Archive for February 2023
Icy Mess
Let me start by saying that I think climate change sucks royally to the maximum extreme. We have not been blessed with a complete switch to a warmer environment as a result of the trapped greenhouse gasses but instead are suffering a ridiculous mishmash of our old winter weather interspersed with springtime-type rain throughout December, January, and now February.
Conditions for the horses yesterday morning were pretty dreary but they were incredibly stoic about enduring the insult of freezing rain.
It was tricky navigating the slipperiness as I made my way down to the barn. The two chestnuts were down under the willow tree, just standing in the rain. Mix and Swings were up under the overhang, just standing.
None of them looked cold and none of the multiple offerings of hay had been exhausted overnight. There also wasn’t the usual ridiculous amount of manure under the overhang that needed to be picked up.
I raked up any scraps of hay and tossed them on the slipperiest-looking spots. Even if that tossed hay freezes on the ground, it still offers improved footing for the horses.
This is a good shot revealing a view of Mia’s opinion about the weather:
Actually, she had gobbled up all her feed before the others had finished theirs and came over to the gate to see if I had anything else to offer.
By the afternoon feeding, after the precipitation had stopped falling and the accumulated ice had melted from most of the tree branches, the horses actually looked dry. I don’t know how they do it without sunshine or blow dryers, but it does wonders for showing how well they cope with the elements.
Horses seem to convey an understanding that bad weather is a temporary situation that can be outlasted with sheer will and steadfast patience. I have a bad habit of focusing my curiosity on how much worse it could possibly get outside while they are blocking out the misery by looking forward to how great it’s going to feel when the warm rays of sunshine finally return.
We are all hoping that moment happens today since our forecast is teasing the possibility it might.
I would like to work on focusing my attention on how much better the weather could possibly get outside.
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Mystery Solved
There are times when the answers to life’s mysteries make total sense. In this case, it was hardly a surprise. Late yesterday afternoon, Cyndie received a message from our weekend horse sitter apologizing for accidentally pushing a button on the remote controller of the AppleTV and seeing a message she had subscribed to some channel.
That explained the “Subscription Confirmation” email I received Friday. We had invited the sitter to stay at the house if she wanted and then quickly forgot it meant she would be using our media setup.
My new mystery is how I should deal with the skating rink that has evolved on top of the gravel drive in front of the barn. As soon as we got home from the lake yesterday, I headed out to plow and quickly got stuck trying to push large amounts of snow over the icy surface.
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I resorted to making multiple passes around the hay shed with the blade lifted, just to disturb the deep snow. Next, I tried barely lowering the blade and pushing small amounts to the side, Sometimes, when the wheels just spun on ice, I would get off and shove the ATV sideways and then try again. Slow rocking got me going eventually.
In the end, I used a wide hand shovel to distribute a layer of snow evenly over the slipperiest parts, hoping it might refreeze and offer better traction than just the ice.
The thing is, now we are expecting freezing rain, so it is hard to guess what that surface will change to by the end of the day. Whatever it becomes, I didn’t want the new precipitation to be on top of the deep snow that I had yet to clear after last Thursday’s storm.
It felt good to get that addressed last night after having left it to go up to the lake for the weekend. Now I’ll just sit back and watch what today brings. Happy Monday!
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Subscription Confirmation
What did I click on without realizing it? I have no doubt that possibly happened. I also would not be surprised to learn that this company which I’m not going to bother naming chose to subtly opt me in without informing me.
I received an email with the subject line: “Subscription Confirmation.”
“You’ve accepted the following offer”
“Your subscription automatically renews until canceled.”
Huh? Wasn’t me. Cyndie assures me that she didn’t subscribe to anything. Ten bucks a month if we didn’t notice and cancel.
I will take great comfort in whatever struggle is involved in asserting my intention to get this subscription canceled.
More pressing things are on my mind as we pack up to drive home this afternoon. Mother Nature is keeping me occupied by delivering messy precipitation before I finished clearing all the snow that fell last Thursday. In our haste to drive to the lake on Friday, I left the deep snow around the hay shed and in front of the barn unplowed. I also didn’t finish clearing snow off the pavement in front of the shop.
