Snowshoeing

We got our weekly dose of almost a foot of snow again yesterday. Rumor has it that we might get another storm this coming weekend, but don't tell my sister and brother-in-law. They're pretty tired of the snow and it might put them over the edge. :) Perhaps I should erase the little blackboard that my son made me for Christmas and write "Welcome Spring" or something on it.


However, we're still enjoying the snow. Yesterday we had a great day of school. We watched it snow and blow outside, while inside we were cozy by the woodstove reading about the Persians, filling in our maps, studying our Latin, writing about bivalves and gastropods, and acing our math test, among other things. By the time three o'clock rolled around, we were ready to go out and play in the snow! Dad and I decided that with the blowing wind and three feet of snow on the ground we would go for a snowshoe hike through our woods, where we'd be protected from the wind. (Note that I said three feet of snow.)

We have both old-fashioned snowshoes (on the left) and new-fangled LLBean ones (on the right.) Dad and I actually prefer the old-fashioned ones. No, smart-alecks...I don't think they're antiques yet! Although I guess that would be fitting...everything else we use around here is. : )


TBear, however, didn't want to snowshoe; he wanted to cross-country ski. Here we are, setting off down the driveway from the barn where it was a warmer place out of the wind to put on our snowshoes...and skis.

Dad warns TBear one more time. We're going through the woods and up and down some pretty steep hills. Are you sure you want to wear skis??? Yup, he's adamant. For my part, I was absolutely tickled at being able to walk across the snow on our front lawn. (Drat...should have grabbed the wreath off the front door, come to think of it.) I had made the serious mistake last weekend of trying to walk from the back of the house around to the driveway, after raking two feet of snow off the roof on the backside of the house. The snow is hip-deep and I got half-way across my front lawn and wasn't sure I was going to make it the rest of the way because I was so tired from wading through the snow. Our hike would have been impossible without the snowshoes.

We walked out past my garden and to the side lot where we have our hay implements stored for the winter. It's going to be a few weeks before we start that up again. : ) We're headed for the woods behind our house. Our farm lies on a ridge that drops down about 200 feet to a swampy area behind our barns, then rises that same distance on the other side of the valley before it drops down again to the lake behind us.

There are an amazing number of cedar trees in the low land behind our farm. Dad is discussing taking our faithful draft horse, Scooby, and hauling out the downed cedars to perhaps make some Adirondack chairs. We can't get down here during the summer with the horses because of all the undergrowth and deadwood lying around, which is buried now under that three feet of snow. I thought about the cedar forests of Lebanon that we studied a few weeks ago, from which King Solomon got the wood to build the temple in Jerusalem. We have some pretty big cedars down here, but an entire forest of them must have been an amazing sight. They're very tall and straight.

As I was walking along, I was surprised to notice a very deep hole in the snow. It led down into a stone wall that I didn't even realize we were walking over until I peered down the hole. It is the entrance to some creature's home, possibly a squirrel or chipmunk? I've seen some squirrels around on the warmer days.

We've trekked down the hill and across the low land. Now we're headed back up the ridge on the other side of it. The forest is so beautiful in the snow. There's a very large birch tree on TBear's left that has been protected amongst the pines and cedars, not succumbing to the weight of the snow and winds. It is still snowing and blowing pretty hard as we're walking, but you can't really tell in the woods. We were protected too.

Hoping to do a little nature study with TBear, I looked and looked for some sign of deer or other creature in the woods as we walked. The only thing that seems to have ventured out on this snowy day was a rabbit, so our nature studying was confined to identifying trees. : )

After walking up the ridge on the other side of the swamp, we then followed it to our right, to the camp road that runs along the edge of our property. It was time to head for home and chores. So far the skiing hasn't been great, but it hasn't been unmanageable...yet. See how deep the dog is? He had a ball leaping and bounding through the snow, but we noticed he started to follow in our path by the time we got to this point. Even the Energizer Doggie was getting tired. (It was a good day for the deer to stay hunkered down too.)

Two hundred feet is a long way up in cross-country skis. Poor TBear is starting to feel it.

Eventually, he had to take his skis off and literally crawl up the steepest part of the hill. He couldn't walk in the snow because he sunk right up to his waist! Isn't it amazing how a pair of snowshoes can displace one's weight enough to allow one to walk on top of the snow like this? We talked about Lewis and Clark's winter journey through the Rocky Mountains in the early 1800's and wondered if they had snowshoes. It would have been almost impossible, not to mention exhausting, to get very far each day without them.
Finally we got to the top of the hill and TBear could ski again. We approached the farm from the back side of the horses' pasture. Whit has an awful lot of fence repairs to do each spring. We didn't even have to climb over the fence here...it's just not there...or buried... I asked Whit if it was a good idea to show the horses how to get out of their field (like they haven't already explored the whole thing, snow and all? :) He asked where I thought they were going to go. Good point. They have feed, hay, water, and shelter. Why would they want to leave that luxury? After all, they aren't stupid.

You can see now that it's still snowing pretty hard. The horses watched us approach, then ran to meet us and galloped and romped in circles. Funny boys.

I just had to share this picture of Scooby. It's probably the most flattering picture we've ever taken of this poor horse. His mane and tail were cropped pretty short when we got him in order to keep them out of the way of his harness. They seem to be growing out again nicely. Scooby is somewhere between 20 and 30 years old. He's an excellent draft horse and keeps the others in line when they're working. He's also taught Whit a lot about pulling stuff. :)

This would be Pat. He's my buddy and the one I like to ride, primarily because he has a little zip to him. (Yeah, "zip" is a relative term with a draft horse. LOL! But "draft" is my speed.) Pat is around 10 years old and works very well with Scooby. He was happy to have a few lovies on our way through their pasture too.

This was probably one of the best days we've had in a really long time. TBear was thinking he might like to try snowshoeing next time.