Winter Says "Not So Fast"

Ya. That's snow.

9 May 2020
Ya. Second time in my lifetime we've had snow in May.

Winter 2018 - 2019

We had barely 10 inches of snow, grand total, most of the season. There were a couple of bitterly cold days in January. Below 0. Maybe 2 or 3 days. I don't mind the snow so much but I really hate the cold!

It wasn't all that bad overall. I never did get out my quilted Carhartt overalls. Or my sheepskin hat. That's my real measure of how bad the winter was!

We had barely any plowable snow until 12 February.

12 February
Oh. Pretty enough. Not much of it. It does have a certain cozy charm. Nice day for hot chocolate!

And then, interestingly, on 3 March, 5 inches of snow was forecast. The snow hadn't even started at 11:00 pm and then, by 6:00 am, 4 March, we had this!

4 March

It really must have been snowing to beat the band! I'd guessed it was maybe 12 to 15 inches of snow fell in what was, at the most, 7 hours. That's a pretty good steady rate.

Turned out to be 18 inches
Of course it's not over yet. We have plenty of severe wintry weather in March and April but the worst of it is over. And it never ever goes below 0 after the first week of March!

And I did manage to make lots of soup this season. That was a goal!

Mushroom Soup

I'm not crazy about the wintertime. I don't mind snow so much but I *really* hate the cold.

The only two redeeming things about wintertime are rich hot soups and all kinds of comfort food. Last year I was off my soup game. I'm not sure why really. I was distracted sure. Between farm work and the ice I just hadn't fixed soup like I'd wanted to.

This year I was determined not to have that happen again and have made soup frequently. Lentil and cabbage soup are probably my favorites. Tortellini soup is right up there and of course there's always chicken soup. And here in New England there are all kinds of chowders.

And then there's this.

Wild Rice and Mushroom soup
I made this a week or so ago and I swear it's just about the best soup ever. I'd made a vegetarian Bolognese with mushroom duxelles and I had some leftover mushrooms. Here, loosely adapted from a recipe by Martha Rose Shulman appearing in the NY Times:

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 T olive oil
• Half a medium onion, chopped
• One carrot, sliced
• One celery rib, sliced
• 8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup Minnesota wild rice
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 2 cups chicken broth (no salt added, I used homemade)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 t thyme, 1/2 t parsley, 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• Cider vinegar, to taste, a t or two

It looks like a long list of ingredients but this is easy. I don't do anything that's hard.

Procedure:

• Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in 1/3 cup boiling water from a kettle for 30 minutes or so. Strain and reserve the liquid for later. Some people run the liquid through some cheesecloth or a coffee filter. I don't bother.
• Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onions, carrots and celery and sauté until they soften, maybe 5 minutes.
• Add the sliced mushrooms to the saucepan. With a pinch of salt. Cook them over high heat until they start to soften, maybe 3 minutes or so. Reduce the heat and add the garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, after a minute or two, add the thyme and the parsley. Stir to combine.
• Add the wine and reduce to at least half over high heat. Add the reserved porcini mushroom water. Add the chicken stock, water, and bay leaf, bring to a boil.
• Add the re-hydrated porcini mushrooms, wild rice, bring back to a boil reduce to a simmer. Simmer for an hour, covered.
• Add the peas.

Season the soup to your liking. I splash in the cider vinegar at serving time. Best soup I've had in a very long time!

Boring winter!

This has been a *very* boring winter.

I fell off my horse in December just before Christmas and broke a rib. Oh that hurt like hell! I'm getting a little too old for that and I don't heal as fast as I used to. I've been way off my game. I think I'm just going to have to start using a saddle...as much as that disappoints me.

Of *course* it was my fault. We'd had a good ride and we were cooling off just shuffling around and...*boom* she's off and running for her life. Leaving me in a heap. I got caught off guard and yes I know better. Ain't that always the case. I used to be pretty good at falling off a horse but now? Not so much.

We've had a couple of *really* cold days but not hardly any snow. Sloppy ice storm a week or so ago. As much as I hate the wintertime a blizzard would be exciting right about now. At least...this time of year...it has a certain charm that's hard to describe.

Speaking of which. I pack in Chef Boyardee ravioli and Beefaroni for my "storm" food. In case we lose power for any length of time. At least I'll have a lantern, a book and my Chef Boyardee for the duration. But. It came to my attention some time ago that Chef Boyardee ravioli and Beefaroni use HFCS! And no. I do *not* knowingly eat HFCS.

But...thanks to FoodTalkCentral this also came to my attention! Throwback recipe!

Yes, it uses sugar and no, it's not like I eat a lot of this stuff. I don't think added sugar is good for you either. But hey, with this stuff in the pantry I might just look forward to a power failure!

