Snow, why won't you stay away

Yesterday we got more snow and ice. Not a good combo.  I ended up leaving work early yesterday so I wouldn't have to deal with rush hour traffic and slippery roads.

This was in town.  Driving out on the highway there was near white out conditions at times.  I don't think I traveled more than 45 mph and even then I felt the car wanting to go sliding all over the place.  Picked my son up at the school early and went straight home.  Course, on one of the back roads my car went into a slide.  Thankfully my car has the anti-skid whatchamacallit and I straightened out pretty quick.

Since I got home early I decided to use my "free time" to wash some two-ply handspun that I had.   While that was soaking I two-plied two one ounce bobbins together.

It doesn't look like a two-ply.  I think that's because it was spun long draw so it's a worsted yarn.

Some of the two-ply that is dry.  It's so soft and squishy.  I'm not sure what my final yardage will be.  I have one pound of this BFL and I know it's not enough for a sweater.  Perhaps a shawl?

 

 I use Ivory dish soap to wash my fiber and hand wash items.  There is something about the combo of wet wool and the dish soap that makes me happy.  I know I can't be alone on this. 

This morning there was no more snow falling from the sky. It did take me 20 minutes for all the ice to thaw off my windshield though.

Blurry shot from my kitchen window. 

The day was bright and the temps were up in the mid-30s so all the crud that fell yesterday melted.  Not before it had to be shoveled.  My area has officially had more than 100 inches of snow fall for the season. There is more set to come our way starting Sunday afternoon.  We are all thrilled by this news, naturally.  (no, we aren't).

My guy and I decided to try making supper in the wood stove tonite.  

In foil packets we have hamburger, potatoes, carrots and onions.  I didn't keep track of how long the double-wrapped foil packs were actually in there.  I can say with absolute certainty that it was worth the wait.

Yum!

Otherwise, nothing terribly interesting going on these last couple days.  I am getting tired of the snow. It has reached the point where it feels like it's never going to go away.  Tomorrow is supposed to have nice weather.  Would make it easier to do chores tomorrow.  We've got more wood splitting to do and I have to do some housework in the coop.


Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. Talking books with a friend today.  We chatted about how good the Divergent movie looks as well.  I'm sort of tempted to either re-read or re-listen to the audio book.  I won't see the movie til it comes out on DVD however.

2. Hobo's cooked in the woodstove. Delicious!

3.  Taking some time for myself tonite and listening to music and reading a bit. 

4. The smell of wool and Ivory dishsoap together

5. My wood stove.

A good mail day

It was a good mail day!

I forgot about how quick Amazon Prime is.

Look what showed up today!

The FedEx lady cautioned me that it was "quite heavy" and she carried it to the garage for me and then handed it off.  From the way she was acting I thought it was going to be 40 pounds at least.  Not the case. 

I need a good soup or stew recipe for it's inaugural use.

On the weather front, it wasn't too bad today.  We are supposed to get crappy precip this evening but I didn't catch when so I didn't bring my son to rel. ed. this week.  Looks like I could have brought him after all.  It's all good though.  I made homemade pizza for supper and the family hung out and watched Survivor together.

The babies were doing a lot of tussling today so I took each one out, one at a time and let them stretch their wings a bit.  After that they settled down.  Seriously, the warm temps can't come soon enough.

My MIL posted this to Facebook this evening.  It's so true.

Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. My dutch oven came!

2. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches on homemade bread

3. Kisses from my cute little man.

4. Visiting with a friend this a.m.

5. Homemade pizza.

Enjoy the silence

Today was quiet day.  It was quiet at work, mostly quiet at home. It was *really* quiet when I went out to tuck the girls in for the night.  I realized that there was no wind, no outside sounds. Nothing.  It was very eerie. 

Can you think of the last time there was no sound?  I can't. I recommend doing it.  It really tunes you in, if you know what I mean.  I used to do it more often but not so much the last few years. It has to be more intentional nowadays for me.

At work I finally got my new chair.  It's great to sit down and not have the whole chair lower because the hydraulics are busted.  It's a really nice one too.  All leather and has some nice cushioning on it. It also has arm rests. Why?  I told some coworkers because it helps me feel like a queen. Ha ha!

