snow around the valley

Since I have no new pics of the horses (we're driving up there today to buy feed and shredded beet pulp), I decided to post these pics. I took them yesterday on my way to school. The valley was absolutely clear, but COLD! The kids were all complaining about how cold it was! Typical February weather! I heard that our temperatures are 10 degrees below normal right now. Normal would be about 69 degrees and yesterday it was only 58. And, we had a huge frost last night, which is a danger to the valley's agricultural business.

My school is across the highway from several acres of produce. Many of my parents work in the fields. While I don't have a large number of migrant workers, like I did at my previous school, and my class population is stable, I remember the days when I did have a large percentage of migrant workers' children. So, I got off the freeway, took a side road (I was early for school anyway) and took these photos. UNFORTUNATELY, as I stepped into the mud by the side of the road, I sank into it and it nearly came up over the top of my shoes! I should have known better! The dirt is still saturated with the over 1 inch of rain that we got on Wednesday! I don't know how the workers work in these fields with all that mud, but I did see them out harvesting crops on my way home yesterday.