Snow Day #2 for 2020

This snow "storm" is a perfect example of what I feared would happen if I didn't change jobs.

Albemarle County closed for two days in a row. They will open 2-hours late Thursday.

Charlottesville City opened on time Thursday, got flak for being open while roads were terrible and buses were slipping, opened two hours late on Wednesday, and will open on time Thursday.

So far, I took about a $1,000 pay cut in exchange for two extra days off and one extra 2 hour delay before break. That's 15 hours off, 18 if you count coaching. 

This week wasn't enough to justify the switch by itself, but it put points on the board for certain!

If I was at my old job, Carrie would have been at home with Shane,and worried about me on bad roads. Meanwhile I would have been in a short-staffed school with grumpy kids, because half the people who work in the city drive in and the kids would see snow and say, "Albemarle is out! Why aren't we!?"

Instead, it felt like winter break stuck around longer than intended. I woke up at 7:15 AM, snuggled up to Carrie, and fell back asleep without realizing it! Shane knocked on the door at 8 AM and I was annoyed, because I didn't realize it was 45 minutes later!

I got to start off slow with my bagel and coffee before going down for barn chores. I found two mice who'd manage to frolic into a bin and trap themselves when I finished my morning commute.

I found the boys were idiots and somehow threw their hay-bag up and around where they couldn't eat hay.

And then I broke a pitchfork tine on frozen poop (I was being really careful, because I saw it was frozen, too!).

Normally, the boys don't poo under the hangover, but maybe they were annoyed about the hay. I shoveled four big piles and then decided to weigh them. I don't know if it was Sam, Eddie, or both, but the four piles weighed 30.8 lbs!

I was shocked when I switched over to the girls side, because there wasn't any! They only pooped out in the snow!? There were some small piles I scooped just outside the roof, but it made for an easier morning.

I came back out with Loki later. Annie was in the field sniffing and pawing at the remains of Shane's snowman/bunny.

I walked out to the front yard to let Loki get some energy out. 

He liked to lay in ambush behind the jump I sat on.

My butt was cold, my tea was cold, my fingers were cold, and my leg fell asleep, but it was nice to be at home!

In retrospect, I shouldn't have put cold water in my tea to cool it down. The wind did a remarkable job on it's own.

It's hard to see, but Loki kicked up a ton of mud as he was running around. His underside was coated. Carrie had been complaining he smelled and I brought him back wet, muddy, and smellier than before.

Bath time.

There's so much poof, I'm surprised by how little Loki is underneath it. The water turned his underbelly poof into an upside-down mohawk!

Loki ran all over Shane's floor trying to dry himself when I got done attempting to towel dry him!

I need to use a blow dryer next time.

The light hit him just perfectly in this shot!

Bonus blurry shot, for the win!

The little guy fell asleep easily midday. 

He slept light, though. He woke up nearly every time I crept over for a picture.

I have a hard time truly winding down during the day. I always want to do something to earn my rest later on. I tried to set up a play date with the neighbors again, but they had to run for an emergency work outing. I told Shane to clean up his room to earn electronics and he strung it out for hours (and a bath) before he did the deed at 6 PM (I'd told him, "You can have my computer while I'm doing barn chores....if your mom says your room is clean! Bye!").

I went out in the afternoon to disrobe all the horses. It was nearing 50 F out and too hot for blankets. I'd have to put the blankets back on at night feeding since it was scheduled to drop into the 20s.

The idiot boys managed to flip their hay again. It's a new trick. I can't imagine it's very satisfying.

 

Loki came out and Shane followed. They were playing in the arena and Loki got himself nice and dirty all over again (the underside at least). Keeping an eye on the boys is a full time job!

The rest of the barn mats were delivered in the afternoon. The two guys who were getting them out of the truck as a team said, "Good luck. These things are a pain in the ass to move."

"Yeah," I said. "I know it. She'll have me move them all into place later. I have to roll them up like a burrito to move them solo."

Both guys paused. They looked at me and then looked at each other. 

Then one guy started to roll a mat. "Like this?"

I showed them my trick and then they started to one-man mats. I guess I'm a teacher even on snow days.

I hopped up in the truck bed to roll mats and pass them off to the guys.

Carrie and I went outside later to place and cut the mats.

It's amazing how much easier the right tool makes everything. We didn't need power tools or anything special. We cut notches out of four mats in the time it took us how to figure out to cut the first mat last weekend.

Side note: With the bedding swept away, mouse tunnels were visible under the stall mat. Stinking mice.

I took a picture of the finished barn after evening chores. It looked nice!

We're halfway through the first school week back and I've spent more time working in the barn than in the classroom. Weird.

Snow Day!

The forecast said maybe an inch Monday. I told my classes not to get their hopes up.

Tuesday morning, 5:30 AM: School was cancelled.

The time of the snow had been moved further back in the day, but the forecast now said between 1-3" mixed with rain were possible. 

The day started off like any other. The biggest change was I made Shane come out to work with me.

Maddy kept an eye on him for me. He did a good job!

It started to snow in earnest a couple hours later (10 PMish). It was really coming down, too! Shane and I went outside with Loki to let him run off some energy pacing snow plows. 

Loki showed a few seconds hesitation about stepping on the snow, but once his paws hit it he took off flying. He knew where we were going.

Shane immediately started to make snowballs to throw at Loki as he zoomed past.

