4th Down
The NFL Wildcard Playoff Weekend is not over yet (2 games left today), but I am already a little woozy after two days of elimination desperation decision-making about going for it on 4th down. They weren’t all close games but they all contained the drama of getting knocked out of the playoffs in the first week if you lose.
Watching football several days in a row is a lot easier to do when the weather outside is frightful. It’s also a little less stressful for me this year because my team isn’t a contender. My allegiance leans toward teams representing the same division and conference as my Minnesota Vikings, but it’s not unlike me to change my mind in the middle of a game and root for their competition if circumstance dictates.
Color me fickle when it comes to other franchises and their fans. I had to pull for the Detroit Lions last night because I wasn’t up to seeing fans’ disappointment if they’d lost.
As the series, “Ted Lasso” reiterated, “It’s the hope that kills you.” In an earlier game, it was Dallas fans who had their hopes crash and burn in dramatic fashion. I felt sorry for them but it was offset by how thrilled the fans of Green Bay were.
Asher was a little disappointed we didn’t spend as much time outdoors as usual. He wasn’t interested in any of the NFL games. We pretty much exhausted all of his favorite indoor games. We’ve converted his outdoor “indestructible” throw ring into an indoor chew toy that occupies him for large chunks of time when he gets in that groove.
His bin of indoor toys becomes a wonderful time sink when a handful of his dry food is tossed in and around the objects so he has to nose stuff out of the way to find the precious morsels.
When that game is over there are usually more toys scattered around on the floor than remain in the bin. We can tell the exercise is completed when the sound of crunching kibble stops occurring. He might move around a few more toys, but when the munching is over, he’ll soon be looking for a new distraction.
I count myself lucky when he decides the next activity can be a nap instead of incessant whining to go outside.
It’s funny, I’m just the opposite. I start whining when I want to take a nap. When I’m successful and permission to sleep is granted, it’s a bit like getting a first down on that dramatic 4th down try.
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Cold Outside
Much of the U.S. is experiencing dramatic levels of cold outside so I don’t feel alone in my experience tending to the horses this morning. There is an interesting sort of pressure pushing on you when trying to do everyday tasks at extremely cold temperatures.
The horses handle it as stoically as they always do against weather extremes. They were pretty much all business this morning as they consumed their feed pellets while I was cleaning up the incredibly hard frozen rubble of manure from around their feet.
The fresh snow cover offered clear evidence of unseen goings on overnight. Plenty of hoof prints and turned up leaves exposed deer activity in our woods that intrigued Asher greatly. The horses appear to have been active in both the hay field and the back pasture. The connecting gates between those two fields are not currently open so the horses must choose a single opening from each of the two paddocks to get out.
In the past, they have been slower to cover so much ground after a snowfall. One side or the other of the paddocks will show little to no tracks for days. This morning their tracks reveal they had been moving around more than usual in the last 14 hours.
Back inside, I had a warm couch partner keeping me company after breakfast.
I was thinking about preparing this blog post but Asher seemed to prefer I focus on him instead. He rearranged himself when I brought my computer to my lap and Cyndie took a picture.
He looks so cute it’s hard to feel frustrated with his escape yesterday morning that led to our neighbor from the south phoning to alert us to the unsanctioned whereabouts. I was plowing at the end of the driveway and hadn’t heard my phone ring. The neighbor was out plowing, too, and pulled up to share the news in person.
While we were talking, Asher came trotting back. I didn’t have a leash with me so I hopped on the Grizzly and enticed Asher to race me back to the house. He happily took up the challenge but I don’t think he liked that I decided to drive so fast he could barely keep up.
I figured it would be to our advantage to make sure he was exhausted. Taking him out for extra exercise in these temperatures is contra-indicated.
Thank goodness it is warm inside.
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Just Enough
We got just enough snow overnight to justify using the Grizzly to plow. It’s hard to tell how much snow fell out of the sky because it was/is windy and some areas are blown free of snow (like the deck railing which is usually a good gauge) and some drifted deeper than what truly fell.
Horses have blankets on in advance of the polar plunge as temperatures are predicted to plummet for the next few days.
