Snow... and a Beautiful Sunset!

J on the Tramp with his 1st snowball of the year! We went through all the kids winter clothes that afternoon and the older boys need boots and J needs snow pants but the girls are good for the year. So J and L are in rubber boots, but it's still pretty warm so they were not cold. 

The kids play area. They are all standing in front of the sand box which has been covered for the winter. Love the light in these pictures! The sunset must have been amazing that night! Too bad we can't really see the sunset from our place! 

I told the kids to line up biggest to smallest and didn't notice that Chip had really wanted to be in the picture as well.. so I took one with him in it too. From a very young age he would sit when ever he was confused and he still does it. 

"I'm behaving, honest I am..PLEASE can I be in the picture too... " 

Weekend Project. Day 8

Pipe for the wood stove is in!! It was a bit tricky to get in as it snowed and rained and snowed and rained.. and froze at night. So the tin was a sheet of ice! Then Papa had a great idea and on his first day off (of 5 in a row!) he sprayed the roof off with our outside sink hose.. Warm water! Melted the ice off the tin and that evening it had dried off enough to put the pipe in. It's an 8 inch insulated pipe through the roof. Looking forward to having a 8 inch pipe all the way up. With the old setup we had a 6 inch neck in the middle because of the hole in the roof. This will be MUCH better! BTW thank you to R and C from Josh's work who let us borrow the step ladder for the weekend! Got to get us one of them!! No more standing on a bucket! :) 

The outside wall. The windows are 4 by 3 and look super nice!! The wall is almost finished in this photo.. just need to stuff some cracks and fill in the top above the windows. See the chicken?? She's been roosting up there for the last few days. Papa and I need to take a pair of scissors and go clip some wings so they have to stay in their winter quarters. Right now, even with the fence hot, they just jump out. 

This is what took up a good chunk of Day 8. We went to town and got parts and pieces and picked up 50 more straw bales. We also picked up my yearly bulk food order! :) 

Door windows got put in and BOY DO THEY LOOK NICE!! This is the back door. The window opens for venting front to back. 

This is the front door! Love it!!