How cold can it get?

Photos are taken in the morning, you can just make out the horses past the round pen. I had to put blankets on everyone due to the freezing temps.

Beautiful morning,, you can see the moon at the upper right.

Snow on the hills.

We live in Oregon for goodness sakes! Its not supposed to get this cold for this long.

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It all started last Friday, temp dropping fast from 37* to 22*. First snow was very wet and sticky, not a good thing for fencing, trees over fencing and on the hot wire. Took us two hours Sat morning to get the fencing and limbs near the fencing cleared off.

It warmed up a bit...just enough to make a thick layer of Ice. Then it snowed the next day but not as much the News said it would, which was fine with me. Luckily this time it was a fine powder, bad part.. it was now down to 11* and with the wind chill making it about 5*.

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I am tremendously grateful of my Dad for putting in the ground fault plugs next to the horses pasture. Now have a heated water tank for them. Much easier on DS since he does not have to carry water buckets out to the horses 6 times a day.

Snow is expected tomorrow morning, basically through Monday . Temps are going to hover 15* during the day without the wind chill factor, which is expected to be around 0*...and it sure feels like it this morning. Right now we have 3" of powder on the ground with about 1" layer of Ice underneath, more expected tomorrow.

I had thought we left this kind of weather when we moved from New Hampshire?

African Vilolets and Other things

Thought I would throw in a photo of one of my loafs of bread, can't you just smell the goodness?!!

Here is my AV called Lemon Kiss.

Rob's Combustible Pigeon has finally bloomed, it is a mini AV. Yes, that is really the flowers name.

DH will be writing "The adventures of making a new Well House cover" sometime this weekend. Sorry, no hints for now.

Looks like we will be having our first snow storm this weekend,, If the news is correct. So far this winter has been unseasonably warm up here in the Hills. Will be nice to see a little white stuff.

Will not have a Yule Tree in the house this year. Having three young cats, has a lot to do with it. One would just play with the ornaments, the other would take what ever she could reach and put it the behind DS bedroom door, leaving none on the tree LOL...so you get the idea. Christmas will be low key because DH contract job is coming to an end.

We do have a side of beef in the freezer and stocked up with the basic dry stuff. Animals are all set with a years supply of food and things they need. Is very nice to have the food and basic supply dealt with.

DS is finally out of his braces and using a Retainer. He is working on the MIT open college courses for Mechanical Engineering. At least he is doing some college courses because,right now, the local college is not doing student loans.

Have a number of friends that have had to quit college due to the lack of loans. Hopefully the economy will pick up by summer.

Am still painting, right now working on the Sleeping Mia Pen & Ink with watercolor wash. Also creating some Digital Abstracts. Would never say this to other Artists but it is a lot like Adult finger painting,, lots of fun with color, depth and shapes.

Had a nice ride out this morning~

Had DS come out with me to take some pictures of me riding.
Yes,, I know I am sitting funny and I am wearing a Beta 3 safety vest under my jacket so I look a lot larger than usual. VBG ... oh and my classic military pants I where when I ride out in the woods.:D Nothing better for repelling Blackberry vines.
Also riding Dyfra in a bit which I don't normally do, with very little to no contact on the reins. Most of the photos are of Dyfra cantering but don't think any one could tell because she looks more like a Yak! (don't think I my back is ready for that much canter quite yet..even when Dyfra is super smooth)
Am riding with a Treeless Saddle called the Hybrid Sensation.

In a couple of photographs you can Ella following along, she comes on some of our rides. Is nice to have company once in awhile.

All in All had a very nice time riding.

Cats and Kitten working hard

Cleaning of the Fireplace. You can see here how they all let DS know how to do this job correctly, as giant kittens don't always listen.
Here Mia is pointing out what he is not doing right and is showing him the proper way.

Just ironed shirts smell good and are way too clean, little cat hair is needed!

A Long Thanksgiving Day~

We weren't sure what we were going to do for the day at first but I did find out the Zoo was having a special and folks could get in for free. Free's good!

Christopher and I made the pumpkin pies the night before,, he made the crust which turned out very well and I made the filling. So that was taken care of. We had a Organic Turkey breast for dinner but that will not take long to cook.

Thanksgiving morning was pretty cold about 34*, however we decided to bundle up and go to the Zoo early in the morning anyway.Was fairly crowded but not bad being how cold it was. DH rented me a scooter so I could also enjoy the zoo and off we went. Captured a few photos but think my Evolt 510 is going down hill. My old Nikon cp4300 can now take better photos than the 510. Guess back to the shop it will have to go.
We did enjoy the Zoo outing.