As we were leaving Friday with our eyes on yesterday’s American Birkebeiner ski race adventures and a weekend with our friends, the Williams family, I felt it was well worth skipping out on snow-clearing chores at home.
UMD student Ella skied the big 50K race in pretty decent winter conditions. I thought the wind was a little brisk for spectating, but that would be a rather petty complaint to make in the face of the many hours-long efforts the skiers exert.
This morning my phone alerted me to a storm warning for tonight and tomorrow at home that will start with rain and turn to snow. I really dread dealing with that on top of the areas of snow I have yet to clear.
I didn’t sign up for that. In fact, I’d like to cancel any subscriptions that involve rain during our winter months.
Thank goodness the ski race in Hayward happened in good snow conditions. Just moments ago, while I was writing this in the sunroom overlooking the frozen lake where several deer had run across toward the island, one of the local eagles flew into the large pine tree just beyond our deck.
It did some wiggling with wings flailing on the far side of the trunk and Cyndie wondered if the eagle was eating something. Then the powerful bird took flight with a good-sized branch it had broken from the tree and headed for its nest over our tennis court on the far side of the fateful footbridge over the lagoon.
I would rather sign up for more of this than tomorrow’s weather adventures expected to occur at home.
But heck, either way… ADVENTURE!
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Accident Scene
Something clicked when we reached the intersection of Hwys 63 & 77 in Hayward. I told Cyndie I felt a moment of post-traumatic stress at the sight of the interchange as it triggered a memory of driving through it toward the emergency room at Hayward Hospital.
I went through that intersection twice more that night, on the way to and from the pharmacy in Walmart where I also needed to find wide-leg sweatpants for Cyndie to put on before leaving the hospital. I found a mauve-colored, elastic waist velvet number that Cyndie is prone to describing as “hideous” but she always follows that with the clarification that she loves them and they became her favorite pant during those weeks of recovery.
I asked Cyndie if she wanted to revisit the scene of her accident last November at the footbridge over the lagoon.
Without hesitation, her response was an emphatic “NO!”
Beyond the fact she didn’t want to get that close to the memory right now, the amount of snow and her hobbled condition make that walk ill-advised. From the comfort of the cabin, I took a photo in the general direction of that bridge.
I didn’t feel like walking out there, either.
In fact, we are watching the start of the American Birkebeiner while snugged on the couch.
We will be heading out to see Ella Williams ski her second Birkie after her wave crosses the start line. Trying to pick her out of the online streamed view of the thousand skiers staging for their wave is our first thrill of the day.
Soon we will don our winter wear and venture out to a convenient crossing at 00 (doublel-oh) to cheer her on in person. Then we will drive to town to watch the finish.
It will be an interesting test of how much walking Cyndie’s ankle will tolerate outdoors in the cold.
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Accurate Forecast
The winter storm proved to be just like the weather service predicted, dumping snow in two waves and totaling somewhere in the range of 15-20 inches at our place. It’s hard to measure with the wind creating a variety of depths across our land. I took a walk with my yardstick and found a drift of over 20 inches in one spot.
I make a habit of cleaning off the lid of our food compost bin every time I walk past it so I can use it as a reference of how much new snow falls since the last time I cleaned it. Yesterday morning, there were spots where the dark cover had no snow on it at all yet the ground beside it was covered by 16 inches of powder.
I found a spot in the yard with only 3 inches but the driveway, which I plowed in the middle of the pause between the two waves, had gained 9 inches of new snow overnight.
Based on the frame of our roof rake, I was wrestling to bring down over 18 inches of new snow on the roof of our house. Much of that ended up hitting me in the face as I worked.
The snow was over knee-deep as I made my way toward the barn to feed horses first thing in the morning.
Mia had a new cut on one of her hind legs. It looked like one of the other horses probably kicked her. Cyndie rallied to gingerly make her way down to tend to the wound while I held Mia in place. I took a picture of Mia that ended up looking like she was standing on two legs.
That’s a weird view, isn’t it? If you don’t think about it, she looks normal but once you let your mind see it as only two legs, it gets hard to unsee.