After picking up my son at latchkey he jumped in the car and cracked open his minecraft book. I managed to snag a photo when he wasn't looking.

Tonite I got a box of sniffies from a friend that had a scentsy party.  I didn't get to the party but she was nice enough to let me take the scents home tonite.  I burned my poor nose from sniffing it all.

I did manage to whittle down the selection even more after this.

Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. A new chair at the office.

2. Work at home day tomorrow

3. We got the wood pile covered up before the impending snow that is to start tomorrow sometime.

4. Snuggle time with my guy.

5. Seeing my son read on the way home. It always warms my heart to see him read. 

The winter that keeps on hanging on

Honestly, will this winter ever end?

Woke up this morning and was shocked to see the temp was -13 degrees F out. Really?  It's the end of March and we are still having negative temperatures.

It warmed up.  When I left for home it was 30 degrees F.

More snow has been predicted for later this week, up to eight inches.

*insert a whole lot of naughty words here*

Yesterday when the sun was shining it hit me that in about three weeks I should be starting seeds indoors.

I have also reminded myself that if I think the winter is hard and dragging on too long, it's far worse for the wild critters.

This little guy has been hanging around the house.  I'm pretty sure it's the same woodpecker that flew into my window last weekend -- and the same one that flew into my garage Saturday, panicked, then flew into a different window.  When we were splitting wood we had one log that had been an ant colony (or whatever you want to call it) but the colony was dead.  We pitched all the ants out into the snow and this industrious bird has been rooting around in the saw dust and gobbling up the ants.  We now know that if we find logs that have colonies, to set the wood outside for a few days and the ants will be gone.

In other news, I've got three empty cans for my herb seeds. My guy also ordered me a dutch oven tonite.  I'm pretty excited about that.  It's been an adventure learning to cook with cast iron.  I've finally got the seasoning thing down.  I now need to figure out how to keep it going.  I also haven't decided if it's better to use grape seed oil or shortening when I re-grease the skillet I have.

I haven't posted about the babies or the big girls and Roo for a while.  They are all doing good.  I'm still amazed at how quickly my babies grew.  My little boy roo still crows in the a.m.  His crow has changed a bit. I think he's going to give his papa a run for his money when the time comes.


Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. I'm getting a dutch oven!

2. Chili for supper.  Oh it was so Yummy.

3.My son *finally* got his minecraft book.  Seriously, this has been a saga, but it's here!  He's already been chattering at me about it.

4. Cheese.  Oh cheese is good!

5. Tomorrow I am going to go pick up a new office chair for myself. 

Friday's snow storm

Today was a pretty low key day.  We got up. We went to Hayward.  Came back.  Wood was cut and split but I was let off the hook this time, (Thank you dear!)

I puttered around the house and mostly hung out in the living room and enjoyed my new wood stove.

Here is it in action.  It's a Drolet Myraid High Effeciency Wood stove.  Best reviews for it are here. 

We are very happy with it so far.

I did do a tad bit of knitting this evening, but not much.  The wrist started aching again.

Since I was such a slacker today it is the perfect time to share a bunch of the photos I took on Friday during the snow and when we had a break in the snow.

When it first started snowing. 

When I went out into the living room and saw just how fluffy those flakes were.

It's a winter wonderland out there.

After we had a break in the snow and I ventured outside.

 

Apple tree

Chicken coop

Backyard

Towards the Jack Pines

Tree next to the driveway

Snow covered log pile

Poor mailbox.  I had to shovel but it was too late.  Mailman had already gone by

Hawk or Golden Eagle.  It was flying low.

Very pretty

The snow was clinging to the branches and then dropping off in big clumps

Somewhere in that field is my garden, under 3 feet of snow.

Tree behind the coop

Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. Having a relatively low key day

2. Homemade root beer floats.

3. My wood stove.  I have a feeling it's gonna be on my list for a bit :-)

4. Chatting with friends about cookware.

5. Hearing my little boy roo crowing this a.m.  He's getting the hang of it. 

The woodstove is all ready to go!

