Yesterday was yet another adventure in the ever continuing saga of Amie and Mary Anne adventures. I wish we'd written them down from the start. Nothing ever seems out of the ordinary anymore. Yesterday started out just like any other day....for about 10 minutes. Amie picked me up for work and said, "Today we're going to go help a neighbor." Ummm okay? Amie had gotten a call at 4 am asking if we had any horses out because there were a few on Springboro Rd. She checked and we didn't and then while she was going back to sleep, she remembered that a neighbor had a grey horse. She called and it was them. The police got one horse rounded up and back into one of our pastures but his brown stud colt was still loose. So we set out in the stinging ice mixture falling from the sky (much earlier than predicted) to find this colt...with no idea where to start. Since he wasn't running the roads and no one had seen him, I took to the woods where our early morning trail rides take place in the summer. The idea was that if he had slipped and fallen into a ravine, he probably couldn't have gotten out because he was either injured or the fact that our ravines are steep and the snow was so wet he wouldn't have had a chance. I checked all the ravines at the top of the hill before heading towards Ghost Cabin, down to the creek, and from there I went south towards St Rd 18 where I encountered bogs and, sadly, tons of junk. I knew if he had gotten down there he would have gotten tangled with the junk that was down there (why people?), he would have gotten hurt and would probably still be down there. I got so far down into one ravine that was so narrow that even if I was willing to get into the small creek of water flowing through at the bottom, it wasn't wide enough for me to walk. I didn't really want to walk out and then go around to check next to the river so I decided to go up. I crawled, hands and knees, grabbing tree roots, and made my way up. I popped up behind a neighbor's house and then proceeded to go down the other side on my butt. Now I was next to the river and at this point I could have sworn I heard a horse snort so I followed to the point where I thought I heard the noise but I couldn't find anything so I started walking towards camp. I was covered in snow, clothes were wet and heavy, but I was soaked with sweat underneath. I get back to the creek and I found 4 hoof prints. With the heavy snow and mud underneath, they weren't clear horse prints but the size, depth, and shape were the same. But there were only 4. This was right next to the river where the creek flowed into it. I go up a little and find 4 more and it looks like he's following the creek, in and out. A little bit more and I found 4 more...and that was it. I looked all around the area and didn't find anymore tracks, so I assumed he started following the creek back up. I radioed to Amie who was back from checking other areas and she was going to go into the creek the opposite way and see if she found any more evidence. I headed out the other way from the valley and met up with her and after 2 hours, 3 miles, and lots of snow....we never saw the horse. The neighbor was quite grateful that we tried. (As of evening time, still no sign) The snow was blinding now and we needed to get our own horses fed so we could go inside and warm up.
Feeding took a few hours as we set out a few more round bales, put blankets on, and gave the mini farm animals more straw to snuggle into. As we finished, we got word that power was out. And the one thing we wanted to do after the morning we'd had? Take a shower, get warm, and watch movies. It's amazing how quiet a house is without power. Nothing's running-no fish tank, heater, fridge, nothing. So quiet. The kids were in despair wondering what they were going to do for the rest of the day! Reminding them to not use the iPad. Why? Well there's no power left. So? So if it's dead, it's dead and we can't recharge it. Yeah but I want to play now. :-P Kids. They headed out to play in the snow while I was able to use my charged computer to do a little non-internet work. I think the power came back around 5ish and we were set. Everyone was happy, electronics got charged, and the heat felt great. Just another day here.
Yesterday was yet another adventure in the ever continuing saga of Amie and Mary Anne adventures. I wish we'd written them down from the start. Nothing ever seems out of the ordinary anymore. Yesterday started out just like any other day....for about 10 minutes. Amie picked me up for work and said, "Today we're going to go help a neighbor." Ummm okay? Amie had gotten a call at 4 am asking if we had any horses out because there were a few on Springboro Rd. She checked and we didn't and then while she was going back to sleep, she remembered that a neighbor had a grey horse. She called and it was them. The police got one horse rounded up and back into one of our pastures but his brown stud colt was still loose. So we set out in the stinging ice mixture falling from the sky (much earlier than predicted) to find this colt...with no idea where to start. Since he wasn't running the roads and no one had seen him, I took to the woods where our early morning trail rides take place in the summer. The idea was that if he had slipped and fallen into a ravine, he probably couldn't have gotten out because he was either injured or the fact that our ravines are steep and the snow was so wet he wouldn't have had a chance. I checked all the ravines at the top of the hill before heading towards Ghost Cabin, down to the creek, and from there I went south towards St Rd 18 where I encountered bogs and, sadly, tons of junk. I knew if he had gotten down there he would have gotten tangled with the junk that was down there (why people?), he would have gotten hurt and would probably still be down there. I got so far down into one ravine that was so narrow that even if I was willing to get into the small creek of water flowing through at the bottom, it wasn't wide enough for me to walk. I didn't really want to walk out and then go around to check next to the river so I decided to go up. I crawled, hands and knees, grabbing tree roots, and made my way up. I popped up behind a neighbor's house and then proceeded to go down the other side on my butt. Now I was next to the river and at this point I could have sworn I heard a horse snort so I followed to the point where I thought I heard the noise but I couldn't find anything so I started walking towards camp. I was covered in snow, clothes were wet and heavy, but I was soaked with sweat underneath. I get back to the creek and I found 4 hoof prints. With the heavy snow and mud underneath, they weren't clear horse prints but the size, depth, and shape were the same. But there were only 4. This was right next to the river where the creek flowed into it. I go up a little and find 4 more and it looks like he's following the creek, in and out. A little bit more and I found 4 more...and that was it. I looked all around the area and didn't find anymore tracks, so I assumed he started following the creek back up. I radioed to Amie who was back from checking other areas and she was going to go into the creek the opposite way and see if she found any more evidence. I headed out the other way from the valley and met up with her and after 2 hours, 3 miles, and lots of snow....we never saw the horse. The neighbor was quite grateful that we tried. (As of evening time, still no sign) The snow was blinding now and we needed to get our own horses fed so we could go inside and warm up.
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