The snow was sticking a little bit to the roads, but it didn't seem to be stopping anyone. Enough cars and plows were out to keep us entertained.

Shane didn't have much success hitting Loki with any snowballs. He's a fast moving, small target!

Carrie said the forecast shifted to 3-5". when we went in later. It was certainly coming down consistently while we were out. I caught a snowflake perfectly on camera!

It's not a good snow day unless you go out in the snow!

Shane wanted to make a snowman. I wanted to wait a little bit until the snow was thicker, but he couldn't be dissuaded.

He went right to it! He was worried about crossing the electric fence-line to get into the pasture, but got over it (the kid was decked out in snow gear for insulation!).

"Look, Dad! I made a maze!"

His maze picked up some accessories at one corner. I guess that's a potential hazard when making a snowman in a horse pasture!

The only horse who showed any interest in what we were up to was Annie. She came to the entrance to the pasture for a little bit to watch before going back to her hay.

I continued to play amateur photographer while Shane worked.

A UPS truck drove up and all of the horses started panicking and spinning in place. I got a video of them running around like crazy for a couple of minutes. I don't know if it was the UPS truck, the sound of snow plows, or some sort of combination of everything in the snow that set them off.

There was one moment where Annie and Maddy looked like they were about to run off into the field we were in and I called for Shane to get close to me, but they turned around. The mini-panic stayed up by the barn.

It only lasted five minutes tops. Made for some neat footage, at least.

I'd brought a couple of balls out to see if I could get Loki to play catch in the snow. 

I figured that the snow would make it way easier for me to spot the ball in case he didn't track it.

It didn't work out well. The purple ball didn't fly well in the wind and filled with snow upon impact. The passing cars continued to call to Loki and his head was forever snapping around whenever a new car cruised by.

Shane made his snowman while I played around and I offered to take a picture.

He gave it bunny ears and then got inspired.

Why use your fingers for bunny ears when you can make a snow pair?

Some of the first attempts fell, but Shane figured it out!

I'm surprised Loki hung around to supervise.

The ears blurred into the skyline in my first pictures, so I had Shane move to where his coat emphasized the gap!

Shane would have stayed out longer, but I wanted to take a break. I didn't see the snow as stopping any time soon.

Indeed, the flakes got bigger.

It eventually turned to rain and it wasn't really piling up, but the county made the right call. 

Shane and I tried to get his coding wand gift working in between our outside trips. It wasn't working right, so I'll have to fiddle with it more later.

Shane really wanted to visit the neighbors. It didn't look like any of their lights were on, but I wanted to say hi, as well. 

Loki saw us getting ready and didn't want to be left in! He wanted to go back out, too!

We went out in the gator. I took a quick picture while I opened the fenceline that led onto our neighbors driveway.

I took one quick picture of me while Shane ran up to the front door. I'm partial to the minion hat. It keeps me warm and stylish.

Shelby was just as excited as Shane at the thought of playing. "We could have a sleepover!" she said.

She wanted us to come into the garage to meet her kitten while she got her snow gear on.

We hadn't met Shelby's older brother, Shawn, yet. He's in 6th grade and came out to play, too. The kids ran to look at the trampoline, but it was dripping constantly with melting snow.

We attempted to use a kiddie pool, the gator, and some rope to make a sled ride. Results were mixed. The snow wasn't as thick as it could have been and was rapidly melting. The ground underneath was mud, mud, mud!

Deana and Sawyer joined us for the sled riding and came with us on a tour through the woods. Sawyer made her carry him while I kept up with the older kid.

Shane showed off his balance skills on a log over water. Shelby and Shawn both looked at me to see if it was okay. "If he falls, he won't like it," I shrugged. "I'll be his butt that's cold."

Shawn made it across after, but it was a close call! It's not like we were far from home if Shane needed to go in. A little risk makes things more fun.

The trio tromped through a bunch of thorns and found a deer skull. Shawn and Shelby wanted to bring it home as a trophy, but Deana passed!

Shane and Shawn ran ahead through the woods and looped out while Deana and Sawyer backed out the way we came in. Shelby wanted to follow the boys, but was worried about thorns, so I helped her make it through.

We all headed back up to Deana's house. The kids ran in, but I had Loki with me. I asked if it was okay to come back in a few and drove him home. Carrie was snuggled up on the couch with a blanket and a cat on her lap. I interrupted an imminent nap! Oops!

I left Loki in his pen and headed back to collect Shane before he wore out his welcome. The weather had already started to clear up and Shane's snowman/bunny was falling to pieces.

I needn't have worried about Shane overstaying his welcome. The kids were having a ball. Deana was used to a loud house and lots of visitors. Shelby put Woody Woodpecker (the movie) on and Shane was completely zoned in. She was running around and talking to me, her mom, Shane, and he just sat there drooling. Shelby made them hot chocolate (with motherly help) and Shane might not have even realized what she was handing him!

Shelby, Shawn, and Sawyer's dad worked for UPS and was out on the roads all this time. He reported the roads were awful further north.

"Growing up, my best friend's dad was a UPS driver," I said after Shawn told me.

He got back just as Shane and I were saying out goodbyes (amidst "PLEASE NOT YET!" and "A LITTLE LONGER!"). He was supposed to drive out towards Crozet, but he gave up. Hwy 250 was a mess.

"Maybe we won't have school tomorrow then," I said. "We can come back then!"