4-H Winter Party

Snowman or cat contest. Dancer's group

Spark's group.  I guess no one made a snowman.  They also played ball on the ice, ice skated, treasure chest, and a potluck breakfast.  Yes, the party was a 9:30 in the morning.

Snownami

Winter came early this year, November 9th, and dropped over 12 inches of snow.  Way to start out the winter.  We went out to shovel the first six inches and then a couple hours later went out and shoveled another six inches.   Shoveling was a lot of work as the snow was so heavy and stuck to the shovel.   It was so slippery that the car, even though we had the emergency brakes on, kept sliding down the driveway. The first time I looked outside and saw it at the bottom of the drive and the second time it slid down while we were still out there.  Finally we shoveled down as far as we possibly could on the cement and put an ice cream bucket of fish tank pebbles and another bucket of grit where the wheels would be.   Then we put blocks of wood behind the wheels and it stayed in place.

We shovel the cement part of the drive and thankfully the neighbor came and plowed the rest of it.  If he didn't plow for us we would probably be housebound until April.

The next day we could see our driveway again and it seemed like such a joyous occasion that I took a picture.  

Bonfire Pies

 

Enough of this winter already!!  We couldn't take it anymore - even though it was below zero with the wind chill - we shoveled out the fire pit, started up a fire ( not an easy task with snowy logs) and baked some pies in the pie makers.  No need for chairs, we just pulled up a snow bank.

 

What do we put in our pies?  Ham, cheeses, sloppy joes, hamburger with tomato sauce, sausage, salsa con queso, tomato sauce, peanut butter, apple butter, apple and pineapple fruit filling and onion. 

4-H Winter Party

 

Ice soccer

 

Snowshoeing

 

There was also a potluck, ice fishing, cross country skiing, sledding and ice skating.  Sadly, only Dad and Dancer were able to go because Spark was sick.

Hollywood Snow

 

Our latest snow storm drifted down in huge graceful flakes that reminded us of movie snow.  Those big flakes added up to well over 8 inches. 

Slovenia Rompecabeza

Sledding

Sledding in 43 degree heatwave means we only need sweatshirts.  After our cold winter so far it seemed so liberating!

The Cold Wind Blows

Governor Closes Schools

“Don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today!”   That was the greeting Bill Murray woke up to every morning on his alarm clock radio in the movie "Groundhog Day."  I always think of that line when it is cold out.  Today, we may need two pair of booties because it is -27 with wind chills in the -50s.  It is so cold that our governor cancelled school for the whole state.  I feel a little nostalgic about him doing that because the last time it happened I was snug up in the hospital having Dancer.

I don't know how cold it was then but, I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention.  We were over the moon happy to finally have a baby!  Also, I was on strict bed rest for the six weeks before and I was happy to be sitting up.  By the time we left the hospital, it was still cold but, the frigid temps were over.

Just before we bundled her up to leave the hospital and take her home.

Oh Winter

Ben Franklin wisely said that company and fish stink after three days. 

 

It's been seven months snow, your welcome is long worn out.

 

Snow so heavy it bent over tree branches.

Spring, are you there?

O Spring, Where Art Thou?

The calendar may say today was the first day of spring but, that is not the scene outside.

 

 

Every parking lot has multiple piles of snow this large. 

 

 

The drift by our back door is over four feet tall.  We have to shovel for the dog to out to go potty or she can't get through the snow.

 

Much more snow and the bird bath will be gone. 

 

We had to shovel a path to get to Chester's hutch.  He is on the right side partially hiding from having his picture taken.

 

The snow on either sides of the path are higher than Vidalia.  She is an outside cat so I am sure she has more than her fill of winter. 

 

It will be a while before we have a bon fire again.  The last couple of years we have been able to have them in the winter. 

 

We just gave up shoveling in front of Dad's garage.  Let it melt.  Good grief, enough is enough.

The road by our house is pretty good but the majority of the roads are covered with ice where the snow has been drifting.  I think we should abandon the car and look into getting a luge.

The snow by the other garage has piled up so high it has turned into a privacy fence.  There is more snow forecasted for Sunday and when we get into April we will have had six, count them six, months of snow.  I guess we won't have to worry about planting potatoes on Good Friday.

The Saga Called Winter Continues

It sure feels like we live in Iceland so I will equate this to a saga, a never ending one at that.  Spark snapped all these pictures of our grand willow tree this morning before we left for our Tuesday homeschool co-op.

 

 

 

The hoarfrost was thick, thick, thick.

 

 

This picture shows how it was only on one side of all the other sides of the trees and bushes.  The cleared cement on the driveway could have kept it warm enough to form only on the left side of the arborvitaes though.  As we drove to town, there was an odd pattern of hoarfrost on one clump of trees and then not on the next. 

 

 

In all it's splendor.  I love that tree in every season.

We thought everything was so white yesterday but, it didn't even hold a candle to today's fog.  That too was sporadic but we only took a picture on this road because the rest of the way to town is 55 mph and so I couldn't really pull over for Dancer to take any pictures.  It was good we knew our way or we would have miss all the turns because the visibility wasn't more that a few hundred feet most several places.  It is warming up outside but, this thick haze makes it difficut for the sun to get to melt much snow. 

Winter Break

 

 

Those of us who live in the north really don't need a spring break, we need a winter break.  Yesterday this was the weather we had, white.  White everywhere you looked.  White, cold fog on top of white, cold snow.  Not the kind of weather that promote good moods when it lingers on for months. 

 

To combat what seems like an endless winter, our co-op headed to a motel, rented a party room and the pool and spent the day swimming,

sitting in the hot tub,

 

and for those who feel to old to frolic or hot tub with the younger kids but don't have wifi at home, hours and hours of computer, iPod and Kindle use.  I really don't blame those teenage girls, the moms didn't go in either because the action in the pool what just too crazy.  I think there was about a third less water in the pool when we left than when we got there.

It was so hazy yesterday that as the sun set we were able to look right at it. 

Beautiful but, come on spring, you can do it!

Drippage

 

We came out of Sam's Club today to see these hanging on the side of the cart corral.  Sadly, the only picture taking implement we had with was Dancer's iPod because they were pretty cool.

 

They looked like fingers with scraggly nails reaching over the sides of the roof, just the thing nightmares are made of.

 

Hopefully this will be the start of a warm up for us and eventually spring.  Last week Dad bought milk on the way home from work, put it in the back of his truck, and by the time he made the 20 minute trip home it was more than a fourth of the way frozen.  We had to break the top with a knife to get any milk out.  We also put another $740 dollars worth of fuel oil into the tank.  That is our third time this winter, usually we fill twice and have some left over to start the next winter.  The last time was around the 12th of January so we have really been burning through it.  I am starting to think that grass is really a figment of my imagination. 

 

One good thing is that it doesn't get all the way dark until around 6:30 p.m., two hours later than on our shortest days.  Now Dad can almost get to work before it is dark, by next week he should make it all the way there.  It really does a lot for our mood not to have such long evenings.

Winter Soldiers

Winter Storms

 

When it looks like this outside.......

 

 

we enjoy jigsaw puzzles inside.