This morning, Alys raised her head, looked out the bedroom window, said “snow” and went back to sleep. Pete, Ryder, and I were most appreciative. We all love to sleep in. Alys likes to sleep in, but she says that she can’t – she has many animals to tend to. So she got up and dressed, stumbled downstairs, and is now born of habit, yelled up to us “11 degrees and still snowing.”

We then heard the door slam. Actually, Pete had a few minutes before Alys went outside, put me out but I came back in and laid on my dog bed, next to Pete.

Shadow

Alys disappeared and reappeared an hour later. She had a sad look on her face when she came back in. Pete asked her what was wrong, and she shrugged. I remembered that last year we went through this. The first heavy snow is the hardest to deal with. The pair have to change their priorities and figure moving snow into the equation. As Alys said, “I’m just not ready for this.”

Pete made breakfast; the pair ate in silence. I laid on my mat and waited to see what would happen next. Alys milked the goat. Pete started the cheese. When he got back in, he told Alys that she would have to finish it. The reason was, he said, he had to go to school. “I know,” she snapped.

Pete then showed Alys what needed to be done. She was aghast because this was no simple cheese. It would require her to stir it for an hour, and after, put it in the cheese press, turn the top part of the press every fifteen minutes.

Pete went outside to water the animals and Alys did the dishes and put more wood in the woodstove. She eyeballed the cheese and considered dumping it since tending to it would take the better part of the day.

Pete came back inside, and before Alys could object to having to deal with the cheese, checked it. It, he said, had not curdled, maybe because he heated it at too high a temperature. Alys didn’t say anything, but I could tell what she was thinking. She was thinking, well, now I don’t have to deal. Actually, Pete felt bad and Alys felt bad about having to dump all that milk.

Pete left to go to school. Alys put my harness on me, and she and Tinni and I went on an outing. I got worried when we passed some neighbors snow plowing their driveway. This was because Tinni was getting increasingly more tense. Alys stopped him and gave him treats and this calmed him down.

I love going for rides on Tinni because I get to spectate from his back. And I get to get off and run around on the trails. Then, at the trailhead, I get back on.

I also got to go out on the next outing, with Ryder and Alys on Raudi. Alys’s mood was definitely better by the end of our second ride. I was relieved. I hate seeing her feeling down.

Next: 313. 11/12/21: Where do Flies go in the Winter?