Frozen: The Garden Spot Saga

-2 and warming.

Perhaps Elsa the Snow Queen from the Disney movie does rule winter, for it is apparent that perhaps she has cast her spell over the Garden Spot. You know her, especially if you have any little girls in your family. Just take a look around to see Elsa's magic:

While we haven't had much snow, as I posted Thursday it has been bitterly cold. In 2007, I slipped on a patch of ice going out to get the Sunday paper. I broke my ankle so badly that it required surgery to put it back together, requiring six screws and a plate. Needless to say, today I am ever so cautious in the winter as I navigate myself through snow and ice. Still, I willing accept the challenges that Garden Spot offers up. Even venturing out in the snow.

It's 8:00 AM; time to do the morning chores. If you want to join me, put on your warmest coat, your heaviest gloves, a good pair of snow boots, and follow along while I do the Head Gardener's chores. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Instead of going out the back door across the slick Trex Decking patio and down the frost covered stairs, we will take the long way out the front door and around the side of the house. Let's stop by the pond, lingering to listen to the water cascading from the filter underneath the ice. The fish have probably gone into dormant mode or at least slowed down in the icey water below the surface of the ice. The water lilies are winter hardy, so we don't worry about them.

Listen: Do you hear the little birds rustling in the lilac bushes? We wonder how they stay warm.

Frozen solid, the waterfall no longer provides easy drinking for the birds, so I have the heated birdbath. Even that has frozen this week.

With Boone safely bordered at the kennel, we will head straight to the barn. The boys see us coming and greet us with their soft whinnies.

You can tell how cold it is with Sundance snorting steam.

Pop has grown quite a winter coat. We have to give him a hard time for having rolled in the mud.

Pop will be 26 after the first of the year, the official birth date for horses. He gets Senior Glow, a low carb, high protein pellet because he is inclined to gain weight fast and carry too much weight for his pony size. 

I have my own routine. I don't know what the HG does, but I always feed Sundance first. Then Pop. After I pour Pop's pellets, I put on his sun screen.

Sundance will be 19. Still spry and silly, he gets a combo of Show Flake, a mixture of corn, oats, other grains with molasses. Yum. He also gets Senior Glow along with his grain.

We grow our own hay, selling the excess. While the bales are compressed and tied with string, they break apart in flakes.

Sundance gets two flakes and Pop gets one flake and some extra. With the cold temps, the boys need a little more feed--I think.

Next, we have to check the horse's water; while the tank is heated with a light bulb, it can still freeze over. 

Look, Hubby left us hammer to break the ice. Fortunately this morning we don't have to use it.

The hens are last on the list to be fed. One of the old ladies greets us as we approach the hen house, not too sure that she wants to come out.

They will get a scoop of scratch sprinkled out on the ground. 

Inside they are kept toasty warm with a heat bulb; not a light, this bulb radiates a soft heat to take the chill off.

The young couple are experiencing their first winter and are reluctant to go in the snow. 

One old hen ventures out after we spread the scratch.

We linger for a moment in the garden, listening the silence of the cold air. We ponder the quietness of a snowy morning, the stillness and serenity that brings a certain satisfaction about life. We take a deep breath, filling our lungs with that cold, crisp fresh country air. We can see the mountains in the distance, now snow capped. We are thankful the grace and beauty in our life.

Back at the house, the sun has warmed the patio enough that the frosty covering has melted way. We take one last look at the frozen pond, knowing that it may well stay frozen for the rest of the winter. We'll go inside. . .

 . . . and fix a cup of hot tea, read some blogs, and enjoy a hot fire.

The Snow Queen's spell will be undone by Madame Sun this week, so the Head Gardener will go back to Haxtun early tomorrow morning, hoping that corn harvest will be finished by week's end. We are supposed to have good weather all week.

Thanks so much for helping with chores. We bundled up and it felt good to get out in the fresh air. You can join me at 4:30 when I go out again to feed at day's end.

Be sure to stop by Lavender Cottage where I am linking for Mosaic Monday. 

I hope you have a great week. 

