Breakin' Up is Not Hard to Do!

Break-up is in full swing and it makes me extremely excited!  I am literally outside every day monitoring the progress of the snow melt.  I feel like I understand so much more fully the thaw that happens in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe!

This is the first ground that has appeared all on it's own!

 I would still like to hasten the ground reveal, so I took the wood ashes from the wood stove and liberally spread them out among my landscape!  It can't hurt...

 In the excitement of warmer weather, we have even begun some painting projects!  Clearly we can't accomplish this task in the out-of-doors, though we are consistently reaching the 40's, so we have taken over the floor of the shop as a staging area.  It works pretty well!

 Our snow melt is revealing some of our hidden items like one of my flower supports!  Super fun!  Oh, and the front deck that was completely full of snow has been carved back out and is on its way to melt-hood.  We (or I) will celebrate with much fervor when the last part of the deck has been freed from the icy grip of winter.

 Along our path is a small patch of grass that is slowly opening up!  Every time I walk by my pulse quickens with anticipation!

 Could you guess what was above?  Yes!  It is the literal break-up of our driveway, with a little bit of Pat's help with his maul and spade!  We will prevail!

 Rowdy is undeterred by the visual deterrent, and seems to be at a perfect weight to stay a top the snow!

And finally, the deeper shading way out there is the lake!!  If you look at it long enough you can see it.  It's subtle, but the color change is there.  Really.

Mail and Trails

It's just not a quick walk to the mailbox this time of year.  

Well, to be honest, it's a 1/2 mile trek anytime of year, but now it's a much more risk-filled adventure!

 Here I am, braving the dunes to make it to my car.  The wheelbarrow in the foreground is there just in case I am possessed and feel like shoveling out our front deck to reach the front door.  Hasn't happened yet.

 Here you can see that the front drift, piled from the snow slide off the roof, has almost reached its source of snow pack.  When this snow slides, it sounds like a train and packs the snow like cement.  This also happens to be on the north side of the house where, unless I shovel and pick at the ice left behind, the snow will likely remain until July.  Oh joy.

 Everyone keeps making remarks on Facebook how lovely and fun the snow looks!  It is lovely. It is fun.  Especially when you look at a picture of it in your warm climate.  I must admit, I am not a fan.  I have come, played, and now I'm done with it.  Now I understand why my dad did not relish "snow days" when we were growing up on our farm in Kansas.  Snow just means more work.  There are no such things as "snow days" in real life.  Especially not here.  It has to be pretty wicked to call off school or call in to work.

 I have arrived at the mailboxes, not really picture-worthy, and slowly rolled the car into the mail-bay.  The road is on the other side of the snow pile, so you never know if there is another car getting ready to  pull out.  In fact, it is wise to drive very cautiously on side roads with driveways for the very same reason.  The more traveled roads have wider clearances:

 But it doesn't take long before you enter one-lane only cleared side roads.  Normally, these are two-lane roads, but it seems our plow guy decided one lane was enough.  I try to keep these roads to a minimum.  Our house is only about 100 yards down this road.  That isn't too bad.

 Creeping out of the driveway is another blood-pressure elevating activity.  Again, the snow is so tall that seeing over these piles of snow is impossible, even in the truck.  Rowdy, however, is trying to melt it all down, one stream at a time.

 Yes, that is how far I have to pull out of my driveway to see if anyone is coming.  Basically I just have to hope I crawl out slow enough that if there is another driver, he/she is driving slow enough to avoid me.  Fortunately, snow-packed roads are not very slippery.  That will start to be a threat when it begins to warm up during the day and freeze at night; probably next month.

 Makes you want to buy this house, huh?!  What house, you ask?  Oh, the one behind the snow drift.  Let me shovel you a path...

The backyard is really lovely!  I made some trails for our house-sitter to walk as he takes Rowdy for his walks.  I imagine he won't be quite as excited about crossing the lake, though I have not had any issues on it since February.  That's probably not reassuring.  Thus the trails in the yard.  It reminds me of playing "Fox & Hens" when we were growing up!  This would be an amazing course for that tag-like game.  There is little chance of cheating and cutting corners.  Even Rowdy sticks to the trails!

Life in a Snow Globe...

I know I've mentioned before that it has been an extremely snowy winter, but really, it has been.  We typically get enough snow to reach the top of our rail in the front.  It gets this tall because of the amount of snow that falls off the roof.  Today we reached a new milestone.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Our front door is just past that window.  Probably not going to be opening that for a while.

 Pat has been scooping out a path for us to reach the cars.  Even this is getting ridiculous!  We are having to throw the snow far over since otherwise it will just roll back down into the path.  Clearly this was not the year to get rid of the snowblower.  On a brighter note, the new fallen snow has hidden the numerous yellow spots!

