Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!

The hen house buried in snow.


Wednesdays are usually a good day for me to get some serious time in the studio. The kids have school, of course, and they all have activities after so no one gets home until 5:30 and Doug goes down to the city. With my recent difficulties in getting back to a steady painting schedule, a full day was looking like a good way to get a jump start. However, real life and Mother Nature have decided for me that today is not the day. We had at least two feet of snow last night and it's still coming down. In fact it is a blizzard, reminiscent of my childhood winters in Minnesota. So it's a snow day, we are all home and while I may be able to get a bit of painting done (tv will be allowed today), it's not going to be a good long painting session.

My quick morning trip to the hen house turned into an hour long suicide mission. I had to shovel some kind of crazy path off the porch, across the yard, and through a five foot snow bank (courtesy of the very efficient snowplows that were out all night). I had to go back and forth several times because I couldn't carry everything through the snow in one trip. I also had to dig out to the door of the hen house, in order to get in. I am pretty sure that I pulled all of my upper body muscles about ten different ways and my fingers and toes still hurt from the cold. There was much cursing when I sunk into snow up to my waist and had to flail about wildly in order to get out. I knew that no one would be coming out to help me, because everyone, including Doug, was inside still sleeping in warm comfy beds.

I better get some really good chocolate today.

6 comments:

meno said...

Maybe the hens will give you some chocolate eggs to show their gratitude for your hard work.

It really is beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Tracy...your trip to the henhouse sounds exhausting.Were the chickens glad to see you?
And this is for all of you (attn: Meno & Lisa)who thought I was being too smug last week when I casually mentioned our 60 degree temps while everyone else was having tons of snow. Whatever curse you put on me worked.....we have snow!!! Granted it isn't much (maybe a 1/2 inch)and it won't last much past tomorrow because the temps will be climbing to the 60's again in the next day or so but it sure is pretty right now even with cars in the ditches and everyhthing canceled or delayed for 2 hours.

Tracy Helgeson said...

That would be nice, though odd, Meno. However, my husband knew that I wasn't serious when I told him NOT to buy me chocolate for valentines. And so I am currently sitting right next to a lovely heart shaped box full of comfort:)

Mom, Well I don't think they appreciated what I had to go through to get there, but they are usually pretty excited to see me. Well mostly because I give them food, but they also like me to pet them. They line up and wait their turn for some personal attention.

Good that you don't have to shovel. We usually like to wait for snow to melt, but I don't think that'll work this time...

"casually mentioned our 60 degree temps", HA, you deserve a hex!

Lisa Call said...

Two feet - excellent. If it's going to snow it must now A LOT.

We only got 2ish inches last night - just enough to make the commute to work miserable. We don't get a delay for a few inches - heck often with 6 inches and schools are on time.

Tracy's mom - cool on the short lived snow! You are lucky it wasn't 3 feet. I can't imagine folks sliding into ditches with a 1/2 inch of snow. Tell those people not to move to Denver!

Bobby D. said...

Ive just been wandering around here looking at your beautiful paintings. and snow pix. "In the mood" is very beautiful and the painting with objects on tabletop (boxes) feels mealncholy somehow. I like it very much--and the red wrong one-- I've been stuck at a computer working (and goofing off reading blogs) so I haven't spend much time painting this week.

Tracy Helgeson said...

d. Chedwick (sorry, I never quite know what to do with the first initial!) Thanks so much for visiting and for your kind words about my work. I checked out your blog and really look forward to spend more time there. Anyone who refers to Bob Dylan so much is a friend of mine!