BRRRRR: It's Cold Out There

Our Colorado weather is breaking all sorts of records. Norm for yesterday for that day of the year is around 53-58 degrees'. Yesterday it was 3. Of course I stayed in.

The heated birdbath gets lots of activity when it is so cold. Sometimes steam rises from the surface.

I'd say Veteran's Honor has said her final farewell to fall. She won't be back until spring.

She does look rather regal draped in her white hood.

We kept Boone inside all day, too. He has spent a lot of time in his outdoor run, but the Head Gardener  was supposed to head out east for the last of corn harvest. With the weather so cold, he stayed home and played with his dog.

Boone now 1 loves to play. He has an assortment of toys, everything from the expensive Kong toy which he destroys, to bones both real and fabricated, and a tree branch that he drug in, and old socks knotted, but his favorite is a balloon. He gets a good 15 minutes out of chasing it around.

He learned very quickly not to bite down on the balloon or it would pop.

So now he carries it by the stem, running around with it in his mouth. Such a character. 

The HG left this morning for Haxtun, where he has been for weeks, coming home on weekends; I am on chore duty feeding Boone, the horses, chickens, cats, birds. Boone stays in his run which while the weather is warm where he is okay, but now that it has turned cold, he will spend time at the boarding kennel down the road. They will take good care of him, he will be inside, warm, and will have other dogs to play with. So glad that we found the place. He is big, 62 pounds, very strong, and typical bird dog, hyper to the hilt, and while he does come when he is called, he is easily distracted. In short, I cannot handle him. He is half Weimaraner and half German Short Haired Pointer, making him a big, strong, smart dog--a man's dog for sure.

I hope he does not feel abandoned because that's where we found him when he was 4 months old in a kennel in Grant, Nebraska at a vet clinic. He and his litter mates had been surrendered, so I hope he doesn't feel abandoned. Without a fenced yard to run in and to be contained, he takes a firm hand and constant attention to keep him close. So he is safe and warm and the HG won't have to worry about him and I won't have to feel guilty leaving him outside.

At last check it was -6. I am headed to town in a few minutes. I thought about staying home, then I remembered that I while I was working, I'd be out in the weather. So off I will go to do my errands.

I sincerely hope that you are warm and cozy wherever you are, for this blast of cold has covered most of the continent. 

Thanks for stopping by. Love hearing from you.

A Family Affair

It used to be that the old timers checked the Farmer's Almanac for weather reports. Way back in the '50s of my early childhood, I vividly remember listening to Weatherman Bowman giving the day's weather report on the radio. Sometime over the years, he morphed into a scientist who explained to the television audience what Doppler weather was, then the weather person became a meteorologist  wearing a fashionable dress, tall, slim, blond, with graceful fingers pointing out weather patterns on a huge map, explaining and demonstrating the current and future weather patterns that just might have a major impact on the viewers' day, week, or month as tracked by satellite .  Today Colorado TV viewers can see the storm brewing far off the coast of California with its projected path animated showing where the storm will hit. Sometimes despite the marvels of technology, they still get it wrong.

So freezing cold temperatures and snow are predicted for this week; with those predictions come the warnings, the cautions, the "to do" lists: winterize the cars, winterized the campers, remove the hoses from the hydrants, etc. Well DAH! It is Colorado. It is November and while it is still Fall, yeah it gets cold and ugly. Some years. 

For those of us who garden, we also want to winterize our gardens, usually by fall feeding and mulching followed by some dead heading and pruning of perennials. I usually leave the seed heads on so that plants can reseed and as food for the birds.

This year, our tree hugger daughter insisted on winterizing the young trees that we have planted over the last few years. 

Come. Talk a walk around the Garden Spot one last time to see the trees now put to bed for a long winter's nap.

Even the kids got in on the work: Jacob and little Lily at least lent support.

While most of the family were out working, I was inside preparing lunch for the work crew, I missed out on part of the process:

• First Heather had her dad removed sod from around the bottoms the trees. As a horticulturist who works for a tree care company, she does her research, now indicating that trees don't really like grass covering their root systems.
• Next they added about 2 inches of shredded mulch.
• She also mixed up an iron rich fertilizer for the tree to snack on over the winter.
• Each tree truck was also wrapped with a layer of tree wrap, a heavy paper material.