The big news of the day -- the wood stove is fully installed!

Yesterday the installer came and started it, but wasn't able to finish thanks to the wonderful snow storm we had. (Photos to follow in tomorrow's post. I got some pretty images of the snow)

This morning he came and finished it up while the family was splitting wood.

The lighting was really poor so the color work doesn't really pop in this photo. 

Here's our very first fire.  It is super duper cozy and warm.  Really warm.  I'm not used to the house being up much over 60 degrees F in the winter so I feel like I'm sitting and getting sun rays.  It's wonderful.

 

Speaking of sun.  We got quite a bit of sun today.  Our solar panels hit over 1100 watts at one point and we were able to get a photo of it. 

 

1100 watts, on record

It was a full day.  I woke up and got out of bed at 6 a.m.  After my son got up and I made us pancakes for breakfast, we went out and split wood.  Let me tell you, after the last few nice days, temp-wise, this morning was a bit of a rude awakening. We survived though. I did managed to strain my wrist again.  Not happy about that.

Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. The wood stove is all done!

2. All that lovely sunshine today

3. How scratch grains for chickens is like catnip for cats.

4. How toasty, cozy my spot in the living room is.

5. Listening to happy music while admiring my new wood stove. 

Spring!

The first day of spring has FINALLY arrived.

So, of course, we are under some sort of winter weather advisory through tomorrow.

But, it's hard to think about winter with a sky this beautiful.

Temps *might* have hit the 40s F today as well.

At lunchtime my coworker and I took a walk and enjoyed the sun and the warmer temps.  It was very hard to go back into the building and down to our offices.

On the way home the sky was a beautiful blue and the clouds were puffy and happy.

And there was this big, bright, shiny orb in the sky. I hope to see more of it in the next several weeks. It certainly was a mood lifter after yesterday. 

Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. Getting out for a walk today.  '

2. Hearing the babies coo as they fall asleep. 

3. Having a giggle fest with my son tonite. 

4. Giving my guy kisses this a.m. and leaving lipstick all over his face. 

5.  I have been sleeping really great the last few nights.

Snow -- Squirrel!

I'll admit it, I'm feeling pretty moody about this most recent snow that has graced our area.  This morning it took me an hour to bring my son to latchkey and come back home.  An hour! It should have taken no more than 35 minutes on a regular day.

One of the roads in particular was SO bad. We got at least eight inches since yesterday.  Not enough to really do anything about it and so everything was white. I couldn't see the shoulder of the road and was nervous to go too far over for fear of getting pulled into the ditch.  This morning I did see that someone went into the ditch last night.

White as far as the eye can see

 Then the sky was completely overcast.  That didn't help the mood either.

I look over and the whole landscape is covered in snow.  It would be pretty if it was the first snow of December. 

I wasn't the only one on the road that was hugging the center line either. 

Today was my work at home day and I spent of of my day staring at my computer and trying to go through the electronic pile of stuff that needs to be put in the paper. Not easy this week.  Even as I type I think I forgot a few things.

Over my lunch hour I cleaned up the baby chick's living area aka tote. I gave them some rice to snack on and they seemed to forgive me taking them out of the tote and sticking them in a box while I cleaned out the pine shavings.

While I was in the kitchen and making myself a snack I looked out the back window and saw one of the resident squirrels eating out of the bird feeder.  Seeing how it's been such a hard winter on the critters I didn't try to shoo him off.  If it had been the suet holder I would have chased him away.  But this was sort of amusing.

I think this was my best shot. 

Pretty neat that they can hang by their toenails.

Then, when I went to go pick my son up from latchkey the roads were clear.  You'd never know that they had been covered in the morning.  The temps hit over 32 degrees F.

Smooth sailing

In other news for the day: I put an order in for five baby chicks.  Americanas which lay the blue eggs. They will be delivered April 16.  I'm so stoked! Perhaps by then the current babies could be out in the coop.


Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. I didn't go in the ditch today

2. Tomorrow is  the first day of spring

3. As of yesterday's post I've written 400 posts on my blog.  That is so cool to me.

4. Weekly dinner with my little man.

5.  Baby chicks.