Winter On The River

This will be my entry for the Wings Over Alma winter exhibit that will be opening in a couple weeks. It is, of course, another view of Catfish Corner. My most patient and beautiful muse. I just got it done and framed yesterday so I have a few days to enjoy it before it will be gone for three months. Time to start working on something for the spring exhibit!

Winter continues

Bbbrrrrrrrr!! Our deep freeze days are continuing and will culminate in a big windy snowy blast today before warmer temps arrive for next week. It has been easy to stick to the inside projects like putting Christmas away, cleaning the shop and sitting by the fire with a book. Horse hooves are going to get attention once it warms up and hopefully Don can get on the tractor and get the barnyard scraped off. The horses are bored and their only "fun" has been climbing on the snowy pedestals. An honest to goodness January thaw would sure feel good.

Perpetual Motion Machines

Yesterday was the Benson Fest at our house and  we managed to get a couple fuzzy shots of these little motion machines. Sammy Cat was a good sport and played along by being petted, picked up and generally harassed by kids and radio controlled race cars.

Molly made a brief appearance while Jack and Timber went in to hiding. After everyone went home all Anderson creatures resumed their posts in front of the fireplace.

What Day Is It?

Happy first day of the new decade! It has to be better than the last decade, right? The gang is pretty much sacked out in front of the fireplace. All they care about is having warmth and comfort. Just like the rest of us.

The thing about the holiday season is that there are so many days off that it's hard to keep track of what day it is. What day is it TODAY? It seemed like a Saturday, but in fact it was a Friday--which was an out of character day for today because it wanted to be a Sunday!

Last night (which was Thursday!) was the full moon night and a special Blue Moon on top of it. I went out for my traditional full moon evening visit to the horses to dance, sing, party, etc.

It was so bright out I could have read the newspaper to them, but they weren't interested in anything except what was hidden in my pockets. The big pockets full of treats didn't last long and nobody had to do anything in particular to earn them.

A Chorus Line

Don't laugh. THEY ARE WARM! I made my almost patented "FuzzButts" polar fleece riding pants with an outer lycra shell so we horsewomen can play with our horses and stay warm and then FEED our horses without wearing a lot of hay.

Helga was mesmerized by the performance ..... fleece. I just love pink!

After Christmas....comes ice fishing

The best part about Christmas break from school was that it was Christmas, and the excitement, and presents, and the boredom that followed. We weren't used to having so many days off the routine so the next thing that had to happen was:

ICE FISHING!

Eventually mumsy would TELL daddy that she needed her sanity again and PLEASE get these kids out of the house.

Piling into the old truck, Dad would take us "up nort" to a lake far enough away that we wouldn't be tempted to come home for lunch. Preferably a big frozen lake about a half hour away, and by way of the old truck, it probably took us and hour to get up to Clam Lake. Once we got to our destination, we found plans had been made that we could occupy a friends ice house--which is the common description of a building that resembles an outhouse but where the holes are used for the object of catching fish.

We rode through the icy ruts to a little settlement WAY across the vast expanse of icy tundra and found our spot where we spent, in my mind, about four days waiting for something to bite.

It did BITE. But I digress.

Dad would dump alcohol fuel in the hole to keep the water from freezing over the holes and the fumes from the heater were nauseating. We were bored and cold but we kept at it all day long until finally we headed for home. I have never been so cold in my life as during those endless ice fishing trips.

This photo is deceiving because it looks like we were happy with our catch; however, if you look closely you will see frozen feet, lifeless hands and a couple of very frozen smiles.

What wouldn't we trade to do that again?

Cowboy Christmas

Long ago and far away a couple of kids got the ultimate little cowboy outfits and their six-shooters!

Now, class, let's point out what is inappropriate about this picture.

Talk about politically incorrect:

Guns!

Stereotypical role models!

Children near a wood burning fireplace - DANGER!

Flammable fabrics!

Lead based tinsel!

Non-recyclable plastic skirt fringe!

How did we survive it all?