Sugar Frosted Mountains

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Above the big turn at Bellview, you could begin to see a strange phenomenom this weekend.  It was not the sugar-frosted trees on top of the hills that we usually see, but pockets of sugar-frosting on the side of the hills; producing an eerie, ghostly, almost fog-like feeling in the mountains.

Closer to home, in our backyard, the strange sugar-frosting continued in the hills to the south and southwest.  It was almost as if something (the wind perhaps) had brushed the snow from the trees on the top of the hills leaving an outline; showing off their fancy curves.

We could also see this beautiful frosty coating looking from the barn, through the pasture.  Some of the trees on the side of the hill above Wolf Creek had a heavy coating of frosty snow that lasted through the weekend.  Could it have been caused by moisture coming up the hollow during the storm?  Whatever the cause, the storm left us with a lovely winter wonderland and contemplating the many artistic talents of Father Winter.

The Weekend

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After Friday’s bitter winter storm, Saturday was very much like living inside of a snowglobe.  The high winds had ceased and the snow continued, falling gently… leaving everything looking like the winter wonderland it should be in January.
Although bitterly cold on Sunday, everyone seemed to be enjoying the winter weather.  The deer came up out of the hollow and were grazing on the knoll most of the afternoon.  And Bella despite having two shelters and a dog house at her disposal, chose to sleep out on the side of the hill under the goat tree. 

Before the Snow

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Before the snow, we broke up the breeding groups and moved all the ewes back to the granddaddy green paddock at the barn.  This will make morning chores much easier througout the winter.  We penned Poseidon and Aragorn in a small space in the barn for about 24 hours and then moved them to the paddock behind the house.  We’ve done this for several years and it seems to significantly lessen their aggressive behavior once they are removed from the ewes.  We left the older ram, Liam, in with the group at the barn so that we can  sneak him a little grain and carrots. 
Everything went really well until we opened one of the gates and as a group of ewes came through we noticed an extra black ewe marked with the blue breeding wax.  Blackberry, who was retired last year, had managed to weasel her way through two temporary fences and had a romantic rendezvous with Liam sometime during the day.  She was promptly removed and taken back to re-join the ewe lambs; fences were re-built and strengthened with some extra poles.  A minor mishap… fingers crossed that if she did get caught that she won’t have any problems this time around.
So happy to have the ewes all together back at the barn!