Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Delilah’s Lamb
She almost looks a little sheepish, wouldn’t you say?
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Winter Walk
I haven’t been pulling the camera out very much lately because of the wind chill that will cause your flesh to freeze and shatter like glass in seconds, as the fear-mongering news reports seem to imply. It doesn’t really happen that way, so I risked cold fingers and stopped during a mid-day walk with Delilah a couple of days ago to capture our scene.
It reminded me how much I like having visual records of what I see. I should do this more.
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Snow’s Back
I’m sitting with some Guatemalan hot chocolate and fresh-baked puppy dog tails from Isles Bun & Coffee (thanks Jeff and Catherine!), preparing to have a late breakfast after an extended trip to feed the horses. It took a little extra time this morning because of the new snow that fell overnight.
It has been a while since I needed to clear snow. I’m out of practice. I’m behind schedule and chomping at the bit to get out on the Grizzly and plow, so I’ll make this short. I’ll post pictures!
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Dramatic Sunset
Last Saturday afternoon we actually saw the sun for about ten minutes. The clouds high in the sky dissipated for a short time and revealed a jet contrail that aligned with the glowing orb perfectly. The dew point temperature in the mid-to-upper 40s (F) during this warm spell has been creating some very thick fog. The dark smudges in the foreground of the image are remnants of the day’s fog that was just beginning to open up at about the same time the evening fog was just getting re-started.
We’ve only had a view of the sun for literally minutes out of what seems like too many weeks. I captured this image with an iPhone. The moisture in the air was filtering the sun so that I could make out the circle with my bare eyes, but the iPhone camera recorded more of a flash around the orb. I like the drama it creates.
Yesterday we did receive some rain, but nothing too substantial. It was more drizzle than rain in our location. We were hoping the horses would stand out in it to wash off the mud they had been packing on their coats, but the two geldings spent too much time grazing from the new box under the overhang.
We brought them inside the barn for the night, to give them a chance to dry out in preparation for a return to temps below freezing. The melt is done for a while and we are welcoming the return of frozen ground in the paddocks. It makes it difficult for cleaning up manure, but much nicer for the horses and humans to walk around.
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Big Meltdown
The weather has taken the predicted turn toward warm, foggy, and wet. I didn’t take a picture this morning, because it would just turn out gray. Our visibility is at about 12 feet. It’s not like we lost a lot of snow. November brought us a couple of plow-able accumulations, but we never had more that 4 or 5 inches on the ground, excluding a few drifts that made it to twice that depth. But there isn’t much left in the way of snow anymore.
The mid-40s (F) all day yesterday and overnight last night have softened the once-frozen ground and turned the paddocks into their classic spring mud messiness. It is hard to judge the effectiveness of our drain tile with the current situation, because the ground seems frozen in some places and not so in others. I’m confident that our changes have helped to some degree. Ultimately, what the drain tile is expected to improve is the time it takes to dry out after the source of moisture ceases.
This situation is temporary, as it will return to freezing in a day or two. That will give the horses a break from the sloppiness. I don’t know if it bothers them as much as it does us, but it sure looks and sounds miserable when they trudge through the muck.
This morning they seemed particularly jumpy, I assume from the thickness of the fog, and it had them doing some dramatic running with gusto. When it is muddy, that kind of running kicks up quite a mess. Maybe they actually like that effect.
I took a picture of the drainage swale doing its thing yesterday. Here’s a before and after view of the big meltdown:
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Day After
It feels like an accomplishment to get through the day after Thanksgiving. It has become such an event unto itself. My preferred way of coping with the bombardment of consumerism-run-amok is to not go anywhere or do anything that could in any way be construed as partaking in the buying frenzy.
When Cyndie appeared from the bedroom yesterday morning, she informed me that I would be making the 1-hour drive to the city to pick up a prescription for her. My plan for the day was foiled from the get-go. In addition, daylight had revealed a new covering of snow that arrived overnight, so I had some plowing and shoveling that demanded attention as well.
It didn’t end there. As I was driving home from the pharmacy, I noticed some rain drops on the windshield. We were receiving sporadic bouts of timid precipitation all afternoon that alternated between wet drops and icy shards. Never enough to make a major impact, but enough to leave a trace. If it got any worse, I would likely need to put the horses under cover of the barn overnight, which meant I needed to clean the stalls from their previous stay.
Such is life on the ranch in the winter. When Cyndie returns to full activity, these projects will be minor demands on us. Prior to that, the combination of tasks needing simultaneous attention complicate my routine significantly. I am not able to help Cyndie at the same time I am out doing chores.
I walked in the door this afternoon and found her working in the kitchen. As time passes in her recuperation, she begins to grow weary of asking for assistance and naturally tries to do more and more herself, as she feels able. I begin to feel like a nag from frequently asking if she needs my help, but then think I’m neglecting my role as care giver when she has worked past her comfort level.
We make a great pair. You’d think we were married or something.
Friday came and then disappeared in a blink. I safely navigated traffic for a few hours on the road, then we enjoyed a flatbread pizza Cyndie created for lunch. I got the stalls cleaned, Delilah walked, driveway plowed, and trash/recycling wheeled down to the road.
In the end, I decided the horses didn’t need to come in overnight. I’ll find out this morning whether they were okay with that plan, or not. It wasn’t exceptionally cold overnight, and the prediction is for above-freezing temperatures today, so I’m hoping they aren’t finding the weather too bothersome.
If I’ve got the energy for it today, there is some old firewood that needs to be hauled to the house and new firewood to be split and stacked. With a little luck, maybe I’ll even get back to that slow hay feeder box project that has been stalled for a few days now.
I’m happy to have it be the day after the day after.
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Relative Calm
For the most part, calm prevails on the ranch as we settle into a routine of rest and healing for Cyndie. With neither one of us needing to go anywhere, we can operate at a very comfortable pace, guided by the regular intervals of animal feeding times which I must act on.
Cyndie is capable enough now to take care of many things herself, so I don’t need to constantly be in her immediate vicinity. Plus, we continue to be blessed with the added assistance of her mother’s occasional visits, or the home-care nurses and physical therapist.
We received a dusting of snow after last weekend’s melt, making our views a bit more photogenic again, at least for this time of year. I was going through a bit of a picture-taking drought for a while there.
After walking Delilah yesterday morning, I grabbed my camera and headed back outside to see if I could capture some of the scenes that had caught my eye moments earlier.
The horses were so content, messily chomping away on the hay in our two feeders, that I was moved to take some extra time and linger among them. Both Legacy and Dezirea had rubbed their manes into a tangled “braid” that defies logic. I have yet to see how they do it, but it is a recurring phenomena —more so for her than him. They tolerated my interest in detangling their hairdos, continuing to munch at the feeder while I worked.
Delilah patiently waited for me in the barn, where I left her while getting hay. It’s a good day when she quietly waits for me there while I feed the horses. Too often I feel rushed to get back because of her sharp barks of protest for being left longer than she wants.
The only other thing that has disturbed the peace and quiet we’ve been enjoying is an invoice that came in the mail from the city of River Falls. In addition to needing to pay for the towing and repairs to the truck after Cyndie’s little rollover accident, we are also responsible for paying the public service emergency responders for responding. It costs $500.00 to have an accident in River Falls. It adds insult to injury.
Don’t do it, folks. It is not worth it. That money is better spent on groceries. It irks me to no end that they show up and park their cars with flashing lights while the tow truck works, and then bill you five hundred bucks. If they are going to charge you, they should at least inform you, and give you a choice of having them respond or not.
Talk about a dis-incentive for calling for help. Something is seriously messed up if our tax dollars are not sufficient to fund public services. And they have a monopoly. We should have a choice of more affordable options. If they want to charge for services, then privatize it and let us shop for a responder who charges the fairest price.
I told Cyndie that she is not allowed to have any future accidents in or around River Falls, WI. We can’t afford it. We’ve got horses to feed.
Speaking of the horses, that reminds me, it’s time to go back to grazing. I’m going to return to that place of calm. I don’t have to pay an extra fee to do that.
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Relative Something 