Saturday

Not melting much but despite that the guests, Jax, and I made a side by side trip over to the Wind Caves where Jax and I came back and they continued on to Chicken Corner.

Friday

There's no water when I wake up yet the temps only got down to 9 degrees. The pipes have stayed unfrozen much lower than that before but I give it a couple hours to thaw with daylight. At noon it still doesn't work. Down at the pump house there's water running all over the place. The pump works but the bladder inside the tank has collapsed and it's not making it past the pump house. They'll be out Tuesday to replace it so until then there's no water but there is an extra house next door so not the end of the world. I pull a couple water cans off the front porch to thaw and use that to pour in the toilet when necessary.

I have guests checking into both hogans but I'm not expecting them to make it out. At 3pm they come up the driveway. The only two vehicles I've seen or heard come over Hurrah Pass since Wednesday evening when the storm came. They got heart and they're all set up next door.

White

I check the internet to see how long the snow is to last and it doesn't work. I check the TV, it doesn't work either. So if both dishes are covered than the solar panels are covered so we're also not getting any electricity built up in the batteries. I take the push broom out and clean them all and everything works. The whole time Jax is running around jumping up and down and eating snow. Until I clear the feeding places the birds aren't eating and off in the distance, third picture, on the rectangular piece of fence, the hawk waits. He's also not eating.

Tuesday Hike

After Jax's 20 foot dive off the roof of the lodge I took him out on a short hike of obstacles that we have done plenty of times before and he breezed through all of them. Later in the day we took the Polaris back to Last Hurrah when the propane truck pulled out, 1,000 gallons here and 2,000 gallons at Last Hurrah. Their small truck which they keep just for me was out of service so they had to drive a big one down here and they weren't happy about hanging a wheel on one of the corners but it's not like I can make the road wider with straight up and down cliffs and ledges on both sides. Anyway, while working in the water room at Last Hurrah I didn't know Jax was right behind me and when I backed up I stepped on his foot and he let out a yelp. He limped for a minute or two and then we hiked back to the lodge and he seemed fine.

Tuesday night I worried that he had internal injuries as he didn't move on the bed much but this morning he got right out of bed, stretched a couple times, went outside and took a pee and a drop with no issues so I don't know how but it's not looking like there aren't any injuries at all. Tonight we played tug a war with one of his toys and he fought me with all his usual tenacity. Amazing.

Jax, How is he Alive?

Johnny, Jax and I are on the roof winterizing the air coolers for the snow that is to come Wednesday night or Thursday. Suddenly Jax takes off running from one end of the roof shoots right by me before I can say anything and leaps off the west side of the lodge. I hear him hit and cry out twice. I look over the side and he's standing up but crying. I run down the ladder and get to him and for the last couple hours I've been watching him but he appears to be fine. He's crazy.

Monday Hike

There is a nice hike that goes across the western end of the Anti-Cline but it's an hour too long because I can't find a quick way down by the Wind Caves so on Monday Jax and I spent a couple hours trying to find a shortcut.

Sunday Hike

Elsie, Rachel, Jax, and I hiked back into Dripping Springs and found seven cows that didn't make the journey down Lockhart Basin.