Snow! February 9, 2009

Yesterday was a cloudy, rainy day even here in the desert. I walked down to the nearby street fair in the morning and it wasn't raining, but we got sprinkles that afternoon. After the street fair, I decided to brave the elements and drive up the mountain to see my horses. I have 5 (all rescues) and they are boarded up in our nearby mountains, out of the heat of the summer. They are all used to cold weather. Our two mustangs were from Wyoming, my gelding was from Michigan, and my two rescued mares were from a feedlot in Washington. They all have long fur to keep them warm and they were actually in snow last winter. I like to give them some extra sweet feed to help their bodies keep warm (the extra calories helps). My German Shepherd was sitting by the front door BEGGING to go with me, so I put an extra blanket in the back of my car for him. By the time I was at the bottom of the mountain, it was misting. The further up I went, the heavier it was raining. I saw a lot of cars coming down the hill with snow on them, so I figured they had either been outside last night or it was snowing. By the time I was halfway to the ranch, the raindrops stopped spattering against my windshield and it was eerily quiet, but SOMETHING was coming down...SNOW! It was beautiful to watch. In the 35 years that we've lived in our desert, this is only the second snow storm that I've driven through and both of them were on the same mountain. I stopped to take some photos, then proceeded to the horse ranch, which is actually at 4,000 feet. The snow was falling at about 4,500 feet in the mountains. There wasn't any snow at the ranch, but the horses were all wet and were nickering for their feed! Here are some pics from yesterday.