Clear, Crisp and Cold

That heading about sums up the last couple of days. Though this morning it is -6.
I got a fire going in the wood stove about 30 min ago. It wasn't to bad in here when  got up 62 after having a night log burn for most of the night. 
Plus Dave got up and put more wood in when he got up in the middle of the night.
He just bundled up to go out and do morning chores, come Monday it will be me again going out in the morning to do them Monday through Thursday and a few evenings as he has more meetings at night now after work.


I spotted part of our creek about 40 feet south of the house.

Yesterday morning Dave spent 4 hours plowing the excess snow on the driveway and around the house plus up where Kathy turns around in from of the barn before the next storm hits us and we are buried even more. 

 

It is pretty good now :). Good job.

 Our daughter Coral, son in law Kirk and their 2 children will be in the Fiesta Bowl parade today, look for the Star Wars group.

New Snow

We woke up to 8 to 10 inches of new snow with some good sized drifts this morning. Dave was out side by 7:30 starting to plow so Kathy could get out of our long driveway to go to work. 
The county snow plow came by so the roads out here were passable also.

Picking up stray piece of wood that fell off the truck.


Kaylee Birthday pictures.

Well the net is having problems loading pics with the snow storm going on.

Guess I will go for now and post more at a later time.

Merry Christmas

A windy white cold Christmas day here. We are snug and warm here in our little home with the heat fueled by our wood stove.
Baby Kaylee is playing with her musical bear, over, over and over again lol. 
Daughter Christine and her family are supposed to be here anytime for a short visit before they head back to Elk City. They had to come down to the valley and pick up her daughter Mercede from her dads.


Dave got a new computer chair, our other one was pretty broken and hurting his back. Half price :) was even better.


We made a Christmas basket for his secretary and 3 others.

 

Pumpkin butter, mint, lemon, balm, oatmeal bath salts, jar of cookie mix, crocheted slippers and hand spun wool scarf

I forgot to take a picture of the one we made our daughter Terra to go with her other gift.

We shopped a little and delivered gifts to some of the kids homes on Thursday evening. We had a furneral to attend that morning and Terra baby sat Kaylee in the afternoon until we could pick her up. Was a very full day.


David Jr and his 2 children are supposed to come on Monday we hope they will be able to make it for a short visit.


Again Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

Tree up

We finally found the small fake Christmas tree. I looked 2 days for it and Dave finds it behind the chimney up in the attic. Wouldn't ya know lol.
So the tree is up decorated and plugged in.

 

The tree looks better at night lit up.

Dave got more wood put on the porch and grain into the coop barrels.

 

Kaylee looking at the wood papa brought in the house.

Dryer wood inside so the wetter stuff can dry out on the porch. Dave is taking from the snowed on pile for now, he wants to use that up before we start on the wood in the wood shed.

My mom came out this afternoon and visited so Kaylee and her great grandma got to visit.

Oh the pumpkin butter turned out wonderful. It is canned up and ready to give out.

Pumpkin Butter

I got a small batch of pumpkin butter going this morning after Kathy and Kaylee were out the door.


Crock-pot pumpkin butter

6 cups cooked and pureed pumpkin (use canned if that is all you have)

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup lemon juice
Put in your crock-pot and cook 6 to 8 hours or until it is as thick as you want.
Freeze in small containers or pressure can in small jars to hand out as gifts. If you prefer you can make this half apple puree and half pumpkin.

They have pushed the cold front up to coming in tomorrow now.  This morning it rained then turned to snow and now that is melting. Lol all I had to do is wait 5 minutes, now is is snowing to beat the band.

I got the Christmas cards here in front of me and am going to try and get them made out today.

35 years tomorrow

Tomorrow is our 35 th wedding anniversary :).
Those 35 years have seemed to have flown by. There was a point when we had all of the 10 children at home with 6 of them under 9 years old that I didn't think I would ever live though it lol. (3 in diapers at a time for years.) And 4 teenagers to boot.
Dave says I left my sanity back there lol.
We will go to town later to do a little shopping and maybe eat somewhere as a celebration. He says Costco lol.


He brought in more wood to the enclosed front porch this morning before it got low and would be a major chore.
He is now cleaning the barn. He can use the tractor to clean out the large middle but the 2 stalls the cow has been sleeping in have to be shoveled out by hand. And they are deep and messy.

Wind, rain, wind & more wind

We have had quite a few days of pretty good winds this week.
That sure makes it colder when you are out with that wind whipping off the snow. 
The good thing is the warm front that came in this week. We have had 30's during the day and that has melted off about half our snow.
But it rains/sleet in the late afternoon early evening and then freezes over night. Makes it pretty treacherous the next morning.
Been thinking I need to start getting things going for Christmas and with my health problems it sure seems harder.

Dave heads to Spokane again today  and will be home around 1 AM.
I have a chocolate hot water cake in the oven for him to take with him today to share. It sure is smelling good lol.

Another week already

The first week of December is almost gone already, boy is time flying. Hard to believe 2010 is almost done with.


I didn't realize it had been 6 days since I posted here.
It has been a busy few days.


Dave spent 5 hours outside on Friday most of the time plowing snow. He did the driveway, the parking area and turn around area, in front of the barn and had to take grain to the chicken coop so he plowed his way up there as well.  
Getting across the creek bed was a struggle.

He got the front deck all shoveled off and the ramp/bridge to the front deck so he could bring wood in to the wood rack on the front porch, here is the bridge before it was shoveled. You can just barely see the ramp. One has to cross the ramps that cross the creek to get to the house.

Here is the drift we have building around the back of the house by the dog house.

 

There is a warm front in, it is 30 degrees already this morning. Supposed to be in the 30's during the day all week this week. That will mean wet, slushy, mushy snow.

But the warmer is nice.

I got the wood stove going about 5:25 this morning and it wasn't real cool in here at all with the warmer temps outside.

Happy Birthday to those that have gone

Today is not only my grandmother Icie Fern's birthday and Dave's dad Harold. She passed in 1963 and was 52 years old he passed in 1983 and was 71 years old.
I am now older then my grandmother, weird thought. 

I wanted to post Dave's mom's recipe for Ginger bread for Christmas.

Gingerbread Cake by Gene S.
Bake  at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 & 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1  ground cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
Cream the shortening with sugar. Then add beaten eggs, mix. Add rest of the ingredients.
Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or white frosting.


I wanted to post the pictures from the last few days.

Kaylee playing in the snow and a few from Thanksgiving.

 

Our Thanksgiving table

Kaylee and Sander

Drift around our old grill, we are still trying to figure out what parts of this can be used for.