1986 Letter by Lynn Thomas “House on Muddy” (105 Richie Rd), Boulder, Wy.

Dear Loved One and Friends,

Another year has passed quickly.  As usual, we’re far behind our goals on the “list of things to accomplish” this year.  A major revelation to me was that we have only 4 or 5 months of (semi-) good weather to do a year’s work in.  Christmas last year was snowy and quiet.  I cooked our turkey and pumpkin pie in the wood range and we opened our presents and watched football.  Joe gave me a snuggly robe of alpaca.  I gave him a crash helmet for his snowmobile trips.  By the way, the picture on this year’s card is of our house with the Christmas tree lit in the window.  I’m disappointed with the way the print turned out.  The slide was beautiful and in it you can see Joe sitting in his recliner by our tree.

We’d been snowed in since a week before Thanksgiving and any company we had came in on cross country skis or snowmobile.  Brent, sometimes with his family, came to visit with their team and sled.  He fed the cattle in the field behind our house.  We went to town by snowmobiling 5 miles to our truck parked in LaRea’s garage.  The dogs and I rode in the sled Joe built to pull behind.  It was easier than riding double. 

Once we went to town and on the way back slid off the road.  We were stuck in more than 2’ of snow, but it could have been worse as we were not far from quite a drop off.  Joe started digging while I kept my foot on the accelerator – the engine wanted to quit because the tailpipe, etc., were buried in the snow.  Finally a couple of cowboys hauling a horse trailer came by in a 4 wheel drive and after several tries, pulled us out.  Joe found later the truck needed a new steering arm, whatever that is and replaced the bad parts.  He blamed that for going off the road. 

We hauled the groceries and other stuff in on the sled.  It took a few trips before we learned how to load the cartons of eggs and milk so they didn’t arrive broken as the sled bounced pretty hard at 40 or 40 mph.  The milk was sometimes frozen solid, so didn’t leak until later when it thawed. 

On some of the nicer days Joe got the exterior door and window trim on his shop finished.  He started wiring his shop and later in the spring, the new building.  The supplies for that also came in on the snowmobile.  He put electricity in the barn also after haying and made saddle and harness racks and later built mangers in there.  I worked on my painting and drawing but this business of day to day existence – cooking, cleaning, washing dishes – takes more of my time than I like.  I’ve said before it’s too bad I don’t have a wife.

Often there was fog which made for good picture taking.  The elk feeder, Frosty (Hittle) had a wreck on his snowmobile (probably chasing coyotes) and fractured his skull so there was a new feeder for awhile.  During December, January and most of February Frosty going up to the feedground was the only sign of human life.    We saw lots of bobcat tracks in the new snowfalls.  It was sleeping in the haystack and would run out when we got close with the sled.  We often saw elk coming into the haystacks.  Coyotes were also common.

I bought myself some cross-country (“skinny”) skis after Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed learning to use them and between then and spring I put a lot of miles on the skis.  X-C is the perfect way to get out here and I can just go out the door and ski.  It’s also much easier than snowshoes. 

We were feeding every day with the team and sled.  The mares were generally more subdued than the winter before but Sox and old Sunshine still had a few tricks up their sleeves.  Much of our time was again involved with the animals.  We were taking care of five lodge horses and our own, total 17.  We kept Salt, their old one, in the corral with the team.  One day he’d look very sick and the next he seemed to be o.k.  Joe even put him out of the corral once so he wouldn’t die in there, but he lasted until spring and sadly, died when winter was over and the grass was getting green. 

The young horses made nuisances of themselves, often running through any open gate until we started locking them out of our field and away from their dinner.  We finally left them there for 24 hours with no feed or water and they decided home was a good place to stay.  We’d locked them out once when Stubby, on the right side of the fence, wanted to be with his buddies on the wrong side so he jumped over the wire fence to get in with them.  One day Salt was left alone in the corral as usual when we took the mares out to feed.  He found a gate to the yard inadvertently left open and then made a flying leap over the yard gate to join the herd.  (He looked quite well then.)  Late in January I took the bandage off Frosty’s strained leg.  The fetlock joint was enlarged but she could put her full weight on it without favoring it.  She was still on I.R. (Injured Reserve) in the corral, and taking advantage of every promising situation.  Someone who shall remain unnamed (but it was the same one who left the gate open – not me) left the barn door ajar.  Frosty went in and helped herself to all the alfalfa pellets again (a la last report) and made yet another huge mess in the barn.  I rewrapped her leg and she was banished from the corral forevermore. 

