It's been cold, never warmer than -10C and going outside has been few and far between except for chores. Winter has apparently hit at the Griggs Homestead and surrounding area. We haven't got much for snow yet this year and what we have gotten melted in December and January and is now a slick layer under the very little we have left as snow. The new woodshed keeps a lot of the wind out of the milking area but seems to attract water and the ice is several inches thick at the opening. It sure makes splitting the large rounds of firewood tricky. Thankfully there is a bit of straw/ hay/ wood chips to give our boots a grip.
Another nice thing about the cold weather is all the school work we are getting done. End of term is the 21st and we should be finished early. The plan at the moment is to finish the term and then do all the teacher intensive stuff for term 3 until April when Papa has a couple weeks off. While Papa's home the kids will do PACE workbooks which are easily done independently and marked in the evenings. This allows them to continue school while Papa and I concentrate on the house.
We got another load of hay last week. It was -2? and the kids and I watched Papa unload the bales from the window. They took the straps off there by the driveway and then Papa used the bobcat to push the bales off from the road side into the ditch and than when the truck left he went and brought them all in and stacked them up right there by that snow pile by the trees. 3 refused to be moved as they were too far into the ditch. J got his first bobcat driving lessons a couple of days later, when it was a bit warmer, in helping Papa move the bales out of the ditch with a chain. He did really well and now all the bales are in the stack. L got to figure out chains and angles with Papa and helped give J directions.
On one of our very cold days we baked this pork roast all day on a low temperature. It was fantastic!
J3 and G have been napping on the couch. The kids room is simply too hard to heat for nap time. At night the 6 of them warm it up and we can leave the door open and the heater on. I turn the heater on at 7ish pm to start the warm up for their 9 pm bedtime. Normally it wouldn't be too big of a deal just to leave their door open but with S crawling in the living room it's just too cold of a draft on the living room floor and he chills really fast, even in two layers of clothes!
*Update. It got to -31C last night and our water Almost froze! (If you're wondering how water almost freezes, it's when some of the pipes do freeze a bit and no or very little water comes out but the pipes don't break and turning a heater on will save them and allow the water to flow again.) Papa now has the heater under the trailer going on at night. S was up 3 times because he was cold, even in two layers of clothes and two blankets!, and he will now sleep in the living area for nights to stay warmer. We are all going to be so very glad to get out of this trailer :)
