Seasonal Spirit

It's colder than cold. Okay, I don't live in Alaska, in a perpetual state of below-zero temperatures, so yes, I'm sort of wimpy. However, for Iowa, it's cold. Today the high is 10. And that by itself would be fine, but I live where there is no wind break, so there is always a breeze. And hence, always a windchill. -20 seems to be the most popular number right now. I am keeping the horses in because *I* am cold, not because I worry for them!

But the bright side is that it snowed on Monday night. And because it will be so darn cold between now and Christmas, it will be a white Christmas! Just a little dusting, but we'll take it. Besides, a little dusting gets the spirits up-- a good 8" snow will beat the hell out of your spirits as you shovel it...

The horses are happy. Maybe they know it's Christmas? They do listen to NPR 24/7, after all. : ) Santa will bring them big candy canes, those ones that are about 1" in diameter. They are such junk food junkies! Major will eat anything that you have. B had coffee last week, and he was quite interested in that. Maybe he needed warming up? I was trying to get him to drink some apple juice when he was sick. He wouldn't have any of it. However, I took a big glass into his stall and proceeded to drink it myself. Suddenly he was interested!

A friend from church gave us 2 big bags of carrots. They were still muddy, and cold from being in the car (probably frozen). So last night I got a bucket and filled it with hot water. I warmed up the carrots and washed them off, and took them out to the barn. Do you think those horses would eat those carrots? Of course not. They would probably prefer that I brought them a burrito or pasta!

Over the weekend I was out in the barn, and dressed up in every scarf, hat, glove I could find. I had tied a scarf around my head and under my chin, I teasingly called it my "babushka." Major thought it was a funny thing to grab the end of my scarf and pull, which about choked me. He was playing around, so I took the scarf off and tied it around his head, giving him a babushka. He just carried on like normal, as if that's what he wanted the whole time! So here he was with his babushka on, and then I took off my wool mittens and stuck one on each ear! He just stood there, basking in the attention. I thought for sure he wouldn't want them on his ears! I should have taken a picture. When it warms up and I want to spend more time out there, I will take a picture of the toasty-eared babushka boy.