Each tree tree was then wrapped with a protective covering of burlap. Three steel posts were pounded in to support the chicken wire that will cage the tree for the burlap blanket.

The tree circle around the baby apricot lots so neat.

The job really was a family affair.

Jennifer, thinking that she would cruse the antique stores in town, got put to work as this little cherry tree is ready for a warm blanket.

Zip ties secure both the chicken wire and the burlap.

At the end of the day, all of the little fruit tress were fed, mulched, and wrapped.

Now I know where my flannel sheet went. The peach should sleep snugly all winter.

 

Seems like a lot of work to go to; however, even though we bargain shop for trees, that purpose seems defeated if they winter kill. The Ash in the middle received new mulch and trunk wrap.

 

The Ash in back will need mulch, but the crew ran out-- someone didn't guesstimate accurately.

Baby Eastern Red Bud got a nice warm blanket, but no mulch. Heather noted that she recognized the blue blanket as the one she got as a child when I bought her new bedding.

Part of the winterizing process included a good dose of food. For her work blog, Heather writes that trees, while it looks like they are dormant through the winter, the roots are actually taking in food and storing carbohydrates for new leaf production and spring growth.

 

I said "Smile" and this is what I got. You can view this mosaic and many others (probably more artistic than this one) @Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday hosted by Judith. (I was also threatened not put these photos on the blog. HA.)

A big thank you, Heather. We do appreciate your hard work.

She did score a handful of allium bulbs for her hard work when we had to head to the garden center for more supplies. 

With the trees now properly winterized, the work is not done. Depending on how dry our winter is, they will need to be watered over the winter. If we get good amounts of wet snow, then they should winter over nicely without extra water. 

John and Elizabeth Howland have come to visit during November. They were on the Mayflower along with the other 100 original pilgrims. I am 13th (?) generation, so I am thankful for their bravery and strong will, giving our Thanksgiving special meaning.

I love my little turkeys. They are pompoms and felt. You can find the instructions on Martha Stewart's web site. Really fun to make with or for the grand kids.

I have to thank all of my new visitors for leaving kind comments who hopefully are finding me by way of Mosaic Monday. I have wanted to grow my blog some and I have picked up two new followers who I welcome to the Garden Spot. I always look for my old friends, appreciating their kindness as well.  I am not particularly good at answering back in email; instead, spending more time to leave good comments, which sometimes aren't so good because I do most of my commenting from the iPad. It has issues. 

Everyone has been kind in expressing condolences and sympathies with the passing of our family members. Thank you. 

Until next time, have a wonderful week. I hope your meteorologist predicts good weather for you. 

Rainbows and Fairies

So here I am post Daylight Savings up way before the sun reading my blogs waiting to start my day. The Head Gardener finally returned home from corn harvest last night. He will be home through the weekend and then go back again next week. Our farmer friends work 11,000 acres of wheat, corn, and milo in northeastern Colorado, about two hours away from here. They are short handed for the the amount of ground they work. So when the HG offered to help out, they took him up on his offer. Little did he know that the job would be weeks upon weeks. He gets weekends free because the young daughter can drive the tractor that he drives.

Meanwhile back at the ranch (an old time saying; we really don't live on a ranch), I am on chore duty which I don't mind at all--as long as the weather is warm and dry.

Thank you everyone for your sincere condolences. Uncle Mike's loss is the one that touches our lives most immediately. We will miss him. The HG's sister now finds herself alone and wondering what the future holds for her. We will be by her side, ready to do whatever she needs. 

On a brighter note, Miss Elinore celebrated her 8th birthday. She is growing up so fast, but still lives in the magical world of rainbow and fairies.

                 

Her mother works very hard to fulfill the girls' birthday cake wishes. I keep telling her that she needs to take a cake decorating class, but she does very well on her own.

Ellie will spend tonight and tomorrow night with us. Heather and the boys will be here Friday night, so the house will loud and busy. Saturday the tree hugger will help her dad winterize our new, young trees by wrapping the trunks, fertilizing, and mulching them. I loaded up on movies: Spider Man for the boys, Planes 2 for the whole family, and Angelina Jolee's version of Sleeping Beauty for a more adult  viewing. 