I also took a picture of a rare moment when all four horses decided it was okay to stand together under one side of the overhang. Most often one or more of the horses will demand a wider bubble of personal space and chase others away.
Today we plan to drive up to Hayward to spend the weekend with friends at the cabin and take in the excitement of the American Birkebeiner ski race. I’m hoping the weather will be as perfect over the next two days as the meteorologists are predicting. Before we head out, I just need to finish a little more plowing and shoveling.
After that, I’m actually looking forward to just sitting in a car for two and a half hours. My muscles deserve a rest.
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Forgotten
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coming in for a landing
in a dream
of a dream
with a receipt
that had notes
scribbled around the margin
layer upon layer
of life
float past
a drone’s eye view
great things spread out below
destined to fade to dark
slowly, though
seconds pass between each drip
leaking a history of memories
long forgotten
particularly the ones
that could have explained
everything
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We Voted
**Firstly, I apologize to anyone who tried to follow my link to the James Lilek column at the StarTribune site yesterday and got blocked by a paywall. I was under the naive impression that a minimum page view was available before the subscription requirement would be triggered.**
Now, on to today’s post…
I do not profess to be politically active beyond making reasonable attempts to vote in November every two years. Yesterday was the first time I ever voted on a day in February. How and why did that happen?
I credit the site vote.org for emailing to alert me of a spring primary election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice “in what’s turned into an expensive and high-stakes battle for control of the state Supreme Court in a key political battleground where power is divided between a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled legislature.” (https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-election/index.html)
There are mentions of the outcome of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice election potentially rippling all the way to having an influence on the 2024 Presidential election. That comes across as being a little overly dramatic to me but if my participation yesterday does anything to help offset extremist views and potential outcomes then the short drive to our town hall before the snow started to fly was a small cost of contribution.
I’d be even more thrilled if anything I could do would magically change Putin in Russia into a peaceful leader who immediately ended his wars of aggression. If that happened, I’d immediately seek to turn that magic power toward every corporation and their boards of directors to instantly change every greedy decision that was contributing to cooking the planet into oblivion. Really.
Our votes yesterday were to narrow the selection down to two candidates for the general election in April for a seat on the court. It’s pretty special to be able to participate in our democracy. Now I am returning my attention to our life on the land where our focus is to give four horses a happy home and be good stewards of the fields and trees.
Weather has a way of dominating our activities, especially weather in the extremes, like blizzards that threaten to reach historic proportions.
Guess who will be plowing and shoveling our driveway and walkways for a couple of days in a row?
I vote that we receive the lower end of the snow depth range predicted. Seriously, that would be more than enough for anyone’s favorite winter snow sport. Can we vote more than once?
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Reading Lileks
“It’s not that everything has sugar. It’s that everything has added sugar. That’s the line on the label that gives the game away. The sauce for that frozen chicken entree? Added sugar, 10g. The frozen pancakes? Added sugar, 6g. You buy some oil for the door hinge, and the label says “Added sugar.” There’s probably added sugar applied to public doorknobs so you absorb it topically.”
Yesterday’s StarTribune column by James Lileks resonated so resoundingly for me that I’m going to point you to it today. It reads similar to the kind of silliness you might find in one of my creative posts. See how much of me you recognize in his column about his low sugar/low carb diet…
Click the image above to read his column, “Buttering up our lust for bread.”
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Snow Expected
They tell us to expect fresh snow this week after a prolonged span of February days without frozen precipitation piling up. I have been enjoying the freedom from needing to plow and shovel, but I get a sense that I haven’t enjoyed it as much as I should. Now that this freedom is coming to an end, it feels like I have taken the pause for granted.
I’ve always felt a fondness for the look of one thing fading into another. Especially, gradual gradients. Yesterday, I took pictures of the old snow where it was melting back to reveal the ground below.
It has a bit of a yin and yang feeling to it.
I’m also fascinated by the way leaves melt into the snow.
Looks like there was a fish beside it. Notice the hint of a yin and yang curve in those two, as well.
If the forecast is correct, it will all be covered in white again before the week is over. The cosmic duality of opposing forces of winter precipitation covering the dark earth.
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Relative Something 