I had another go at cleaning up the barn.  One morning we couldn’t see any horses while we ate breakfast.  We thought they were just down in the lower corner.  Joe took the snowmobile out to feed them and found….there weren’t any horses out there to feed.  They had gone out on our snowmobile track and through the open gate (we’d  theorized they wouldn’t leave their feedground in the deep snow) with Frosty in the lead (so Joe says – whenever the horses do anything he says she’s the bad one) and ended up 10 miles away in John Jensen’s corral.  Joe started out tracking them on snowmobile and soon met Norm (Richie) in his truck – he’d seen their tracks.  They followed and found the horses and herded them  home in the truck and snowmobile at a pretty good pace, so they didn’t want to make any more midnight escapes.

In the meantime the dogs had taken to alleviating boredom by running away from home for long periods of time.  This went on for some time with the usual spankings and scolding doing no good.  Finally in desperation and the knowledge dogs can’t run loose in the same country as livestock and wildlife, I tied them up all night about ¾ mile away next to Brent’s corral where they most often went.  They stayed out overnight in our coldest weather several times.  This was suppose to be aversion therapy, but it didn’t work.  I knew Clinker was the leader of these expeditions, but didn’t solve the problem until I tied him up at home while we went feeding on the sled without him.  It broke his heart for us to leave him, as he’d been everywhere with us since he was a puppy.  This was the cure and it has worked.  He’ll go for a short run or mousing for awhile, but is never out of calling range.

We had beautiful, calm, sunny winter days.  Joe went snowmobiling often with his friends and saw a lot of the high country in winter.  He got farther in a day on snowmobile than he’d ever gone on a week long summer pack trip with the horse – the longest trip was 85 miles.  He got some beautiful photos which was the only look I got at it, so far.

Joe went to town one day to get lumber for new cabinets for his shop.  This was brought in on the snowmobile and he built beautifully finished workbench and cabinets.  We hauled the old and extremely big, heavy workbenches out to the new building through the deepest snow of the winter.  Later Joe hauled in more lumber and enclosed these to keep oil and truck parts in the new building. 

January and February stayed quite warm, high often close to freezing.  Feb 29 had a high of 42°.  The snow was melting.  Not until mid-February did we have a few days of temperatures around

 -30° to -40°.  Norm (Richie) had the road opened to his ranch earlier this year than last and moved his cows over on 2/15.  It was quite a sight to see the cattle strung out along the road 4 miles away and clear through the ranch gate without end.  It took an hour for them to trail past me.  Joe began to help Norm feed. 

The rains and flooding in California brought us more storm and snow.  Very odd was a storm with lightning, thunder and wind-driven hail.  By now the snow measured almost 3’ having fallen 4” to 6” at a time.  When it was the deepest the top wire of the fences was covered in places.  Norm got his big backhoe stuck several times trying to open roads into the hay corrals and Doc Jensen brought his Cat over to get the backhoe unstuck. 

Norm had several wrecks with his four horse team, once when a cow ran between the front and back teams.  The sled ran over her, but she was fine since the snow was so deep and soft.  All the horses started shedding early.  There was still more than a couple of feet of snow in most places when the ground started showing in a few spots.  Even though it started extra early and had us snowed in in early November, the winter seemed quite mild and short.  The birds and ducks started coming back. 

Hanging out clothes was weird with the lines about at my navel and reaching down near my feet to get clothespins out of the bag.  Then the 2’ of rotten snow would fall out from beneath me.  Brad (Bousman) cleared the road again for Doc’s cows to come over.  The snow was so deep you could barely see the cows’ backs as they walked down the road.

The sewer backed up into the bathroom in some of our coldest weather so Joe started trying to dig out the line at its outlet.  That didn’t last long as the ground was still frozen solid.  On Feb 26 I saw a woolly worm and some flies.  A small flock of male red-winged blackbirds sang to us every morning even though their cattails were buried in the snow.  When the county snowplow last went by it threw a huge snow bank in front of the garage where we kept the truck.  It took Joe an hour to dig it out the next time he wanted to use the truck.

