Snowshoe Hike Upper Property, Reading Time, Fire, Grilling

Yesterday morning started out okay as my hands and skin were mellow after the night thanks to the Protopic on my hands. It is rather difficult to do much during the day with my hands coated in ointments so I end up just slathering lotions and creams on that soak in so I can still do something around the house. Much of my morning was spent on Spanish and Python lessons.

It was around noon when I grabbed the snowshoes and headed up the hill. I climbed the fence into the sheep pen up top and wandered along the fence line for a while. I ended up finding the coyote tracks in the upper pen and found where they had jumped the fence now that the snow has shortened the fence by 2 feet.

It looks like one hopped the fence while the other stayed outside. I saw the tracks walking along the fence on the outside and the tracks on the inside as they tried to get to each other. I was expecting to see a lot of tree damage and branches down but the upper pen is largely big Ponderosa pine and small Douglas Fir which managed the snows just fine. A stray couple of small firs were bent over but they will straighten up again when the snow melts.

Our little town nestled in the river valley.

I was looking at the hillside below and I think I have a path for a long sled run that can be really long and spit us out by the driveway below. I think it would be able to be a fairly straight run and should probably be able to get pretty fast if I can build it right. With the boys off for winter break we will have to go give it a try. Probably safer than making the run down the sheep pen hill.

My time spent waiting to pick the boys up from school has been spent reading. I have finished 3 books so far this school year, 20 minutes of reading at a time. I've been going back through my Writer's Digest fiction writing books and finished Dialogue, Scene and Structure, and now Conflict, Action, Suspense. I have found that I am not able to read at night before going to bed, I am far too well trained that when my head hits the pillow or I am in bed I am sleeping. So the 20 or so minutes mid day each school day mean I can get 10 to 15 pages read.

Around 3 pm I got a fire going in the fire pit but had to work my butt of to get it going and keep it going as so much of the wood I split is not cured. I have to make a ton of little kindling from it to get it to actually catch and stay lit.

Hive account@stryeyz had to work late so I didn't get the burgers on to grill till after 6:30. We were all tired and ended up in bed before 9pm.

I coated my hands heavily in Protopic and donned my cloth gloves for the night then the intense pain the ointment caused had me scrunched in a ball in bed until it began to lessen and I was able to sleep.

This morning my hands are a good deal better and the worst spots quite a bit better. One of the things I have had to do is remove any and all sugar that I can from my diet which seems to help but is also super difficult come Fall when so many sweets holidays happen. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all have heaps of sugar in so much it is difficult to avoid.

World cup is on now and so far is a good match. Today I need to shovel the snow off the pergola, bust some ice dams on the roof, and keep babying my skin as it slowly heals.