Can we time travel to June?

I think my son said it best when he asked me tonite if we could "time travel to June?"

Snow. Then more snow.  And more snow, with some more in the forecast later this week.

The last few weeks I've spent a lot of time shoving snow around, shoveling it and clearing it away. I'm tired.

About five years ago, when we had a *really* bitterly cold winter, I had heard an interview of a WWII vet on a canning and preservation podcast. The interview was extremely interesting. It also gave me a whole new perception on what I would define as a "cold winter." The podcast can be listened to here.

As a result, I don't complain about the cold during the winter. At least I don't think I do. I'm very mindful of it. Anything I experience now cannot compare to what the soldiers experienced during that winter.

My biggest pet peeve, however, is the mailbox.

It snows.  I take care of the snow in the driveway, the front yard, etc., and the mailbox. Living in a rural area means we have our mailbox out on the road. It needs to stay cleared of snow so the mail person can easily drive up to the mailbox and be able to open the mailbox.  If it's not easy for the person to reach the mailbox, they don't have to deliver our mail.

So every time it snows, I go out and shovel out the mailbox.  I think I do a pretty good job, too.  I shovel out around the mailbox and move the snow at least three feet on each side. I shovel and push the snow off the top of the snow banks, so it doesn't get too high, and I still have a place to push snow to.

However, every time I've shoveled out the mailbox, within a few hours, the plow comes by and pushes snow right back in front of the mail box.

I feel like Sisyphus, rolling that *bleeping* rock up the hill, over and over.

*ahem*

This past weekend we spent some time doing snow clean up.  Or, as I sometimes like to think, my husband cleaned up my messes.

We also had a TON of snow up on the roof.  No kidding.  Hubby and my son went up on the roof and knocked some down.

So much snow ... Did I mention we have more on the way? 

Then I went around the house and cleared out the snow off the deck and the stuff that wound up in the driveway, along with the stuff that fell around the front stoop. 

Ohhhh boy.  I can't wait for this next round of snow. 

Episode 09 - Farewell to January

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. Grab your favorite drink and come sit a spell. 

It's been a few weeks.  Time seems to go by so fast right now.  

Works In Progress

Vanilla socks on 9-inch needle

Needles: U.S. 1 (2.5 mm)

Date started: Beats me. 

Yarn: Knitpicks Felici

Colorway: "Eclipse"

Crochet topped dishtowels

Started/Completed: January 2019

Hook size: G, 4 mm

Yarns used: Leftover Red Heart and Carons Simply Soft acrylics. 

In Stitches

Pat Sloan's Solstice MQAL from a few years back. I did my own thing with this idea/pattern/squares.  Made enough 12 inch squares to make a throw-sized quilt. 

Cross stitch

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery MSAL from 2016.  The "Happily Ever After" sampler. 

Weaving

I've started two more tea towels. Not much progress since I've started. I have 15.5 inches on the first one. Using the same Peaches and Cream cotton I used in the first set I made. 

Books

Was listening to "The Cottage in the Woods," by Katherine Coville. I'm waiting for it to become available again.

Started listening to "The Dragon in the Sea," by Frank Herbert.

Next in the queue will be "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer. I forgot they made a movie!  I hope they don't wreck the story. Here's the trailer. 

I'm currently reading "The Big Kitty," by Claire Donally. It's a new-to-me-series. 

Coop news

One of the baby roos is crowing.  He's got a deep baritone crow. 

From the hutch

We have two new rabbits. Loki and Thor.  The dark female is Loki.  Thor is the tawn-colored male.  Both are very sweet. 

Nature notes

Sick of the winter and cold. I chat about the birds who are visiting the feeders. Deer know hunting season is over. 

Homestead news

More venison sausage. 

Barefoot in the Kitchen

Not a lot going on.  The day I recorded I made a batch of Pain au Chocolate and a copy-cat version of Pizza Hut deep dish pizza.  Both were delicious. 

I forgot about my Pampered Chef stoneware.  I'm making an effort to use it. 

Coffee talk

This is a sample of what I chattered about.

Watching plenty of tv while we wait out the cold snap. 

Rediscovered an old movie. 

I chat about what I've done on vacation.

My son's birthday. 

A quick little tea break

I've been on vacation for most of this week.  One of those "use-it-before-you-lose-it" deals. I'd love to be able to say I've spent all my days doing absolutely nothing.  Reality is I've been spending the days catching up on stuff and working on projects that have been lingering far too long.

Today I recorded a podcast episode.  I've got it compressed.  Now I just need to find a good time to upload it. Since the files are so big, they take a while and we use our internet pretty heavily.  I don't know if it will be posted this weekend or wait until I get back to work and use the faster internet there.

Anywho, I took advantage of today and made Pain au Chocolate from scratch.  I was fortunate enough to have bittersweet chocolate in the cupboard.

 

It turned out delicious!  I don't dare make this too often.  It's so filling.  It's been several years since I last tried making it. The cup is an early Valentine's gift from my DH.  He showed it to me, on a lark, and I asked him when he was going to order it for me.


Today turned out to be a gorgeous and frigid day. It doesn't seem fair that a day with a sky as beautiful as this should be as cold as it was today. It was nice to see some sun, though. We just had a snow storm in my area.  The sky was a weird grey before the snow hit.

 

I spent some time outside shoveling around the mailbox and making a trail from the house out to the coop.

The day wasn't all chores and baking. Today someone mentioned Roger Moore. That made me think of James Bond. So I watched Thunderball in the morning (Yes, I know that's a Sean Connery movie) and then I watched a couple Pink Panther movies in the afternoon, when I wasn't trying to be lazy and take a nap.

There was a surprise in today's mail.

A real honest-to-goodness letter.  I can't think of the last time I received a letter in the mail.  The letter writer has letter wax and stamps.  It's so fun to get a letter sealed this way. I'm excited to write back to her.  It's from a gal that I've known on Facebook for several years.

 

Things have been sort of quiet on the home front. Weather and vacation time hasn't helped much.  I've also been a bit brooding and in my head.  Lots of pondering going on.

Before I forget, I didn't mention this on the podcast.  I wasn't sure  if I wanted to share sooner or later, but last week I had a car accident. (Last Tuesday) Low speed impact.  I was driving to the village, and a deer came running down one of the side roads.  I saw it coming and hit the brakes.  Unfortunately the roads were slippery so I couldn't stop in time. The deer couldn't stop in time and nailed my passenger front quarter panel. The deer then jumped up and took off.  No chance of me trying to catch it. I felt a bit concerned seeing it take off, because I don't know what kind of internal damage it received.

This is my first car accident in almost 20 years.  So many close calls with the deer, living out in the county. It was finally my time, I guess.  Remarkably, I was calm and had no adrenaline rush, or nervousness. Probably because I knew it was inevitable that deer was going to crash into me. Acceptance before the event occurred, maybe?

Fortunately there is an auto body repair shop that is somewhat close to me. The car is going into the "spa" next Monday. So, it's been good that I have been on vacation and not needed to drive anywhere.