Snow pictures.

This fence is for our cow. Good thing she's not an explorer type. When this fence was put up it was too high for me to step over. About 2.5, 3 feet tall. Cow nose hieght. :) This 1st picture is right behind the trailer where the sun almost never shines. We always have snow here for ages while the rest of the place is clear! This is about the middle line of the property both ways. That small hump you see at the far end is our lagoon rim! This is part of what we cleared. You can still see where they put the line in from the lagoon to the house.

Our International truck isn't going anywhere soon!! You can tell the sun heats up the metal enough for the snow to melt. The flat bed has been clear of snow a couple of times already.

Valentines Day.. Late I know!!

We actually celebrated it on the 12th. We have for the last 3 years. We went for our 1st walk as a couple, he actually asked me if he could court me during this walk, on the 12th of August (which I found out years later was his Pa's birthday!) and we have always kept the 12 of each month as a 'sort of special day'. Some months we go out for supper on the 12, like August, and other months we just say "Happy 12th" LOL. I think it's kind of ironic as Papa would like to have 12 children. So the last 3 years we've celebrated these two days together!! Very sweet. The kids went with Papa to pick out the flowers and chocolates and they each got a tiny box too.

Here is J and his 'cheese ball' grin!!

A Turning

Well things are going better these days!! Much better. Papa had the last few days off and instead of having every little thing go wrong and having to put things off because of all the little things we had a very GOOD productive 3 days.

First I must brag!! My sister Ann recently had a beautiful baby girl which they named Courtney Ann. She is a tiny little bundle. She has an older sister M who is perfectly thrilled to have a baby sister!! M bragged minute I walked into the room "This is my baby sister!! I'm a BIG sister now!!" She is 3 and they are all thrilled with their newest family member. This is my parents 13th grandchild and the only one born my C-section!! I told my sister the baby just had to distinguish herself! In the last 2 years there have been 3 grandchildren a year!! This year Courtney is also the 1st of 3!! (and for the 1st time none of them are ours)

We had a great mix of fun and work this week so far. Sunday morning church was canceled so we headed up to see the new baby. We had a great visit with my sister and family then we headed home to prepare for a fun evening. We had invited B &B and M & M over for a Matrix night!! We started at 3 when the kids went down for naps and watched the 1st one. Then when the movie was over and the kids up we made and ate wonderful appy's and had a great time together. After stuffing ourselves, Papa made BBQ'd pork and shrimp;I made breadstix's, B brought veggies and dip and shrimp rings and M made a great salad and chicken wings, we set up B & B's laptop in our room and the kids watched 101 Dalmatians in there while we watched the 2nd Matrix in the living room. The kids loved their movie, Thanks M, and us adults were all wishing we didn't have to get up early the next morning so we could finish the 3 part series.

Papa had Monday and Tuesday off and we got what felt like an amazing amount of work done. We made a list, like we do every day off, and actually managed to cross all but two things off it; unlike the last several months lists!! Papa made shelves for the kitchen and cut more for the back bathroom closet (where the books used to live!) and I set up the bathroom shelves. I got all my canning off the bathroom counter (it is a very big bathroom) and into shelves!! I also got most of the bathroom organized and now we can walk through it!! Bonus!! LOL. Papa's shelves in the kitchen got finished today and they are WONDERFUL!!! I love them!! I kept grinning for pure joy as I stacked them full. Well actually I even have EXTRA ROOM in them!!! I've already got the curtain material (the stuff hanging on the side. Matching my kitchen curtains.) out and will hem them up soon.

We also got a load of firewood in and brought up some pine from the very back of our 5 acres. We trudged through thigh deep snow for 500 feet or more. Making a path with the heavy loaded sled on the way back. It was like swimming in loose snow. I could not get a footing and as I'm heavier then Papa I would sink farther then his foot steps and bog down. I managed 2 trips and then my legs refused to work. I barely got back to the house before they quit completely for several minutes. I'm still a bit sore now!! I told Papa we need to teach Bindy how to pull in harness!! He said that she did enough work right now just producing milk and he didn't think she'd like it at all. I dryly told him that I didn't say she'd LIKE IT!!! But I sure would. (I've been trying to figure out how to make a movable layer house that Papa and I could move ourselves. Without having a tractor or anything we are rather stuck in this regard, but we really need a layer house that is movable.) The company we got our non-working meat saw from finally sent us the right pictures (they sent our own back first. Makes you wonder really, how bright are these people?) and Papa found the problem and got it all put together right! We even got all the sausage meat from our 1st two pigs ground!! Here is Papa grinding away. I thought it would make a big mess, but it doesn't. Even when he used the saw it only made a little mess on the floor!! I'm impressed!

That night we watched "Swiss Family Robinson" with the kids, ate hot breadstix's, apples and cheese, and J found his "favorite new movie!!"

Tuesday was another great day. We slept in a bit and we were in the middle of general house clean-up after breakfast when friends of ours showed up. They had called ahead, we were just behind, so we visited with them while finishing up and then the guys put the meat saw all the way together and A and I watched kids and visited. Here is Z and Baby R playing together. They are 9 weeks apart in age (he's older) and 8lbs in weight and several inches in height!! But they love each other!! Neither are walking so they are 'practicing' standing together!! They live an hour from us but were coming in to town to visit our favorite Doctor so they stayed for several hours and all the kids napped together. They have 2 roughly the same ages as E and Baby R and with our 4 it makes for a great time. When they'd gone we got the kids up and Papa finished the kitchen shelves and tore apart the dryer. The most amazing thing happen while he was taking the dryer apart. He found change!! LOTS of change. $52.02 worth of change. (and one token to the swimming place :) Papa told me "It's not every day you cut open a fish and get a coin!" (Jesus did this in the Bible for his taxes.) But that broken down dryer did just that!! He also found out that it needs a new motor to spin the drum. Watch the part will be $52.00. :) .

The evening was spent grinding meat with the grinder on the meat saw (something that wasn't even ON the list!), finding a babysitter for a night out, supper and watching a episode of "All Creatures Great and Small." Which we all enjoy

Weather wise we've gotten two dumps of 5 or 6 inches each of snow in the last week and temps hit -22F one night. It's warmed up a bit and we are suppose to see positive temps by early next week. I'm hoping that was our last cold spell of winter but I also know it's likely that we will get another one before spring. The sun has been shining and water dripping on warmer days.

We are getting out a bit more these days, Papa and I. Grandma watched the kids one day so we could go to a friends birthday party. Wings night at a local pub! Great Fun but not kid friendly. And Saturday is a celebration dinner (at the same pub!) for Papa's work as his bosses are finally whole owners of the business!! This evening will make 3 times we have ever left Baby R with someone for a few hours. And twice in 1 week!!!