update: The icicles on this bush are the result of snow melt dripping off my roof then refreezing into the ice daggers. Bush is the first plant life off my front entry.
Tonight they are telling us there will be more frozen stuff. Freezing rain this time. Ugg.

This time we had a little warning. About a day and a half/two days before the forces of winter were unleashed upon us, the weather prognosticators began clanging the bells of doom so that we could load up on cheetos, TP, and sweetened condensed milk (snow cream don't cha know). Every AA battery in the state has been snapped up and there is not a bottle of water to be found. Prep here involved hours of packing in stove wood and filling barrels of water at the stable where my horse lives - they are on a well and, if the power goes out, melting snow for 18 horses then hand carrying it from the wood stove to the barn is not a pleasant proposition. Anyway, all that could be done was done. At 2:30 PM my super secret supposed expert weather geek update stated no precip would begin until just after sunset, it was 40 degrees, and I thought I was good to make a three o'clock last run to the barn to help get all the equines snuggled in for their long winter's nap. Thirty min later, the snow started (newsflash, the sun has not set at 3PM) - once the snow started the temp fell eight degrees in less than thirty min.

After half an hour of white pestilence falling from the sky, my front yard looked like this:


My back deck after three hours of weather:


This morning we awoke to this:


If you look to the trees in both the last shot you will see in the first that the trees are beautifully caked in snow - nothing prettier - but in the second the trees are clear of snow. That is because when we got up it had been sleet and freezing rain for a few hours. An interesting lesson in meteorology - snowing at 40 degrees - sleet and freezing rain at 27 degrees, shows how important the temps above ground level are in determining what we specks of human life are left to deal with - fluffy snow or snow with a crust of ice on top. When we went to bed the snow on the rail was a smooth wall, this morning we have parapets of snow.


The corgis love the snow. This is Gus snow swimming.


A few minutes later there are ant paths and puppy prints. Those holes scattered outside the paths are not foot prints - they are the holes left from snow swimming.


What are they doing in the snow? Why playing frisbee of course. There is nothing in this world (other than food) that Fiona loves more than playing frisbee. "Frisbee boy, throw the frisbee, wanna play frisbee? Here it is, I'll even drop it on you so you don't have to get it. See? Frisbee! Throw it, throw it, throw it..."


Oh yeah, watching corgis try to navicate in twelve inches of snow is pretty darned entertaining.

In a nutshell, in his SOTU, Barry told us to STFU.

My response, NO!

Would still smell like a horse :)

Here she is, once again.



I continue to patiently pamper and tend her every need - she continues to limp, though much less - and on the OTHER foot. arg

1 - I hear the O is going to campaign for Harry Reid. I'd pay to have him campaign for Nanci Pelosi. Well, not really, but I hope he does. I'd be grand. Knowum sayin'?

2 - And Supreme Court? Thumbs up for finally ruling in favor of the first amendment (campaign finance).

3 - My yard is finally cleaned up. Yup, it is Jan 22 and the leaves are finally off the yard. Thanks to my buddy with the lawn care business who finally had time to come clean it up for me (I'm too old and decrepit to do it myself and my family will not help). He did it all in the cold and rain yesterday. Three men, using machinery (blowers, rakes, and tarps) took 3 hours to get it all done. Shows how bad it was.

4 - My horse is still standing in her stall. She seems to be just fine on the foot that had surgery. Now she is off on the other foot - Erggg. Still losing at least two hours per day taking care of her. But on the other hand, it gets me outside and with the equines every day and that is good therapy - both mental and physical.

5 - Trying to lose weight and get fit. Working hard, but actually sort of enjoying the workouts. Thank you to my partners in the process, we are going to take the summer wardrobe by storm this year. Just you wait.

6 - That's all I've got.

It's basketball season. Basketball is the only team sport the boy participates in. He attends Cross Fire basketball camp in the summer then plays church league Upward basketball Dec through Feb. It is good for him and he has a good time. This year his age group is so small there are only two teams so he plays the same team each week. It was like that last year too, but this year apparently there is also a coach shortage as both teams share a coach - practice and scrimmage with each other each week as well. He doesn't seem to mind. He is no stellar athlete but he tries hard. Never been a great shooter but he usually gets a basket or two per game. What he does pretty darned well is defense. He scapes and scrambles with the best of them and keeps the player matched against him running the whole game. Not a bad ball handler either, though sometimes he is not as tuned in to the passing game as he should be. He is the third shortest player on the court. But the cutest...