Back home DH and DS started with the main part of our dinner,,, then Sadie our orange cat was not feeling well. She was not fed any kind of human food, was nothing for her to get into.
We had our dinner and Sadie was getting worse. Figures.. on a Holiday when finding a Vet is extremely hard. I called up a local Vet hospital and get directions. It was about 1am at the time and DH & DS take Sadie to the hospital. Only.. they can't find it and they call the hospital again and there was no answer so they just come home.
8am the next morning we were on the road to our normal Vet and checked Sadie in. She stayed there all day and the Vets found out she had some kind of blockage, most likely a hair ball but the Vets managed to get it moved out without surgery, for which I was very glad. For a free kitten...she is sure getting very spendy but we love her any way.
So that is how our day went in a nut shell.

DS feeding the Lorikeets

New baby Elephant at the Zoo. Boy was it a jungle to get close enough to take pictures with my camera over my head!

Seems to be saying, "Go on~ Make my Day!".

Tiger, seems to be thinking humans would make tasty snacks.

Wood duck.

This Zoo mostly has warm clime animals, so the majority were inside because of the weather.

The Day in the Life of 3 Kittens ~

Mia and Nari telling DS not to hog the Fireplace!

Who says animals don't train people?

Let me tell you a little story about how a day goes, in the life of a Cat in this house.

I wake up, normally too early to let the Cats out of their room but they hear me. Let me know on no uncertain terms.. If I am out of my Room, so should they be! How do they let me know, they know... by scratching at their door or should say drumming at their door. Opening their door is not a simple thing, Oh No. Sadie the orange cat and Mia the 6 month old salt and pepper stripped kitten with mittens, have to have a contest to see who can get out of the room the fastest...doesn't matter if they run over the human or not...it shouldn't be standing in the way if the human was smart.

I normally sit down with my laptop and work on my Online stores after that race. But Sadie has to remind me, that she wants to be fed and fed now, doesn't matter if it isn't time for her breakfast. She's starving and that's the end of it, as far as she is concerned. If I don't pay attention fast enough she is not beyond jumping on my lap or chest, meowing and bouncing off, as I let out a OOOffff.
I let out a big "sigh" and go get a can of cat food, then the china bowls.. yes.. my good china dessert dishes get used for their morning breakfast..no they are not spoiled..........really. I make sure everyone stays at their bowl until they are finished.
And one would think this would be the end of the story but no.

They take their after breakfast bath, Sadie will sometimes comes over and give me a "Thank you Meow". Mia will usually trill at me. Nari just ignores me.

Now it is Nari's turn.... she will slowly strut over to the fireplace and give me that look,, you know "that look" that cats give when they want you to do something. Sometimes I think they are using Cat ESP on us unsuspecting not so smart humans. She wants me to start a fire in the fireplace, for you see, she likes basking in its warmth. She is just lucky I happen to like having a fire going during a rainy day too. So I get the fire started and Nari has that smug happy look on her face.

So you say to yourself.. the story must now end here.....welll.. ah no. I leave Nari happily basking by the warmth of the Fire and then Mia wants to play fetch. Sigh ~~ OK fine.. will never get any work done in this house at this rate. So I play fetch with Mia for about 10 minutes, I throw her mouse head or paper airplane as far as I can in a house,, and she happily brings it back.. most of the time. Some times she wants to play tug a war... OK.. what cat likes to play,, tug a war?? She finally needs a break.
Now I can get a load of laundry in the machine, which I do and I come back out the door to the laundry room and there are 3 cats saying.. what are you doing can we help? Nari is the first to wonder off, like ok if you don't want my help...I will go back to my fire.

So, am I safe after this...no. I bring out my Bread machine and sit it on my new Kitchen hutch... then turn to the kitchen to get the things I need, turn back and I am standing there, looking dumbly and thinking to myself ..no..she wouldn't be that stupid, she knows the rules and staring out behind my bread machine, in one of my mixing bowls is Nari. OK.. what part of.. I thought she would be happy with the fire.. did "I" not understand? DS,, I say,, please get your Nari, off my Kitchen hutch,, out of my mixing bowl,,, that now needs to be washed.

Of course the minute I turn around,, Nari was again where she wasn't supposed to be.. and got it on picture, for all to see.


Big Sigh ~~

They finally settle down for their morning nap and I can sneak off to work on a painting. At least for awhile that is and until the 2nd stage starts, which is no less humorous.

Well, I have to say.. it is never boring having Cats in the house.

Click on DH picture to go to the Photo Album