Sad news...

British novelist and jockey Dick Francis dies on Valentine's Day

Francis has been one of my favorite horse/mystery authors since I first picked up one of his books many years ago. A precocious reader at an early age, I devoured books at a steady pace, zipping through whatever happened to catch my eye on the bookshelves (the insulation, as my father sometimes referred to them) lining the walls of our house.

Francis books offered multiple points of goodness: first of course, they're horse-related. They describe exotic locations like Newmarket and various racecourses around England (I grew up in the UP of Michigan... many places were pretty exotic - lol). Well-stocked with main characters of strong, if sometimes slightly bent, moral compasses and great determination, they're also interesting, easily portable (at least in paperback), and highly entertaining. Best of all, they were something my mother deemed appropriate reading material and I didn't have to hide them - not that I'd ever have dreamed of doing that with anything I read, Mom (grin) - except maybe late at night when I wanted to read just one more chapter after lights-out.

As an adult I've continued to enjoy Francis books, even reviewing his latest here, although I'm a bit more fond of some of his earlier efforts. Bonecrack, Nerve, Flying Finish and so many more kept me company on numerous bus trips and family vacations. I even found a few Francis novels, welcome old friends, on the shelves in the Norwegian library I frequented when I spent a summer working overseas.

Along with several others, Robert B. Parker (the Spencer for Hire series), J. D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye), Erich Segal (Love Story) have all passed this year, Francis will be greatly missed.

Happy Valentine's Day

Guess what we got? More snow and lots of wind...
The howling outside had the cats freaking out. But at least there was some sun, and with enough layers it even felt sort of warm. Or at least not too terrible if you could manage to stay out of the wind.

When we got to the farm the driveway was drifted in badly enough that even 4-wheel wasn't going to get us up the driveway. We hiked up. I headed out to hay the horses. G was hooking up the trailer to deliver a load of sheep, so T hopped in the tractor to get the drive cleared.

Which, of course, had to be just a tiny bit exciting.See the trailer? It was sitting half into the ditch. The driveway's glassy-ice under the snow. G turned and the trailer just started sliding. The pick-up's white, so you can't really see it, but I think it may have a new dent or two from the mailbox.

The horses found the un-sticking process must-see TV. Me? I stayed busy with the hay. It was much more entertaining from a distance - LOL! They eventually unhitched the truck and used the tractor to push the trailer back on to the road, and G headed out. I fussed with the horses and played with the dog while T finished cleaning up the driveway.

My camera has decided to do weird things in the cold. See the lower right edge of the middle picture up above where it looks sort of spliced? Well I didn't Photoshop it - and I also ended up with this one. Both of them look perfect in the previews, but when I open them...
Not sure what's up with that. Hopefully something a change of batteries and/or a new disc will fix.

Let it snow...

I hate to keep writing about the weather
but given the season,
there doesn't seem to be much else to write about!

Friday almost looked pretty - sunny, shiny....
See the cloud bank off there to the west?

It was a real low cloud.

Still, not too bad.
The drifts on the road out to the farm
are really piling up.
And the fog was moving in.
Half a mile later, no more sunshine.
At that it still looked better than yesterday.
New snow and a good strong north wind.
That's road there in front of us -
don'tcha just LOVE winter?

The birds

When I got to the farm on Friday the starlings were thick in the tress. Not sure if they migrate or not, but they were all flocked together and chattering away like crazy.

I scraped up the last of the bale to distribute. I'm pretty sure this particular bale was made up of hay from along the road edge, as T said he's pulled a bunch of flattened pop cans out of it. I found a toothpaste tube, which confirms my road-edge theory. The hay itself is lovely, but odds and ends of things (and dust removal) is one reason why we shake the hay out before feeding. T said when he was farming he knew guys that would eat their lunch on the tractor and just toss the wrappers back into the baler. Bleh.

The horses got a new bale yesterday - no signs of trash in this one. I'm always amazed by how how bad a round bale can look on the outside, and how beautiful and sweet smelling the hay is once you peel off the strings & outer leaf.
The feeder calves & replacement heifers that G's keeping in the grain bin lot all clustered close - they've learned that when we feed we always throw anything the horses leave in the tire feeders as well as the outside & bottoms of the bales over to them. They aren't as fussy as the horses - they actually like the "caramelized" stuff, and they sleep on whatever they don't eat.

Not much news this week. It continues to snow and next week they're saying cold. I don't know if the flocking starlings are a sign of spring, but it's quite definitely still winter!

"How to ride a pony"

How to Ride a Pony
~Warning, possibly offensive~
poster from The Oatmeal

I thought it was funny... not sure what that says about me.

For what it's worth, the
17 Things Worth Knowing About Your Cat
poster is also entertaining,
appears to be more accurate*,
and is probably less offensive.

*no sources cited for any of these facts, so quote at your own risk.**
**Sorry, it's a librarian thing.
We like our facts verified by more than one source - LOL.