This was the scenery from my bedroom window this morning.

Fat Cisco trying to be an ostrich in the deep snow:

Behind Cisco in the picture above you can see a great big stump. That tree was hit by lightning long before we owned the place. The lightning strike killed a couple of the horses who were sheltering under the tree. The guy who owned the place then - I think it was the same guy who took the supports out of our old barn - wouldn't let the fire department in to put the fire out because he was afraid it would spook his horses. They had to put it out by spraying it from the neighbor's property. I love hearing these neat old stories from my neighbor. So much history. Sad that the horses were killed and the big tree died though.

Scout looking quite nice, Tonka looking like a dork:

Friskyplay!

At attention:

I love this little woods behind our house:
(Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be so much motion in this still picture. A sense of peace, but also a sense of tempest...)

The dogs were blazing trail for me. I love this picture!

There was a strange bird on the roof of the barn. Then I realized it was Das, my hen. What on earth was she thinking? I had to get her down with a broom - she perched on it nicely.

Then I found this beast in the barn. I think he's the one who killed the other hen last week. I found other evidence that I hadn't written about. He used to be my favorite cat but he's gotten really cranky and I don't dare try to pet him anymore. He basically doesn't live here anymore either - just visits once or twice a month. So I felt bad chasing him off, but not too bad. I couldn't have him killing my hens.

Here's poor Das stuck between her mean daughter and that murderous cat.

I had fun making this picture antique. It was kind of boring by itself.
The fence is what's left of a 60 (or so) year old pig pen.
I paused to take a picture of my man on his studly tractor. Which he said was not being very studly today. It kept spinning out trying to move all that heavy snow, and he couldn't plow the hill part of our driveway. We need chains and a backblade.

So later we grabbed some snow shovels and headed for the hill. Halfway there I realized the tractor tracks in the snow didn't belong to our tractor. We'd been victims of a random act of kindness! Some nice neighbor brought his Cat out and plowed our hill for us. Gotta love good neighbors. And I don't even know this neighbor.

There's John and Huck at the top of the hill, lovely Cat tracks in the snow, and I'm about halfway up the hill screwing around with my camera, of course.

A nice photo of the view from my other bedroom window:
After we shoveled the lumpier parts of the driveway I spent some time with miss Bella.

She's a magic horse.

Time with her is very zen.

She's a healing horse.

This guy was wondering why I was spending so much love on someone else.

This was one of those teary-eyed moments of deep connection. No words. You probably know just the feeling though.

And here you can see that Soxy was just thrilled to have her picture taken. But I couldn't leave her out!

It was a fun, quiet snow day. Tomorrow I'm hoping to be mobile again, even if it means I have to chain up. I'm getting cabin fever.

Oh! I almost forgot. One more picture and I swear I'll be done.
I ordered this blanket for Tonka today. It's a Weatherbeeta Orican midweight turnout. Just what I wanted. Got an excellent deal on it. For once the super low clearance price that is only available on one size happened to be the right size! It's from Adams Horse and Pet Supplies. Never heard of them before. They have some good deals on wind-proof winter riding pants as well. Unfortunately I don't think the one size available will fit me... I was one dollar away from free shipping so I ordered Soxy a new fly mask. She needs a dark one for sun protection for her eyes. It's a brand I've never seen before. I'll try to remember to write a review on it when it gets here.

The horses made it through the night just fine. I shouldn't have worried. We got down to -7 according to my thermometer's memory. I'm glad it doesn't snow when it gets that cold so the horses' coats stay dry and fluffy. Normally I don't worry about cold when it's dry, but Tonka has big shaved spots and there was supposed to be wind. There is wind today, but at least we're up to 18 degrees now. I'm keeping them well fed and carrying water to put right under their little noses. They ought to be just fine.

Tonka seems a little depressed, but that's nothing new. He hasn't been eating near the other boys, and sometimes stands at the gate like he wants me to take him away from there. But he plays with them at other times. I think Cisco is singling him out to pick on around the feed since Scout isn't easily bullied.

And now I'm off to go entertain my bored kids!

Five degrees and falling. Low tonight is supposed to be -6. And my horses think their water is going to shock them. I unplugged the trough heater yesterday when I took Tonka to the trough and saw him very carefully feeling the water with his whiskers and his tongue, unwilling to drink until I unplugged. I bought a new trough heater today. When I got home I led them all to the trough because I could tell they hadn't been there in two days (no tracks in the snow). I guess they've been eating snow and maybe drinking out of the ditch. None of them were happy about sticking their nose in there when we got there. Scout was the only one who would take a sip. Which makes me wonder if the new heater is defective and they're still getting a zing, or if the horses are just afraid of that trough now. So I dragged a different one in there and filled it part way with water, and left the heater in the other in case they get brave enough to drink. I hope nobody colics. I'm tempted to salt their hay but if they eat salt and then don't drink it can make things worse.

Well, at least it isn't windy like they had predicted. That would be awful in this cold. I was really worried about Tonka getting through this, he's more frail than the others, so I went on a blanket shopping trip today. (After making 9 attempts to get out of my driveway and finally succeeding.) Long story short, I couldn't find a heavy enough turnout blanket. I trust his own winter coat more. And I've given them enough hay that they can eat and fire their furnaces until morning when they will get lots of sloppy wet, warm beet pulp with some salt and of course their usual daily supplements. (By the way, Tonka doesn't like the LMF Gold. I don't know why, it smells so good I want to eat it. I think it might be too much molasses for him, and he hasn't been finishing his feed well lately anyway. Soxy LOVES it.)

