Winter wonderland

Older Daughter and I bundled up, took snowshoes and the dog, and went walking in the snow on Sunday.

At first Lydia was wading through chest-deep snow. It was hard going for her -- she's no longer a spring chicken ...

... but after awhile we came across tracks from someone's ATV and the going was much easier on her.

Older Daughter has learned she prefers winters in Idaho over winters in New Jersey since conifers hold snow so much more beautifully than deciduous trees.

We stopped at the viewpoint we call "the overlook," and she plopped down in the snow to contemplate the vista overlooking the canyon...

...which, I'll admit, is a lovely view.

She wanted to get to a point on the trail where a branch bends over the path, so we trekked onward.

There's no question we were in a winter wonderland.

Then we came out of the woods and back onto the prairie.

We stopped on the road to remove our snowshoes, and Lydia was so tired she laid down right there.

Sadly, the next day I had to drop Older Daughter at the airport. (Due to delays, she didn't arrive back in New Jersey until 2 am Tuesday morning.)

After dropping her at the airport, I swung back into Coeur d'Alene to pick up Younger Daughter from her job. The downtown was beautifully lit up with Christmas lights.

It's hard to say goodbye to the holidays and to Older Daughter.

Random pix

Here are some random pix from the last couple of weeks.

Scottish highland cattle. I'd never seen these critters up close before. Impressive. Not huge, but impressive.

An "aww" photo of Lydia.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I picked up our friend GG from her boarding school, and we went into Coeur d'Alene where the girls spent a few minutes walking along the lake shore.

(By the way, GG's school year is now finished and she won't be returning to the boarding school next year. She's with us for a few days and then flies home to her parents on the other side of the country. We are SO going to miss her!)

We spent a few minutes watching some folks parasailing.

I was having tea with my friend Enola Gay one day, while her little son Master Calvin crawled around the sofa. Suddenly he just... fell asleep. Boom. "Ran out of gas," observed his father Sir Knight.

Here his big sis Maid Elizabeth is recording the event for posterity.

On a rare sunny day, Matilda grazes. She (and all the beasties) are looking fat and healthy on all this green grass.

This is Atlas, our little bull calf (he has some growing up to do before he can breed) and Thor, Matilda's yearling steer.

Lydia and Major watch as Don disks the wheat field before planting.

Old Major peeks out from the dog house in the yard.

Calves are like goats: they can't resist high places. Here Sparky climbs on the dirt mound left over from digging the pond.

Ditto with Polly.

Everybody loves those dirt piles. (I can't wait to get rid of them.)

Polly was fascinated with my progress in the tire garden.

Victoria was in heat. Atlas was interested. He was just too small to be effective. ("You know," observed Older Daughter, "those 'gender-neutral' people have never been on a farm before.") Keep trying, Atlas!

I absolutely love the way this shot turned out (it's our neighbor's horse).

One of our hens, perched on a pallet.

Victoria peeks out of the barn door.

A faint rainbow in the midst of a squall.

Smokey, once again outside the fence. The little turd. Can't wait to put her in the freezer.

A rare sunny morning. Quick, take a picture!

We're not the only ones longing for an end to this cold rainy wretched weather. This is the sign on our local grocery store.

Between rainy days, I'm still working on the tire garden. I took some of the weird off-sized smallish tires and decided to turn them into flower beds.

My mother gave me some seed packets for various flowers, so we'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, many of the acorns I planted in mid-April are growing. Oak trees are not native in our region, so these acorns came from some trees near a parking lot in Spokane. The burr oaks haven't spouted yet, though. They take longer.

More tires from our friend Jack, whoo-hoo! It's like Christmas whenever he brings a load.

The critters are always curious about them.

A little bit of color through evening rain.