A childhood favorite! And still a guilty pleasure.

Third time!

In two weeks. I remember saying to a neighbor just a few weeks ago there's still plenty of time for winter weather. And here we are with our third nor'easter in two weeks time.

These storms can be pretty ferocious. The last one hit the coast really bad with some people going without power for up to 5 days.

This one dropped the most snow of the three. There's about 2 feet out there this morning.

View from my living room, looking west, 08:30 14 March
I sure hope this is the last it. Couple more weeks and we'll very likely see no more wintry weather this season.

A little more like it

A week ago I went out and broke up the ice and spent an hour working a shovel underneath to lift it off the ground in sheets. I was determined to get horses out there if it was the last thing I did!

So after a week of weather steadily in the 40s and 50s we're *finally* getting horses out every day.

Tuesday 27 February. The sun is very nice this time of year!
And I'm pleased beyond words to have the horses out there enjoying the sun. This has been a really challenging winter. For everyone. Now if I can just get myself organized well enough to ride!

Another good sign! The local maple sap is running!

Friday 23 February

The year in ice

This will long be remembered as the season in ice. The property doesn't drain well. A little rain. It freezes. A lot of snow. More rain. Snow melts. Property floods....and freezes...

11 February
And that's *nothing*. That's after several days in the 40s and 50s and some rain. I really should have taken pictures last week.

The kids were literally playing hockey in the ring I train in
It was a 12 acre ice skating rink.

Of course it just kills me keeping the horses in the barn. I think we've had 3 days outside since before Christmas. And two of those days were strictly in hand. But there's just no way a horse can navigate that. It was much worse this year than last and the only relief will be to find another place to go when the weather permits.

And of course meanwhile...there's work to be done! And every one of us fell down on that ice at least once and by the middle of last week it was just downright dangerous.

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Product Review!

This is a Yaktrax
It's a hard rubber frame with coiled stainless steel wire wound around the framework. Making for "traction cleats". You stretch this rubber frame around the sole of your shoe or boot.

They're marginal in the snow. At least this model which is the one I have. On snow covered ice they clog with snow and you have to stomp your feet a lot and shuffle. If you don't? They're not worth much. But. On ice? On clear ice? They work *really* well on clear ice, no question at all.

Chicken soup!

Well. Chicken noodle soup.

I make soup all the time. Soup is the one and only good thing about wintertime. But...hard as it is to believe..I've never made chicken soup! I'd had chicken quarters for dinner ending up with a leftover quarter. The light clicked on! I decided I'd make chicken with that leftover quarter.

I picked the chicken from the leftover quarter, boiled all the bones for an hour and a half. I had roasted the quarters in garlic and parsley so there was enough seasoning there.

I sweated some onion, coarsely chopped celery and carrot in some olive oil, added some garlic, the broth and some Hodgson Mill whole wheat egg noodles. Product review! I don't know how they did that but those are really delicious egg noodles! Then I added the chicken I'd picked off the leftover quarter. Oh, and I splashed in the juice from half a lemon. It still needed a couple pinches of salt for it to really come to life. Managed to prepare two servings.

I don't have much room in my freezer so I freeze my soups in quart sized zip lock freezer bags. It's easy when you put the bag in a measuring cup and then just dump it in.

Snow Day!

Blizzard Day is more descriptive.

The snow died down a little bit...I live in this building..
Today we're enjoying what's called a Bomb Cyclone. This sucker came roaring up the coast (Noreaster) this morning after having dropped snow in Florida yesterday! I haven't watched the news yet but it sure looks like an official blizzard. Visibility has surely been less than a thousand feet all day and mostly barely a few hundred feet. Cold wind blown snow all day long.

The only good(?) thing is it's colder than was forecast so rather than all heavy wet snow it's been more dry powder.

The horses are all tucked in with plenty of hay and water. Just going to have to catch up on barn work tomorrow and over the weekend.

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Edited to add:

The news says the official report isn't in yet but everyone has to agree it was a full blown blizzard. If you've never been through a real honest to God blizzard they are pretty bad.

And now the west side of the storm is going to bring in below zero Arctic air for the next couple of days. Wind chills -18 to -30° F.

First snow!

Saturday 9 December was our very first snow of the season.

That's Sammi's stall in the doorway. Biggest horse gets the biggest stall!
Which of course meant Sunday L had her first snow bath of the season!

Barn life is hard in the wintertime. Every season gets worse and while it does have its rewards I just dread it. You just suck it up do it. The manure pile is a real burden in the snow. The manure pile is a 1000 foot trip from the barn. Three trips out and back is a little over a mile. Sometimes the landlord doesn't think plow down to the manure pile. And sometimes he's out of town when it snows.

Normally I use this Gorilla Cart to haul manure. I don't think they have this model anymore.

