Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 Gary did some haying in the creek bottoms a few weeks ago; last month I believe.  He hasn't had the chance to get down there and get the bales yet due to so many well repair jobs and gravel hauling jobs.  The bales make great photos here in late summer though, with the fog or sun on them. As a general practice I avoid walks this time of year, simply because it is chigger and seed tick season.  I wear tall rubber boots, but still manage to get chiggers, likely from tall weeds that I brush up against.   Since I now have another dog however, I have been taking them down the hill to run a bit in the mornings. They love it. Every morning down there has its own charm; fog, sun, mist. The above two photos were of the same hay bale on the same morning, just very different angles.  I wanted to catch the steam coming from it as the sun burned off the dew.  It was the only hay bale steaming like this, and at first it made me a smidge nervous that it was smoke an...

 It is still well below freezing.  Bella and I have been making tracks in circles around the place here, doing circuits of the driveways with her on leash, or letting her run in the fenced garden off leash.  It is still super cold.  At almost 5 PM it is currently 8 degrees out.  This morning I think it was -1.  Ellen has taken her for walks and made some tracks, too.  We are all getting cabin fever...well, except Gary.  He has been making tracks of another sort; up and down the roads.  Gary has fielded numerous calls from people who don't have water for one reason or another.  Most of them he has advised heat lamps or heaters in their well-houses and hasn't heard from them again.  Presumably they thawed out and have water again.  Several people, including his aunt, have heat and water in their well houses, but no water in their actual houses, so the pipes are frozen up underneath the house somewhere.  I believe there are a...