Our Bluff has disappeared

Stardate 012708

NOAA says it is going to snow today... 3 to 7 inches above 1000' elevation, with more tonight.
The ponies love it, the horses are pissed, the goats and I just wish it would go away.

Not to fear, as horses that have a natural winter coat can survive well at temperatures below -10 degrees F. if wind protection is available, Shetland ponies handle cold even better. Our goats are of Swiss and French Alpine pedigree so I am sure they are not hurting with our temperatures today being slightly above freezing, with pouring snow.
The weather people got it right this week. All week it has been winter, low temperatures in the lower teens, highs in the mid-upper 20's. Today the forecast is for more snow with accumulations at the ranch's 1300' elevation of 4 to 6 inches of the stuff.
This morning after cranking up the overnight fire the cats did their morning catsnack and went back to bed. Kittee went out to feed the herd their breakfast.

Kittee and I figured it was going to be a snowy day, so again we had our weekend morning coffee by the fire. Soon after coffeeing away the morning chill Kittee brought in the red beans and rice she cooked yesterday and proceeded to serve this up for her breakfast. While drinking coffee waiting for a bed of coals to form, I continued to read a wonderful book I started last night Considering the Horse by Mark Rashid. Kittee had read this book over the past couple of days and highly recommended it to me. After the fire had a good bed of coals, I forked up a couple of hot spicy sausages, roasted them over the coals, sliced them up into my bowl to be covered by red beans and rice. This is good stuff for a cold snowy morning people-chow.After breakfast the snow was beginning to fall at a 4-6" a day rate, so I bundled up and headed out to the woodpile for our daily ration of apple firewood. It wasn't snowing too bad as I went out and cleaned off the sidewalks, front and back porches, but by the time I pulled up a wheelbarrow full of wood everything I had cleaned off was again covered with snow.

Came in and did a bit more reading in my book, checked on emails and noticed the horses were milling around in front of the barn really looking pissed about the entire situation they were standing in. It was snowing harder...

Shortly after noon I went out and put out a heavy mid-day ration of alfalfa to help everyone's attitude. As well as my Goldie was getting quite wet and needed the blanket I had been repairing this past week.

I noticed that for the amount of time it took me to feed everyone and blanket Goldie, the tracks I had made going to the barn were almost filled with snow by the time I was heading back for the house. Shortly after returning to the house I looked out the office window to check on everyone and see that it is now snowing so hard at a 8-12" a day rate, that the backyard bluff has disappeared from view.

Yep, it's still January and hard to imagine that last weekend I was tilling our garden; thinking of picking fresh veggies in the near future.
a day in the life at McKuster Ranch -- Dale