I can load 7 or 8 cubic feet of manure into that wagon and make 3 to 5 trips on a typical day. I'd rather have a tractor! But it will do. Most of the year.

Not so much in the snow! Oh I've used it in the snow the past 2 years and it's a *real* struggle. It gets better after the first couple of trips. The tires make ruts in the snow that act almost like rails. It's still a real workout.

This year I had an inspired moment!

I got one of these! I got a Jet Sled 1. And, on the occasion of the first snow of the season had a chance to take it for a test drive. We had maybe seven inches of snow. Enough to make using the wagon a challenge.

That's about 10 cubic feet of manure!
And handling it was a breeze. I swear not much more than a walk to the manure pile and back. The tow rope can be a little tough on the hands so I wrapped some foam pipe insulation around the rope and duct taped it.

I am just elated. Hauling manure (and bedding and feed!) is like there's just nothing to it. Winter can be pretty miserable and every little bit helps.

Still too much...

Snow!

8 March. Still buried!
Even though it's been unusually cold the air is starting to become notably less harsh. We've been free of fresh snow and the sun feels good. Things are even starting to melt. I thought maybe I'd catch a ride this last weekend! I haven't been out riding now since 28 25 January when this all started.

But no I think the snow is a little too deep. Oh, I know L can plow through this stuff but after maybe a quarter mile or so I don't think it would be much fun for her. So maybe next week I'll ride.

We're lucky. A number of barns have collapsed here. Horses have been hurt and sadly a couple of horses were lost. We lost L's shed. The roof collapsed with a little help from a falling tree limb. She wasn't out there. I knew it was going to go and I wasn't going to put anyone out there until I fenced it off.

24 February
Of course I'm going to have to clean up that mess. She loves her shed! Those, by the way, are Mulberry trees on either side of the shed. The horses love those mulberries as much as I do!

If you look carefully, along the right wall of the shed, at the top of the fence rail, that's L watching me from the paddock on the other side of the shed. No doubt wondering what I'm doing out there.

Ay yi yi

Bad enough we've had 8 feet of snow in the past 3 weeks.

Now this!

Saturday 21 February, 9:30 am
That was the thermometer in my car yesterday morning. It was -12° F (-24° C) when I got up. And even though today is almost 40° and raining it will be back below 0 tonight with little relief in sight.

The weather isn't the Big Story around here these days. It's the *only* story these days. Roofs have collapsed all over the region.

Driving can be treacherous

So can walking. This was over a week ago. It's almost like walking in a tunnel now.

And the deer must be really desperate to be out like this in broad daylight. This is from my living room window at 9:30 Thursday morning. In 25 years now I've only seen this a couple of times.

Enough already! I am *so* looking forward to spring!

About That Snow

Remember I said I don't mind the snow so much?

I take that back.

North Street, 2 February, 1:00 pm
I feel like I'm in Siberia! We've had front end loaders as big as houses trying to clear this stuff up. And...more snow in the forecast for tomorrow! Of course life around the barn is very hard when it gets like this. The snow is up to L's flanks.

Snow!

We had our first real snow of the season over the weekend. We've had a few light dustings here and there but this was the first snow that amounted to anything.

Sunday 25 January
I don't mind the snow so much. L loves the snow!

Yay
I really *hate* the cold. This was enough snow to cover the treacherous frozen ground so we got out there and rode for the first time in weeks.

I used a saddle. Sometimes L gets a little frisky charging around those snow covered fields. It was so nice to get out there and ride. I see lots of animals follow our trails in the woods. We used to follow the deer trails. Then we started making our own trails. The New England woods can be very deceptive. They appear to be quite thick, and they are, but down on ground level they can be surprisingly open. It's because of all the shade. So now I see the deer and the coyotes are out there using our trails!

An epic blizzard is forecast for tonight and tomorrow. And apparently the population is in a panic. Supermarkets open extra hours being stripped clean. I don't get it. I *really* don't get it. This is coastal New England. We can have crippling storms almost any time of year. In the winter we have blizzards. In the summer we have hurricanes. In the fall we have nor'easters. Spring is usually pretty quiet. So you keep candles handy. A couple days worth of canned food. And don't forget a good book!

One Bored Mare

L is a big, strong, healthy vibrant horse. There's no way I can work her long enough or hard enough to tire her out. I can ride hard for 3 hours and she's still fresh as a daisy. I've often thought we should maybe take up endurance riding! And...she's smart. So it's hard to distract her sometimes and keep her entertained.

Couple of months ago she began tormenting her stablemates in the night. Now, I think this is hilarious. She'd chew holes in her wall and peak at her neighbors through the holes. And of course then they'd scream and kick and she was really making her little sister P all kinds of upset. And obviously not everyone thought this was so funny. Besides. Not good for her to be chewing wood. After the *3rd* time a wall was kicked *down* I had to do something. Mares tend to have a lot of ...um, personality. Even when they're not in heat.

