snow pictures. February 2010

Rachael, Maxim and Mika.

Wolf dog! Mika

Maxim and Michael played on the snow piles


Maxim likes to lead himself

Bird feeder along the way, Three cardinals on the left and chicadees on the right. Two more I can't see well enough to recognize.

These are some of the pictures that Rachael and Michael brought back to me from their walk on Saturday!

Well, I told you it was snowing in my last post here. It kept on snowing until we had between 8 and 9 inches here in Westerville. Happily Rachael was off on Saturday so we had a great day. I had my breakfast in the normal 6:30-7:30 time frame, then I had lunch when R & M had their breakfast about 11:30! Nice!

The big dogs were overjoyed with the snow. I let them out late at night and Mika was jumping around and yipping like a puppy. It was really cute because she is usually very sedate and lady like. It is a good thing that Mika’s bark is as gentle as she is or she would have awakened the neighborhood! The little dogs on the other hand were not so enthused. The way the snow fell, over such a long period of time, developed a firm crust about 3 inches below the surface. They had to wade through thetop fluffy stuff, but every once in a while they would break through and nose-dive into the deepness! Add that to the fact that it was cold to boot and they had a hard time of it. Gable came back looking like he’d been playing snowplow with his nose.

In the after noon R & M took the big guys for a walk over to the reservoir. They came back with fantastic pictures and two tired dogs. Mika had to have two rounds of aspirin in the evening and some more on Sunday. She had to be helped up the stairs to go to bed with R & M and Rachael had to pick her up to put her on the bed. (Yes, our dogs sleep with us.) The good thing was that the walk wore Maxim out! Hee, hee, hee. No romping dogs in our house this weekend. Everybody is resting up.

Then after they came back and got warmed up, we all went in the living room and began sorting through boxes that were still packed from my old house. What fun! I sat while Rachael pulled surprises from the boxes. It’s funny but no matter how carefully you label the boxes you always forget what is in them until you open them up. Especially after a year and a half! I moved in with Rachael so I didn’t need most of the stuff and we didn’t have to bother unpacking. Now we are settled in our new house and Michael wants to get rid of the boxes have been stacked in the basement. It was fun looking through things and ‘downsizing.’ I gave a lot of stuff away when I moved the first time. Now I’m sorting again and making piles—stuff for my brother, stuff we want to keep and stuff for Notah and Kerra. Then the rest of the junk goes in a yard sale mountain. Rach thinks she is gonna have time for a yard sale. HA! B ut let her try, then we will take it to the Salvation Army. It isn’t really ‘junk’ I just call it that. It is mostly household things that everybody needs but not in multiples.

All in all we had a great day.

Then on Sunday, Rachael had to work but Michael and I were home all cozy. We had lunch/breakfast and he cleaned up the house and went to buy ‘grazing’ supplies for Super Bowl time. And of course we watched the Super Bowl when Rachael got home and ate Michael's goodies for the whole time. No need for supper at our house! All in all, it was like the Christmas holiday when we were all together and Michael had all of his much loved tradition-“grazing goodies.” It was snowy outside but warm inside; we were opening boxes with surprises inside; we finished up by watching the football game as the holiday wound down. And even though Michael stated getting the flu in the evening, it still didn’t spoil it for us. Having the flu wrapped up on the couch with a dog on your feet is better than being sick any place else.

And to make things even better (for me) was that he didn’t go to work on Monday and Rachael was off. So we were all together again and it was like a long holiday weekend. Another Christmas!

Now it’s Tuesday morning and the weather forecasts were right when they predicted another snow storm. The snow began around five oclock and is still coming down hard and fast in tiny fine flakes. Roads are nasty, everyone is driving really slow to work. Michael left at 7:30 and called Rachael at 8:45 to say he was still stuck in traffic about 10 minutes away from the house! She was a couple blocks from her store by then. It's never smart to take the freeway in this kind of weather--that's where all the idiots are. Hmmm, don't tell Michael I said that. The weather man is calling for another 6-8 inches, depending one what weather man you are listening to.

it's snowing--again

Wow. We had predictions of the coming snow storm but ti was supposed to begin as rain and gradually turn to snow and accumulate.

Well! I never saw any rain, but it began snowing around eleven thirty this morning and by the time I went to get my lunche at one oclock we had THREE INCHES. I kid you not. And it is still coming down!

Ohio is a fantastic place. This morning ti was 34 degrees and the snow from last week was almost all gone. the little dogs whipped out to the potty across bare grass. When they went out at lunch time, they were wading in snow up to their elbows!

