Snow Day, Snow Dogs, Snow Lady

We had a dump of snow today.  A good four inches when it was all said and done.  One of those relatively rare times here when a moist system and a cold system collide.  A one day event this time.  The snow turned to a damp drizzle by late afternoon, but tomorrow is supposed to be dry, so the kids who are now on Christmas vacation will have one good day for playing in the white stuff before the rain shows up and turns it into slush.  If we are lucky it might just last until Christmas Day.  Our chances of a white Christmas are about 10%.  The last one we had was in 2008, which just so happened to be the winter that we drove to Seattle just before Christmas and adopted Luna.

But Jake is the real snow dog.  

After our walk through the bush this morning he decided to stay outside for a while

He wandered out into the hayfield and scrounged around and dined on something, probably frozen horse manure.

Then he came back and stood at the top of the driveway for a while, in his 'watching for coyotes' spot.  He stares out over the chicken field, to the big field next door.

Pride wandered around, and then just stood out in the snow.  You wonder why he doesn't go and stand in one of his sheds.

This is kale.  It has survived the cold spell early in the month.  All those marks on the stems are where leaves once were.  Leaves I've picked off to sell at the farmer's markets.  If you are a customer and are reading this, you might have eaten some of those leaves.  In the Spring fresh tender leaves will sprout from those leaf nodes.  Kale at it's finest!

This little bird was scratching on the top of the manure pile.  We get this mixture of fine wood chips, manure, and hay bits from the farm across the road.  This bird was at the fresh end, where the pile is still warm and melting much of the snow on it.

In the afternoon the temperature had warmed up and the snow was perfect for rolling into snow balls.  Even us old fogies can have fun with the snow:)

I had to take the mandatory dog photo of course!

And here she is with the Christmas lights this evening.  I've decided that her arms need adjusting.  They should be coming out of her shoulders, not halfway down her torso.  I'm interested to see if she survives the night.  Not because she might melt, but because she is right next to the road, under the street light, hard to miss.  She might be just a bit too tempting for a certain type passing by.

It was fun to see all the neighbours smiling at her as they headed out to do their Christmas shopping this afternoon:)