The darkness is closing in. I have in the past written about a what if, the what if being, what if it continued to get darker? Up there in Barrow they would not notice the difference, that is unless well after the solstice, it did not get light. I think that if this happened, the common refrain would be ‘oh damn’ and they’d just continue to do what they do.

In the meantime, here I am; it’s 3:33 p.m. and the sky is getting darker.

It’s been overcast all day, the sky spitting snow some, and the wind making a half-hearted attempt to pick up speed. We are supposed to get a blizzard. It was supposed to arrive at noon. The wind is picking up now – I just saw a snow gust blast by.

Snowy ride

Knowing that a blizzard was coming, we got the horses out. Pete rode Tyra and I rode Raudi. Pete was what I call the motivator – he came upstairs (I was working) and he said, “time to get the horses out.” I considered arguing with him by saying that the weather wasn’t conducive to this, but I knew that really, it was just fine.

I was concerned that the mares would have a hard time with the now deep snow on the trails – and I could have used this as an excuse, but I knew that Pete would say that we needed to keep the trails open.

So off we went – we always walk to the trailhead – two horses, two dogs, and two humans.

The mounting area is about an eighth of a mile from the trailhead. We walked it, the dogs fell in behind us. And after we mounted, they stayed pretty much behind us. There was no bounding off into the woods, say, to check out a barking dog, snowmachiners, or Christmas tree cutters. They stayed on trail. And the mares kept right on trail too.

In places the snow was up to their chest. The Icelandics, they can be like snowplows. Arabs, they are like snow blowers.

I had a few moments when I wished they had longer legs. But then I was glad they are less than average in height when we came to low lying branches.

When finally, we got near the base of Jim’s Road, we hopped out of the saddle and put the dogs on their leashes. Raudi, as I was hooking up Shadow, began walking down trail, in the direction of home. I yelled “whoa” and she looked back at me, then stopped. Together we walked to the road.

Raudi made it clear that she wanted to get home. I had not seen her as bargey (this is the term that we use) in years. She had a lot of energy left, which I was glad to see.

Hrimfara did not get out. I was concerned that, because she has a thick coat, she would get overheated. Don’t want to trace clip the horses, but this is another story.

Next: 339. 12/11/23: A Blast from my Past