A Nice Icy Land

"There once lived a penguin.

His home was a nice icy land he shared with his companions.

His companions were named Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect.

His name was Tacky.

Tacky was an odd bird." (Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester)

We don't have any penguins, and if we did, they would definitely be more of the Tacky variety rather than Goodly, Lovely, Angel Neatly, and Perfect. What we do have is a nice icy land. Tacky and his companions would feel right at home. 

(If you live in Northern Illinois, you don't need to look at these pictures, you can just look out your window.) Do you see how shiny the ground looks? H. asked yesterday why everything was wet because she was seeing the reflective ice as water. 

In the pictures above and below, it's not as bad as it looks. In undisturbed snow, you can easily crunch right through the thin layer of ice on the top and walk steadily on the snow underneath. 

What becomes a problem is any place where the snow was compacted before the ice arrived... such as the parking area

or the sidewalk (can you see how the ice is reflecting the light?)

The beaten path to the barn is also pretty treacherous. We've needed to avoid it because it is impossible to carry buckets of water and try to balance all at the same time.

 Sadly, it is just the beginning of January. We could very well be living this way for another month or so. In the meantime, I'm not able to teach lessons or do anything with the horses that brings in money. Instead, I have my hay supplier visiting often because all I do is throw yet more hay to the horses. This is why I laughed when the person I used to help set up my LLC mentioned what to do about profits. Profits? What are profits? 

So, I'll just try not to slip on the ice and continue to harbor dreams of an indoor arena.

[Tacky is fresh in my mind because last week the winter picture books came out and we have read Tacky the Penguin to R. a lot. She loves Tacky. I love that she has reached a point where she can love a character in a book and want to hear the book over and over again.]