Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013 - Pearl Harbor Day

Woke up to temps trying to crawl out of the teens! Needless to say, the water spigot by the corral was frozen, so I took out a kettle of hot water, which did the trick nicely. Horses got extra hay last night and today to keep them warm, and moving them to dryer stalls and moving the tarps over made a big difference. They seemed comfortable enough, nice and warm under their winter blankets. Spent the day working on my project while Hubby watched college football. Days are seeming to run together now, short daylight, plus living in a virtual cave, though the fireplace does make it quite cozy. Apparently there's good insulation in our Open Range, as the gas furnace didn't come on at all overnight, and we only had the fireplace and one small space heater on! Living in long underwear these days! Suppose to be marginally warmer, at least above freezing, tomorrow, and in the 50's by Wednesday! Can't wait!

Friday, Dec. 6, 2013 - Thunder Snow and Ice Day

So, one of the reasons we decided to spend the late Fall and early winter in Texas (besides visiting family in Austin during the upcoming holidays) was that the average temperatures for December here supposed to be around 63 during the day and lows of 40's overnight. Last night, it got down in the 20s, and we had rain, sleet, ice, and by this morning, snow on the ground! We were stunned to wake up several times during the night to the sound of thunder! Can't remember ever hearing thunder when the temperatures are so cold. Have you every experiences thundersnow?? Weird. Everything was covered with a layer of ice, couldn't get the truck door open, Hubby had trouble getting the tack room door open, he needed a tool to do it. The tarps we had put up on the corral had become a solid sheet of ice, and unfortunately, the wind had blown a lot of rain into Clio's stall, so we moved here and Apollo over to drier stalls. We're not too worried about anyone else coming in to ride today... We're a bit worried about one tree that hangs directly over us that looks pretty dead, and if it gets a lot of weight on it, might come crashing down, but we're keeping our fingers crosses that doesn't happen! Highs today to stay around freezing, and more cold all weekend, with, what the NOAA calls, a "wintry mix." Not quite what we signed up for, but then again, we've been pretty fortunate with the weather mostly this year. Gotta say, though, Florida's looking mighty fine right now... : -). Too bad we decided to winter in Arizona starting in January, even there it's extra cold so far this year. Hope things improve as the winter goes on!

Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013 - Hunker Down Day

The temps, did, in fact, plummet overnight, and from the short sleeves I was wearing yesterday, today I had to bundle up in my parka to feed the horses. Brrrr! Spent the day hunkered down, mostly working on all the work that's been piling up since before Thanksgiving. Lots of computer work to do! Hubby spent the day with a heating pad on his back, and felt much better by the feeding time. The wind was quite bitter, so we took two tarps out and wrapped them over the bars on the north side of the corrals to create a windbreak, which would make it much more comfortable for the horses. Enjoyed a quiet evening in front of the fireplace, which has been going non-stop since last night.

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013 - Another Great Ride at McCown Valley

With temps even warmer, going up into the upper 70's, short sleeves were in order for our second ride. This time we headed south, then east, essentially skirting a peninsula of private property that juts south into the park and must be circumnavigated to get to the eastern side of the park. We weaved through trees almost the entire day, with just a few stretches in the open. The northern-most trail on the east side had a few wet and muddy spots, but nothing compared to some places we've been. We ran into Wayne again, this time riding a pretty dapple gray (yesterdays was a chestnut or bay, can't remember now), had another short chat, saw another couple riding from afar, but otherwise a nice quiet day, even when we ran into another bunch of cows! This time the horses didn't pay any attention to them at all, thank goodness. Hubby strained his back on the home stretch, and unfortunately, was in a lot of pain the last 45 minutes or so. I took the shortest route I could find, which included the one Wayne had showed us yesterday, but it took longer than we expected because we couldn't go faster than a walk or it hurt him too much. Got back to camp about 4:15, another 4+ hour, 10.5 mile trip, probably the two longest rides we've taken in a LONG time, much less back to back. I had Hubby go in side and put ice on his back while I tended to the horses. The weather forecast has changed for the worse, calling for temps dropping dramatically tonight, so no ride tomorrow anyway! Felt kind of guilty putting the winter blankets on the horses when it was still in the 60's, but I knew the temps would be in the 30's by morning, so I figured they'd forgive me. Settled down for the evening, last chance to enjoy having the windows open for a while!