Then on March 1 the disaster of the year occurred.  Coyote or coyotes unknown got Skeezix when I let the dogs out before bedtime.  I called, Clinker came but no Skeezix.  I walked around three fields with a flashlight looking for Skeezix and decided the coyotes must have hauled him off.  I went to bed but didn’t go to sleep and around three hours from when I first called him I heard a noise at the front door.  It was Skeezix badly mauled and nearly frozen to death.  I put him in the oven of the wood stove wrapped in warm towels.  His skin was hardly broken from the bites but he’d bled beneath the skin a lot.  His tongue felt like an ice cube and he was barely conscious.  About 5:30 he seemed to be recovering.  For several days he lay in his bed wrapped up in his blanket staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes.  Norm said he’d often felt just like that with a hangover.  I’d take him outside and lay him on a bale of hay in the sunshine during the warm part of the day.  He gradually got back to normal, but he stays mighty close to home ever since.

Joe went to Rock Springs one day to get the taxes done.  He looked pretty funny wearing his his good coat and hat, carrying his briefcase and going off on the snowmobile.  He looked at new trucks too.  The snow was off the road well enough by March 20 that we could leave the truck at the gate.  For the first time we began parking the team and sled in our yard with no hitch rack and the mares stood well to be hitched and unhitched.  The old sled road was very icy and bumpy by now.  One interesting thing was how the team can find the totally obliterated sled track to walk on after a new snow and/or wind.  Also when there is a visible track they all walk in the same hoofprints so there is a series of holes instead of being packed down level.  I’d heard bears do this when there are enough of them around to make a trail.

Highs were in the mid-40°s by the end of March.  On one of my x-c ski trips Clinker jumped in some open water and went swimming.  The snow was still quite deep, but beginning to melt.  One of our marsh hawks came back and a small group of 5 sandhill cranes which walked around on the snowy fields.  I don’t know what they found to eat at first, but it wasn’t long before parts of the fields were free of snow.  It was a welcome sound to hear the cranes trumpeting again.  I saw a few blackbirds, killdeer and robins.  We took a drive up to Jackson and looked in the galleries.  We looked at new trucks there.  We saw about 50 bighorn sheep on the steep hillsides of the Hoback Canyon.  March 29 it rained for quite awhile.  The grass was trying to be green in the bare spots and the creek went out that afternoon.  I went to Florence Jensen’s house for an archeology meeting and saw her interesting collection of Indian artifacts that she’d been collecting for many years.  I also went on a few historical expeditions, “discovery odysseys”, around our area with Judi Myers which were very interesting.  She brought long time residents with her who related the history of their early days in the area.

We had a wind storm that blew about 80mph, but it didn’t last too long.  If we’d had that in Las Vegas it would have lasted for days.  We seem not to get as much wind as other places in the state.  We began having nights above freezing but not the end of snowstorms and blizzards.  Yellow-headed blackbirds were back – sparrows and meadowlarks began their spring songs.  We went down to Rock Springs and ordered our new Ford 4-wheel drive diesel pickup.  We stopped to see the BLMs wild mustangs, all very scroungy looking, in a huge corral complex there.

I got a letter from the Governor’s office inviting me to submit paintings for the Governor’s “Wyoming, the Cowboy State” art show which would travel in Europe for two years.  As you might expect, there turned out to be no funding to send the show to Europe, but it will be shown around Wyoming for a year.  I had 2 paintings and a drawing in the show.  Ann Anspach came over to visit when we were gone from the house and thought she could get in with her 4-wheel drive, but got very stuck.  Norm had driven his backhoe over our road and we hoped it would help break up the snowpack a little sooner.  Ann saw that track and thought we’d been driving in and out.  Well, Doc and Jerry Jensen were feeding nearby and got her out.  In mid-April Sox turned her ankle and came up lame, so we quit feeding with the team.  I began raking the yard as it bared up.  Ann began to come over to paint with me and we have continued that up until now.  We painted outdoors as often as possible.

Norm started feeding with four work horses abreast pulling a heavy skid, as the fields were too boggy for the sled or for a wagon.  I got pictures of this several times.  One day while I was photographing Norm and the skid I saw the first antelope, a dove and over 300 deer.  The deer were migrating back to the high country and we saw tens of thousands in strings going past the ranch.

