As the New Year comes upon us, my time here in the snowy winter wonderland draws to a close as we will be heading south to the Salton Sea in Southern California for the rest of the winter. But before going I wanted to share a little look back into our life here this past month before we journey into the New Year.
Early in December I had this helicopter intrude upon my privacy.
Could have been taking some sort of scans or photos.
He was making grid work sweeps.
We’ve had not so much snow so far this year. Only about 1 foot, compared to 2 1/2 feet last year at this time. But the new snow plow and way less snow was such a relief on both my hubby’s body as well as mine. Way more time also to do other things during the day instead of constantly clearing snow.
And what do we do with our extra time. Nothing like cutting firewood
and burning all the branches during the season where fires are
welcome to help keep warm while working or taking a lunch break.
Another fun day with a tree that didn’t fall the right direction or even fall for that matter. In the middles of the lower right photo shows the tree still upright yet cut right through as it got caught on a bunch of other trees. So in the upper left photo, I am in the big old 4X4 truck with a cable running around trees to pull the log to the left of where it is. The top right photo I have manage to pull the log all the way down to a level area. The back of the truck was originally where the butt of the log is now, so I pulled it about 25 feet. In the lower left photo you can see why it got hung up to start with. The dead tree was just full of branches. Now that the old truck isn’t being used for plowing it makes a great winter woods truck, with the chains on all 4 tires.
Christmas day was just hubby and I along with Cole
who we were dog sitting for the Christmas holiday. 2 whole weeks without going into town or having company or a parties during this holiday. So that made it very relaxing as well. Yeah! I made it without any back, neck, shoulder or arm pain. No complaints right now. My body is doing good.
Since Cole was here I was going for walks every late afternoon after 3pm. Somehow during this time all the photos I took come out blue. I have had this happen many times before when we have snow on the ground and it begins to get dark. I always love the the effect it has.
With Cole by my side I was tromping on all my old trails. Here we are taking the very narrow trail that runs along the creek on a steep hillside. On the left photo you can see my boot in the lower right corner showing how it drops right off to the creek below. The trail is only about 2 feet wide.
After crossing the foot bridge we leave the creek and head
into the forest and break new trails through the snow.
Cole is part of our family when here. He was first brought to us to dog sit when he was only 6 months old and we had just said our goodbyes to our old dog Buster only 1 week before. Cole was a godsend during my time of grief for my Buster and has continue to bring joy every time he visits for over 4 years now.
So Cole and I have been having a ball exploring the forest around me. I even tried to do an angel in the snow. Problem is I couldn’t get up without messing my angel up too much. Then just when I did get up Cole wanted to stomp all over my angel. Ah…. to be a kid again.
I never did get my new batteries for my camera that I ordered last time I was in town. So often when I have tried to use the zoom the lens wouldn’t go back in. So many of the photos for this blog were taken with my very first digital camera also an Olympus, much older model Camedia with 3.2 megapixel. I am waiting till we get down south to start looking for a new camera. There just aren’t any stores around where I live to check them out. This little bird was taken from inside my window.
We will have lots of work the next couple of weeks to close the house up for the winter. Packing and a million details to take care of like cutting back all my still wonderful blooming geraniums and a few other hardy flowering plants in the greenhouse. I will take these plants along with the palm tree and oleander and wrap them up with a light cover to help insulate a little more. Usually when we really get extreme cold the sun is out to heat the greenhouse for those really cold nights. 3 years now we have manage to keep all the plants over the winter with no heat. As you can see my tomato plant in the upper right photo looks just pathetic. It has had aphids for a couple months now. Any good gardener would have thrown them out of the greenhouse, but I just couldn’t as they were still loaded with tomatoes. Still harvesting to date. To protect the rest of the plants I have had to spray them like crazy to keep them from getting infected. Always good to do anyway as when they come from outside they tend to bring all those pests with them.
Well time is drawing near where we will make this last drive on our country dirt road that takes us into town. I love the drive in the winter as all the potholes are filled with snow and the scene is completely different. The bridges on the road are only single lane and the creek run along this very windy narrow road with often steep drop offs. But I have been driving it for over 20 years now with 13 Kilometers before connecting with the highway which then goes to town.
The closer to town I approach the less snow there is. By the time I hit the highway the road can be bare. Often town has no snow, while we will have it the entire winter as we are considerably higher in elevation. This particular day I was given a beautiful show of the sun trying to break through the clouds.
It’s only another 8 klms on the highway to town. I often go the whole way without seeing another car. Just rolling hillsides of ranch land.
Well the holidays are over as is my winter hibernation coming to and end soon. I won’t have internet for the next 3 months. I will try and get a couple blogs out through the library. We have no TV or internet while down south. I will have time for reading some books and spend lots of time being social with friends and community events as well as our never ending landscaping projects.