There. I did it: a second blog of the week. The sun has not yet risen, but the sky shows a hint of coming daylight. 

Thanks for joining me. I'll see you back on Sunday for Mosaic Monday. Have a terrific week end, and thanks for stopping by.

In Memoriam: Life is a Bowl of. . .

With October behind us, the blandness of November begins. The trees will be bare, the grasses brown, the skies gray. October left us in celebration and sadness.

Yesterday was a day of celebration. Our college student who lived with us while she did her under grad work at UNC, had her birthday, so we held a little surprise luncheon for her as her grandparents traveled from the Western Slope to come visit her for her birthday. After lunch and cake and ice cream, the Head Gardener and I went to Elinore's birthday party. More good food, cake and ice cream and a mountain of presents. Boone turned one on Halloween. Since the HG was off harvesting corn, we didn't celebrate, but I did buy him treats and toys one of which he has already nearly destroyed.




Playing around in Picasa, I managed to come up with a couple of mosaics that sum up October: Apple picking, garden gone to seed, Peretilote's small clutch, and the last leaf on the eastern red bud.

I filled a small glass dish with pods and leaves, and apples just to see what I could up with. I am not always so good with still life photography. So here you have it, October in a bowl.

In the last six weeks, we have suffered loss. In September my sister's husband Larry passed after a bitter fight with lung cancer. Two weeks ago my dear cousin in Seattle, Linda, passed after succumbing to an aneurysm suffered while she shopped at Home Depot. Lastly, my husband's brother in law stopped breathing at home Thursday morning. Paramedics were able to bring him around, but he passed Friday night. Tests showed that he had undiagnosed lung cancer, with tumors in the same location as Larry had. So my sister and my husband's sister both lost their husbands to the same disease weeks apart. Uncle Mike was dear sweet man who loved horses. I thought it fitting to write a memoriam with a picture of Sundance, the horse that he gave our daughter Jennifer when he was just 18 months old. 

In in the States, November begins the holiday season with Thanksgiving. We may or may not have the big feast, depending on what the girls do. They usually go to their in laws, which is fine for us. We are expecting a weather change tomorrow, along with the time change. We may even have some snow. Great. Just Great. I am not looking forward to snow. 

I am linking with Mosaic Monday with Judith at Lavender Cottage. I seem to have fallen into a routine of writing the blog on Sundays to post my week's photos in mosaics. I should probably post more during the week, but I often find it hard to come up with the Sunday post. This week looks to be rather quiet. The HG will head back to eastern Colorado early in the morning to help finish up corn harvest. Hopefully he will be home by Wednesday for good. 

I wish you all a great week, a week with your bowl of life over flowing with sweetness and good. 

Thanks so much visiting. I love reading your comments.

Shhh. I'm Sleeping

I was nervous this morning as I drank my only cup of coffee for the day pondering what I would post today because there really isn't much going on. Oh we have plenty of work to do, but the Head Gardener is gone again. Let's see. He spent a month hunting, coming home on the week ends; now he out in Northeastern, Colorado helping our farmer friends with corn harvest for 5, 6, 7 days--until all of the corn is in.

Were I there, the blog would be filled with pictures of two combines cutting corn, the HG's tractor pulling the grain cart, and one semi hauling the corn to storage. I'd ride in the combine with Dan, keep Dave company in the semi for a round, and give the HG a hug or two.

But I am not.

Instead I am keeping the Garden Spot running smoothly, feeding, paying bills, cleaning, doing laundry, yadayadayada. Single handed.

So when the HG calls, I have to give him an accounting  of what's going on.

Generally there is little to report. This morning when I fed the hens; however, they were acting differently. The old ladies ventured out of the hen house, but didn't seem too eager to eat the scratch I scattered. Chanteleer crowed from inside the house. So I took a look.

Looks like the happy couple is thinking about starting a family. I don't think they knew exactly what to do with the egg as they circled it and clucked to each other.