This feels a little more like winter for our region. Almost the middle of January and the first driveway plowing of the season. Can’t complain about not being ready, I guess.
Bring on the NFL playoff games and a warm fire in the fireplace. (Glad I’m not playing football outside tonight in these conditions.)
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Neighborly Advice
In our ongoing consultation with experts about the possible source of water on the basement floor, I reached out to the realtor who found this property for us. She consulted with her cousin who lives in this area and came up with the name of a home inspector for us.
I recognized the name as a neighbor who lives around the corner. He and his wife and one of their sons are the only people who have stopped by our place (1 time) on Halloween night since we moved here in 2012. He recently made a transition from Realtor to Inspector and after a brief phone conversation offered to come look at our place at no charge.
Cyndie quickly baked a batch of small hand pies to share as a thank-you. Turns out his wife is an avid baker. We have invited them to dinner to get to know both of them and visit without the agenda of formally inspecting our house. Informally, who doesn’t “inspect” a home they visit for the first time?
The general consensus about water issues around our house is that the landscaping should be updated to compensate for the settling that has occurred. We came up with nothing definitive to explain why our basement floor got so wet a week or so ago.
I have a new theory regarding the area around the geothermal lines that come up through the concrete floor. Those were added since we moved in and they cut through the slab. I don’t know how tightly that opening was sealed when all their work was done. It’s the first place I’ll check next time it rains.
There’s no rain in the immediate forecast for us. Snow is expected this afternoon, followed by days of Arctic cold temperatures.
A while back I think I mentioned we were going to meet a new volunteer for This Old Horse who wants to connect with horses closer to where she lives. In addition to loving horses, she happens to be a big fan of labyrinths and has a deep passion for trees. She told us her husband was home prepping logs for a house they plan to build on their land.
We intend to invite them for dinner soon, too. Their last name is Asher.
Really.
We are looking forward to making some new connections with folks living on this side of the St. Croix River. That hasn’t happened as often as we’ve hoped it might over the years.
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Long Term
Thinking long-term has become a key component guiding my choices in pursuing a rewarding, healthy lifestyle. In line with my desire to invert pyramids of dysfunction, I look at unhealthy practices and consider the results of not just ending bad habits but replacing them with something helpful.
Specifically, I like to pay attention to the types of behavior that are known to contribute to problems over time. An unhealthy diet is pretty straightforward in this regard. Eating a serving of anything that is obviously unhealthy won’t kill a person but if they did that for years, negative outcomes result.
Seems logical to avoid a prolonged habit of eating poorly. So, take it a step further and replace unhealthy food with nutrition-dense food as a long-term habit.
A person who eats poorly doesn’t check the next day to see if they are less well. In the same way, a person who eats healthy food shouldn’t expect to become healthy in a day. Many people check their weight every day as a monitor of their health. Cyndie and I don’t own a scale. My weight gets checked whenever I have reason to visit the doctor.
My day-to-day weight fluctuations don’t concern me. In the same way, I don’t check my retirement account value every day. It’s the long-term trends that indicate how I’m doing against my goals.
Most people know that it’s good to avoid dehydration, but it is common for people to allow their hydration to regularly fluctuate. I tend to think it is more helpful to my body to consistently function at a healthy level of hydration. What’s the worst that could happen if I’m wrong ten years down the road?
You might think my kidneys would get worn out but my practice is beneficial to them in preventing stone-forming crystals from sticking together. One bout of kidney stones was enough for me. That pain was off my scale.
When I’m well-hydrated, I feel more confident about stretching my muscles. Do you stretch every day? Does your dog or cat stretch almost every time they get up after a long lie down? It’s fun watching the horses do cat-like stretches.
I’ve learned to be patient and allow my body time to process a thorough stretch. It always strikes me as surprising that each time I prepare to stretch, I discover that my body has returned to the same limits of movement as the day before.
When I lay flat on my back and bend at the waist to lift my legs with my knees locked and bring my feet as far as possible toward my face, the stopping point is always the same and surprisingly limited. Then I do a hamstring stretching routine. After I have stretched, I revisit that first exercise of lifting my legs with knees locked and my back flat against the floor to see how much closer my feet come toward my head. The change is dramatic.