The last week of April I drove to Nebraska to teach a 3-day oil painting workshop at McCook College.  I also judged a show there.  I had been apprehensive about teaching for the first time but shouldn’t have worried.  I was marvelous and had a wonderful time doing it.  I’d been afraid I wouldn’t be able to talk in front of a group, but had no trouble with that.  My demonstration paintings were also successful.  I enjoyed the trip through Wyoming and Nebraska’s farm country in springtime.  It was the first time I’d seen any of it.   There was a spring storm with snow (I’d been assured it wouldn’t snow there), and there was a tornado in the next town that killed a man and caused a lot of destruction.  On the way back home I visited historical Ft Laramie and several famous spots on the Oregon Trail for photos.

By May 1 I began working the soil in my gardens, but it was still too early to plant.  We were able to dig up the sewer line and get that fixed.  We bought a new dome tent for our pack trips.  Norm and Joe started feeding with the team and wagon, and they had several runaways at first.  We turned some water into the ditches.  I started some vegetable seeds inside and pampered them so they would have a good head start in the garden, but it didn’t do a bit of good.  They were no better than the ones I planted outside later.  We babysat Edis’ cocker spaniel, Nicki, while she made a 3-week raft trip in the Grand Canyon. 

Ann and I went to the Wyoming Artists Convention in Riverton May 9-11 and had a great time getting acquainted with new friends.  I won 3 awards in the art show and “Rocky Mountain Laundry Day” will travel around Wyoming for a year in the WAA (Wyoming Artists’ Association) traveling show.  I also won several awards at the County fair. 

We began going to the neighbors brandings, helping out and photographing.  We also helped drive the cattle to the summer ranges.  We had pretty good weather to ride in.  Brent surprised us with a hot dog roast while the calves and cows were ‘mothering up’.  It snowed off and on during May and June as well as giving us freezing temperatures.

We took Stubby to Nina Jensen to be trained.  Joe and Norm “cut” Ace, but not before he tried to breed most of the mares, with their help, I might add.  So we may get some baby pintos next spring.  I rototilled my garden and transplanted some spruce and lodgepole pine from the forest into the front yard.  Joe bought me a new lawn mower!  He cleaned the corral (still with about 4” of ice beneath the manure) and drug the field.  He started irrigating.  He trimmed all the horses’ feet. 

At the end of May we started trying to see how far up the road to (Big Sandy) Lodge we could get.  We drove in June 10.  The Kellys, new lodge owners, had walked in several days before.  The road still had deep drifts and we had an exciting ride.  There had been more snow there last winter than Joe ever remembered seeing.  He got pictures of it on the buildings on one of his snowmobile trips.  It knocked the tall rock kitchen chimney down off the lodge roof.  For awhile there during the summer a small bear stole food from the backpackers and campers and started hanging around the lodge.  Scott finally shot it with the permission of the Game and Fish Dept.

On June 1 our new truck was delivered.  We took our first ride in it to see record high flooding on the Green and New Fork Rivers.  Muddy Creek also flooded and cut through the road, the only way to drive into the ranch, so we no sooner got out from begin snowed in until we were marooned again.  Joe put a truck on the other side of the washout so we could get out.  Joe, Doc and Norm put another culvert in where the high water cut through the road and it should keep the road from washing out again.  We had quite a time keeping the swallows from making nests all over our house this year.  Finally they decided to build somewhere else after much persuasion.  On June 3 I saw the first baby antelope and one doe has her fawn just outside our yard fence.

I got strawberry plants from Ann and got a large patch planted.  Next year we should have a good crop.  Diane Haugen came up from California for a few days and brought some of her stained glass pieces for the July Rendezvous show.  We had a good visit and drove around the country some.  We started out Sublette County Artists Guild meeting held twice a month during the summer months, a luncheon and sharing of the member’s creative writing or art.  When it was my turn to hostess the luncheon we held it at the Lodge and everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

Joe got his wood permits from the BLM and Forest Service and made many trips getting out firewood.  When he got tired of working around the ranch he would go to the mountains. 

On July 5 it froze my squash.  I stuck in some more seed, but it froze several more times during the summer.  By mid-July I had lettuce, radishes and spinach enough to share with friends, but I won’t try the cabbage varieties or squash again because they just don’t do well in our cold weather.

