Well, for heaven's sake--all winter we've only had a few inches of snow fall at one time, and then on February 28th we get buried!  It started snowing at around 5:00 in the evening and was still coming down heavily this morning, as you can tell by the video below, which I took at about 6:30 a.m.  (At least I hope you can tell--this is the first time I've tried to add a video to one of my blogs.)

I shoveled (one-handed!) a narrow path down the deck,



But didn't even attempt to go any further.

Those little squares you see below, between the deck railing and the pine tree, are all that remains unburied of the 24" posts at the corners of the raised bed we built last summer, meaning we got about 20" of snow overnight!!

We were forewarned, though, and had gotten all of our doctor visits and errands done in advance.  Thanks to our neighbors the Barn People are well-provisioned and I only have to wade down to the barn once a day to refill their water tank and stuff them with grain.  They have plenty of hay, so I don't even really need to do the grain thing today, but you know me:  since I can't bring them inside where it's warm, I'll spoil them in some other way...

That's all the work I'm doing today, though.  It's a good day for a bowl of popcorn, a mug of hot chocolate and a good book:

My new popcorn popper, which I got for Christmas.  It makes horrible screeching sounds while it's working--makes you think someone is murdering a parrot!  It does make perfect popcorn, though.

So I'll spend a lazy day today.  Todd has kindly offered to come and cleared the drive for us, so we'll be able to get out if necessary before the next significant snowfall (predicted for Friday!). 

I have a feeling spring will be a bit late this year...

I Make a Fashion Statement, the Hard Way

This is the color Janette picked for her babushka:

No, her hair isn't that tall--the wind was blowing from behind her.

 This is the color she picked for her laptop:

This is the color she picked for the Fat Little Puppy's winter coat:

And this is the color she insisted upon for her sister's new cast:

Yep, I broke myself again, on February 10.  This time Bella had nothing to do with it; I slipped on a patch of ice in the driveway.  Broke the end of the radius (the bone on the thumb side of the arm) into several pieces AND fractured the titanium plate that they had screwed onto the ulna (pinkie-side bone) in 2005.  I had to do some fast talking (as did my church's prayer group!) to get them to consider trying a cast instead of going straight to surgery, but the x-rays I had last Tuesday showed that the gamble had paid off and everything is looking good so far.  Another 4 weeks in the cast and we'll know for sure if this works.

Meanwhile, Mom and Janette have stepped right up, as have the neighbors, to fill in the gaps.  Fortunately, I had gotten all that experience using my left hand only, so I can still manage many chores.

Todd and Joanie from down the road brought a big bale of hay so I don't have to make so many trips to the barn every day.  The Barn People are happy as clams to be able to munch 24/7!

But quite a few plans for late winter/early spring are on hold now.  And my blog may not be updated too often--typing with one hand is a pain!

We Fought the Cat and the Cat Won

 What was supposed to be the simple task of clipping nails turned out to be quite the disaster last week!  We got through Mimi and Kruppa, the two half-wild former barn cats, without any trouble, which surprised both of us--Mimi is the one who lived in a hole in the sofa for the first 3 weeks we lived here, and Kruppa just ain't right.  Then I went and picked up sweet little Bones, who has never given me a minute's trouble and loves to be carried and cuddled.  To our complete astonishment, she turned into a fluffy, brown-and-black, razor-wielding Tasmanian Devil of a cat as soon as the first claw was clipped.  It was like trying to hang onto a tornado that had just passed through a knife shop.  We did not finish the task...

The slice on Mom's right hand was so deep it exposed 1/2 inch of tendon!

My injuries look worse here because they are longer and required more bandaging, but they were not as deep and I don't have such fragile skin.  The only reason I'm so bandaged up is that I needed to go clean the barn, and you don't enter a barn with open wounds.

Other than the claw-clipping debacle, things have been pretty quiet here.  For one thing, we've both been "under the weather."  Mom had a kidney infection that required a trip to the doctor and a round of antibiotics, and I had a 2-week flare-up brought on by the big temperature swings--from way freakin' below zero one week to melt-the-snow balmy (well, above 25 degrees) the next.   It's been hard for either of us to accomplish much; Mom's bedroom is still taped off so its ceiling can be painted and I still only have 4 sheets of wallpaper hung in my office.  Even when we're mostly home bound, though, life in the Northwoods still holds some pleasant surprises.  On a recent trip back from Janette's house (bringing her some Zantac--even she is not feeling well lately) we rounded the curve at the "oxbow" or "horseshoe bend" in the river and there were a mess of turkeys waiting on the mailman:



They all flew right over the hood of the truck, giving me a chance to catch a couple in mid-flight:

 

And ended up on the little wooded island, joining what must have been at least a hundred others:

While I'm a "wildlife pacifist," Mom always bemoans her lack of a shotgun at times like this...

And a couple of days ago, as we were on our happy way to Coumadin Clinic, we caught this picture:

A whole new take on "running down to the Kwik Trip."  We hope to travel to the Ogema One-Stop in the same manner someday.  Or even down to the Extra Innings tavern.  I wonder if you can be stopped for "drunk reining?"