What do you imagine the long-term impact might be of regularly stretching for the rest of a person’s life versus not stretching?
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Didn’t Happen
We somehow got missed by the passing snowstorm overnight Monday. Looking at the radar map from the comfort of our bed had me suspecting we were getting a fair dose of flakes. I figured there would be some shoveling to do at the very least when we headed out to feed the horses.
Much to my surprise, the number of flakes on our front steps was so paltry, there was open space between each one. It was like a cloud had sneezed and that’s all there was to show for it.
That’s okay. With no real foundation amount of snow this year, an occasional few inches ends up being more of a nuisance than anything fun. Plus, since snow didn’t happen, it gave me more time to prepare the ATV for eventual plowing. In my post yesterday, I mentioned that the electric lawn tractor was blocking the ATV and wouldn’t move due to some fault revealed by an error code. I couldn’t even get the drive wheels to release by the manual override that would allow me to simply muscle it out of the way.
Well, a second try proved to be the charm. I’m not aware of having done anything different, but when I tried again to pull the two levers that stretch a spring disengaging each drive wheel yesterday, it worked on my first try. I pushed the lawn tractor out of the way and drove the ATV out.
That success allowed me to hook up the trailer and finish hauling away all the branches I’ve trimmed off in the last month. The north loop pine tree project is officially completed for the season.
And, the ATV is now front and center in the shop garage.
You can see by the photo I took yesterday how much snow cover we have after receiving virtually none from the storm that passed just to our southeast. Weather forecasters suggest a plowable amount of snow is on the way for Friday.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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Custom Trim
There is an evergreen tree beside our driveway down by the road that must have lost its leader long ago. Instead of growing up, it just gets bigger around every year. I looked back through the photo archives and found a picture I took from the road looking toward our property that reveals how small the tree was when we moved here in 2012.
The shape looked fine back then. I have no memory of the annual growth in the intervening years. Just that it became difficult to drive the lawn tractor between the tree and the fence in the last few.
I took this picture yesterday from the other direction before I planned to trim some branches:
The small tree in the background of the first picture and the foreground of the second picture is not the same tree. The first one died and we replaced it about four years ago with a transplant from up by the house. It was growing too close to the house so we decided to relocate it.
The bigger tree was getting so wide around the lower branches that I decided to take a chance at giving it a custom shape, primarily because it was already flat-topped due to the absence of a leader. I removed some lower branches entirely and then began lopping the ends of the remaining branches to create a symmetrical cylindrical shape.
There were so many big branches and cuttings on the ground to haul away that I decided to get the ATV and trailer for the job. That did not go as planned.
With our long span of uncharacteristically warm weather, I haven’t had a reason to drive the Grizzly so it was very reluctant to start. Meanwhile, the electric lawn tractor was still parked in front and would need to be moved. I had to retrieve the batteries from the shop where they were stored to avoid freezing.
That didn’t do much good because the frozen-solid mower was presenting an error code and wouldn’t move. I monkeyed around trying to solve the issue until it was time to feed horses. When they were tended to, I went down and dragged the cut branches to the other side of the driveway to be dealt with later.
The sun had long ago dropped below the horizon, but I took an “after” picture of the trees.
I don’t know if it looks okay or not but at least it will be easier to mow around next summer. It reminds me of a Dairy Queen Buster Bar ice cream treat in a way. It’ll have to do for now.
Today’s project will be to get the lawn tractor functioning so I can rearrange vehicles in the shop garage. We are finally getting accumulating snow so I will want the ATV for plowing soon.
It’s beginning to feel a lot like winter.
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Remote Viewing
We are getting so much pleasure out of being able to see and hear what the horses are up to from the cozy confines of our house.
Horses are incredible creatures. These four beautiful mares bring a special energy to our property. Standing with them provides its own reward but I’m noticing that experience becoming enhanced by the opportunities to look in on them between visits and see their behaviors when no people are around.
