A Cold Winter Day

I'm sure a couple months ago I wrote a post stating that fall is my favorite season.  I may have been lying.  I know, we shouldn't lie, but fall really is quite lovely.  I think the reason it's my fake favorite is because it leads up to my actual favorite season, Winter! Whoop whoop, yes siree, winter is here my friends! 

We had several snow days last month up here in the far reaches of Northeast Oregon, but two nights ago the temperature dropped drastically and it started snowing.  The freeway was actually closed most of the morning.  My little home sits on a knoll over looking the town, and consequently the freeway.  So I know it's open now, because there's actually traffic going by.  The suns doing it's best to poke through the heavy clouds, but it's all for not because the mercury is telling me it's 25 outside and that's not warm. The winds blowing, as always, so I'm not sure if it's snowing right now or if there's just snow blowing around.  Either way, it's cold and snowing and I couldn't be any happier.  I'll try to refrain from using exclamation marks on every sentence, as I'm want to do. 

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sleeper.  Pretty much one of my favorite past times is sleeping, or napping, basically I love how the the back of my eyelids look.  I didn't have class today but I had to be at the transmission shop at 9 am.  No sleeping in for this chica.  So I headed out, slid about on icy corners and struggled to see through my frozen windshield which refroze after defrosting.  Don't worry, I made it perfectly safe, and the good news is I Don't need a new transmission yet.  I just know though that, that dang thing is going to wait until the most inopportune time to give up the ghost.  Oh well, being stranded alongside lonely roads is also a lot of fun. 

I have even better news though, by Wednesday it's supposed to drop below 10 degrees every night.  Originally the 10 day weather forecast said that next Wednesday we would have a low of -8.  Can you believe it?! I LOVE IT!!!  It's pretty common here to get a snow early in the winter, get really cold then stay frozen until late May or so.  I remember my first winter here.  I got off work at 10 pm, drove out to feed my horse, and my Chiweenie locked me out of my pickup.  It was grand because the wind was howling, bitter cold and the temperature was barely hovering above 0 degrees.  To top it off I wasn't really dressed for the elements.  Thankfully I had my cell phone in my pocket, so I hunkered down in the front of my trailer while I waited for AAA. Lil'Anne wasn't cold though, I'd left the heater running Haha. 

Really though, Eastern Oregon is awesome, I love the winters, and I love it here.  I had a super productive morning, now I'm drinking coffee and typing.  Fabulous, just fabulous I say!  Here are some pictures from this morning.

Enjoy your day folks, even if it isn't snowing and cold where you are :)

Xo Loves,

Me

Winter Is Coming!

I know what you're thinking, yea it's coming, but fall isn't even here yet!  So true, but the other day I uploaded a bunch of old SD cards onto my parents computer and I found some really cool snow photos.  It may be awhile before the snow flies, but judging by the cooler nights maybe it's not as far off as we think. Here are some of my favorites!

I can't wait to see what this winter brings!

Xo Loves,

Me

Winter Wonderland...

It's been awhile since I've written anything, as one of my favorite readers pointed out :) I just haven't felt very inspired lately.  It's not that I haven't had any ideas, just nothing really worth sharing.

On Saturday my cousin and I poked along through the Gorge, eyes reddening due to staring into the snow for too long.  We got to town around 9pm and still had to drive out to drop the horses off.  YIKES!  A bitter cold wind was ripping down through the valley stinging all bare skin that dared to show itself.  We were definitely not properly dressed for such an aggressive onslaught.  It took maybe 20 minutes to put the horses away and unload the stuff I needed from my trailer.  It took hours to warm back up!  First day back was cold and windy, second day back I woke up to 6 inches of snow.  Its been cold, icy and awful the last couple of days.  My poor cousin got stranded here in our little version of Alaska, and it's been fun.  I truly do love winter!  Cold weather makes me happy and I rarely really complain about it.  Since I didn't have much to really write about, I'll share some pictures from the last couple days.

Xoxo Loves,


Me

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

Yesterday I went to work with my cousin out in the valley.  We were supposed to move the guys cows to his winter grounds.  20 minutes before we were supposed to be there to feed, we get a call from him.  Wondering if we'd left yet, because it was pretty nasty out there.  We live over an hour away, of course we'd left!  Well Casey and I aren't the kind to be deterred by a little bad weather.  We got to the ranch and waited for the owner so we could start feeding. It was cold, but not too bad, or so we thought.  Opened the door and I felt like Mary Poppins!  Seriously, I thought Dorothy was going to blow in from Kansas!  It was hard to walk, it's not easy to buck a serious head wind.  We loaded up and headed out.  There were three bunches of cows to feed, one being the herd we were supposed to move.  Casey and I were really hoping he wouldn't cancel, but it wasn't looking good.  Feeding was a nightmare!  Hay, and dirt in my eyes like never before.  There were several times that Casey and I just fed with our eyes shut because we couldn't open them.  Every time I got off the truck the wind blew me back on my butt!  I've honestly never witnessed let alone been in, such strong winds.  When we got to the big bunch and he told us to feed, we were crushed.  A couple of the other folks who were supposed to help had called and backed out, not that there weren't all kinds of other guys that would have helped.  Our horses were in the trailer and ready to go, we still wanted to ride!  Just didn't have anywhere to go.

 So we decided to go to the little diner and have a beer.  Yea it was 11, but we were down in the dumps.  Before we finished a guy called and said he needed help feeding some big bales.  So we took off to help him, I was however, instructed to stay in the pickup.  Well fine with me, it was starting to snow, and was just cold.  After awhile I had no idea where they had gone, it was snowing hard and I couldn't see anything.  So little Miss Pippy and I just holed up in the pickup and waited.  I called my daddy and he told me it was also snowing downriver, and that if we wanted to make it home with the horses we needed to get out of there right then.  Finally the guys showed up and off we went.  It had snowed probably six inches in somewhere around three hours.  It was getting nasty in a hurry.  We only slid towards the river a couple times.  Made it home by four and got all the horses put up.  Just before dinner the power went out.  That was ok, we played cards and my daddy read us some Edgar Allen Poe(he couldn't find his Robert Service book).  We had a great time huddled around the table in the lamplight.  The power came back on about midnight.

Here are some photos I took yesterday from mid day on.

These were all taken consecutively.  It's just beautiful!




Xoxo Loves,


Me

End of the Term = The Road Home

I finished my last final today!  It didn't go as well as I had hoped, and I really have no idea how I did or what I got in the class.  But at this point, I don't even care!  I'm taking a little me time tonight and finally going to watch the newest Twilight with my roomy.  My cousin will be here at 4:30 a.m. and then I have Catholic class at 11:30.  Saturday we're preg-checking and vaccinating cows for a friend, and somewhere in there we'll fit in some riding of the colts. 

Monday morning the cousin, my puppy, two horses and I will set out on our grand adventure home.  Being a Rainey, unfortunately means having bad luck, or rather no luck at all.  My cousin and I almost always end up in some sort of melee.  Its already started and he's not even here yet!  He got on the bus, and it wouldn't start, and now its supposed to snow and we have several passes to make it through.  Where's the justice I ask?!  It should be a good time and I know better than to say with any certainty just when we'll make it home. So here's to hoping we make it at all!


Stay tuned for an actual account.



Xo Loves,



Me