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013 - A Great Ride Day at McCown Valley

To say that the trail map here isn't complete would be the understatement of the year! While it indicates a lot of nice loops, there are countless other trails, wide open and cross-able prairies that make an infinite variety of riding. We started out following a trail I made from Google Earth, and which had a few faded blue paint spots on an occasional tree, but that was about it. The key here is that there are numerous signs indicating numbered points (though a few are missing as indicated by the map), and once you find one of those, you can determined where you are. It's not a huge place, but there is plenty of variety, a lot more trails in the woods than you'd first imagine. Today, though, we headed along the west perimeter, down to the lake, and then east, a bit further than halfway across the park. We ran into a lone cow and her beautiful calf on the trail just after leaving the lake, and though Apollo was startled for a minute, he quickly calmed down, particularly after they left the trail and skedaddled into the brush, which, of course, Apollo took credit for : -). A little further on, we came across a much larger herd of cows, and the road we were one went straight through the middle of them, but the horses obviously remembered earlier training and went straight through them without hardly noticing, yeah! We did a lot of trotting and cantering along the open stretches. Footing was mostly sand and dirt, with just a few places where the sand got uncomfortably deep. We met another rider on the trail, a local gentleman named Wayne, who gave us some tips, and rode with us back to the campground, taking a shortcut I doubt I would have found without his help (though I know I could have found a way back, just not THAT way back. Had a nice chat along the way. One thing I'll say for Texas, everyone we've met here has been very nice, very accommodating, very laid back. The only problem so far were the Texans that didn't bother to clean up the stalls here before we arrived. Anyway, we ended up going over 10.5 miles, in perfect weather, out just about 4 hours. Horses were on their best behavior as well, with Apollo settling down very nicely from the start. After a lengthy discussion with a woman at Tractor Supply the other day (frankly, the first and only person at any Tractor Supply that seemed to know what she was talking about!), we changed the horses feed regime, cutting out the oats, having Apollo eat only hay and a small amount of Purina Enrish 32 balancer, and Clio getting mostly senior feed and some weight builder along with her hay. The results seem to be a calmer gelding, at least. We'll see what else it does over time. Meanwhile, a great day!

Monday, Dec. 2, 2013 - Travel Day to McCown Valley

Allowed ourselves to sleep in to our normal time rather then earlier, as we have just over an hour's drive today. With stops at Tractor Supply for propane and Walmart for our usual shopping, we headed out to McCown Valley Horse Camp near Lake Whitney. We had two choices here, this place or Plowman's Creek on the north end of the lake, but our neighbor over the weekend said she had friends who thought McCown Valley was one of the best places around, so we let that sway us, and frankly, we were glad we did! We arrived, and came to a gate, where we were greeted warmly and directed to the horse camp so we could choose our spot. This place actually has two separate areas for horses, and smaller area next to the day parking, and a much larger area with a loop of it's own, with it's own electric gate and keypad. There are two corral areas at each end, each with 8 stalls, 4 of which are covered, but with a corral setup where you can actually open up the inside rail so that you can make the open half into a sort of run, doubling the corral space. The loop itself is relatively huge, with a wide open area in the middle with the bathhouse and some picket posts, and the outside of the loop has most of the campsites. The north side is mostly in the trees, the rest pretty open. Just as we were arriving, three living quarters horse trailers were pulling, leaving the place empty for us. We were glad to see covered stalls again, as the weather forecast isn't looking too stellar later in the week. Our big disappointment as that the previous occupants of the corrals didn't bother to clean up after themselves (shame on you!), and didn't look like they had all weekend, so my first job was having to clean the stalls out. Considering I had already done my morning mucking before we left the last place, I wasn't too thrilled at having to do it again, particularly for other people's horses. Usually we can count on clean corrals when we arrive, and it's been awhile since we've arrived to dirty stalls, but Hubby said he only saw men driving out, so I shouldn't be too surprised. It seems that men without female supervision often resort to their more barbaric and thoughtless tendencies. In any event, we selected a nice spot, using my new Dishpointer app on my smartphone to find where the satellites were to insure we could get a signal, then we got set up in short order. I drove back to finish our business at the main gate, paying just $9 a night with Hubby's Golden Age Passport, including 50 amp electric and water, stalls included. Didn't take long to get set up, and since we arrived fairly early, we were well settled in before the end of the day. Weather was perfect today, and should continue for the next couple of days, hoping to get at least three rides in while we're here!

Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013 - Computer and Football

Spent the day on the computer working on my writing project, and watching football today. A little prep for our departure tomorrow, but mostly a relaxing day.