Snow on them thar' hills

We woke up to a fresh blanket of snow. Looks like the so-called winter storm "Hercules" (I happen to think named winter storms are silly but that's another story) dropped us about 5-8" of powdery snow. A lovely way to start a Friday. The sun is peeking out and is making the the snow glitter, that's always pretty and brings a sparkle to my eye. I need it this morning because "Oy!" a nearly 13 year old and nearly senile Pomeranian of mine is making my smile rollercoaster from frown to smile lately. When I take the dogs out to potty he keeps splitting and running down to the basement door for some reason. This morning it was a bad situation because all the other dogs were minding and because of the extreme cold temps (6 degrees currently and the high is 10, low is -9!!) frostbite is a concern.

 Unlike children the dogs only show signals of distress and obviously can not speak their problems (with the exception of Ronen who doesn't know how to "shut it" most of the time, but that's another story). So here I am with 4 dogs standing around and the cold is starting to nip at their toes and Chase has left the building once again.

Chase

I can only see tracks in the snow leading to the steps that lead to the basement. I am calling and calling him and I KNOW he can hear me, but he is choosing to not come. So Ocean, who is starting to feel distress in her toes decides to follow Chase. I stop her by calling her back to me and head her back to the sunroom (which we are using as our mudroom). I make my movements STAT because I am imagining Chase standing downstairs freezing his tush and his toes and when he gets upset he usually runs off. His thought processes are not to be trusted as he often makes senile decisions. What a pain! So I bring four dogs in the sunroom, I sort out my brawlers (my two intact males) and leave the two other dogs in the sunroom for just a minute while I run downstairs and retrieve Chase from the basement door.

Ty - Brawler

FSU - Brawler

I am not happy with his decision and I let him know by scolding him and sending him to his kennel for a time out. He is also upset because he knows I'm upset and reacts dramatically by squealing. I know this is not good because the two dogs upstairs in the sunroom will "go at it" if a dog squeals and no human is there to keep order. So I head back up to the sunroom to find Ocean in defense mode, more than likely she nipped Ronen, as Ronen was standing there trembling and Ocean had her ears up like she was ready for action.

Ocean and Ronen were in the sunroom - waiting....

I scolded her and she dropped and sulked as I sent her to her bed. Ronen went without issue to his bed too. He normally does like that kid on Family Circle and runs all over the place, but not this time. He ran straight to his bed and waited for me to set him up. He likes to hunt kitties so he is required to wear a muzzle in the living room so we don't have to babysit him. He has never done more than nip them but I want him to understand that we do not approve of this behavior and the house is a "no hunting zone" so he has to wear a muzzle. He hates the muzzle, but today he accepted it, no issues.

One major item on our agenda this Spring is to get proper fencing in for the dogs. They have been really pushing the envelope here as of late. It's frustrating to say the least. I'm not sure what has changed, except that now we know there are dear that regularly cross through a front yard to go down to the pond for a drink. Which that reminds me, the pond is completely frozen over. In fact, over the past three days Jason has been walking on it! The 2nd day my daughter walked on it and yesterday I joined them for the 3rd day. I video taped it.

So it is Friday and we are preparing for Shabbat today with one extra chore: Jason is out snow blowing the driveway. The local schools are out, but we homeschool and while Jason was off of work my daughter was off of school. He is working remotely today since Boston is mostly shut down, so she also has school today. We usually have the curtains open in the living room, but with the super cold temps today, we have decided to keep them draped with our heavy black-out curtain. I can still see the sun shining in through the side window, so pretty.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 

Rom 8:28