More hay wasn't going to help. She blows through hay like a demon. Besides. She's too fat. As a temporary measure we put her nighttime hay in a hay net so she'd have to work at it. And ...she got really mad. L isn't the kind of horse that would find a Jolly Ball very entertaining. Then there's those Likit things which are expensive and don't last hardly an hour.

L likes to nibble on things and flap her lips. You know that thing you do with your finger where you flap your lips? Well..L likes to do that. Sometimes she'll even furiously flap her lips on your forehead. And she likes to rub her teeth on rough surfaces. This time of year one of her favorite things is to (again, *furiously*) run her teeth up and down your jacket zipper. Try putting a bridle on when she's doing that! So I got her one of these...

The Pas-A-Fier
At first...she didn't pay it much attention. But then...one night..our barn manager noticed a quiet unfamiliar sound...in an otherwise pretty quiet barn. And I noticed the nubs getting chewed on a little and...the shaft where it sits in the brackets is shiny. And now the footing has been treacherous. All kinds of frozen ridges and sheets of ice under the snow. The horses have been in their stalls for almost a week now and it's very stressful. And that Pas-A-Fier has been rolling to beat the band all night long. No new holes in the wall. Nobody screaming and kicking in the night. I wish I'd bought two of them!

Happy Christmas

My barn friends decorated L's stall for Christmas with this little tree and red berries. I thought it was rather sweet.

25 December 2014
Shotgun season on deer closed almost 2 weeks ago and just Wednesday afternoon while I was out running I heard shots in the woods. It's still black powder season until the end of the year but these were shotgun shots.

Most people are serious and responsible. But it only takes one.

Dashing through the snow?

It snowed like crazy Saturday. Heavy wet slushy slippery snow. All things considered it was pretty miserable. I decided however it would be a good time to take L out and see if I could get a nice picture for next year's Christmas card.

Nope. This isn't it.
Hahahaha. She was having none of it. Here I'd groomed her and brushed out her mane and she made straight for the run in shed. Where she rolled in the dirt. Twice.

I chased her out in the snow and maybe, of a couple dozen pictures, I might have one or two pretty good ones. The rest look like that one there.

Nice day for hot chocolate!

A wintry ride

I know people that love February. Oh, I know the days are getting longer. Statistically February isn't cold as January. And it's a short month. And every day is another day closer to spring.

I hate February. Everything is hard in the wintertime and I think February is the "dark before the dawn". By the time February gets here I'm really sick and tired of the cold. So I just moped around most of the day Saturday.

Sunday I was desperate for a ride and L was happy to oblige.

The most recent snow was relatively undisturbed and there were tracks everywhere! I enjoy following the tracks. It's fun to see who's been around and where they go.

Saturday 9 February. Deer tracks.
There were some one way bunny tracks. They kind of came out from under some brush and went off into a trail and just....stopped. I was wondering how on earth did he do that?! Blood stained snow under a tree some yards away of course meant poor bunny got snatched up by an owl. Hawks leave wing tip marks in the snow.

It wasn't a particularly pretty day.

Tundra? Windy out here!
But L was very willing to go through this stuff and treated me with a perfectly delightful ride. She knows "careful". I tell her "careful" and she drops her head and she inspects the ground and tests the footing and proceeds very carefully. It's the sweetest thing.

I swear sometimes she almost just puts me to sleep. It was a lot of work getting here and worth every minute of it. Although I wondered about it at the time!

Back to the barn!

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I'll be darned!

I'm rather partial to Bass even though it's not what it used to be. It was an imported Bass pale ale first put me on to ales. The domestic brew isn't anywhere near good as its overseas counterpart but I'm sentimental about it.

I thought this IPA was very good and I enjoyed it. I had no idea Bass had an IPA.

Crystal Woodlands

We had a surprise snow storm yesterday. A few inches of heavy wet snow that stuck to everything!

It was warm enough today to melt the snow but it was cold...so the melted snow stuck to all the tree branches. When the sunlight hit it just right it was like all the trees were made of crystal. This is really pretty stuff.

L was a rock star. She really loves this stuff.

Edited to add: We saw a fox on the trail today. An unusual sight! He was way too fast for a picture. Barely saw him and he was gone.

Heat wave

Some really mild air moved in overnight.

Saturday 11 January 3:30 pm
But I wouldn't say it was a very nice day.

Pond or puddle? 2" of rain!
It rained buckets! And I have one, well, no, two, really crabby horses in the barn. One of them is just always crabby.

It's not going to stay near 60 but the forecast is for unseasonably mild weather all week. L is going to need a good ride.