Archives for December 2008

Last night I went for a walk in the light of an almost-full moon, with only a tiny cutout at the bottom that kept it from being a full circle. Thin clouds hurried across the sky, but it gave the impression that the moon itself was racing along instead of the clouds. It has only been a few days since the last storm dumped more than a foot of snow, so the landscape was clear and moon shadows lay dark across the bluish whiteness. Sparkles like sequins covered the snowfields and on the willow branches, where tiny, flat crystals of ice were mirrors. In fact, I knelt in the snow and looked closely at one of the sparkles and was surprised to see a light shape exactly the same as the moon. I looked at another and it was the same, complete with a little cutout at the bottom. If you’re out on a moonlight night have a look yourself. That glittering snow is really the reflection of the moon. What a fun discovery.

Winter’s arrived at the Ranch. The past two nights the temperature dipped to -15 degrees and there are about 18 inches of snow everywhere with more promised later this week. Daytime temperatures rise into the thirties and the bright sun makes being outside a true joy.

Last Saturday we had an important job to do; we needed to select and cut a Christmas tree. Justin has been training his riding horse, Solito, to pull a sleigh, a hundred year old cutter that he bought a couple of years ago and restored. He decided that pulling a Christmas tree would be good for Solito’s training, so on Saturday the family set out on a tree expedition.

Lissa carried one-year-old, Kenna, who was bundled in a cozy back-pack. Christine, now four, bundled too, and wearing her pink riding helmet, rode her horse Big Enough. Laughter and childish chatter echoed across the river as the little party waded along through the snow, checking out one tree after the other until finally they found the perfect one.

Justin and Christine cut down the tree and tied it to Solito’s harness traces. It made a pleasant swishing sound as they plowed downhill. Pictures were taken and finally the family headed back home where the tree has been decorated and graces the living room.