These pics are from the first game of the season.

Pre-game prayer (boy forgot to kneel)


And the season shocker, my boy got the first basket of the year by either team. For his team he was the only scorer for quite a while.


This past week he tied his career high with five baskets. It was FANTASTIC! :)

Foot warmer, computer pal:

Giggles are always a good thing:

A DEA officer stops at a ranch in Wyoming , and talks with

an old rancher. He tells the rancher, 'I need to inspect

your ranch for illegally grown drugs.'


The old rancher says, 'Okay, but do not go in that

field over there' as he points out the location.


The DEA officer verbally explodes saying, 'Mister, I

have the authority of the Federal Government with me.'
Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his badge

and proudly displays it to the farmer. 'See this badge?

This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish.....on any

land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made

myself clear? Do you understand?'


The old rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about

his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and

sees the DEA officer running for his life chased close

behind by the rancher's prize bull... With every step the

bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely

that he'll get "horned" before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly
terrified. The old rancher

throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the

top of his lungs.....



'Your badge...Show him your badge !!!!!!!!!!!'

Love it Leslie!

Kieth Olbermann in rare form:

"In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history, this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead, the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States."

Well, not so rare. It is most often the liberal/progressive who gets nasty, calls names, heap insults, then whine if you repeat their own words back to them.

He goes on to speak of the southern racists of the 60s, but as always he leaves out that the southern racists of the 60s were democrats. I've lived in the south all my life. I've visited the north many many times. I've traveled the world - watched foreign TV, read newspapers here and in foreign lands, talked with people - asked questions and listened to them talking to each other. Friends, the vast majority of racists in the south are still Democrats. There are far more racists in the North than in the South, there are more racist Democrats in the north than racist Republicans, and racism is rampant in foreign lands - the US has no corner on the racist market. I'm sick to damn death of the idea that the Southern US in the sole purveyor of racism. And I'm sick to damn death of the term racist being used to bludgeon good people into silence. Democrats are the party of keep them down racism.

I don't know that much, really almost nothing, about Scott Brown. I hope I get the opportunity to find out what he is made of. Right now he is our only hope to slow down the complete government take over of our health care system - they already have much more control than we like to think. Right now he is better than the only other alternative. But I am afraid to hope - I fully expect he will have to win by at least 5% to overcome Democrat dirty tricks.

Oh and Olbermann - If Brown wins, you have just insulted an entire state and, in his capacity as Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken is the bad joke in the Senate. Just sayin'

Some time ago I showed you a few of my felted critters. One of my favorites I couldn't show you because it belongs to D2 and she keeps it at school with her. But she brought it home with her so that I can share.

Dragon...






He is not a particularly threatening dragon.

Something is up with my Gus. Normally he has a beautiful shiny coat, people are always commenting on how beautiful and soft his coat is. But right now it is dull, he is itchy, he has little scabby sores all up his spine, looks a little dandruffy with flaky dry skin, and I think he has lost a little weight. Monday was his yearly checkup, I showed the vet the little sores and she gave him an antibiotic. She thinks maybe he picked up a staph infection following a bite he received from the lovely Miss Fiona during a recent wrestling match. I'm not sure if that is it or not, but I'm figuring the cold dry air is not helping so today I'm going to find him a nice moisturizing shampoo and a big ol' tub of yogurt. Hopefully between all these things we can get him back to his normal, handsome self soon.

I've said many times that I admire people who are good with words, jealous of them I am! The people who came up with these fall into that category. From the Washington Post's Neologism Contest 2009 in which people come up with alternate meanings for common words:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you
absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you
are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. .

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief
that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

They are all the people's seats, and it is more than high time people took responsibility for how they fill them.

So giggle a little for me.

Took miss Rosalie to the vet today for her post surgery recheck. Left foot (operated on foot) seemed to be 100% sound. Hooray for that - still slow rehab to work through but sound on that foot is great. But... she was a little off on the right. Ergg. My stomach sank big time.