I am going to order Tonka a blanket for the future though. A midweight turnout blanket, plus a warm liner of some sort in case it gets really cold. What blankets do you recommend? I have only two blankets, and both are not what I want (wrong size too). Also, is there a type of fabric that might cause static? If so I need to avoid it because Tonka is incredibly sensitive to the tiniest shock (I accidentally zapped him with my finger recently and he was very upset).

I hope you and your horses are comfortable and happy, whatever weather you're having.

I've taken so many pictures the last couple days it's hard to narrow down what to post. So I hope I don't bore you...

Here are Bella and Soxy all covered in snow.

This next photo has a story behind it. Katia went to stand in the scary gateway so they'd feel safe coming through, but it turns out she shouldn't have turned her back on Scout. He rudely barreled into her when Huckleberry popped up out of the creek. She laughed about it. I'm glad she didn't get hurt.

Playing catch with snowballs:

Happy kid!

Vicious puppy! He kept grabbing Katia's gloves and she'd laugh when she told him no, so he didn't take her seriously.

She had to get stern with him since he ran between her legs and she fell. :)

Zoomie puppy bites butts!
(Yes, I know, he's very naughty. But he makes us laugh and he stops when we tell him to, so no harm is done.)


Snowball fight!

Frosted kids:

Here's snow in your ear!

"I think he wins!"

Tonka officially needs more groceries. He's not really skinny, just not quite right. He's not a real eater though... I'm going to put him in with Soxy (if he doesn't try to kill her) and start giving them both some LMF Gold and more of the alfalfa mix hay.

Tried snowshoes, snow too powdery:
Perfect snowflakes:

I really liked this picture. Kind of stark.

Nosy:

Three little boys all in a row:

Okay, that's it. I'm going to go back outside now before the windstorm gets here.

My dog is a thief

Mallet

Snowball maker


Hat

Hoe
(which is an igloo making tool, in case you didn't know)

"What? I is innocent."

I should clarify about my idea to sell Scout. My intention was to sell him to my dad. He loves Scout, and their personalities would be suited to each other. I know that Scout would be trained and ridden, not put out to pasture and then sold again. My dad's riding horse, Sox, has navicular and arthritis and has been having trouble when he's ridden, even in corrective shoes. So... I called my dad today and asked him what he thought. I thought he'd jump at the thought but he's going to think about it. Two horses, when he's paying for board, would be a big increase in expense.

If my dad doesn't want Scout I'll suck it up and train him before I'll think about selling him. I do not want his training neglected or for him to end up being someone's throw-away horse.

And now, since we're discussing Scout and the weather is atrocious (although I could have put my time to better use by doing housework, but that's what kids are for, right?) here is the video of Scout's second ride. Finally. It's interesting to watch and critique myself. Also, it made me realize that the ride went a lot better than I thought. It was a lot harder to get him moving than it looks like on video.

One thing I know for sure, I should have stopped a lot sooner.

Ho. Lee. Cow. How hard can it be to make a video file smaller?!?!
This is the best I could do without making it worthless to watch.

Several days ago I took the boys wading in the pasture. On the way there I found out that Tonka will bolt if Scout bolts. I knew that already, just hadn't fully experienced it. Really it was only 5 strides at most, so not much of a bolt. Scout was spooked by the dogs.

Today we had quite the snowstorm. The roads were terrifying, mostly due to whiteouts, there were semis and cars off the road all over, and we were having trouble with the truck to boot. I was so glad to get home!

My good dog, being handsome, intense, playful and cute.

Liam made quite the snow pile. The idea was to hollow it out and make an igloo but I don't think that went very well.

I made a little slideshow to share with you. It's less than 10 seconds long, just my boys coming to see me and getting a mid afternoon snack to keep them warm in the nasty weather.

One of my hens was killed today. She's the big round one in the picture above. Her name was Ontsie (named by a 4 year old). I found her after going on a search because the gold hen, Peekaboo, was acting weird. It's good to be attentive to changes in habits and behavior. If I hadn't found the hen until later I might have blamed her death on one of the dogs, but I know none of them was out long enough to kill her, and they don't bother the hens anyway. I don't know what got her but it didn't eat much. I suspect it was a hawk. Why did it have to kill her if it wasn't hungry?! Makes me mad, but mostly just sad. I'll miss her, she was a personable hen. The other two are locked in the chicken coop now to keep them safe. When the snow melts I'll let them out again. Their life isn't much worth living without the enjoyment of scratching around out in the world.

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. I haven't really felt like it when I have time.

I had a great ride with Tonka yesterday that has me seriously considering selling Scout instead of Cisco. It's a hard thing to think about, which is part of why I haven't been blogging. The fact is I'd like to be able to devote my full attention to the horse I really, really love. Also, Tonka is getting resentful of Scout's training. I'm not sure if he just doesn't like helping me because I'm distracted or Scout is irritating, or if he's jealous. That in itself isn't a reason to quit on Scout, but I really wish I didn't have to divide my attention. It's detrimental to my relationship with my One, True Horse.

After that one-on-one time yesterday, with focus on being attuned to each other, Tonka was super sweet and relaxed, not crabby and testy. I enjoyed myself more than I have in a long time and so did he. When I put him back in the pasture, instead of going to join his buddies, graze, or get a drink, he stood at the gate and watched me with his intense look until I got everything put away and went in. I think I want to be a one horse girl.

(Of course we'll never have just one horse, but the others aren't solely mine, and I don't have to ride them.)

Choosing between blogging and riding... Of course I'm going to go ride!

(I'm feeling 100% better today)

Read this if you need something to read. Amazing courage.

Tonka says hi!

Wordless for the moment... To busy and too sick.