I was thinking maybe we would watch streaming television series less often now that we can view our horses, but in reality, we can easily peek in on them during commercial breaks or between episodes. People are constantly multitasking because we always have mobile computerized devices within reach.
After watching the Golden Globe Awards Show last night, our list of things we’d like to see grew by a surprising number of titles. When winter weather doesn’t provide conditions for the usual outdoor entertainment, movies and TV series become a cozy alternative.
That is… an alternative when we’re not reading books, listening to music, baking in the kitchen, assembling jigsaw puzzles, or out walking Asher.
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Song Inventors
This morning finds me enrapt with a song on an album from 1974. It’s been around since I was 15 and I have heard it probably thousands of times over the years, but I never closely listened to it. The song is “Fountain of Sorrow” from Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky” album.
The song is 6 minutes and 42 seconds long which allows for a listener to easily get distracted from following each precious nuance of Jackson’s specific phrasing or the subtly of instrumental embellishments or background vocals. Those features are the underlying fabric of the more notable lyrics that interweave a mixture of simple and complex lyrics.
I visited the Wikipedia entry about the song and liked one reviewer’s description of it as “an intricate extended metaphor.” I also learned that the song is “generally assumed to have been inspired by” his relationship with Joni Mitchell. I didn’t even know they were a thing, but the word used was “brief.”
As often happens for me, I find myself dumbstruck by the invention of each brilliant aspect of a song that materializes from a person’s mind to become something significant and timeless.
The structure of a simple hit song that consists of a series of verses separated by a repeating chorus, sometimes augmented with a bridge interlude, seems so simplistic in comparison to successful songs that deviate from that basic structure.
In “Fountain of Sorrow,” I don’t know when I am hearing a verse, chorus or bridge. It just flows like a river.
Speaking of inventing a song, I saw that Joan Baez, who created her own epic relationship remembrance in “Diamonds and Rust,” recorded a cover of “Fountain of Sorrow” a year after it was released.
There are a lot of songwriters in the world. I am grateful for all of them. My appreciation goes to the next level when the creation of song recordings takes them to places of wonderment that didn’t previously exist. Each pause, every instrument, and every aspect of making a person’s idea into a musical “thing” that will last and last, that is the invention.
I don’t know why a single song will suddenly grab my attention after so much time but I thoroughly enjoy it when it happens.
It’s one of the few times I would ever welcome an “earworm” repetition of a favorite line or two.
Looking through some photographs, I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn’t show your spirit quite as true…
written by: Jackson Browne album: Late for the Sky recorded: 1974
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Light Dusting
We received a light dusting of snow overnight that presented an opportunity to test out my thinking of using Cyndie’s battery-powered blower to clear the front steps and stone-covered walkway. Other than needing to endure the god-awful noise of the appliance, it proved to be a nice solution in place of the simple broom I would otherwise have used.
Today, we are looking forward to meeting a new volunteer for This Old Horse who could become an added resource for us to call upon if we are away from home during feeding times.
Other than that, things are pretty quiet around the ranch. Yesterday, while walking Asher around the hay field, the horses made a friendly gesture of approaching us and resuming their grazing close to the fence.
This morning, after the dusting of snow, I came upon fresh evidence that hydrostatic pressure is still pushing water to the surface in places.
I don’t know what to make of the fact we haven’t seen any new wetness in the basement since we cleaned up all the rugs that got soaked. Not that I’m seeking another bout of wet floor down there. That event still bothers me for the lack of clarity about what really occurred.
Our current premise is all conjecture. That doesn’t matter if we don’t experience another occasion of wet basement but it doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the integrity of our foundation.
A professional assessment is included on our list of home maintenance issues to be addressed.
Are home inspections something that can be done any season of the year? When I answer that, I’ll better know what level of procrastination I can allow myself on the concern.
I’ve still got plenty of trimmed tree branches to remove from beneath the grove of pines in the north loop of our property. The hinted possibility of accumulating snow in our future puts a fresh priority on completing that task.
Pondering issues such as these is a luxury of things being pretty quiet around here. No complaint from me on that!
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Relative Something 