Posts Tagged ‘muddy conditions’
Forest Scenes
On a walk through our woods with Asher yesterday, he spent a lot of time fixated on digging for, or gnawing on hollowed trees for, phantom critters. I’m sure he knew they weren’t figments of his imagination, relying on scent the way dogs do, but I didn’t see any living “dog-toys” desperately employing escape maneuvers while his back was turned. Not this time, anyway.
To occupy my time while he foraged, I took advantage of the moderate overcast sky illuminating the soaking wet surroundings to capture some of our forest scenery.
As I mentioned a few days back, about the moss becoming more prevalent over our 14 years here, I’m developing an increasing fondness for the presence of the special green coatings that perfectly cling to the contour of all the interesting places it grows.
It is a mystery to me as to how this concrete block ended up so far away from anywhere that seems logical. Could it be from the early 1900s? Or from 15 years ago?
Moss changes an old stump into a mythical creature. It looks like he has fallen and broken his leg.
It won’t be long now before these views will be obscured by green leaves sprouting from every tree and bush, reducing our explorations through the forest to the trails. Right now, most of our pathways are miserably muddy and puddled with standing water in many sections.
There is hope that all the growing things will guzzle up much of that standing water as they burst forth with leaves, but we have the coming spring rains to contend with, which will most likely prolong our season of sloppy footing. It is up to us to adjust our attitude to look past the mess on our boots, paws, pant-legs, and floors and appreciate the moisture that will keep all the trees and plants well hydrated.
On the bright side, it appears to be making the moss happy. You should see how funny my stride gets as I try to step as delicately as possible on the places where moss is covering the paths that are as wet as a saturated sponge. The Ministry of Silly Walks would be proud of my performances.
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Messy Mire
The previous few days of rain and record-high temperatures have created a muddy mess in the paddocks. It really makes me miss the years when it didn’t rain in the winter.
I found skid marks in the big paddock that revealed one of the horses slid on all four hooves for a length of about four feet. I assume one of them had started to bolt and then tried to slam on the brakes. Thank goodness they all looked fine when we arrived to serve their evening feed.
The soupy surface was as hard for me to walk through as it was for that horse that had tried to stop. Luckily, the four of them calmed down significantly after a few minutes of munching feed. I was able to focus on the art of picking up manure around them that was virtually inseparable from mud sliding into the tined scoop.
I have a feeling the horses and I will share the feeling of relief when conditions change in some way that will to put an end to the sloppy mire. I am imagining the ground finally getting covered in clean, white snow.
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Doesn’t Last
Even though I know that muddy conditions don’t last forever, I have a history of losing sight of that obvious fact after days of dealing with the worst of it. I was beginning to let it get to me last week.
This week was finally showing significant improvement on the mud front. I think that’s gonna end today. Snow is on the way again but I do know that the muddy conditions won’t last. Either we will get enough snow to cover the mud, or it will get cold enough to freeze the ground.
Or, it will just get muddy again and I will need to practice meditating on the fact it won’t last indefinitely.
Snow is another thing that doesn’t last. It might stick around until next spring, but it will eventually disappear and produce some sloppy mud in the paddocks. Maybe it’s time for me to reframe what gets my attention and start fixating on the days when the paddocks aren’t muddy at all.
I realize the preferred conditions don’t last either, but it becomes a glass-half-full perspective.
You know what else doesn’t last? Work gloves.
I picked up a couple of new pairs of my favorites yesterday and once again found myself fascinated by how dramatically these leather gloves change over a period of heavy use. I’ve tried a lot of different styles and settled on these for their versatility in a variety of conditions and because they are easy to quickly put on and take off.
In my outdoor activities, I find myself pulling off my gloves a lot. If necessary, I can shake one hand to throw off a glove. This becomes an excellent bonus feature when the other hand is unavailable because it is holding something in a firm grip.
My concern about work gloves is that this style won’t last as long as my need to replace them. I wonder if they sell these by the case…
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Relative Something 