The Best Part

Wednesday October 22 2014

Riding a handsome horse on a cold autumn morning with the first snow in the mountains.

I don't know what the best part of that statement is:

riding
handsome horse
cold
autumn
first snow

or a combination thereof.

Autumn Gold Dust

 

Monday November 18 2013

Nothing eclipses this time of year when the dust and the evening sun angle adds drama to the outlines of the desert hills and Owyhee mountains.

 The herd strolls down from the canyon

Stormy ambles among the saltbush

Rhett stops to eye me suspiciously

 The cottonwoods are rather riotous!

 

Music to My Eyes

Monday October 22 2012 

I have been waiting for this day for a loooong time. Many times during the long hot dry summer, the song of winter played in my head, and I dreamed at nights and imagined during the days: rain, cold, snow.

Today, I got them all at once!

The herd lined up butts to the weather as the cold wind pushed the clouds down from the Owyhee mountains and the cold rain started its glorious descent from the heavens.

Luna still does not know what to do with herself in the rain. She kind of likes it… but she kind of doesn't. (She's the same with water from the hose - when Jose comes up to get a bath, she watches and kind of wants to get sprayed a little bit… but then she doesn't.) She ran around in circles, tried to crawl under the hay feeder, backed up into horses and kicked at them, and pestered Tex for a while.

[slide show here]

Luna was later worn out from her pro/anti-rain demonstrations, and rested in view of the snow-kissed Owyhees, as another storm headed this way.

Jose and Tex celebrated the fine turn of weather events with a bit of Owyhee Gladiator wrestling.

[slide show here]

It was a great day in Owyhee, and the forecast for the week looks delicious!

Into The Light

Tuesday October 16 2012

For soooooooo many reasons, this is my favorite time of the year - it's COOL, Winter Is Coming, and you have that golden light that just makes you gasp when you have a horse to frame it with.

The Big 4-0!

Thursday September 13 2012

There are few dates during the year that are as momentous as the threshold just crossed: after a loooooong summer, the temperature finally fell below 40° at night. (39° bottom left was the low!)

I recently marked a few other exciting historic dates on my Owyhee calendar: the day it finally didn't reach 90° (August 30); the night it fell below 50° (September 2), the first yellow leaf sighting (!!)(September 7), and last night, the night it fell below the Big 4-0 degrees.

It was another long and brutally hot (my opinion) Owyhee summer, with too much sweat, too much suffering (whine!), too many flies, too many night bugs, too many rattlesnakes… but now there is hope.

Blankets can be piled on the bed to be burrowed under at night. Fleece can be unpacked. Gloves might even be worn on an early morning ride.

The sun has started its magical golden slant, with that tint and angle you only get in the fall and early winter in the northwest. 

I know for sure that once again, coffee will soon steam from its cup in the mornings, coats will grow thicker and longer, steam will curl out of nostrils… and the Ice Princess will be thrilled.

We've turned the corner. My next momentous occasions will be the Big 2-0, and the Big "S" word, but I won't scare you winter weenies with that just yet!

Color

Sunday November 13 2011

It's one of the best treats of autumn - besides the deliciously welcome cool weather: the fall colors that festoon the earth with otherworldly colors.

In the Owyhee desert, the canyons are usually embellished with bright yellow cottonwood trees and maroon quailbush. This year, though, the fall colors have been drab. Half the trees' leaves turned brown before fall ever got here. The colors that did show were short-lived. Maybe it was the abundant rain that fell in the spring and early summer, and the excess growth that couldn't be sustained in the late summer and fall. (My theory, anyway).

So, for a brief intoxicating immersion of autumn, I migrated further northwest, where the rain falls, the moss grows thick, and the colors are in full stunning swing.

Not a Good Day to Ride

Monday October 25 2010

...Unless you have velcro on your saddle.

The fall storm moved into Owyhee, and the horses mimicked the howling winds, gusting and blustering, whirling and whipping, leaping and bucking, sprinting and spinning, rolling and shaking, rearing and sparring, feeling alive as the freshening rain that swept over the desert.

The Last Dust Bath

Sunday October 24 2010

The last Owyhee dust bath is shaken;




the last trail of Owyhee dust rises




before the approach of the autumn storm.

Golden

Saturday October 23 2010

It's that time in Owyhee: the leaves are transforming to gold, the autumn sun lavishes its golden beams on the horses.

The Perfect Taste of Fall

Monday October 26 2009

It's a national pastime, isn't it? Going out for a drive to see the fall colors.

Here in Owyhee, to get your taste of fall, saddle up your beloved horse on the perfect October autumn day, and take a ride.

Up on the flats toward the Owyhee mountains;

down into Pickett Creek canyon where the cottonwoods are golden and the quail bush shouts in red, crimson, scarlet, maroon, sangria, burnt orange, rust.

Your horse cruises along, stops to pick at new green grass from last month's rainstorm; cool autumn breezes hinting of winter finger through your hair and tickle your nose.

Nature sightseeing on a perfect cool fall day in a beautiful country on a most beautiful horse (and, first post-busted-rib ride) - the perfect taste of fall.