I think I was making them nervous taking photos, so they left the house.  I left the egg for them to ponder exactly what was happening to them. I'd say they are experiencing puberty. The HG will make accommodations for Peretilote to nest when he gets home. He has grand plans of creating a private suite for them on the other side of the hen house. 

So that was the news: we're expecting a baby. Maybe. Probably not this time. 

The last tree on the place to show color is the flowering crab in the pasture. Fruitless, this tree makes up for its Plain Jane look all summer with fire hot leaves the end of October. Soon the honey locust will be bare. As her dressing falls to the ground, she whispers "Shhh. I am sleeping." We don't think of our trees as actually sleeping, but according to my tree hugger daughter, while they look dead or dormant over the winter, their roots are actually busy storing food and moisture for next year.  The ash have only a few leaves dangling precariously from slim branches with the rest skirting the trees on the ground waiting for wind to carry them away.

The doves will have find other places to perch for the winter. Not a bad photo through a dirty living room window.

I thought I'd share some of my husband's hunting photos since he does not blog, Facebook, Tweet, or Instagram. He does do Craigslist, Amazon, and email.

He bought a new camera, a nice little point and shoot Canon that takes exceptional photos.

He had been sending for years to draw a tag for Rocky Mountain Big Horn for the Big Thompson area, most commonly known as the main way into Estes Park, where I know some of you have vacationed.

He drew one of three ram tags for archery. Three ewe tags were also issued for archery. Only one ram tag was filled, which wasn't his. 

He camped at a small campground in Drake about 6.5 miles east of Estes along a tributary of the Big Thompson River that flooded so badly last fall. 

The photos now show the campground cleaned up and open for business, but the couple who owns the campground lost their home. They now live in a tiny cabin that was spared the devastation. Hubby met so many people, but the Mennonite from Pennsylvania who were there to help residents in Glen Haven on up the road rebuild made the biggest impression. He met professional photographers, including a crew from National Geographic who were filming Colorado wild life. He met people from all over the US and even a couple from the Scottish Higlands. So while he was disappointed that he didn't fill his tag, he did have a great experience.

So this handsome fellow lives another year.

Ewes feeding both on craggy over hang and on the highway.

This small herd of big horns spends a lot time along the highway, stopping traffic and getting a lot of attention. State hunting rule: hunter must be 50 feet from the road to shoot. Ethical Hunter Rule: Hunter does not shoot in public view. Archery hunters, many of them, have their own code: hunting is a private, sacred endeavor, so they don't shoot near a populated highway.

The rams had not yet gone into rut nor the ewes in estrus, but apparently the young ram that hung out with ladies didn't know that he was supposed to be in hiding with the rest of the old guys. 

Rut begins with ritualistic battle where the rams charge each other, hitting foreheads square to each other. You'd think that they would get a great headache. Here these two rams had just finished ramming each other in the forehead. 

Aside from his hunting, the HG spent a lot of time parked along the highway glassing rough mountain terrain. Travelers, seeing him with his binoculars, would stop to see what he was looking at.

A black bear. 

He was thrilled with these photos. 

So while he came home empty-handed and disappointed, he will admit that he had a great time, met a lot of people, and enjoyed all of the wildlife. 

Two birthdays this week: Elinore will be 8 October 30. Her party is  Saturday and she has invited Pop. We will have to see about that. The HG has to leave harvest, the weather has to be decent, and she has to be good this week. Lots of ifs.

Boone will be 1 October 31. What a little gremlin he is and handsome handful. When all of the hunting and harvesting are over he gets to go school. At least he won't be a drama queen about his birthday.

Alone all of this time, I have spent most of it working on the dollhouse. It is nearly completed. Would you like a peak? The grand reveal will be on the dollhouse blog. Take a look later.

Yes, it is pink. Lots and lots of pink because it is Ballet Studio. 

I am linking with Lavender Cottage to share on Mosaic Monday. Join us there.

Finally, thank you so much for all you kind congratulations on our 40th. For me it doesn't really seem like a big deal. When I signed on, I knew we were in it for the long haul. The years have passed quickly, we have had a wonderful life, but I think the best is yet to come. 

Have a wonderful week. I'll be busy getting ready for birthday party and keeping the home fires burning. Thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Halloween.