Gotta Love Those Snow Days

We have been snowed in for 5 days now.  I have been working on taxes, cooking, cleaning, and of course doing laundry.  To me that is part of cleaning and automatic washers and dryers make it easy. 

I was raised on a  600 acre grain and livestock farm.  I remember ringer washers, renting a freezer locker at the local butcher shop, canning everything you can raised, coal stoves, hand pumping well water, butchering on the coldest day of the year, smoke houses, raising chickens for meat and eggs, peddler wagons and outhouses.  We did have electricity and party line rotary dial phones.  Eventually indoor plumbing, bathrooms, chest freezers, automatic washers and dryers, and oil heating stoves were installed. I do not regret the way I was raised but I do love all of our modern day conveniences.   My Father was one of 13 children raised in a 2 bedroom log cabin.  He and two brothers stayed on the farm, bought it, and more acreage.  As children we could safely walk gravel roads to Grandma's house, pick berries in the summertime, ride bikes for miles. When I think of some of the things that were thrown out over the years I cringe.  I guess everybody tossed old items they considered primitive for the newest shiny possessions.  My husbands Aunt told me she regrets throwing all her crocks out when Tupperware started being sold.  Hindsight is foresight.  Everyone has fond childhood memories of live being simpler, mainly because as children our parents worry about the household we don't. 

It does seem like in Southern Indiana our winters are not as extreme as they used to be.  Last winter was really mild, but then we had a very hot dry summer.  If this snow keeps up we may just pull out of the drought. 

We do live pretty far out in the country on gravel roads.  I still practice what my mother always stressed about keeping at least a 30 day supply of every in the house for winter just in case of bad weather.  I don't shop I stock up.  

In the winter I make soup bases and freeze it for quick lunch time meals.  Yesterday I used all of the turkey and chicken broth I did not use over the holidays to make chicken vegetable soup base to freeze.  I will make noodles and freeze them in small quantities to add to soups and stews, tomorrow.  Pork barbecue was made last Thursday and it was also packaged and frozen.  Boring food makes for a long winter, so we strive for a variety in meals here. 

Definitely Snowed In More Snow On The Way

Christmas was not white with snow this year, but we did get 10 inches starting at 3:00am on the morning of December 26.  We are snowbound even 2 days later.  Our road will be the last one that sees a snow plow or not at all.  We were prepared for a big snow so we will just do daily tasks and enjoy the quiet time.  My husband is keeping the farm related tasks done, takes a while wading snow with a ton of cloths and shoes on.  So far I have not had to break out my Carhartt polar bibs and insulated boots, but I will if he needs help. This will be a good time to get my taxes organized before January 1. 

We are supposed to get rain, freezing rain, then snow tonight so we will see what tomorrow looks like.

Christmas Day was really nice.  We all met at our Daughter and Son-in-Laws house Christmas evening.  We had too much food as usual, but that is what Christmas is about.  I took about six pounds of fudge for all the grand kids to enjoy.  All the grand kids were happy and had fun unwrapping their gifts and that is what is important. 

Our pets, several cats and One Spoiled Rotten Dog do not like the snow.  Snow does not phase the cattle, they just go about their business, eating hay, feed, hitting the water tanks and just milling about.

My seed catalogs are still coming in and I have found several new things I want to add to the garden this year.  All those beautiful Sunflowers will be hard to resist, so several new varieties will find their way into the garden.

Almost Christmas and Another Easy Bake Oven Wrapped

It is almost Christmas again.  All Christmas gifts are wrapped and it is not Christmas Eve, it only took 40 years plus to accomplish this task.  All the candy is made and everything I could possibly get partially cooked or organized is done.  Just doing laundry and cleaning.

We were lucky and only got the wind and rain out of the storm that went through Thursday night.  There was a light dusting of snow on the ground Friday Morning and the wind was still howling.  I helped my husband put out round bales of hay yesterday.  I am the official gate opener.  Wasn't too bad I just made sure to keep the wind at my back.  The cows do not seem to mind the wind and cold, it think they prefer that to flies and heat.

