Not Nureyev

Two more trees gone today.  An apple tree by our neighbour's fence and the cherry tree in our front yard.  I'll do a before and after of our house next time I am out with the camera.  Yuri cut them into stove length blocks which will in a couple years make for very good shashlik fires.  I sure wished I could have turned that cherry tree into usable material for building or turning as the wood grain was just lovely.  As an aside, the nutritionist at Brooks Feedlot said years ago that horses chewed corral rails because they were after the grain in the wood...but I digress.

Yuri was here at 8:30 this morning, so we all went outside to help. The trees were huge and had to be cut down small section at a time to avoid too much collateral damage.  Tanya's flowers took a beating but the fences and windows are still intact.   It was a damp day with a strong west wind and it felt COLD.  No Chinook (Foehn, for the uninitiated) but the temp did go up 10 degrees to to +5C (41F) and it was cold if you worked up a sweat then stood and waited for the next batch of stove length blocks or bunch of branches to haul.

I dressed warm.  T-shirt under my shirt and then dug out my long underwear which I put on about once a year.  They are local bought black tights, (with no feet, thank God).  They fit like a second skin.  Not so much poured in as painted on.  Not a sight for the public but better than white Speedos (gotcha).

Bobik and Volk wanted to help so I let them run.  They played like puppies, wrestling in the deep snow, chasing around and in general, having a wonderful time.  Masha built a snowman and Bobik went over immediately and expressed his approval.  When I finally put them back in their run, they were tired out and glad to go.

I have to bribe them, of course, with treats.  I buy "Studentka Sausiska" at $1 per package of 9.  These are half fat, half milk powder and the rest meat. I cut three up into 18 pieces (3x6) which I feed them one piece at a time as reward for going home.  They are 6 times happier with the 18 pieces than if I gave them the same amount as 1 and 1/2 whole wieners each. I don't know if this is because they are dogs or because they are males.