After the few big storms we had have melted away, we have a brown winter.
I know most folks want a white Christmas, but that is just more winter. I’m told my people have endured plenty of white Christmases, and a scrubby brown landscape – at least for those who feed livestock, fight frozen water and have countless other outdoor chores – is merciful indeed.
I make good dog snow angels, but rolling in the grass is always great too.
It is pretty warm for January, and there is sun in the deep, dark winter.
The chickens are even freed from their sunroom once in awhile, and they love it!
One thing I miss with this easy winter- when the snow is deep and the air is still, when the world is frosty and frozen – everything sounds different, and the canine voice is magnificent!
The sounds of the creek are muffled in a layer of ice, snow banked around it, and brush bent low over the water by more snow, down low where it is too shady and cold to melt, probably until April.
There aren’t too many singing birds, mooing bovines, or rumbling tractors. 
I am a vocal one, maybe irrepressible,
some might say lippy and opinionated. 
But my voice is really something when it echoes across the white hillsides!
Now, there is the more ordinary sassing, correcting the boss, getting the horses in line and general yip-yapping.
But give me a frosty morning, when the air is cold and all is blanketed white, and I’ll give you my best wild dingo roar. It will echo from the high hills, cause birds to explode up from the trees, horses to bolt, and I think even the coyotes stop to listen.
I think I have cracked ice when my tone was perfect!
I have to wait for a good snow, so I will practice joyous singing until then!