We had our usual art show during the Green River Rendezvous weekend in Pinedale.  Quite a few of the WAOAW members were present for the festivities and we had a great show.  Several of us went on a trail ride into the Bridger Wilderness after the show and had dinner at the lodge.  It hailed, thundered and lightning-ed on us during our ride (not unusual) but most of the day was beautiful.  Artist friend Barbara Sullivan went along and her husband Chuck Poindexter wore his mountain man outfit and we photographed him horseback in the mountain setting.  Strange was the hiker’s reaction, as they didn’t react at all like it was unusual to see a “mountain” man.

The next weekend Joe and I took advantage of Steve and Sandy Ronne’s invitation to go to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo.  He had tickets for seats right over the bucking chutes that they shared with us.  Steve worked at the lodge for several years.  We drove to Laramie and Joe showed me all his old college stomping grounds.  Next day we went to Cheyenne to meet Steve and Sandy and saw the excellent Western Art Show they have during the rodeo.  Being right over the chutes was an exciting way to watch such a good rodeo and I used up a lot of film.  It poured rain during the performance.  It was great to see Steve and Sandy again.  We took a leisurely drive home and saw more of Wyoming.  When we got back it was time to begin haying.  We had a good crop again this year as well as good weather.

Debbie and Justin (daughter & grandson) came up to visit at the end of August.  We had a lot of picnics, went fishing and up to the lodge to ride.  It was sure nice to see them.  Justin’s growing up fast – 5 years old now.  We picked a lot of berries and I made jam and jelly of several kinds – many multitudes of pints.  During the fall I put the garden harvest in the freezer and canned fruit and made more jellies from fruit Ann went to Utah to get.  A quarter of beef in early winter got us stocked up for the winter.  Ann raised turkeys and I bought two – one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.  Her father “did them in for us” and we spent an afternoon cleaning and de-feathering them, an interesting new experience.  I also buy eggs from her.

In mid-September Joe and I took a pack trip and were out during the coldest nights so far.  Our new tent got a pretty good test with rain, cold, hail and snow.  We saw new country and had a good time but no fish.  The fisherman didn’t put a line in the water too much.  Stubby gave Joe riding lessons all the way up and back.  So it was already fall.  Most of the horses came down from the lodge to be pastured here for awhile. 

We asked for an estimate from a contractor to build my studio onto the house, but then decided it was too late, too cold to pour the cement foundation.  He also wanted quite a lot of money so we’ll do it ourselves next spring.  I’m full of ideas for the way I want it, and also looking forward to remodeling the house, especially the kitchen. 

One day as I was hanging out laundry I heard the cranes calling.  At first it didn’t register.  Then I realized it was late in the year to hear cranes.  I looked up as they flew over me circling and still calling.  It was as if they were saying goodbye to their summer home.  They rose higher and higher and drifted out of sight to the south.  A few days later it began snowing.  As usual, we’d had snow and freezing nights intermittently during the summer, but now winter was beginning. 

Edis came out and we rode horseback through the snowy foothills.  The aspens had turned and it was beautiful.  We put up the storm windows.  I rototilled manure into the garden and covered all my plants with hay.  The ranchers began to bring their cattle back in from the summer pastures and Joe rode with them.  He also helped with some fall brandings.

One evening I saw a skunk down the road and ran to tell Joe to get the gun.  He grabbed it and ran out after the skunk in his bedroom slippers.  He shot it once and the gun jammed.  So while he was absorbed in trying to get the gun to work, the skunk started running straight at him.  It got pretty close when he looked up and saw it coming.  He made a funny leap in the air and the bedroom slippers started going in big circles the other way.  He did finally kill the skunk.

In mid-October I took a two week trip to Vegas to visit my daughters and grandsons.  My trip down through Utah was interesting because it coincided with their opening day of deer hunting, so the whole length of the state was a massive traffic jam.  I took old family slides and my projector down and the kids and I watched them and laughed at our “old” selves.  I went on to Phoenix and Wickenburg for two art shows which went well.  I stayed with my friend Diane and saw my WAOAW friends.  It was a whirlwind week. 

From there I drove to San Diego to see my sister for a few days.  I’d no sooner gotten to her house when we had a 4.7 earthquake and aftershocks.  It put several new cracks in her walls.  (It reminded us of the time when our kids were little.  I’d gone down there on the train and we took the kids to a Walt Disney movie one afternoon.  While we were in the theatre there was a large earthquake.  Pieces of the ceiling were falling down through the light in front of the screen.  It felt like we were on a boat in rough water and people were screaming and running out.  I looked over at Barbara and she was still watching the movie, so I thought it must be o.k.  Later I asked her if she hadn’t been afraid.  She said she was too scared to move).  On this trip I went to the San Diego Zoo again for photos with her and my niece, Susan.  I also saw my nephews and their wife and girlfriend and enjoyed visiting with them.  My aunt and uncle (my father’s brother) came down for a visit.