The garden seed catalogs are starting to greet me at the mailbox along with Christmas Cards.  I always spend hours going through them and make lists of what I want to try new.  One catalog had a starter Cheese making kit, definitely going to order one of those.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas this year.

I did buy my third easy bake oven this year.  So far it has been in this order, our daughter, oldest granddaughter, and now the youngest granddaughter.  I am going tell the littlest granddaughter, my easy bake oven was a tin can and a candle.  I just love the little ones they still believe what I tell them really happened.

Winter Wood Supply Stacked, Covered, and Dry for Outside Boilers System.

My husband started working on our winter wood supply last March.  The way we were raised, you start on winter early in the spring.  You can never be too ready for winter.  It takes continually checking inventories, short term and long term planning.  I do help some with the wood, if it is warm, and he helps with my garden. 

We have an outside boiler system that is really super efficient.  We thought it would take at least ten years to see a pay back, but it payed for itself after 2 years.  We installed it the summer before energy costs soared.   The brand of this system is Hardy.  It is surrounded by a water jacket and the water is heated and pumped  underground through pipes to 2 buildings, our house, and supplements our household hot water usage.  We heat 3000 square feet with it. 

There are three stages to his plan, first immediate use, back up, and the next season wood supply.  Cutting, splitting, and stacking has to be done by July because of the extreme heat here and then start back to work on it the last of September. It is recycling trees.  There is always someone calling that has a downed tree to be cleaned up, a woods they have logged, or a fence row they have cleared out. We never just go out and cut down healthy trees. We utilize waste wood.

With the drought we have just gone through I hate to see how may trees may be dead next year.  Floods, drought, harsh weather is just Mother Natures way of correcting things.

As you can see by the pictures below our grass is just pretty green for December.  We have had some cold night and a couple of snow flurries but prolonged cold has not arrived.  Next week is supposed to change that and winter is supposed to set in.

Wood boiler




Wood under roof for immediate use

Back view of wood under roof

Back up supply covered

3 racks side view



Next wood to cut

Next wood to be cut

Flu Season Here

It is cold weather, not my favorite time of the year.  I wear flip flops as long as I can. Now it is shoes and jacket weather.  I can handle sweat shirts but when you have to break out down jackets I am not pleased.  Why we haven't relocated to a warmer climate I can not answer that.  Home is home. 

Everybody we know either have the flu or are getting it.  Maybe it will come and go quickly. 

Needless to say my baby sitting duties have increased over the last few days.  I have tons of stuff to get done, but time is limited.  I just adjust to the changes and tend to not get too excited about it.  My grand kids are only going to be little for a short time.  I love the age that they are now, they still like us and think we are wonderful.  Soon they will be grown and gone and I do not want to miss any of the trusting cute times.  They can say and do the cutest things.  Our oldest grandchild grew up so fast it is hard at times to cope with.  We feel like she is the perfect grandchild.

They all love the cows, our gardens, so they are pretty special little kids.  Easy to entertain, just let them play in the dirt. 

Still waiting on snow for Christmas. Then after New Years we will be ready for Spring!!!!!

How many types of cold medicine are there anyway?

Garden has been put to bed, Fall calves are here, except one independent old girl.  It has been non stop since Thanksgiving.  I thought I was ready for winter, but looked around and still found several things to finish up on.

Our weather has been beautiful and mild here all Fall long.  Too mild in fact.  I don't know what kind of winter it will be,  I guess we will know when spring gets here how our winter was.

My husband and I both came down with cold about a week ago we have been taking over the counter allergy medicine.  I went and got a stronger medicine a few days ago.  To make a long story short, I did not read the label and we were only taking one a day for four days.  Well I finally stopped and read the label today, and guess what it says to take 2 every 4 to 6 hours.  I now understand why we still are barely functioning. 

Note to self always read the label, all cold/allergy medicine are not the same!!!!