There are several reasonable explanations for her being off a bit on that side. The most likely being that because she is in her stall 24/7 right now (and will continue to be until the ground thaws out a bit - and that doesn't look to be any time soon)she is lying down in her stall at night and however she is doing that is putting pressure - probably from the shoe on her left foot - on her right fetlock (horse ankle) and she has developed a sore there. Right after Christmas she started swelling on that right front due to the sore so we put her on an antibiotic and started wrapping a padding around that leg at night. It is much better than it was, but is still there and she is still stuck in the stall so padding or not I know she's putting pressure on it. Makes sense that would make her sore right?

I hope that is it, but I will admit to a serious sinking feeling. I was hoping for 100% - poor vet was too. First thing we need is enough time over 32 degrees for the ground to thaw so that I can begin walking her daily and so that she can begin to be turned out again. Supposed to snow again tomorrow...

OK, horse Mom vent over. One day I really really hope to be able to post a video here of my daughter riding Rose.

So "once the incident occurred, moving forward" we were able to close the barn door - after the damn horse was out.

Can we please remove this incompetent raving moron from office? Can the eegits in the administration please show a little shame and embarrassment? Can they please wake up to what happens when they put idiots in positions that might involve answering for their actions in front of cameras and microphones? Never mind that God may not provide them a miracle - preventing anything more than a terrorist roasting his own chestnuts - next time. And I do fully believe that is was only through God's mercy and his Christmas gift of said miracle that the TERRORIST was the only casualty that day.

God grant us mercy and protection until that day - please? oh pleasey pleasey pleasey...

Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold - where is that #%@^*&$# Al Gore? I've got a bone to pick with that over blown dumb ass...

That's just too freakin bad! Deal with it, and it's about freakin time. Though I doubt any of the measures are nearly what they should be.

It is all neatly put away, labeled, ready for next year --- took four days, doing lots of other stuff too.

Stuff like taking care of 20 horses, 6 cats, 2 dogs, a barn pig, 7 ducks and a bunch of chickens in bone cracking cold (it was 12 degrees with a wind chill in the negatives this morning). Been that way a couple days already and at least three more days of it to go. The woman who runs the barn where my horse and pony live is on her annual 10 day, post Christmas, much needed vacation. I cover for her while she is away - with lots of help from my kidlets. She'll be home Tues, you have no idea how much I'm looking forward to her return! It is freaking COLD out there. Lots of busting ice out of water buckets and water troughs twice daily, then refilling with the hope that the critters will get enough to hold them before it freezes back up...

May as well live with the polar bears and walruses in Alaska! wink, wink...

From My Way News...

Larry Margasak writing for AP tells us that the TSA has demanded two travel bloggers tell where they got their information on new travel restrictions. You know, the whole extra pat downs, NO GETTING OUT OF YOUR SEAT - HANDS IN YOUR LAP for the last hour of a trip thing! Apparently the TSA didn't want us to know about those things.

I DO have a problem with that - several actually. You see, I HATE flying. Over the years I have developed my own mechanisms for handling my fear. One of those is doing sudoku puzzles one after the other during take offs and landings. Helps me ignore odd, and to me frightening, noises that the airplane makes. Take away my sudoku and I want to know about it before hand. I am sure others have their crutches as well - books, personal DVD players and the like. On what planet is it cool not to let us know ahead of time that these will be the rules? Did the TSA actually expect flight attendants to make this announcement IN FLIGHT then deal with the uprising on their own? If this was the TSA's plan then they are more incompetent than I thought. We were told in advance of the new liquid restrictions, we were told in advance to be ready to remove our shoes - oh wait, that was when Bush was president. Now that Bambam is the pres they want to be all secrative about this stuff?

Of course now the TSA is withdrawing their subpoenas, after they took some blogger "reporter type"'s computer. Now, I'm thinking, after the very first flight landed with the new rules did the TSA not think the cat would be out of the bag? Or were they planning to inform us as we sat like five year olds in Sunday School with our hands quietly in our laps that we were under a gag order not to tell? Were they going to ask us to pinky swear to keep the secret?

ergg-- Big Brother is on a major head trip.