Jan 4th, 2017

We had a severe storm warning starting last night that was supposed to run through 11 PM tonight. Most generally these things fizzle, and go around us. Not this time however. We actually got some snow. Quite a lot for here, a piddly amount for most people in a snow zone. We have about 12 inches on the flat here now. We have been here 11 years so far, and the most we have seen on the ground is perhaps 4 or 5 inches.

While it will make for some "tough sledding" for a bit, it will actually benefit the desert quite a bit. The snow melting will have a chance to soak into the ground, rather than run off. I once heard a local rancher say that a good snow fall was worth several rain storms.

Karen and I are very lucky in that there is really nothing that we have to do other than decide what we are going to have for dinner tonight. Don't get too uppity about the frivolity of that. Its harder than you might think. While Karen has always claimed to be passive, I had better make the right choice.

Brick, our male Brittany, has been indicating that there is something on the back porch. I set a live trap thinking that we had a Pack Rat back there. For three days there was nothing in it, which I found unusual. This morning while I was lying in bed waiting for my brain to wake up, I could hear a tell tale tinkle from the trap. I got dressed, leaving the dogs in their kennels, and went to see. Instead of a Rat, I had the house bunny. After calling Karen and showing her, I opened the door and he jumped onto the side walk and in over his head in the snow. He finally made his way around the house and down into the cover for the pool mechanism, where he normally lives.

I started a pot of coffee and shoveled my way out to the woodshed, brought in a load of wood, then had my coffee and breakfast. I shoveled paths to the shop, woodshed, pigeon house and Chicken house. Its a nice and light fine snow that one cannot make a snow ball with. So it shovels easy.

The outside Chicken pen is in a fenced corral. I noticed Brick bouncing around behind the Chicken House, and when I looked, there was a Jack back there. He ignored my commands to "get it", letting me know that he was a "Pointer", not a grabber, so I had to catch it myself. Since I don't have all that much of a "warm and fuzzy" feeling about Jacks, this one went to the "Hope and Jessie food fund".

My next chore was to feed Jessie and Hope. The weathering area is all weathered in so nobody got to go outside to eat today. When I finished, on the way to the house. I noticed Josie, our little female Brit, in the snow with an extremely guilty look on her face, and a dark spot in front of her. It seems as though she doesn't have as much of the "pointer" problem that Brick has. So now I have two weeks of food for both hawks.

Now that every thing seems to be under control, I guess I better get another cup of Coffee and make sure that the Hot tub survived the night. Sigh! its a tough job, but somebodies got to do it.