Both incidents served as nice reminders of why we picked this area.  Even when we're forced to stay still and recuperate, there are beautiful things waiting to be discovered just outside.  We just need to be patient.

And We Thought THAT Was Cold!

The overnight temperature has been stuck at -20 for at least 4 nights now, and the daytime hasn't been much warmer--yesterday's afternoon high only made it to -6!  This is freeze-your-face weather so we've all been lying low and waiting it out. 

Not my favorite side of the thermometer...

 Everyone here is dressing in layers.  Even Hadjo has on two sweaters, the yellow one I bought him and an old thermal shirt I cut up and sewed (well, sort of) to fit him.  He is such a wiener that he still had to have his blanket covering him much of the time.  Of course it's colder on the floor, where he lives.

He's so cute playing with his "babies!"  You know, I may have made a mistake in teaching him that word for his toys.  What's going to happen when someone brings an actual, live baby to visit?  Guess we'd better not say "go get the baby" if there's ever a real one in the house...

:::mutter, mutter, mutter:::

Arrrgh.  The guy came on Monday to pump out our holding tank, and backed right over the flag pole that Tony and I spend so much time and energy reinstalling (someone else had apparently backed over it right before we moved in in 2010).  How annoying.  In his defense, the sun was in his eyes and he never saw the thing.

So now it's lying beside the back deck, waiting for the next time Tony comes to visit.  It's a few more inches shorter but still imposing.  We are planning to install it in the middle of the FRONT yard this time.  No one should be driving over it there. 
 Sigh.
 Meanwhile, we got 4 or 5 inches of new snow to make everything pretty.  At least it was pretty until Bella opened the barn yard gate --again-- and everyone milled about in the back yard, filling it with footprints.  Bad horse!

The birds are enjoying our feeders this week!  Here are a couple of Goldfinches eating thistle seed.


And my personal favorite, the little Chickadee on the right, chowing down on shelled sunflower seed.  They act like this stuff is candy and they can't get enough of it.  When I fill the feeder, the Chickadees are not afraid to sit nearby and holler at me to hurry up.


I have a feeling they know what's coming.  The weather people are predicting highs in the single digits and lows down to 9 below zero.  Winter is definitely here!

We're ready for it, though. We got a tank full of heating oil for the furnace and another load of hay for the Barn People.  We'll all just stay inside our respective houses and wait it out.  And I'll layer clothing until I look like an overstuffed armchair and waddle out to feed a couple times a day, then say my usual "Stay warm and dry, sweetie pie" to Bella and waddle back to where it's 70 degrees!

It's a Bit Nippy Here...

Here's what the thermometer showed about an hour after sunrise yesterday morning.  Before the sun woke up, when I went out to give the animals their early morning hay, it was actually 20 below!  Everyone must have spent the evening in the barn, though, and generated enough heat to raise the temp in there to 0, which actually felt warm.  Everything is relative, no?

The cold temps and recent snowfall brought out the birds in droves.  There has been a constant stream of chickadees and goldfinches (who would have thought any bird would overwinter here of all places?!) to and from the feeders, providing lots of entertainment for the cats:

Bones waits patiently, unseen.



Even Sasha interrupted her usual marathon nap to go birding

 I spent the afternoon yesterday trying out the new snow blower.  I successfully cleared the drive and a few paths here and there, but it was really tiring!  Had to do it in two attempts.  Later last night, I was feeding the barn people and got "clipped" by a sheep.  For those of you who don't follow football, "clipping" is an illegal method of tackling a runner by hurling your body into the runner's knee from the side.  It's illegal in football because it can cause career-ending injury.  Sheep don't follow the NFL rulebook, though, and I ended up flat on my back in the middle of the barn, with the feed pans next to me, oddly intact.  I was afraid for a minute that I would be trampled in the usual rush to get to the grain, but everyone just stood there, frozen, and waited for me to get back up again.  Today the knee is swollen and sore, but not too much so.  I must have miraculously avoided the type of injury that requires surgery--not my usual kind of luck!

An interesting start to the new year.

Finally, the New Year Brings Some Snow

After a quiet Christmas, we spent a quiet New Year's Eve with Janette.  She came over in the afternoon of the 31st and spent some time with her favorite dogphew, who was cold and searching for a warm lap.

After a few adjustments, he was "snug as a bug in a rug," as the old saying goes.

He actually smiles when he's content

After Janette went home, we had chips and dip for supper and went to bed at about 8:30.  Whoo-hoo!  We really know how to live life in the fast lane!  It started to snow that evening, and by New Year's Day we had at least 4 inches of fresh white snow on the ground, covering all the ugly half-frozen stuff that had been on the ground and making everything look pretty and clean.

One of the reasons I like snow--you always know who's been here.

Snow always looks prettier from inside a warm house...

As the day progressed, though, the north wind started blowing harder and things started getting downright wintry around here!  It's still blowing, with a wind chill of 15 below zero, I hear.  I have lots of snow moving to do, using the new snow blower Mom got last fall, but since we don't have anywhere pressing to go, I'll wait until the wind dies down and tackle it tomorrow.  One of the few perks of being unemployed...

Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope 2012 is a better year all around!