A Dusting.

It's Nov. 14, and last night we got our first "dusting" of snow for the year.

(Neighbor's house)

It's pretty.  It looks serene, but it's chilly outside.  Obviously.

It's also Jake's FIRST snow.  Ever.  He's only 6 months old.

He's just like our last lab, Rudy.

He LOVES the snow. 
So far.

Notice the dusting of snow on his nose.  Crazy boy, wondering what all this white stuff is!

I'm glad he doesn't seem to mind the cold.  He's leaping around like he doesn't know what to make of it.

Of course, I feel bad about him possibly being cold, so at Goodwill, I buy him the fleece blankets for $3.  The ugly ones no one wants. 

And what does he do instead of snuggle with them in his house?

Drags them all around the yard like he's Linus from Charlie Brown!

And if you so much as try to remove it from his mouth and put it back inside his house, he leaps at you till he retrieves it!

Crazy, crazy dog.  Are you part human by the way?

He also struck both these poses when I told him to sit.  He'll be great for Christmas card pictures this year!

We love you Jake, you silly, silly dog!

Baby oh baby...

The weather has been a little crazy again around here...and we've been scrambling to get all our strawberries and precious plants covered each night when warnings of frost come our way.

We even saw some sleeting rain during Grace's opening softball day on Saturday...

it was a little cold, which I is why I was worried about the girls above and these little ones.

They were born Friday night...the night before the cold, cold rainy and windy day on Saturday.

We had a single born to a new ewe.
And triplets born to a seasoned one.

I guess once a mother always a mother.  I fretted about these little ones all night.  In weather like this...triplets were gonna need a lot of praying to survive.
But they did!  We went out today and they were all bouncing around enjoying life.
The rest of the moms are ready to pop, and they just look plain uncomfortable.  I hope it's over for them soon.
I guess that's what spring is for...crappy weather, and BABIES!

Snow...and all that that entails.

Last night we had a bit of a winter storm.

The kids and I went to get groceries right after school, and drove home in the midst of it.  Scary stuff.  What normally takes us 20minutes to get home on back roads, took 1 hour on main roads.  I was about ready to kiss the ground when I drove in the garage.

This storm, however, led to a 2-hour delay this morning.

And I'm not complaining one bit about that extra sleep.

After I got the call about the delay I promptly went back to sleep, only to dream about a naughty 2nd grade amish boy I have at my recess everyday.  In the dream he not only got into trouble once, but three times on my watch.  (Was this a premonition for today?)

I had my morning breakfast (usually at 6am) at 7:30am instead.  It was nice to eat with the sun coming in the windows instead of the nightlight on the barn shining through them. 

An hour before the kids and I left, Brent calls to tell me this, and I quote, "They have plowed out the road at the end of ours, but not ours, so you'll need to time it right, and take a running start to get out onto the other road."    Really? Are you serious?  This, unfortunately is not surprising, our county NEVER plows out our gravel road.  Sad, but true.

The kids were very happy about the snow,though, and so was Rudy.

This is his favorite time of year.  Cooler weather, and fun in the snow.  He takes is guard duty seriously every night too, as he stuffs his body into our wicker chair on the porch.

I guess it's that time of year to realize...Winter really IS coming.  So it's time to get on board!

Stir Crazy

Today's snow foiled my plans.

I was beginning to think maybe winter was winding down. We're already two months in, and I'm ready for it to be out.

I've been garden dreaming lately. I'm perusing my catalogs...

and have found seeds in both. I wish I could consolidate, but I can't. Burpee has the concord grape plants that I want, so I can have my own arbor someday and not buy grapes for my homemade grape juice/jelly. They also have my new favorite tomato of all time....Honeybunch they call it. It is tomatoes that grow in bunches, and are the size of the tip of your pinkie finger. you just wash them and throw them in salads, etc. whole, and they don't get all soggy like if you chopped up tomatoes. They are WONDERFUL. However, the Cooks Garden has my heirloom tomato seeds, and my bicolor sweet corn that will be new to my garden this year.

This was the start of my garden last spring.....

Bare dirt and all! The rhubarb plants are coming up nicely and the Brentster has just tilled up another part of the garden to make it that much bigger. I see the grass clots that I still had to take care of.

Here's a little later in the season.

I see a red tomato peeking out at me, and I can't even begin to imagine what my husband was contemplating out there the in pasture.

I found this garden layout the other day while perusing the Internet. I want this garden. It's neat rows are calling out to me.

I'm in garden envy!

In just a couple of weeks, I will start some seeds under the light in my basement, so they grow big enough to put in the cold frame my wonderful husband built me last summer.

I can't stand the waiting. Literally. I'm not a patient person. Ask my mother. Winter is over for me, unless it provides me with a snow day from school.

I'm tired of having recess duty 3 times a day outside, and having to "put on all my gear" to do just that.

Spring, disregard what that crazy groundhog saw, and just get on with it!

Surfing a snow day

When my alarm clock rang at 5:30am , and I got a call from school that we had a 2 hour delay, I was ok with that.

Then, an hour & 1/2 later when I got another call school was cancelled, I couldn't help smiling a little.

For some odd reason, I hadn't slept well the night before, and a day of reprieve sounded wonderful!

So, after several loads of laundry and a DIY project completed, which I'll blog about later, the kids and I decided to go outside and play awhile.

We all donned our gear, and set out. After watching our wonderful neighbor with his giant tractor plow out our driveway, as well as our road (the county regularly ignores our dirt road), we set out for the backyard.

This is the first thing I saw:

I thought this was how deep the snow was, but then the kids stood up! They were only sitting on their knees!

We walked out back to the remote part of our acreage, and I took a very peaceful looking picture of the ditch that runs through our pasture.

Just look how beautifully blue the sky is.

We walked over to our mound system, which sits smack dab in the middle of the pasture, and is really only good for sledding.

Of course, with the Winter Olympics starting, my kids are a little obsessed with the events. Evan has taken to wanting to be like the snowboarders...

And the skiers:

Then Grace decides to get in on the action:

And discovers skiing

really isn't as easy as it looks:

But just look at what a beautiful day it turned out to be...

I'll graciously take a snow day anyday!