Wild Winter Ice and Snow

The last week and a half has been very challenging in WA. First, some pretty crazy snow, and then a whole lot of ice via freezing rain! UGH! Besides that, the snapping tree limbs weighed down with the 1/2" coating of ice were littering the roads and downing power lines. We were out of power from Thursday around noon to Tuesday evening around 6. Needless to say, I was told to stay home from work for three days so I had a lot of time to dink around and catch up on my photography!

This was the Hawthorn tree prior to the major freezing rain:

This is the birch tree before all was said and done:

And this is the hawthorn after... of course Blogger is being silly, so I couldn't possibly put this after the first pic...:

And Chai wanted her time in the spotlight too:Ice on the 'blueberry muffin plant':

Even the baby twisted willow got it:

Love the colors on this Azalea:My poor Ginko held it's own, thank goodness:Mercy has certainly had enough of this- she was going CRAZYYY!!!This is where the electric fence use to be...Even though the ice was so devastating, it sure was pretty:Glad it's gone though! I'll have an update on Mercy soon, just have to get my thoughts together. Gotta figure out what's up with my blog view too- thath white frame cutting right through the middle just won't do! ;)

Snow Day!!!!

It snowed hard enough earlier this week that after making it in for only a few hours on Monday, I was told not to come into work for the rest of the week. YAY! I drive a 1995 Ford Mustang... not the best snow vehicle, but we managed for 4 years in Pullman, so we know how to handle it well enough if we have too.

With so much time on my hands, I really didn't know what to do first! I decided that Mercy really needed to get out for a walk. It was really icy on the road, so I didn't want to walk her there. And, I can't take her on the trails, which would have been too icy too. So, I led both of the girls over to my neighbor's pasture for a little walk-about.

I let Starlett loose so she could dink around on her own, but Mercy needs to be kept under control. A controlled walk. Period.

Here's how it went.... :

"OMG! What is that!?!?!?" *snort*
"Can I stare it down?! Maybe? No, no I don't think it's working! What is it?!"

"Maybe I could just get close enough to touch it!?"

"Oh.... ok.... it's just nommy snow on a branch!"

"What?... It WAS going to get me! I have no doubt! Seriously!"

*Rolls Eyes*

After all of that craziness, she decided that tree snow wasn't that good after all. She decided that real grass was! Mercy actually had a lot of fun digging out the snow to get to the grass. She tunneled around for a while, looking for the longest, tastiest grass.

Soon Starlett wandered over and started digging for grass too. She didn't want to be left out of the fun!

Both girls rolled in the snow while we were wandering around. Mercy got concerned, because of the lead rope attached to her halter, and decided to get up rather quickly. Star, however, really dug in and enjoyed her roll!

After they had had some fun, I put them away and went for a walk out back. I can't ride Mercy, and we don't ride Star when it's icy because of her likeliness to fall, but that doesn't mean I can't go out an enjoy the snow scenery!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

;)

Wordless Wednesday

Catching Up: Water Works

It was the last day of February and even though the air was brisk, the horses were looking for a little fun. We headed over to the lake to let them splash around. And splash around they did! Even Starlett, who doesn't like the water that much, got in on the fun!



Mercy pretty much dove into the lake! She couldn't get wet fast enough. Look at the water fly!

And then she dunks her whole head into the water, all the way up to her eyes! She often submerges her whole head and then blows bubbles. Someday I will get a video of it! It's just too funny! Here she is coming up from her first round of bubble blowing:

And then she drip dries while figuring out a way to trick me into going closer to the grass...

Starlett knows her game and doesn't approve, so Mercy gets a wet muzzle bump on the butt to remind her who's boss.

After all of that hard work playing in the lake, a good roll on the spring grass is called for!

Oh that must feel so good! :)

Catching Up: Moving Logs and Trees

It was a couple of days before Valentine's, so I really wanted to stay out of the woods. The salal hunters would most likely be out there, wandering around picking salal for floral bouquets still

So Starlett, Mercedes, and I headed out toward the creek trails. There is very little salal that grows there so seeing anyone pop out from the underbrush would be very unlikely.