 Even our poor lamppost is about to be swallowed up by the still-falling snow.  We've given up on shoveling for a while.  There is just enough of a breeze, and the snow is just light enough, to eliminate one's work in a matter of moments.  I think there is more snow forecasted through the night and tomorrow.  I love procrastination!

This is the part of the snow globe that you can't see from the outside.

Morning Walk

I woke up this morning to my cup of coffee, which I really missed when I was gone.  I awoke and after my mandatory few sips, made my way out to the kitchen to make my fabulous husband his lunch for his 12 hour work day.  Today it was left-over T-bone steak and mashed potatoes from last night's Valentines Dinner.  Left-overs from such a meal is a bit surprising, but I am just unable to consume that much deliciousness in one sitting!  After filling Pat's lunchbox to the brim with as much calories as we can muster, we hug and kiss, and he heads off to work.  

I spend the next couple hours in my quiet time, reading and then looking up more cruise information.  Rowdy begins his expressive breathing in which he almost-but-not-quite whines with every exhale.  I am fully aware that he desires to go out and do his business which I cannot fault him.  I am just so comfortable in my leather love-seat draped in an electric blanket and a blazing fire in the stove!  I give in, and he knows I'm serious when he hears the rustle of my snowpants.  When I walk to the door to slide my feet into my pack boots and slip into my coat, Rowdy is in full anticipation, hopping up and down in his attempt to restrain himself!  

It's another snowshoe day.  

It seems to have snowed a literal ton since I left.  Actually, this winter has been extremely precipitous.  I don't know exactly how much we have received, but the snow fall off the roof has compacted into a snow-cement pile that is over my head as I stand on the slightly elevated deck.  

 The depth of the snow has required us, namely Pat, to shovel out a path to the cars.  Interestingly, we've had more issues driving the wagon out of the driveway.  Multiple times it has become beached like a green whale on the enormity of 4" or less of the debilitating snowfall.

 Even the short walk to the shop is a "Moses Moment" with the waves of snow parting just enough to pass.  This particular area will be long in thawing as it receives all of 3 hours of sunshine in the longest days.

 Back to my walk.  With all the above information, I felt safe as I plodded along my usual route across the lake and into the back woods.  The previous efforts to take this walk in boots alone resulted in sinking all the way to the slightly dampened lake top.  As I walked along the previous day's snowshoe tracks, I looked again at the wet shoe prints in the snow.  It seemed so weird.  I continued on and we had a lovely walk through the woods.  So lovely in fact, that I decided to take the straight-line route back across the lake and home.  The snow has been extremely slushy due to the 30 degree temperatures that we've had since I've been back.  I was sinking a full foot or more with every step as I made my way down to the lake from the wooded edge.  All of a sudden I dropped another couple feet.  And it was wet.  And cold.  I instantly tried to pull my now filling boot up, but it was held down by a slush-filled snowshoe.  I stepped again and down went the other foot.  And my left hand.  How do I possibly crawl out of here?  I had often thought of what I would do if I fell through the ice, so I immediately forgot all of that and simply kept trying to step out of this rotten hole.  Finally, I was staying on top and crawled further out onto the lake.  This was really the best move as this pond freezes and thaws from the edges inward.  I tentatively but quickly hurried home, generating enough body heat to warm me up until I was safely inside, peeling off my soaked socks to place on top of the woodstove.

I think we'll be walking on the road for a while.

Christmas and Stuff!

 This is not a reflection on how our Christmas went!  Well, maybe it is.  If you think about the Charlie Brown Christmas story (my favorite cartoon) Linus reminds the gang what Christmas is all about when he quotes Luke 2.  I love that part.  It makes me tear up every time.  Charlie Brown then takes his spindly tree and decides it is indeed enough, because the tree isn't what Christmas is about anyway.  My tomato is celebrating that as well!  On Christmas Day, one of the only traditions we continued was the reading of Luke 2.  It was a low-key, special day with Mom and Pat!  (I only wish I had more pictures of all the things we did while she was here!)

 While Mom was here, we went "moose-hunting."  The shots we took were of the digital kind opposed to the ballistic variety, but we had lot's of fun with our game!

 We also took time to enjoy the scenery with shimmering mountains and blazing sunsets.

And finally, Pat has discovered the ultimate slipper-warmer.  He is so smart.

November Thankfulness

I'd like to start by being thankful for my scarf.  And my hat.  And hair.  

It was really cold and my breath was condensing on my eyelashes and freezing them shut!

My hair is often frozen on walks.  

Also thankful for my coat, snow pants, snow boots, gloves, and wool!

 Thankful for a church body who has embraced us and invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them.

Thankful for Pat who can play "Race-horse" with little ones!

 Thankful for Pat's art skills!  He uses it to help us and others!

 Thankful for a dog with active reading skills.  

 Thankful for the fact that this bear is not a real representative of our experiences.

Thankful to have seen this baby moose exploring without getting closer!

Thankful for so many experiences that we have had!