I fixed my lunch before I let them back in and the little dogs were complaining big time. But when I got to the door Sebastian was wading back across the yard to take a more extensive "dump" He is such a wimp. Obviously he'd gone and watered a couple trees and come back. then because I made him wait, he'd discovered he had to do a little more than that. I didn't open the door until I made sure he was finished. He and Gable came tearing back inside before I could even call them. Maxim and Mika were having a good time playing but they came romping inside too.

So now I'm back to watching the snow come down and hoping R & M get home safely.

Snow Day!

Columbus was hit with major weather last night. (Tuesday) Snow began falling during the afternoon and kept it up all night. Around 10 pm it changed to little balls of ice! Then a little rain was dumped on that and then some more snow. It all made for very nasty driving.

Michael’s work was closed this morning. But Krogers never closes and Rachael got ready to go. Then after seeing footage of the interstates on the news, she called her boss and told her that she would drive over to the freeway and see if she could make it. As it turned out, she didn’t make it much past Sunbury Road before she came back.

So we had a fantastic snow day. Michael finished the shelves he’s been building in the basement. Rachael did some laundry and gave the house a quick spiff up. I sat here in the warm and watched it snow.

Then after they finished they took the big dogs out to play in the snow. I don’t know who had the better time—the dogs or the ‘kids’.

Some times it is good to just take a day out of time to refresh the mind and body. I remember when Jesus said to the disciples, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, Mark 6:31 Sometimes we don’t need to occupy our bodies with work or our minds with thought. Sometimes we just need “down time” to renew our selves.

That’s what today was.

Another snowy day. I love watching the snow fall, tiny flakes falling in such profusion that they pile up into inches and inches on the ground. And they come so quietly.

I enjoy putting the dogs out on snowy days. The cold seems to invigorate them and they bound out across the deck. They stop to anoint the first bushes they come to then race across to the fence where their buddies live in the neighboring yard. Their tails are in the air and they run along the fence to the back corner of the property to stick their noses in the drifts in front of the evergreens. I wonder what's in there.

The little dogs succumb to the cold first and come asking to be let inside again. Their pencil thin legs and short coats are sooner susceptible to the icy piles on the ground and the wind blowing across their expanse of lawn. Maxim and Mica romp in the snow, enjoying the blowing particles and the crisp icy prickles inside of their noses. Mica especially, with her chow and akita ancestors, relishes the wintry weather. Her thick coat insulates her and she will lie in the snow and on the deck watching the activity in the neighborhood. Maxim is just plain nosey and wants to be involved in everything.

When I bring them all inside they bound through the door, full of energy from their cold-charged blood. Often snow powders across the big dogs’ backs and both have ridges of snow on top of their noses where they have buried them in the snow. A greeting for me and a drink of water and they soon curl up cozy and warm again. Nobody enjoys a warm nap more than a dog who has romped through the cold and snow. Now they are all snuggled on the bed—among the pillows!—snoring gently.

I know it sounds foolish to someone who doesn’t love dogs, but I find such simple joy in them.

Notah called early this morning on his way to work. Thank the Lord for cell phones and Verizon wireless’s unlimited minutes among Verizon customers! I talk to him and his family several times a week. Miss them now, but if I couldn’t talk with them and receive text messages and pictures it would be so awful.

(Because they are so far away I’ve thought a lot about how sad it must have been for the mothers of pioneers when their children left. In most cases that departure was the last they seen or heard of their children. All the long, long miles between them. Oh dear, my heart can hardly imagine it!)

On Saturday they all attended a matanzeca (I think they called it, I couldn’t find a direct translation. Matanza is “to slaughter”) It was a money making festival that cost $10 per person. The whole deal is that any number of contestants enter and each one slaughters (I guess, or maybe it’s already dead ??) a pig. Then each contestant prepares a specified number of dishes from the various parts and roasts the rest of the pig whatever way they think is best. THEN, all of the people who have paid their ten bucks come though and can sample all of the dishes prepared by the contestants. At the end of the day everyone votes on who was the best cook! I guess they have some side line entertainments but the main diversion is eating. How fantastic is that!

They also featured an activity called “Cow Paddy Bingo”! Get this. The sponsors laid out a large coral in a numbered grid—like regular bingo. People could buy grid squares for however much. Then they released one cow into the coral. She wandered around until she felt compelled to take a dump. LOL Whoever had bought the square where her “cow paddy” landed won the $$ prize! If it straddled a line then both square owners split the cash. Only in cow country!

I thought they should send somebody in to scoop up the winning paddy, redefine the grid lines and do the whole thing over, but Notah said they only did it once. Wow! What a money maker! Limited only by the number of cows and the number of gullible bettors! And the whole thing would attract the attention a whole bunch of strange people! Shoot! I'd watch for a long time! Ohio farmers are missing a good gimmick! County fair farmers could make a mint!

Gotta get to NM some time soon!