Windy In the Foothills

It's 29 degrees outside, and, currently, the wind is calm, and the sky is cloudy.  We've been told that we can expect occasional snow flurries until noon...  I'm just happy that the wind is calm at the moment.  Our Chinook winds have been blowing since last Friday - they are pretty much straight-line winds, but here in town, the winds tend to swirl around the buildings and cross streets.  Why am I talking so much about the wind?  Well, on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale, winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour are considered a Type One Hurricane, while winds from 96 to 110 mph is a Type Two - of course, these are sustained wind speeds, but I can tell you that single, swirling gusts of wind at these speeds are dangerous, too. Last night, there was a wind gust of 102 mph recorded by the National Weather Service at Evergreen, a town west of Denver, in the Rocky Mountain Foothills.  Just up the canyon (west) of Boulder, Nederland had wind gusts all day that were between 64 and 92 miles per hour.  Gold Hill, one of my favorite little Gold Rush villages, to the west of us had gusts recorded from 54 to 92 mph...  When you step outside, you never know whether the wind will be calm, or if it will be turning buses and 18-wheel trucks over.  Definitely makes for an interesting day!
  It's now snowing 40 miles north of us, in Fort Collins - and the sky looks like, and the air smells like, snow outside.  My kits had a blast running around outside this morning - last evening, the wind seemed to be a bit much for them, and they stayed inside.  I put out food for the squirrels and ravens and crows this morning - and they stuffed themselves.  One of the older ravens came up and pecked at my patio door, as if he wanted more food, once they had cleaned up what I had put out.  And, with the cold, the snow has such a thick crust on it, I can walk along the edge of my patio and not break through - now, that's amazing!
  I was lazy last night and watched 3 and 1/2 hours of television.  First, I enjoyed Jeopardy! and was happy that I could question the final answer correctly.  Then I watched Almost Human, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows, even though it is rather violent.  I followed that with a new episode of Sleepy Hollow, and loved the way they "tipped their hat" to The Exorcist for this one.  The Blacklist was my nightcap, and, as always, James Spader delivered a terrific performance.  He really is phenomenally good as a man with no conscience in his roll of Reddington.  I do love him as an actor!
 

Forli's* Bloodline and Me

If you're wondering why I keep talking about the Forli* bloodlines this week, let me explain why.  For 20 years I was "an adopted child" of a couple who owned a riding stable.  Their kids were interested in Three Day Eventing; the mother was interested in dressage, and the father just liked to ride for pleasure.  I started riding at the barn just before their breeding program took off (and I ended up helping to train the horses and new riders - yes, I was the dreaded instructor).  Most of the farm horses were "rejects" - not because they were ugly or untrainable, but because they were considered to be unsaleable or useless as riding horses.  Come-A-Miss (Punky) was a thoroughbred mare; she was born a twin, and her mother rejected her.  The farm took her in and bottle-fed and hand raised her.  She was delicately made, but loved to jump and go across country.  She was a regional champion in Three Day Eventing.  We bred her to a 16-hand black thoroughbred stallion, who was making a name for himself in the show jumping circuit.  Forebow was considered too slow for the track, but he was an excellent jumper.  Forebow was the son of Forli*.  Punky and Forebow's son, Shadowfax, sired a great many of our foals at Sleepy Hollow, after we had 6 foals by Forebow.
I dearly loved all of our horses, whether we had bred them, or not.  When I visited Florida last week,
I was reunited with Fancy Fax, Shadowfax's daughter.  Fancy Fax is now 26 and is still the same opinionated, tall, strong horse that she was bred to be.  Here's a photo of us from last week:

Left to right:  Easy, Betty (the Critter Sitter), Big Red, and Fancy Fax  at Sleepy Hollow Horse Farm in Micanopy, Florida on Thursday, 27 October 2011.