From This to That

 

I think I’ve been spoiled.

Viewing all of my favorite blogs with their snowy, cold photos these last couple months have made me feel grateful..and warm.

Over the weekend, in late afternoon, I was able to stand outside in only a long sleeve t-shirt watching my twinling Jem throwing a baseball to his Dad, Ranchman John.

We’ve had such gorgeous weather this winter, with sunshine most every day, temps warm enough to go run around outdoors without a jacket or coat, and bright blue skies. Ahhhhh. I love New Mexico.

But things were about to change.

Well they did in fact, today.

Today started off bright, sunny and warm with temps of 60 degrees. I hung out with all the horses up at the barn and buried my hands in Apache’s coat but her fur felt too hot on my skin. I walked down to say hello to Val’s 4 horses, and Scout and Yalla! were sprawled out asleep. They barely even lifted their heads to look up at me. I patted Yalla! on the nose and told Scout to enjoy his nap, and went back up to finish barn chores.

There was a storm coming with predictions of over a foot of snow and temps below zero. *shiver*

Meanwhile, my daughter was down at the house playing with the chickens and taking her favorite hen, little old Bertha, for a ride on her Big Wheel. Jen was complaining the sun was too bright.

The other chickens were doing their normal chickeny things and enjoying a relaxing, communal dust bath.

And then took a nap.

I decided to drive into town, about 8 miles away to the east, and pick up some provisions to hold us over until this storm’s snow melts, and swing by the feed store on the way back home, to pick up some more hay and a couple bags of feed.

When I came out of the grocery store it had begun to snow and the temperature had fallen, too. But as I left the town behind, the snow stopped. By the time I got home, the sky was still a little bit cloudy and a little bit sunny. But when I looked eastward, I could see the dark, cloud covered sky and saw it moving our way.

I got all the animals into the barn, fed, watered and tucked in for the night and drove back down to the house. And by the time I reached the pasture gate, the snowflakes started swirling around me.

And as soon as I got the van parked into the garage and unloaded my groceries, the snow was flying horizontal, and I started hearing thunder, which was then followed by grape-sized hail!

The temperatures had dropped from 60F degrees down to 20F degrees in just a few hours. Wow!

And it’s supposed to get down to the teens and single digits by tonight.

A lot can change in such a short time when it comes to weather, especially in New Mexico.

The chickens are warm and cozy in their coop.

I sure am glad that my kidlets and I decided to head up to Santa Fe last Friday to do some exploring and letterboxing. It was so warm and beautiful that day. I think I’m going to hold on to the memory of that day to keep me warm the rest of this week.

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Speaking of holding on to something, I’m still holding on to these vinyl clings to award to those of you that attempted to solve the mysterious 4’s from my post: Four You Give Away .

Since I only had a handful of folks leave a comment with their guesses, I’ve decided to give all of you one of these vinyl clings! Hooray!

So, would the following bloggers please send me your snail mail addies to: twinville2 at yahoo dot com so I can drop these in the mail for you next week (after we dig ourselves out from the snow):

Jeni
Nuzzling Muzzles
Fantastyk Voyager
KD
Oregon Sunshine
Dreaming
Jane Augenstein