The World's Shortest Hike - Part 2

The dogs and I were walking in the snowy Brasher State Forest (see also Part 1, posted yesterday) and finding the snow much deeper and the walking more difficult that I'd anticipated. I decided to turn back toward the road:

Clover and Fergus went exploring through the small Beech trees, whose golden leaves adorned the top of the white snow:

The forest was beautiful, with giant White Pines, young White Pines and small Beech trees. This was also the area where I find such an abundance of Pink Ladyslippers in bloom each spring:

We were on our way back toward the car:

Seamus smelled something interesting while little Daphne, with her white fur and light brown ears almost disappeared against the white snow and light brown Beech leaves:

Seamus and Jack teamed up for some exploring. They sometimes remind me of Elmer Fudd, hunting for Bugs Bunny. They are dead serious, but I find them comical:

Fergus and Clover were getting tired of plowing their way through the snow:


Jack and Seamus continued to sniff the base of trees:

We hadn't gone far, and our car was easy to spot on the road up ahead. We followed the trail we'd made as we pushed our way through the deep snow, but it was narrow and caused Fergus to have difficulty turning around.. I too found the narrow trail troublesome and almost fell a number of times:

We were almost to the road, and the dogs picked up speed and increased their excitement. They ran on ahead:

The snow bank was so high that the dogs almost disappeared from my sight after they crossed it. It may have been the shortest hike in history, but we all had fun and got some exercise and fresh air:

The World's Shortest Hike - Part 1

We had a respite from our extreme cold and voluminous snow one day, so on a whim, I loaded the dogs in the car for a walk in the woods. Jack was all excited as we pulled out of the driveway:

I drove 10 miles to the Brasher State Forest camping area and was surprised to find the road plowed. I discovered that someone lives at the far end of that road, which is why it is plowed. The snow, however, was piled 3 feet high on each side of the road. I finally just parked on the side of the road, climbed over the snow bank and headed into the forest:

The snow was much deeper than it looked, even under the trees. The dogs didn't sink all the way down in it, but I did. Even so, Daphne began walking at my heels to get some small advantage and Clover's long leg fur began collecting snow balls:

I urged them on, trying to bolster their enthusiasm:

Seamus, usually the one with the leg problems, surprised me by having no trouble with the snow at all. Fergus needed encouragement:

I stopped at a stand of White Pines, and it was indeed lovely, albeit difficult walking:

It may be difficult to see, but look at the smile on Seamus' face. That's the happiest look I've seen in a long time:

I noticed that Jack wasn't with us, then found him running back and forth on the road, hesitant to clamber over the 3 foot snow bank. I called until he braved the big snow piles and came running full speed through the forest to join us:

The big trees were all White Pines (no Red Pines), and the top of the snow was littered with their cones:

Once Jack had caught up with us, he was happy and full of energy. He usually is the life of the party:

We didn't go far into the forest because the snow was deep and the walking difficult. I decided to make this the shortest hike we ever took and turned back toward the road. I'll post Part 1 tomorrow:

F-F-F-F-F-F-F-Frozen F-F-F-F-F-Farm

As I wrote yesterday, our winter has been rugged thus far, both frigid and snowy. The animals seem to handle it well, or at least better than I do:

I snapped this picture through my window one brutally cold day, showing the view outside and across the county road. I didn't want to go out there:

Doing the morning chores, I saw these fox tracks leading from the barn. I've also seen fox tracks inside the barn. I'm not happy about that but haven't been able to stop it. I've tried live traps but they are not fooled by them:

The fantail pigeons are well and protected from the worst of winter:

The same is true for the bantam hens, though their room is smaller and is building up a lot of poop:

One of these two brown Easter Egger bantams is laying a pinkish egg every few days, just right for my needs:


But one day our temperatures dropped to nearly -20 and we received 2 to 3 feet of snow:

