Posts Tagged ‘sunset’
Pushing Snow
After a day of clearing more snow, it became glaringly obvious to me that not having to deal with much snowy weather for the last two years has left me way out of practice. Day two of the post-storm clean-up included some roof raking, deck shoveling, and hand shoveling the area in front of the shop garage, since I have yet to remedy the issues with the ATV plow setup.
Gladly, Cyndie came to my aid with the last bit of driveway shoveling, just as I was running on fumes. The killer for me is working the roof rake with my arms over my head, especially with one bum shoulder. It’s exhausterating, to coin a custom word.
It felt like a bit of an insult to receive a fresh dusting of flakes before we’d finished the driveway shoveling. I’d almost forgotten what it was like when snow and cold were the norm at this latitude.
It could snow a little almost every day, and people just get used to there being a coating of snow to navigate on foot or by car.
I really should fix up the plow situation today because there still remains plowing to be done down to the barn and around the hay shed. When I finish that, we can resume clearing out the hay shed of the rest of the bales of moldy hay.
When I clear significant snow this early in the season, it is important to push it well beyond the edges so there will be room for the next snowy event. I will need to accommodate wide turns around the hay shed because there is a delivery of fresh bales sometime in the near future. That means pushing snow well into the grass around the corners.
Seems pretty obvious what my priority for the day should be.
A shot of yesterday’s sunset…
…and the 3/4 moon reflecting the sunlight that was dropping below our horizon.
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Precarious Footing
Yesterday afternoon, we received a wonderful surprise in the form of sunlight and a visible blue sky after days of being socked in by a persistent fog.
The view when we headed down to feed the horses was spectacular!
Too bad it didn’t last. Not long after darkness fell, my phone pinged with a weather service warning of dense fog again. With the large dose of moisture lingering after yesterday’s rain and the airborne water vapor coating surfaces as the temperature hovered around the freezing point, Cyndie found the driveway dangerously slippery when she snuck out to retrieve the feed buckets.
This morning, it is even worse.
The asphalt of the driveway was too slippery to navigate on foot, so we backtracked and cut through the side doors of the garage to get to the backyard for a route to the barn.
The horses were coping but didn’t look too pleased with the conditions either. The poor pigeons were having quite a time of it when they tried landing on the metal roof and couldn’t keep from sliding.
It will be a good day to stay indoors, where I can finish my next jigsaw puzzle and watch the Vikings/Packers matchup with a glowing fire in the fireplace.
That blue sky yesterday afternoon now feels like it was just a mirage.
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Guys Weekend
Well, look at that. I’m back up at the lake place. It’s a tough life, but I’m doing my part to enjoy the good things that keep coming my way. How about a sunset boat cruise with old pals?
That’s a David K. and Kevin W. sighting with me on Round Lake near Hayward, WI.
Greetings from Hayward!
David and Paul snap a photo with the postcard mural on our way to West’s Dairy for ice cream. Our timing was right because we had just purchased our treats when waves of teen girls numbering around 40 paraded into the Dairy from some girl’s camp in the area. It was “All Hands on Deck” in the ice cream scooping world.
Cyndie’s brothers, Steve and Ben invite golfing buddies for several days of marathon golf rounds every year over the first weekend in August. I’m not a golfer, but I will accompany Paul on some biking excursions when he’s not golfing.
Cyndie is on solo duty at home while I am hanging out with the guys. She already reported that Asher got away from her to chase after a rabbit last night and ended up at the neighbor’s place where he likes to go after their cockapoo or barn cat. On Sunday, we trade places and I head home to care for animals while she comes up to the lake with a friend.
In the meantime, I will be soaking up lake life to the fullest and sharing some laughs with good friends.
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Grass Gripe
While I have been toiling to prepare the dirt along our driveway and in the back pasture for grass seed, one thought keeps going through my mind. We are working hard to nurture grass seeds to germinate. 
Preparing the soil, distributing the seeds, raking the seeds into the dirt, spreading straw over the top, and watering the area in an effort to establish a carpet of green where previously there was none.
Meanwhile, grass has grown in front of our hay shed despite a total lack of effort from us to make that happen.
Over and over yesterday while raking, my mind reviewed the unlikely fact that grass seed falling from baled hay lands on the hardened gravel drive. The soil wasn’t prepared for seeds. We never watered that area. It gets too much sun. Vehicles drive over it. We don’t want grass to grow there.
Despite all the reasons grass should not sprout there, it has done so with unbelievable effectiveness.
It’s just plain wacky. It’s an imbalance in the universe. It defies logic.
Don’t mind me, that’s just a little grass gripe I harbor. Let’s end this post on a more positive note. How about a photogenic ground cover in the rocks just beyond our front steps?
Add to that a shot of the golden sunset Cyndie captured the other day:
Beautiful, no?
