Snow day

Today was a rare day in central Virginia. We had our first snow in two years and it was about 10" deep at our house. It is pretty snow too. What fell yesterday afternoon was very wet and heavy, but the bulk of it came last night when it was colder so it is nice, fluffy, dry snow. It is barely freezing here today, but the sun wasn't out much this morning and it is cold enough that this stuff will be around for a day or two at least--much longer on the north side of our house.

I just did one walk today, and with just one dog. It is amazing how much more effort it takes to walk in snow. We did just under an hour's walk, at a third to a half of our usual pace, but probably twice the effort. Emmylou took it easy on me by slowing down, and even taking the long way around many obstacles that she could have easily ducked under but knew that I could not. We liberated many dogwood trees and branches from their burden of snow. There were several places where we had to go into the woods to make our way around trees that were blocking the trail because they were weighted down with so much snow.

Emmy is an amazing tracker. She had no problem following the trail and even corrected me one time when I thought it went another way. She burrowed her long nose into the snow when we came upon deer tracks and clearly enjoyed following them until they parted with the trail and disappeared into the woods. She would have made a great search and rescue dog. She has the stamina, the drive, and she would actually enjoy finding people.

I didn't take Molly because I didn't think I could handle two dogs in the snow. It was a good choice. There were far more downed trees blocking the trail than I had expected, so manuvering two dogs through that would have been impossible. But Molly got to run in the pasture with Cabell and Bremo, and they had a great time. The picture just above is Molly letting herself in and out of the dog yard over the gate to the pasture. Molly doesn't believe in fences. She just considers them to be hurdles. Fortunately, Cabell and Bremo never learned to jump a fence.