….creeps in this petty pace from day to day…(or something like that.) No, Horngard I has not yet fledged completely and was handed back to the nest by the helpful Agent who pointed out that just flapping wings wasn’t flying, and the primaries were only half as long as they should be. Metaphorically speaking.
Horngard I is back on my daily list of things to work on, the Wildlife Management Activity Report has been turned in (last Friday, printed at Office Depot, on better paper than I used and a better and much faster printer…wowza) , and though I have the other official report to finish by the end of the week, it’s much shorter.
We’re having an ice storm. Everything outside’s very slippery. We are careful, you betcha. Not driving anywhere. Walking to/from the barn and hay shed with careful steps and a stout stick for balance. Horses are allowed as much hay (and a little more) than they can eat, and hot water is taken to the barn to warm what they drink, all to prevent the kind of colic horses get in the cold if they won’t drink enough icy water. Their hard feed is served very, very sloppy–water poured onto it–for the same reason. Neither (as mentioned before) will wear a blanket and it’s only in the upper-mid twenties, so they’re fine except that Tigger’s mane has frozen solid from the fine freezing mist-rain (mizzle?) Nothing to do but remind him, by offering and being refused, that he could be wearing a blanket. So far, so good. Below freezing, will be that way all day and night, might or might not get above freezing tomorrow night and will continue to drip out of the sky tomorrow, but Friday’s supposed to be clear sky. The farrier’s due on Friday, and on the weekend I may or may not be receiving Ruby, a pony I’ll be boarding for a friend for a few months.
For those of you used to cold weather, I’m overdressed (and my legs still feel a little chilly, even with long johns, knee socks over the long johns, under jeans) but I’m an older person with most of my life spent in HEAT. Yesterday evening I put on a sweater my mother made me decades ago: genuine Icelandic wool, and design, and boy is that thing WARM and COZY on a cold night with specks of frozen stuff landing on me.
Soooo…what needs fixing in Horngard I? Aesil M’dierra and Aris Marrakai (not as a pair…no…as individuals) and the middle of the book which now has been declared flat. Should keep me busy for awhile. Back to work (unless I take a nap. It’s the day for it. For lunch I mixed the leftover chili (Wolf Brand) from last night’s chili dogs with the vegetable soup with an added half a sausage sliced in it I had for lunch yesterday, and R- made drop biscuits. The chili-soup mix was amazing and the biscuits warm and wonderful.)
As a desert girl I have immense sympathy for you. I spent the winter of 1978-79 in Waxahachie and experienced two ice storms. It was enough to send me scurrying back to the desert at the end of the spring semester. I have lived where summer is over 110 from June to October and do NOT like being cold… so I’m frequently accused of being overdressed. My neighbor grew up in the mountains of Oregon, we have conversations at the fence about cats, goats, pigs, hens (all hers) while she is in a tank top and shorts and I am in layers topped off by a hooded coat. You do what you need to do and STAY SAFE!
need an edit option, I’ve lived in summer heat for over 55 years…
I remember one winter when it was 20 below zero for a full week. But stay warm and care for the horses and for first book. Your rabid fans know that it will be well worth any waiting.
Stay safe and stay sane.
Not sure whether this will make your weather less chilling … our predicted low is minus 38 , not sure if that is with or without the wind chill taken into account.
They say forty by Monday. I am thinking about the horse blanket situation and the carriage horses I saw in Vienna with coats labeled Gortex … and others in rather classy wool. The weather then was what our local forecaster calls snizzle .
Just had enough of iso it built up heavy layers of ice on everything, especially evergreen branches.
Two of those storms over five days, 30 hours without power … not just wires down but solar collectors iced over.
Jonathan doubtless has an idea what it’s like, Rather than shoveling snow, it was chopping thru a foot of it,
Take care of yourself, family, and your equine friends … and all the best with the middle of the book
There’s always Something. This week it’s rain, a nonworking toilet that’s also leaking when we try to flush it and trying also to come out the shower drain. Landline phones have been out at times, on at times, because the phone line came off the poles when a tree fell on it last week. Still on the ground in the neighbor’s yard. Works when it’s raining, not on dry days. We had one shirt-sleeve (T-shirt) day over the weekend: sunny and lovely and comfortable (73, maybe?) but then back to clouds & stuff. Horses are fine, though I’m sure right now they want their lunch (it’s after 1 pm. They will put on a good act of being weak with starvation because lunch is late…or rather, they’ll be ramping around whinnying and stomping.
Aaaahhh, yes. That 78/79 winter. The whole month of January (or pretty darn close) the high never go above 0 (F not C). And we had an hour ride on the bus each way to school. Character building times. Much rather the cold than the heat. You can always put more on. Only so much you can take off.
For *that* winter I was in far S. Texas, in my home town, where winters are balmy to hot, and a temperature below 40F worries those who grow winter vegetables and citrus and roses (commercially grown roses.) There are slightly lower spots where cooler air can pool and tender little things will experience 32F and wilt. My first winter here was ’79/80 and we had some snow. My ideal of snow: It falls, it’s beautiful, you get to enjoy it a few hours and then the next day it warms up and the snow melts into the thirsty ground. Discovered my first horse (old by that time) LOVED snow. Well, he’s started life in New Mexico, I’d been told. Dunno if it’s true.
Recently I was bemoaning to my daughter how I felt I wanted to know more about some of the secondary characters in Paladin Legacy. I was overjoyed to find your blog and see that we will get to read more about this world. Thank you for this. I live in the south east of England all we have is grey damp or rain, rain, rain. I would love some cold or snow. When that happens here everything just stops as no one can deal with it!