From solstice ride to catastrophic flooding - the last ten days of 2025 in Chilao

December 21, 2025
Grace glanced out across the drive.  The sun would be up soon.  Skye was getting horses ready for Anahit and Lousin.  Dude was saddling Remmie.  It was probably Jessica heading up the campground road, trailer in tow.

The air was still a little cool.  Shadows would soon give way to dawn.

"Did the boss tell you about the coyotes?"  Grace called softly to Dude.

"No ma'am."

"Four of them.  Alongside the house.  Tanner and Sara encountered them."

Coyotes were part and parcel to the landscape.  Packs on the property were...less than ideal.

Jessica ponied her new horse.  Skye had taken notice of him, but she hadn't looked carefully.  He was adorned.  In fact, he'd won second place in a costume contest with his adornments.  They would start flaking off soon, but hopefully not before Skye noticed.

Skye was having a bit of a wardrobe problem.  

"Can you see anything?"  Anahit asked.

"I can!  I just need to tilt my head back"  Skye replied, giggling.

Bryn seemed to have a good idea where he was going, and plenty of gumption to get there.

Anoush was enjoying Angel, tacked up in the Fantasia regalia made for Anamar.  As for the tack, there was a lot of swooshing and jingling and moving parts that were very un-English.  But her horse Angel didn't seem to mind, and Partner kept step...albeit a very different step...with his best friend.

Lousin, normally the more reserved of the sisters, took the lead through the most challenging parts of the terrain on Deer Medicine.  

The sun's warmth was welcome.  They rode north of the ranch, hoping to catch a glimpse of wild horses, or perhaps deer...maybe secretly some other large animal, but then again, maybe not really.  

All too soon it was time to head back.

"We'll call this our solstice ride Skye"  Grace called out as Skye and Anahit passed the rest of the group.  "There's still a few days before Christmas.  Maybe we'll get in another ride."

The boss was late on the draw, but she hoped to get a holiday picture.

Skye and Anahit had already put their horses up, so Skye brought down The Black while Anahit fetched up dogs.

The boss moved around a lot with the camera.  The light was kind of harsh, true.  But Grace and Skye knew what she was doing.  She was getting mostly candid portrait shots.  Maybe of people...or maybe not.

She must have taken a hundred photos.  Finally, she looked at the back of the camera for a few moments. 

"I don't know if they're great" she said at last,  but I don't think I can make you stand here all night while I try to get it perfect." 

It would be what it was.  It would be good enough.  Happy holidays from all of us to all of you.

December 27
Grace stopped short of the fast moving water.  Skye forged ahead.  The last bit of water she needed to cross was just a few feet wide, but deceptively deep.  She stepped across, but the footing was soft.  Into the water she went.  It wasn't freezing cold.  Skye pressed on.  It was worth it, to reach her destination and stand in the midst of the roar and the spray and water magic.

It was too wet to ride, but the landscape was surprisingly intact.  A breeze had picked up, and the warm sunlight was fading.

"Is that water not feeling quite so warm any more?"  

"Oh, I'm okay.  The water isn't that cold, really!  But the breeze."

"We're almost home.  Let's keep moving."

In the day's last light, Dude pondered whether or not the fencing needed to be painted.  What seemed common knowledge was that they saw colors in the blue and yellow spectrum, but less so colors in the red and green spectrum.  Which made no sense.  Wouldn't green be an important color for a horse to see?

The temperature would fall fast tonight.  Dude wanted to stake out his location, see if horses passed through.  Skye insisted he took a blanket.  He'd be needing it soon.  Perhaps he'd watch for an hour past dark.  It was suddenly and unapologetically winter on the mountain.

Grace viewed the arena just as the sun was slipping below the horizon.  The storm had left a debris flow in the place of the soft sand.  And there was more rain in the forecast.  If this was the worst of the damage, they should count themselves lucky.  Tanner had lost his truck to the flash flood on December 24.  He'd been lucky to escape unscathed.

December 31
"Wow...that's bright!" Skye stood, bathed in the brilliance of the mobile light tower.  "Is that from CalTrans?"

"Nope, it's Tanner's."  

The power had gone out five days ago.  It was raining again.  In between the rain there's been high winds.  Large sections of the highway had been destroyed by debris flows...literally washed down the mountain with the flowing land.  The girls couldn't ride.  It was too wet to hike.  And without power, the arena was dark.  Tanner's light was their saving grace.  At least they could turn out horses.

Jesse and Charmer didn't seem to mind the light.

"It's kind of like being at a rodeo"  Skye remarked.  "A night rodeo with the lights way up on poles."

Grace was quiet for a while.  Then, "I haven't been to a rodeo since...I don't even remember when."

"Let's make it a goal.  A whatchamacallit...a resolution.  Let's go to a rodeo."

It would be raining all night and into New Years' Day.  At least that was the forecast. Rain for the Rose Parade. It would be more surprising if it actually rained than it would be if the storm disappeared entirely overnight.

They tried to keep the horses relatively dry, blanketing them for the walk down to the arena, but most of them were already wet anyway.  It wasn't a cold rain, really.  And how quickly things had changed.  They'd gone from concern about another catastrophic winter fire to over fourteen inches of rain in two days, flash floods, prolonged power outages, and now road collapses and more rain.  

Most of the horses gave the light tower a glance, and accepted it.  Ladyhawk seemed an odd candidate to take exception to it.   

"Maybe it looks like a helicopter to her"  Skye mused.  There were three blades of light.  And no other BLM mustangs present to confirm or decline the theory.

The last horse they brought down was the Murgese stallion.  Grace thought she'd gotten the cooler brow strap off of his ears when she took off his halter, but no. 

"Head down.  Head down."  No response.  Grace tickled his shoulder.  Nothing.  Skye giggled.  
"He knows exactly what you want, and he's just not going to give it to you."

Back at home, the drone of the generator, comforting and monotonous in its one long song, gave the girls light.  They studied the model the boss had left on the table.  It was a not so subtle nudge to get them thinking about NaMoPaiMo, National Model Painting Month.

"The boss said she'd love to see him done in a realistic color...which is a bit contrary since it's a fantasy piece" Grace explained, "but I think she means a typical Pegasus glowing white."

"Glowing white...I think that sounds way harder than vibrant black."

"Yeah...I don't know if I want to risk it."

"And he's glossy"  Skye responded.

"Right.  So we'd have to rough him up to get primer to stick.  And then what if it doesn't stick anyway and now we've just got a hot mess on our hands."

"Or we get the primer on and everything and then botch the magical white"  Skye replied.

"Hard to believe it's time to start thinking about NaMoPaiMo already" Grace said.  

"Hard to believe it's New Year's Eve!"  

"Yeah...that too!"

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