Great Northern Winter

That's what we've been having, a great winter. It seems as if it's snowed almost everyday. We have at least 6-8" of base, but the sun has been out daily, too. I've been skiing a lot. Last week I left after school a couple times to lay down some runs on the "mountain", then Fridays are ski club days and Sarah and I skied together yesterday. We got a couple inches of fresh powder during the day on Friday which made for great conditions after school. There was even enough powder for me to try some stunts in the terrain park. I caught like three feet of air off some sweet jumps! Although strapping lumber to my feet and rocketing down an icy mountain makes sense, the addition of rails to that activity continues to elude me.

We had a little scare with the horse earlier this week as he wasn't eating and, consequently, pooping much. For Rambo, that's a big deal. Like all of our animals, it seems he has an overdeveloped food gland in his brain, so if he's not eating, it's a problem. I've come to believe that horses are very closely related to lizards, that is, they are perfectly healthy or they are dying. Just my experience. So we worked our way through Monday thanks to some good friends at Cornell and out in Lodi and Sarah and I went out to check on him after work. It was a confusing and stressful day with lots of cooks in the kitchen predicting everything from nothing being wrong to possibly colic. The idea was floated that I could go out there by myself and do some diagnostic work and call back into the office, but after a quick google of "take horse temperature" and a couple of startlingly informative youtube videos, I decided that it might be a good idea to have someone along in case things went south. Horses it seems are rarely trained to hold a thermometer under their tongues, and one piece of oft quoted advice is, "tie a string to the end of the thermometer". Anyway, he had good digestion noises going on so we walked him around a bit, and started feeding him a serving of beet pulp a day to help his digestion and get him hydrated. He seems to be back to normal now and eating everything in sight. Him and Murphy look majestic in their wooded winter paddock and I've been back out to walk him around and practice some training exercises that I've been reading about. I enjoy scouting the property from the saddle looking for turkey tracks, too. Makes me feel like I'm on the trail of a cattle thief that I will catch up with one day. And when I do... BANG!, and straight into the marinade.

Well, that's about the news for now. Yesterday was ski day, so that makes today pick up the crap around the house day... and believe me, there's plenty of it, too. Seems like somebody comes in and makes a mess while I'm away at work during the week with the sole intention of ruining my weekend.

99.9 degrees by the way. That was the reading from the thermometer. Another check mark on my bucket list.

Gone back to Ohio: Christmas 2010

I'm sitting here on our couch this morning, warming myself by the wood stove and the sunshine streaming in the window; the dogs cast about me like so much flotsam. It feels great to be home again. Sarah's still trying to squeeze a couple more moments of sleep out of day, but the coffee's on now, so she'll be up soon and we'll be off. I just want to share some of the better photo's that were captured on our camera from a great weekend with family. We hope you all enjoy the rest of your holiday together and welcome you to our house any time. All the best.

Sorry I cropped her head here, but I love the smile!

Ian took this one. I think it looks like we're racing!

Ah History, the Destroyer of Hope.

Just a quick story about today, before my mind purges the information in its on-going quest to save space for my mailing address and phone number.

We've been learning about the industrial revolution and the labor movement in the United States in the late 19th century for about three weeks now. It culminated today with a guest lecturer talking about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the Uprising of the 20,000. She spoke at length about the conditions in the garment factory, about the age and wages of the women, about the 78 hour work week and the fact that two strikes failed to change conditions at the Triangle Factory. Finally, the revelation that the courts failed to indict the co-owners of the factory was too much for one young man in my class.

"God, everything about this sucks!" he blurted out, then looked back to find me smiling.

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

Next on the syllabus, immigration and city life with such stupendous topics as tenement life, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the rise of the Klan, the nadir of race relations, and race riots. A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi.

For all my friends lucky enough to still be teaching science

I found this really cool site that allows you to scale up and down and see many important objects from our lives relative to one another. Have fun with it.

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

Just another Sunday...

Horse bus

The Man: Rambo at his new home.

Sarah and The Man having a chat.

I think he approves of our carpentry.

Sarah riding Murphy, Pat's horse.

Murphy trying to pretend he's not interested in his new pasture mate. He was really funny at first, all aloof and looking back over his shoulder or peaking around the corner of the barn, but he quickly warmed up and they were soon standing side by side.

of having a dream fulfilled!

Exciting weekend

So, we had a pretty exciting weekend (still one day to go!). Two of our main ambitions came to fruition this weekend. Below, find pictures of the new wood stove and Rambo, infused with supporting images.

Rambo doing his best Zhora impersonation.

The view from Rambo's new pasture! I think he'll be happy. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Rambo's new digs

So it's a long story, but it ends with us adopting a great Morgan named Rambo from our friend, Kathleen. Job one, figure out where to keep him. Fortunately, our friend Pat has an awesome place out in Lodi and has practically laid out the red carpet for us. She already has an appaloosa named Murphy who's in need of another friend. We spent last weekend riding, and this weekend preparing Rambo's new home. We had to build a second stall off of one side of Pat's barn. The pictures that follow chronicle that process.

The barn, all ready for a second stall.

Nailing up supports

The pond, fenced in and ready to go.

Yesterday, the girls put up the fence to divide the front pasture, took pictures, and rode Murphy while Nick and I put up the first side of the shed.

Sarah looking beautiful on a cold Sunday.

The Murphinator trying to figure out what the heck we we're doing and why it's so noisy.

Sarah utilizing the miter saw

Doin' my best to look manly.

The (almost) finished product. Just add horse!