Saturday, February 6, 2010

the ice forgets to melt away

Today dawned bright and sunny, so I decided to turn the horses outside.

I am getting in the habit of carrying my camera along with me all the time to see if I can get some lucky shots. I like these lines in the snow. I wonder how they were caused? Notice how the pipe line even goes under the cross fencing. Isn't it neat?
In all my years of backyard horsekeeping, I have never had such dirty stalls. They all refuse to walk outside to pee and poop. As a result, the stalls are a poopy, sloggy mess. Silly horses, they have destroyed their only dry sanctuary by refusing to walk just a few feet out in the snow once in a while. I figured even a few hours out of their stalls could help dry them up a little.

Annie was first out into the snow. I like how her tail looks like it's starting to grow back.
Sometimes, I forget how pretty she looks. If only Yalla! can grow up as nice as her mother. Here's Scout getting up from a roll. He always has such goofy expressions, doesn't he?
For a slight change in topic, the weather has been playing havoc with my cars. A few days ago, my little Hyundai Accent was parked on the driveway next to the other car and in the morning it had slid backwards three feet because it was sitting on ice.
This morning, I cleared the pile of snow from Sally, the Hyundai, and decided to drive her into town, to work. I've been driving Lola, my Infiniti FX45, a lot this winter, because she has all wheel drive and handles pretty well in the snow, but I am always having to buy gas. That's the difference between 19 mpg and 36 mpg when you drive 60-80 miles a day.

The other day I was in town with Sally, the Hyundai, when it snowed and I had to drive home on snow packed roads. I have to drive up several hills on my way home and, on one of them, a two lane highway, I lost traction and only managed to go about a foot a minute forward. This was actually good because I was afraid of sliding off the road into a ditch. After about 15 minutes of this stop and go game I was playing with my car, a sheriff pulled up behind me. I was moving so slowly that he came over to ask me if I needed help. I told him I thought I would make it because I was almost at the top of the hill by then. He stayed behind me until I topped the hill and I did manage to get home but I don't drive her in snowy conditions if there are other options. But today looked bright and sunny and one of my neighbors had cleared the main road so I only needed to get down my looooonnnnnng, snowy driveway. Of course, I had to either back down my long, curvy roadway or turn around. I opted to turn around. I backed up into the snow and then moved forward. Good, it's working, I'm not going to get stuck. I backed up some more, carefully, because there is a tree to the front and my Infiniti in the driveway. All right, forward now. Come on. Forward. Uh oh, we're not moving. Stuck!

Silly me! Why did I think I should try this? Because my son made it out yesterday with his little Saturn, that's why. But, his Saturn is a standard transmission and has brand new tires whereas my little Hyundai has old tires. I turned off the car and started Lola. I got her out and drove around Sally, and pointed towards the road, and then I went back inside to wake up my son for help. My two neighbors saw my predicament while they were walking their dogs so, between the four of us, we got Sally safely backed up onto the driveway to wait for another day. I thanked them all profusely and then headed off to work in my trusty metal steed.

The Ice Forgets to Melt Away - song: Sell me a Coat, artist: David Bowie, album: David Bowie

12 comments:

Shirley said...

I learned long ago that in Canada, one must own a 4WD vehicle. I'd rather buy gas than be stuck!

Sherry Sikstrom said...

I love my litte escape! 4x4 for winter , and its not terrible on gas

The Wades said...

I'm with Shirley! That sounds like a lot of driving pressure. Man, my chest got all tight just reading this.

Yes, Annie is so pretty. I think her tail is cute. :)

lytha said...

i agree with The Wades - her tail is adorable that length - like she's a baby herself. she is a pretty mare and i'm certain yalla! will be exquisite. (i mean, she's surpisingly pretty as a baby)

so, please tell, if you can, what made that odd melting pattern on your snow. how is that possible? i'm a snow newbie, help!

and how odd that your car slid - on perfectly flat ground?! was the wind blowing that hard!?

~lytha

Fantastyk Voyager said...

Lytha- I don't know what made the markings. I'm guessing that it's the sun reflecting on the rails somehow that melted it?
My driveway has a slight grade to it. Enough I guess for gravity to take over. lol.

Dan and Betty said...

Great pictures. Annie does look good.

I'm glad you didn't have more trouble than you did and good for the sheriff to watch out for you. For the most part, police officers are good folks.

Dan

Anna Larson said...

OH yea I know all about that sown forgetting to melt deal. For years I've had to park my car at the bottom of the hill just so I could get to and from work. Not this winter. We got another 4x4 for ME! Now both of us have a 4x4 and I love it.

PS watch out Sunday cause it supposed to be coming back in.

I'm hoping not to much because I'm supposed to be going to the Riverdance Performance at Pope Joy Hall in ABQ.

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

That was nice of the officer to ask if you need help. Around here they just ticket you if you drive too cautiously through snow. I had an officer follow me down from Lake Tahoe when it was snowing. I was going 30 MPH in a 50 MPH zone in the right lane. He followed so close that he made me nervous, so I sped up. Then he pulled up next to me to examine my tires. When he saw he couldn't ticket me for not having snow tires, he moved on.

Tammy Vasa said...

Those lines in the snow are very interesting. I wonder what could have done that?

Ice, snow... make it all go away! :)

Achieve1dream said...

My thought when I saw the picture of the patterns in the snow is that it fell at an angle and the fence/gate blocked some of the snow making a pattern, but I'd guess it would have to be falling pretty hard and fast to do that? After what you all said though makes it sound like this wasn't fresh snow . . . I don't know what would cause it to melt like that. Hmm . . . interesting.

Grey Horse Matters said...

I can never understand why they prefer to use their stalls as a toilet and not step out to do their business. A lot of our wait until they come in to relieve themselves. Silly horses. Annie's tail looks cute and Scout does make funny faces. I think we'll all be glad when this winter is over.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I immediately thought of NuzMuz and her nosy neighbors and how I really should look out my windows and be nosy, too. I seem to be missing all kinds of stuff going on outside, aren't I?

I'm sorry you've had to endure such hassles with your cars and the ice and snow.
I've not even driven my van for over 2 weeks now, because it's rear wheel drive and I can't even get it out of the driveway. John has tried, too and he gets stuck every time.Thank goodness he has a 4-wheel drive or we'd be walking. (Might need some snowshoes first. lol)

I just wish all thise snow would stop for at least a week or more so the stuff on the ground can melt and we can get a break from the hassles.


~Lisa