane travelers. And Brook and I were together…two weeks had seemed an eternity.

We had a delicious meal at a favorite Thai restaurant in Boise, and then made our way back to Beautiful Pine Valley. Nearly 5 feet of snow had fallen while I had been away, although it had compacted to 3 feet or so. It was wonderful to be back home and back in winter again.

It began to snow that night and didn’t stop for a couple of days….absolute heaven!

By the time we got to plowing out the area in front of the house (48 hours later), my little car was just a bump under the snow:

But that was 3 weeks ago; now we want / need more snow in our mountains for summer irrigation. We will bear up under more snow clearing….a small price to pay.

Stay tuned….more catching up to come!