Confessions of a Viking Wife: It's beginning to look a lot like... FALL

Hello friends! Fall is quickly approaching here in Steamboat and we are getting cooler temperatures, the leaves are changing and the horses are getting furry. What a wet and rainy summer we have had, I think it has rained a least a little almost every day. I'm not quite sure what that means for winter, hopefully not too bitter. I've been warned by many a Steamboat resident about how the winter is long and very cold here. I hope I am prepared! At least I had three winters in the front range to prepare me for a rocky mountain winter. It would have been much more difficult coming here straight from Florida. I still always get excited for the snow. It is so beautiful and magical, white pillows of fluffy snow that just glimmers when the sunshine hits the crystals. The crunch of it under your boots, snowflakes on your face and hair... man I am sounding like a Christmas song, but I love it. Things I hate about the snow.. well not much but I really hate ice. I hate when my car doors freeze shut, I hate walking and then hitting a patch of ice I don't see and then trying to catch my balance mid air so as to not eat asphalt. I'm not fond of frozen toes, or fingers, or nostrils, I can sum that up by saying I like all my bits warm! I LOVE the smell of firewood burning, eating soups, curling up in my bathrobe drinking hot tea, comfy socks, and wearing scarves! Having seasons is the most wonderful thing ever, and what is even better is getting away to Florida when I'm sick of the slushy cold! I'm pretty sure we are done with traveling until after the baby is born, so time to prepare for winter and get nice and cozy.

Today the horses got their last bath until spring, it was nice and warm (75F) today and sunny so I took advantage of one last scrub down before their winter coats come in. I am going to prep two stalls with wood shavings and water heaters for the winter so I can pull my two inside on the really miserable days, and I cleaned and patched up their blankets last spring to prepare for winter, I try every year to let them deal with the elements and interfere as little as possible, within reason. They seem to get more adapted every year, but there are still a few days I have to bundle them up. I am not worried one bit about their pasture mates, as they have been in Steamboat for many winters with little more than hay to eat and a lean to in the pasture. My goal is low maintenance animals! A few pictures to leave you with.