Little did it know at the time, but that tiny sapling on the right of the mossy log would soon be 'laid down' by Mercy's antics...

Right after taking this picture...

... Star decided to move forward to grab at a delicious looking fern, dragging Mercy forward too. Unfortunately, her lead rope got hooked around the end of that moss covered fallen log. And instead of waiting for me to fix the situation she decided to take matters into her own... er, hooves?...

She wasn't bad. she just didn't give the the pressure of the rope around the tree right away. instead of just standing still she drove forward, dragging the log with her. The log then hit the sapling and simply mowed it over! When the sapling was bending over it swapped Star and I until Mercy decided to stand still. *sigh*

I jumped off of Star and went over to help Mercy out. I actually had her help move the log back by asking her to back while I used the lead rope to pull the log back into it's original place. This released the sapling and it sprang back into place. Here's the aftermath:

You can see where the sapling rubbed the moss and lichen off the log when the log ran over it. You can also see the bark that fell off the log as the lead rope pulled taught around it.

Then, I took a closer look at the log Mercy had just pulled several feet out of it's resting place. This log is at least 30 feet long and is partially submerged in the creek! OMG! I know Mercy is strong, but wow!

After all of the exciting stuff, I jumped back on Star and we continued down the creek trail and headed home. On 'Our Trail,' I saw some more signs of winter coming to and end... and allergies.

All of that excitement sure made the girls hungry...

...so we stopped for some sweet grass.

Starlett's Barbie doll mane was looking particularly shiny this day too.

And these pictures are just a visual for their body score coming out of winter. Star's looking much better since being on the timothy. That's just the hay for her.

And Mercy's top line is looking a little stronger from a few weeks ago. Just a little, but that's OK with me. Any muscle will help her long back!

Yup, looking good on that sunny day!

Catching Up: Return of The Salal Man??!?!?

January 10:

Hmmm... Why does this look so familiar?!

Looks mighty suspicious...

After breaking into the clearing and getting past the loose and scattered salal, we worked our way down to the creek. Riding past the lake was fun, but it was cold and TrailridinRN and I were looking for a short ride. Mercy really wanted to go in the water at the creek, so I let her. Big mistake.

She went in quite deep and pawed and pawed.

Even Star got int the near freezing water and splashed around while Mercy dove her head in and snorkeled around for a while. And resumed pawing...

Of course, that didn't stay fun forever... her splashes grew increasingly larger and eventually she was spraying water up onto me! My right leg got completely soaked up to and past my knee! not to mention the saddle, cinches, and reins were completely covered in now freezing water.

Needless to say, we wasted no time getting home. I was chilled to the bone and still needed to clean stalls. Thanks Mercy...

January 13:

I had a few hours to spare and a break in the weather so I saddled up Mercy and ponied Starlett out to the creek for another short ride. Little did I know when we headed out that we would *almost* have an encounter with a wild animal!

I knew something was up as we approached the creek because Mercy was on full alert. Something was up ahead. She kept stopping and sniffing the air. A few words of encouragement was all it took to get her moving again. The next time she stopped I looked down. Oh... I see...

We were following an elk! We never got to see it because we took the turn it didn't. Mercy needed a little convincing, with the help of my boot, to let go of the scent and follow my lead, down the new trail. Once she believed me that we weren't going to follow the elk, we were good.

January 16:

TrailridinRN finally bought new new stirrups for her saddle. The super thin medal stirrups that came with the saddle just weren't doing it for us any more. They provided little foot and leg support and had no weight to them. using money from Christmas, she bought a pair of Crates stirrups that matched the saddle. Now it was time to give them a test run!

We rode out to the trails in the woods and guess what!? We found more proof... of the Salal Men!

They had obviously been out there recently and had left bundles of salal everywhere.

These neat little bundles of salal were no doubt headed to local nurseries for Valentine's day floral arrangements. I'm just glad we didn't actually meet the salal collectors this year; just they're left over bundles. *HUGE sigh*

'Til next year salal man... 'til next year...