 I went back to Vegas to be with the girls a few more days and we did some Christmas shopping.  I brought Beverly’s dog, a 120 pound Rottweiler, back with me.  She and her husband have divorced and just sold their house, so had nowhere to keep the dog.  I felt like he was a grandchild from a broken marriage.  Joe doesn’t like Arby because he slobbers – well, he just does everything on a large scale.  Also he understands no words that mean “get out of the way”.  He is very gentle for so large a dog.  He loves the snow and the other dogs.  He’d spent his life in a small back yard, so this is like heaven to him.  He curls up his lips and “smiles” and tries to talk to you, a little alarming the first time you see it.  When he was here a few days, he found a deer horn to chew on.  He chewed on it so long that his muzzle was all covered with foam – I thought he had rabies.

We began to get winter-like storms with below zero temperatures.  We started feeding our horses – the lodge horses had gone to another winter pasture.  We kept a few of the old ones again for the Kellys.  Throughout the hunting season Joe helped quite a few people whose vehicles got stuck and took several lost hunters to town.  Even Norm’s truck quit him.  Frosty, the elk feeder, went mountain lion hunting the morning after an 8” snowfall on his motorcycle.  Well, it didn’t run too well in the snow and he crashed on our road and dislocated his shoulder.  Joe took him home.  All this did keep him from getting bored.

Through the fall things were happening with our nearest neighbors.  Renny Burk sold his place (old Leckie Ranch) and moved to Montana.  The Roberts’, who lived on the corner put their house up for sale and moved away.  LaRea Cowley closed up her home and went to Utah near her family for the winter.  Gary moved to town with his sister.  Then Dave Hawkins lost his place through a lawsuit with the previous owner’s heirs.  He, his wife and Brent, Denise and their kids, who worked for Dave, all moved away.  Now our closest neighbors are ten miles away.  It will be quieter than ever this winter.

Thanksgiving week Beverly and Shane came up for 10 days.  I went to get them at the Jackson airport.  The roads were very icy coming home and taking her back.  We saw 30 or so bighorn sheep right next to the highway both times.  Got great pictures.  We had a good time.  Four year old Shane learned to sled and we took him snowmobiling on 3 or 4 different days.  It was his first plane ride.  One nice thing this fall is that I’ve finally started feeling good again.  The medication for my depression worked.  I’ve enjoyed life more than ever and have the ambition to accomplish what I should.

Joe took a trip to Las Vegas for a week to see his friends and go to the National Finals Rodeo.  On his way home a rock flew up and broke the windshield of the new truck.  While Joe was gone to Vegas Ann and I took another trip to Jackson to the art galleries and did some shopping.  We saw the bighorn sheep at close range again.  She, her husband and I also went up to Irish Canyon, just over the hill from our house, to take pictures of Rob Post and his team and sled hauling out logs and firewood.  It was a beautiful day and such fun to see the horses work. 

We saw two mule deer bucks with the largest antlers I’ve ever seen.

 Joe bought me a new snowmobile like his for Christmas and I’ll go on my first trip into the mountains tomorrow.  It should be an easy trip since some kids are going along.  You’ll have to wait til next year to know how I do.  Joe’s been going on quite a few snowmobile trips this winter with his friends.  He went down by the river with the snowmobile and sled to get our Christmas tree.  It’s so fat it takes up a quarter of the living room – had to move out some of the furniture.  Joe put the lights on and I decorated it.  It’s beautiful.  I’ve ordered a new large run for the living room from Sears.  One thing different this year is that we’re not snowed in yet.  There’s been snow on the ground but not enough to close the road.  All the south facing hills are bare.    We aren’t using the team and sled yet to feed the horses, but I’m sure the day we do is not far off and we’ll be snowed in again.  I haven’t ridden Frosty yet.  Her joint seemed not to be healed enough so rather than hurt her again we left her alone this year.  The joint seems to be returning to normal very slowly.  So if she doesn’t have a little pinto-appaloosa I may be able to use her next summer.  Happy holidays and keep in touch.     Love, Lynn