Here we go!  Dusting off this old blog to start something new.  I'm not sure how this will go but needed a starting place.  

I'm not sure we had a snowstorm like this since The Blizzard of 2009.  And even with that storm, I am not sure it affected the entire county.  As of yesterday, every highway in our county is closed.  We have no access to the largest town, Wahoo, and Wahoo has no access to nearby cities, Lincoln and Omaha.  I'd have liked our cupboards and frig to be a little more stocked, but we won't starve.  

From Monday into Tuesday, we got about 7" of super wet snow.  John was able to get the driveway cleaned and get fresh round bales to the cows and horses as the forecast predicted the worst was yet to come.  If you follow this blog, you might remember I refer to the weather forecasters as The Big Fat Lying Weatherman because for years, weather-mongering is the status quo and it never amounts to what the village crier predicted.  Theory, however, will sometimes fall apart when the weather predicted is going to be especially nasty.  They NEVER get that wrong, it seems.  We were expecting more snow on Thursday, with temps dipping into single digits.  Wind was going to bear down on us with those nasty wind chill temps dipping from -20 to -50 degrees through the upcoming weekend.  

Like I said - they never get that wrong.  

Rewind to last Wednesday, before the first 6" of wet snow, I started getting a cold.  Nothing one wouldn't expect in the winter.  A dry cough and scratchy throat.  No fever, no congestion.  Just run of the mill cold that I fully expected to kick over the weekend.  Well, that didn't happen.  Had a low fever over the weekend and kind of felt crappy overall.  I figured I most likely had Covid.  My first run with it 3 years ago was pretty mild, so I had nothing other than that to compare it with and this ticked off most of the symptoms.  By Wednesday, almost a week from first symptoms and 2 days after the first snow storm, I decided I should probably go to the doctor.  I just had no energy and felt like I wasn't getting any oxygen.  John and Case were working and while the driveway and roads were clear of drifts, I knew my rear-wheel drive BMW would not make it on snow packed roads.  My truck was attached to my trailer and under 6" of snow.  

I don't know where I mustered up the strength but did manage to get it unhooked and the snow off the hood and windshield and made it to the doctor's office.  And even managed to make a video about my upcoming trip.  More on that later. 

I spent more time waiting for the doctor than actually with the doctor.  Vitals told the story.  Temp normal but my O2 level was at 92%.  He listened to the rattle in my lungs.  Back at home, I settled back into my recliner with an inhaler and cough syrup near by, waiting for the Z pack to start to work.  It's Saturday today, and while no where near 100%, I am back among the living.    

The second storm rolled in on Thursday with about another 6 or so inches.   With the winds, it's hard to tell, but it was a lot on top of what was already there.  Drifts started filling our driveway back up again.  For the first time that I remember, county snow plows were called back to their barns and the roads in our county were closed and still remain closed.    We haven't had mail service for two days.  

On the homefront, our electric waterer for the cows and horses froze up.  John had to get out a regular tank and heater and rig up access for both the pens of livestock.  I will usually blanket the horses when this comes in, but I didn't have enough energy to do laundry, let alone gear up for a walk to the barn through five foot drifts.  The horses all found their places, either behind trees or in the barn.  As I am writing this, they are standing with their butts to the big blue spruce tree with the sun shining on their snow covered backs.  It's not a perfect situation, but all is well.  

If I felt well enough, I would love to bundle up with the camera and take pictures, like I did in 2009.  But the most I can do is shoot some from my porch or deck door.  I'm watching Windy and Baby from my office window and they seem to be changing spots, using the other as a wind break.  I'm glad to see them moving around.  It helps keep them warm.  

Where did it go?

I've had a lot of changes in the last 3 years.  While menopause still haunts the stability of my mental & physical health and has for the past 10 years, Covid and my decision to retire early rocked my world more than I thought possible.  

As a planner with (undiagnosed) attention deficit disorder, which one might say is an oxymoron, let me assure you that planning is what keeps ADD in check.  I need a list and a purpose.  The lockdown and then "what to do with all this time" kind of put me in a tailspin.  While horse people would say, "well, ride your horse of course", remember, I retired.  The world didn't retire with me.  Someday, I'll blog about that crazy path but in short, after 3 years, I am much more settled and took the reins of my life again.  No more "woe is me".  My life may look different but I am doing what makes me happy.  And gasp, it is not all about horses!  

While I don't think my past blog fits in with today's social media, I have been working on a YouTube project and those past viewers could help kickoff that new project when & if I am ready for it.  Imagine my surprise when I went to log onto this website on my phone and it was GONE!  

What the f**k!  It's on auto-renewal!  A wave of nauseous hit as I thought every word I have written over the last two decades are gone.  As I rushed to the desktop computer with "say it isn't so" running through my head, a small voice of reason said that nothing is ever lost on the internet.  How often do we warn our kids that nothing is ever deleted on the internet and past digressions can haunt you until you are dead.  Surely it is the same for my horse musings?  

The first thing I saw was :

"This domain is taken.  We still might be able to get it for you."

Hello.  It sure is taken.  It is mine!  

My fingers were flying on the keyboard.  I learned my web-host went thru a buy out and my lack of response to a request for new payment methods which must have been sent to an old email address resulted in my domain going dark. 

I found the name of the new company who took over the service.  And quickly completed the contact forms which I hope will get it back to me.  It will probably cost me.  But I've spent money on other stupid things.  It is what it is.  

So, with a short term plan of securing my domain, my next concern - which was really my primary concern - was the years of content that I created on that blog. What I wrote was not of literary excellence but words from my soul.  Every ride, ever blunder, every trail, every friendship, every horse, every dream, every goal, every failure - my horse life for almost 20 years - was chronicled through those pages.  It was a crazy story of this middle aged woman who loves horses and jumped in over her head loving every minute of what could surely be a catastrophe but managing to dodge every bullet and I took over 100,000 viewers on that ride with me.  I want to remember what I forgot by reading those entries and comments.  

Carefully, I entered the path I used for content composition.  

"404. That’s an error.  The requested URL / was not found on this server. That’s all we know."

Cue up the horror and dread music.  

I wanted to puke.  

But my ADD mind kept racing.  Blogspot is (or was?) owned by Google.  Google surely wouldn't let me down.  Heck, I think I made 67 cents from Google via ads on my website in its heydey.  Deep breath.  Somehow my dead domain is linked to blogspot.  I had them connected.  Maybe that is why the URL error is coming up.  Did Google unload Blogspot.

I slowly typed the web address for blogspot proper in the search bar and enter my Google credentials and password.  

Cue up the hallelujah music!  

There it is.  Google didn't let me down!  Page after page of my ramblings and photos are still there!  Might be dusty from being stored in some data warehouse, but brought back to life with a user name and password.  My last entry was in January 2023 when I laid Blue to rest.  

I feel like I have a temporary reprieve and will go enjoy a glass of wine or stiff drink for now.  Then I'll need to figure out how to reroute simply horsetrailriders.com to horsetrailriders.blogspot.com.  If anyone knows, comment below.  

There has been this "story" shared on Facebook and Insta lately saying that 100 years from now most of the people alive will never know our name, others will be in our homes, our items, once so precious to us,  will be given away or destroyed and our pictures gone.  Our closest relatives will be gone, too.  It's all rather depressing when you think about it.  While we think we are saving our words and photos and memories for those we leave behind, and to a point we are, there are also things that are precious to us and no one will appreciate it like we do.  That is what this blog is to me.  You may have read it once and never gave it any thought, but I lived those moments.  And today the lost - that I didn't know was lost - is found.