Days Off!!

Papa had 3 days off in a row this week. Sunday was the 1st day and we home churched with 3 couples at Millers and grabbed a hay bale for the cow on the way home. Papa was telling everyone about his hand and how he stuck a screwdriver in it at work on Saturday. OUCH!!! It went in about 1/2 an inch below the place where your 1st and 2nd finger join on your palm and nearly all the way though. It really hurt him for the 1st few days but I just had to tease him and say that he did it on purpose so he wouldn't have to milk the cow. As of yesterday it was much better and he milked last night and tonight. Great timing as he goes back to work tomorrow. We spent the rest of Sunday visiting with my Aunt and Uncle on my Dad's side who were in town. I found out that there is 114 grandchildren on my fathers side. So take off my 5 sisters and brothers and me and that leaves 108 1st cousins on my fathers side. Not bad hey?? My dad has 8 brothers and 8 sisters so it's no wonder. There are 28 grands on my moms side, from 8 children, so I have 130 1st cousins. Crazy. LOL. Age wise I'm right in the middle of them all. It's amazing how many of them are getting married these days. 5 on my moms side this summer and I have no idea how many on my dad's side.. LOTS is my guess.
Monday it snowed again and we went to the back of our 5 acres and pushed and shoved our little Toyota station wagon out of the wet slimy mess of snow. I pushed and Papa drove, I drove and Papa pushed and the kids laughed and had a great time in the back seat. We finally remembered an old trick and got some tire chains to lay in front of the tires. (they were to big to fit the little tires) It has winter tires on it but the snow was wet and slick and great for snowmen which is what we did after we got the car out. The car is going to be Papa's work rig as it makes more $$ sense. Well we changed our snowman habits. Instead of making one huge snow man we made a snow man family. J and L both made 'themselfs" and Papa and I both made 'ourselves'. L made Baby R and Papa shaped her up a bit. J made the bottom of E's snow girl, L made the middle and E herself made the head. Papa cut some willow for arms and noses and we all raided the carport for eyes and smiles.We found out that L is a snow genius and can stack up little snow men all over the yard without any help at all. We had a great time. And I took pictures which I will hopefully get to post. That evening my bulk food order was in so we drove out to get that and then we headed to the 'city' to do some shopping for Papa for work.The moon was full and we had a great ride home. The moonlight reflected off the snow and made for great driving. Even I, who am just about blind in the dark, could see almost as well as I could during the day. It was a bit foggy in the bottoms but the ride was pretty and we didn't see any Moose which is always nice. Moose have a nasty habit of stepping out right in front of you in the dark so we really rather not see them at all. They can do a lot of damage in short order. We got home late, thirsty and tired and I whipped up some quick Mac and Cheese and feed the little people and Papa milked. Then we all fell into bed and slept in Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning when I got up I went out and yelled for Bindy like I do every morning. I open the window behind the wood stove, right by the milking area, and yell BBBBBINNNNNNDDDDYYYY. I normally yell 3 times then I can either see her or she'll moo at me to let me know she heard me and is coming. Well this morning she didn't. Didn't come in at all. I hollered some more and still nothing. So I left her. Ha so there cow. Really I did. I figured if she wasn't going to come in that was now her problem. Of course I also realized that she'd been milked late and that she really didn't feel like it was time to milk. We had breakfast and bundled all the kids up, put the baby to bed, and headed outside. We got up late and breakfast took awhile so we got outside at about 11:30 and here is Bindy!! Standing with her head over the fence, staring at me. Her big brown eyes saying 'milk me please'. Blasted cow. So I milked her. Milking the cow at noon. Crazy.
Tuesday was also our 'firewood' day. We had about 4/6Th (so 4 out of 6 months worth is done) of our wood in but we wanted to finish a bit more today. I was hoping we would finish it but life intervened. We did get 2 pickup bed loads done so that's not so bad. We decided to move the piggers so we built fence for them and moved them as well. That took some time, but that is likely their 2nd last move as we plan on putting them in Bindy's area for a month or so and then butcher them, so it was worth it to get done. It's a royal pain to move pigs alone so it was nice to be able to do it together. In the evening we had lots of fun putting the bulk food order in buckets, jars, and whatever else we could find for it and stacked it up in our pantry/back bathroom. Then we ate supper and watched "The Apple Dumpling Gang" with the small people before standing under a hot shower trying to remember that tomorrow our backs would feel worse but the day after that they should be feeling a bit back to normal.
All and all we had a great few days. We got quite a bit of winter ready stuff finished or close to it, had some nice family times, relaxed a bit, ate good food and J and I had a great snowball fight that had him giggling continuously while I tried to hit him as he ran around. It is raining tonight so the snow family is likely gone, this afternoon it got so warm that Snow Papa lost his head and Snow J melted almost gone. Tomorrow Papa goes back to work and the kids and I are going to take a day to recover from the short naps, late nights and hard work. Bible study is not happening this week so there will be no rushing here tomorrow morning. I made yogurt last night and so breakfast is made. And the only thing I really have to do tomorrow is milk that cow. Hopefully she'll behave herself and come when I call her!! Our snow family. Mamma Snow, L Snow boy, Papa Snow, J Snow boy, E Snow girl, and Baby R Snow Baby. L's snow boy even had ears!!