I'd intended to stop feeding the birds, but they were obviously so hungry that I relented. The small birds cluster in the nearby Lilac bush and wait for a moment when the bully birds, Cowbirds and Bluejays, are not at the feeders. In this picture are a Chickadee (top right), a Chipping Sparrow (bottom right) and an unknown bird (left), most likely a House Sparrow. I finally got a pair of Cardinals, but they are afraid of the Bluejays so I don't see them often:


The apple grove during the blizzard:

About 30" of snow atop the trash bins:

My car, with snow piled to within about 8" of the door handles. Our last few winters have been relatively mild and I came to expect that. This winter has been a trial, and I often wonder why I'm not sipping a mint julep in Florida somewhere like so many retired people:

The Red Poll Ladies

Scarlett was drawing close to her theoretical calving date - if indeed she was impregnated via artificial insemination. If so, she would be the only cow for which A.I. was successful this year:

Amy was always one of the calmer, friendlier cows, but she became even more so as the cold strengthened and she became accustomed to getting grain every morning. I had pulled out my camera to snap a photo and she came lumbering through the snow, hopeful that I had come bearing grain. Alas, I had none with me:

One thing the grain has done is to make me more interesting to the cows. They stop what they're doing and watch me whenever I appear in their yard:

Scarlett's udder began to swell, likely a sign that she was going to calve soon. I've been wrong before, though, so I snapped a photo of her udder (on the left), then compared it with a photo of Violet's udder. I had planned to compare it to Rosella's udder because she is Scarlett's daughter and built much like her, but her udder was so small I couldn't even see it to take a photo. As each day passed, Scarlett's udder became more swollen and I became more worried about the brutally frigid weather we were having:

Jasmine was herself through it all. She's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but she's calm and friendly and easy to handle:

For two days, our weather warmed up and all our snow melted, even the 6 foot drifts. Alas, all the melted snow began to flood the pasture and I then worried that Scarlett might drop her calf in the water, where it would surely drown:

But our two day warm spell ended suddenly and spectacularly with a snowfall of two to three feet and temperatures nearing -20 F. I went out the next morning and found this pitiful face looking through the partially open barn door. They were all crowded by the door, hoping for grain:

They had up to 8" of snow piled on their backs and faces:

And icicles hanging off their bellies:

They ate their grain, shook off a lot of snow, and went back outside for a drink of water and more hay:

Our weather finally moderated to near normal temperatures, still not ideal for calving, but better than it was. As I type this, I am still waiting for Scarlett to calve:

I keep moving the bale feeder and try to replace it before they really get low on hay. They probably like the extra hay so they can pick and choose, but all the wasted hay is making quite a mess:

Little Horses Of Winter

Remy likes to hang out inside the barn when the weather is cold and windy:

 And Blue follows wherever Remy goes:

 Remy at the barn door. Notice the frost on the end of his nose:

 Blue and Remy at the bale feeder with Jasmine. I don't remember where the other cows were at the time:

 I put the horses in their stall for the three coldest nights this winter, but that meant I had a lot of messy bedding and frozen poop to clean up. I have to fork it into the bin and then carry the bin out through the door to the tractor bucket:

 Of course I also had to clean the main barn floor where the cattle had spent the night. Then I put down new bedding hay. Remy and Blue thought I'd prepared a banquet table for them:


 Both little horses love to paw through the snow for any plant material to eat, even if it's plants they usually won't touch or if it's dead and brown. I suppose it's instinct to do so, an instinct which keeps wild horses alive during the winter:

 They each have a small stall for eating their grain, a place where they can't fight and the big cows can't bother them:

 And as soon as they're done eating, they begin making a racket by banging their metal pans on the concrete floor. They seem to think it's great fun, maybe even making music:


 Blue's snowy snout showed they he'd been digging in the snow for edible treasures:

 Like the cows, the horse's backs collect snow without melting it. They are quite well insulated:

 What is this, you may well ask. I took this photo from up in the hay loft, where I was tossing down hay for the horses below. They don't mind it falling on them and, in fact, seem to enjoy it: