January 1, 2008

The tire swing. This is one photo I take almost every day to see the changes as time goes on.

Here’s my husband, Chuck, and Ben, our largest and wooliest horse. He is a Georgian Grande, aka…cross between a Percheron and Saddlebred.

This is Bullseye. He is our blue-eyed pony. His coloring is pinto — a pinto is a horse coat color that consists of large patches of white and another color.

January 2, 2008

Early morning chores.

January 3, 2008

Sunrise at 6:45 a.m.

January 4, 2008

Another beautiful sunrise.

January 5, 2008

This is a look up the aisle way from the lower barn. The upper barn and indoor arena are to the left and our house is to the right. When we get a lot of ice, walking up this little hill can be a challenge.

January 6, 2008

The fog moves in. We go a couple of days without seeing much.

This has been a most interesting January for weather. We go from some of the coldest days, to blizzards, to extreme colds, followed by warming trends that move in, melt and we start all over.

January 7, 2008

Here’s our buddy Duke. He helps a lot with chores. You will get to know him well. He’s a real trooper and knows each horse as well as we do.

January 8, 2008

Watching all the snow melt. Although this is very exciting, seeings how we have had almost a record winter for snow so far, it worries me because I know freezing rains followed by more snow is to follow. It is only January 8.

January 9, 2008

This is the cart we used to feed the horses. The big hole in the hood is compliments of me. I fell into it one -25 degree day and the plastic just snapped. But hey, it gets me where I need to go, so I do have an affection for this little vehicle.

Still really dark after 6 a.m.

January 10, 2008

Even though the snow has melted, the ice remains behind.

This is a window in the Oak Barn. The Oak Barn has five stalls and is full of interesting features. The last thing I do is feed the horses here. After I feed the horses, I take my photos, that is why you will see a lot of the Oak Barn. But, hey, it is an interesting building.

January 11, 2008

Here is the main herd having breakfast together.

Ahh…our baby girl. Athena is starting to get curious about us.

June 12, 2008

Chuck and Duke doing morning chores.

Ginger and Athena enjoying their morning hay.

The horses in the pasture. Monty, the horse stylishly dressed in purple, is a member of our family. You will get to know him well.

This is Cowboy, a very curious horse. He’s almost four and is half-arab, half-paint. He is saying his good-morning’s to Chuck.

January 13, 2008

Tabu and Monty heading out to pasture.

Here’s our house with our two trusty Subarus in the garage.

This is the Upper Barn to the left of our house.

This is one of Chuck’s contraptions to keep water flowing into this heated water tank. Hoses freeze so he created a pipeline. It was once made of PVC pipe, but between the cold weather and the curious horses, it didn’t last.

Here’s Athena, checking out the new pipe, wondering how it works.

January 14, 2008

Another cold morning out at the Oak Barn.

It is really difficult to show wind in pictures, especially when there is no daylight. But this is the ground I recently walked on. The wind is already erasing my existence.

January 15, 2008

I have left the lights on in the indoor arena. I’m walking back towards the Upper Barn. It is earlier than usual, because I have an early morning meeting on campus.

January 16, 2008

The ice hanging off the tin roof of the Oak Barn makes a pretty picture.

Duke wants me to stop taking pictures and hurry up so we can go inside. Baby it’s cold outside.

January 17, 2008

Checking in on that tire swing. More snow on the way.

I wonder where that tire swing came from? Do all farms have piles of tires? It seems that they just belong on farms.

January 18, 2008

A new feature I thought I would add when appropriate. Although it looks like zero to you, it feels much colder to the photographer without the glove on. I’m sorry I didn’t think of this earlier because we’ve had some nasty, cold days.

A hint of sunrise at 6:34. There is hope.

January 19, 2008

So it is getting a little colder. But the sun is out, who’s complaining?

I wish you could hear the squeeking of my boots under the snow. It is the kind of cold where your nostrils stick together when you breath in. I’m hiding my face in my jacket, hoping the photos turn out.

January 20, 2008

Chuck is carrying buckets from the Oak Barn. It is so cold that the water freezes shortly after filling them. He’s figured a solution to give them water for a couple of hours by warming the buckets in our house and then filling them with warm water before they come back into the stalls for the night. He’s so nice.

January 21, 2008

More about the buckets, he made these wooden lids, so we could drive the buckets to the Oak Barn with the warm water and it wouldn’t spill all over the place. We call it “tea time for horses.”

Another McGuyverism of Chuck’s. The cart doesn’t start because the solenoid that transmits electricity from the battery to the starter motor sticks when the weather is cold. So, we use the hammer to short circuit between the terminals of the solenoid. And wa, la, have hammer, will travel.

So this picture just looks as cold as it is.

Duke checking out the hay situation in the dairy barn.

January 22, 2008

More snow

January 23, 2008

Another cold one.

Duke is ready to go in. He’s shivering.

January 24, 2008

It’s really not getting any warmer.

The circled area is where we place the hammer to short circuit between the terminals of the selenoid.

The tire swing returns.

January 25, 2008

A couple of the tree types in our yard.

January 26, 2008

The weather warms up again. It is interesting when 20 degrees seems warm.

Duke is happy with the raise in temperature.

And he likes chasing horses.

Athena wondering if she should go into the paddock after her mother or turn and explore new places.

January 27, 2008

Cold, but pretty.

Enjoy the view.

Athena greeting the morning sun.

Athena learning to fly.

January 28, 2008

Here comes warm weather. Here comes the melting snow.

This is the newest horse to our barn. His name is Royce and his proud owner is Taylor. He’s an Arab gelding.

January 29, 2008

Let it melt, let it melt, let it melt.

With warm weather comes water.

Grass is under all that white stuff.

Sad thing about all this water, is its future as ice.

January 30, 2008

This is the warmest temperature of the day. The wind chill is -35 and all the schools have closed.

Our world of ice.

What? I thought I’d throw in this picture of Maddy and Monty for fun. Now we can remember what Summer is like and why we might actually live in this state.

January 31, 2008

At least we’re above zero today. But I don’t believe it will get much warmer.

This photo is pretty much how it feels. We could be on another planet without a sun.