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Pushing Snowbanks
Just have a couple things to share before I rush off to catch the next episode of our latest binge-watch. Cyndie and I randomly chose “Suspicion” on Apple TV+ a few days ago with no advance information about the show. We are nearing the end and find ourselves struggling to explain what seems like plot holes to us. We keep wanting to see another episode to find out if the things we are questioning end up making sense once all is revealed. Maybe not the best reason to get hooked on a story, but it works for us during winter months when Cyndie can’t do much else.
We are being warned by weather forecasters that seriously cold temperatures are headed our way this weekend and could linger for almost two weeks. Under Cyndie’s wise counsel, I put blankets on the horses yesterday while their coats were good and dry. Snow was predicted overnight and that contributed to my decision to put blankets on yesterday even though it was a nice sunny day.
I took some time in the afternoon to shovel the shoulder of a section of the driveway to push back the snowbank. It feels really rewarding to reclaim the full width of the pavement (on one side, at least) and to open the way for easy plowing of the next big snowfall.
We had a dusting of just under an inch of snow on Wednesday. I’m actually hoping there will be enough new snow out there this morning to justify plowing. I’m looking forward to seeing how much of an improvement clearing snow will be where I’ve pushed back the snowbank.
Since the shoveling is a little tedious, I had plenty of time to ponder how I could collaborate with my welder to create an offset plow blade that would hang off the back of the ATV to push the snowbank back a few feet. If it were even possible to do, the Grizzly would likely not have enough traction to knock back the snow on uphill portions of the drive. It is hard enough to push away snow with my front plow going up the hills.
An offset back blade could work on the downhill runs I bet, though.
Yesterday’s picture was of how the sun looked first thing in the morning through the low clouds. By evening, the setting sun was painting a much more vibrant set of colors.
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Mostly Coping
Yesterday was something of a between-day. We enjoyed a break because no new snow fell and the winds had yet to kick up significantly when I walked the trash bin down to the road last night. At the start of the day, Mia seemed to be functioning normally and all the horses appeared to have dealt with the overnight cold just fine. Mix wanted to show off her frosty whiskers.
I wanted to take a picture of her cute frozen eyelashes.
Even though the temperature stayed below zero all day long, they warm up enough in the daylight to melt all the frost off themselves.
I filled my day yesterday by plowing about six inches of light powder from the driveway before pulling snow off the roof over the front entrance. Plenty more snow remains to be moved today but if it gets as windy as predicted, I may just wait one more day.
As the sun was about to set, it glowed through a haze of snow blown airborne across our horizon.
I was on my way down to re-attach the mailbox to its post after it got knocked off by the wash from the township snowplow blade. For the moment, what wind we were getting was coming from the west-northwest which is ideal for the orientation of our barn. Under the overhang, the horses can enjoy the relative calm.
With no wind chill complicating their ability to cope with the extremely cold temperatures, they seem to accept the conditions better than we do. I wonder if it is because they have no other choice, while we keep going back inside warm accommodations as much as possible.
Do they keep hoping for a day when the bite of bitter cold loosens its grip? If there is such a thing as horse sense, I hope they do.
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Evening Color
Feeding the horses at sunset and Mia finished first. I noticed she had stepped out from beneath the overhang where her silhouette was backed by the brilliant evening colors.
I think maybe she was looking at the half-moon glowing through a thin veil of high clouds.
For all the days I might grumble about needing to step out into the harsh elements, there sure are a lot of rewards for getting outdoors as often as I do.
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Battening Hatches
In the shadow of the storm that ravaged the middle of the U.S. last week, the prediction for our area this evening is a little intimidating. High winds and December thunderstorms after record warmth in the afternoon have us more on edge than usual.
Any time it rains here in the winter I wince. Everything about it is wrong. It will likely be a night to bring the horses inside the barn to protect them from getting soaking wet ahead of the drop in temperatures to below freezing.
The insolating properties of their winter coats don’t work so well when wet.
How come penguins don’t have that problem? Polar bears? Whatever.
If we had hatches, we would be battening them down today.
Last night’s sky at sunset was just dramatic enough to feel like a hint of what lies ahead. I will be very happy to find out our concerns were unnecessary if nothing significant materializes.
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More Sky
We seem to have fallen into a pattern where the sky is our focus for photography of late. Cyndie shared this wonderful sunset view yesterday:
As I enter the final month of commuting to the day-job, this brings to mind the sunset of my career in electronics manufacturing, which next leads to the sunrise of my expanding days on the ranch. This is where I thought I would be shortly after we moved so far away from my place of employment nine years ago.
Back then, I thought I might find work closer to home so I wouldn’t have to drive to the far side of the cities for work. I never planned to keep going back to the old job all these years.
We didn’t really plan on living in the midst of a global pandemic, either, but now that’s what we’ve got.
Leaves me a little timid about guessing what the next few years will bring. For now, caring for our rescued horses and coming up with a different way to keep chickens are two highly likely areas of focus.
And beyond that, a lot of soaking up our glorious views of the always fascinating sky.
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Relative Something 