Ice, Baby

18°f this morning, -8°C, light snow, but clearing to partly sunny and a high of 32°f (0°C)

We were out and about today, because we needed to pick up milk from Maddie the milk girl (she has the loveliest milk from her Jersey cows, a bargain, I think, at $6 a gallon.  All that beautiful cream!). And since we had to go out, we took a few totes and stocked the booths. Not that they really needed it; with the cold and snow this past week, no one is doing much unnecessary shopping. While I love what we do, I am well aware that vintage and antique stuff is not required to live, so weather has a huge impact on sales.

It was worth going out just to see the icicles on a cliff along our road that never disappoints in wintry weather. 

This first photo though! Look at that face! The Ice Man cometh?

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but the icicles extend back into the cavity under the rock shelf.

These others I liked pretty well too.

Same face one, just more distance away.

I like the way these kind of cascaded down the hill.

And the long range view. Larry knows I love these, so he obligingly stopped to let me take photos. We stopped in the middle of the road, because there isn't that much traffic on our road, as you can see by the tracks, and everyone knows I'm the weird old lady who takes pictures of everything.

Icicles excited me even as a child. I could not wait to get outside and break one off to lock, like a popsicle. Lord only knows what dirt and other stuff might have been in the ice, but I'm still kicking so I guess it didn't hurt me. One thing I miss these days is Jack Frost on the windows. Doublehung windows keep that from happening now, I suppose, but oh how I loved those icy ferns and fancy swirls that disappeared at the puff of a breath. 

A warming trend starts tomorrow, so our little bit of snow will soon be gone, and we will be back to the inglorious mud. Muddy boots, muddy dogs, muddy porch, ugh. Still, it will be nice to see the sun again. It has been quite a while--in fact I can't remember our last sunny day.

Til next time, friends!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Thaw

10°f, -12°C, warming to 41°f. Clearing skies.

Morning sparkles

Finally, a mostly sunny day that actually warmed up to let some thawing begin! Snow left the roof of the log room with a great whoosh, and took all the lovely icicles with it. Ah well. 

The icicles I have watching grow the past couple days, all gone with the whoosh. I took this photo this morning; you can just barely make them out.

I shoveled part of the deck and salted the porch steps, and Larry salted the walks and tried to shovel, but alas this ice us still quite thick under the snow. He did get the tractor out again and worked on the driveway, so perhaps one day we can drive the van back down again.

Across the hill, we could heat the laughter and shouts of our neighbor's grandchildren as he hitched a large piece of metal roofing to his four-wheeler and was pulling them around in the snow. Other children down the road were sledding, I see, according to their Facebook pictures. It was a good day to be outdoors.

The cellarhouse. The top is storage, the bottom is where I store apples and all the food we can.

I was in and out all afternoon, after the air warmed up, but spent the morning canning pasta sauce. We still have several gallon cans of sauce given to us last summer; it is pretty bland so I added seasonings and canned it in quart jars, which will be much more suitable for us.

This evening we watched Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, an older movie that we watched several years ago. I could not remember the story line, but I knew I liked it. Such a touching movie! 

I did step outside during the movie to see the beautiful full moon though. What a sight! 

I guess that's all the non-news for today. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Just Another Saturday

14°f, -10°C this morning, with light snowing continuing until noon.

The promised snow arrived, leaving 3 inches of new fluffiness on top of the earlier 13", which hasn't melted. It has packed down a bit, so we have about 15" on the ground now. Today warmed up to 30°f, and the icicles I have been watching grow in front of the window added a good 6" to their length. Larry has been knocking down the ones on the back of the house, but I asked him to leave these. I just love seeing the sun glint on them. 

No more snow is predicted until at least next weekend, and with a slight warming trend this week we should see the mounds begin to shrink. 

You know I have been enjoying this snow! I mean, it has been years since we have had such weather, and I have to wonder if I will see it again in my lifetime, given climate change. So I am taking much pleasure now, storing away as many memories and pictures as I can. I know many people are complaining about it, especially those who must drive in it, but for me it is an unexpected delight. 

I still haven't been off the sidewalks though, and even those are tricky and icy. Larry, bless him, says each morning he's not going to go out any more than he has to...and then spends several hours mucking about out there.  And he loves it too, coming in a ruddy-cheeked and smiling. Last year we built a snowman, but haven't done that yet this year. Maybe tomorrow. We shall see.

I did very little today, even slept in until 9am. And I do mean slept. The pill for nerve pain, combined with Tylenol PM has made good, solid sleep possible again at last. It's amazing how much good sleep does for one! Until late afternoon, I actually thought today was Sunday, so I was taking it slow; for some reason it seems perfectly acceptable to me to be a little lazy on Sundays. But I did do a little cleaning, canned 5 pints of venison, and finished my book, so I guess I redeemed myself a bit. And tomorrow I can be lazy again,  right?

It wasn't a great read, just an average murder mystery set at Christmas time. It was disappointing because although the author tried to provide all kinds of suspenseful atmosphere,  he did not leave all those enticing clues that good mysteries scatter about, which allow the reader to form theories about whodunit as they read. Another thing: when the characters are gathered for a meal, there were no details of what they ate. Okay, a small thing, but if they are having breakfast at an English manor house, don't you want to know if they had ham and mushrooms and baked beans and so on? Or if they are at the local pub, what they're drinking? Or if wandering in a garden, what flowers or shrubs surround them? Those kinds of details are important,  I think, to paint a vivid scene.

Right now our house is so quiet. My CD of Celtic music has ended (we still play CDs here), and Larry is sleeping. Little Boy is curled up in a corner, Buddy is sleeping in Larry's chair, and Clyde the cat and Daisy are on the rug in front of the stove. The crackle of the fire and Daisy's snoring are the only sounds. I think it is time for me to join the sleeping crew myself. 

Good night, all.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Snowed In

18°f, about -8°C, snow flurries continuing all day.

It has been years since we have been snowed in, but with 12" of snow on the ground, we aren't going anywhere, and won't be for a while from the look of it.

The snow started Sunday afternoon, and continued through Monday. But Monday night we had a little over 11", but added another inch overnight. Even now, late Tuesday afternoon it is still flurrying. We had a 4% chance of snow today but I guess no one told the clouds. More snow is predicted for Friday.

We had ample warning that we could have this much accumulation, but that it could also be freezing rain or sleet. We did have a tiny bit of that, but thankfully not much. What is funny is that our son Derek, who lives maybe 10 miles away as the crow flies, only got 7". Go figure.

But all around our area, the roads are awful. Most have not yet been plowed or treated. School has been canceled and lots if businesses are closed. Surprisingly,  our electricity is still on, probably because we had enough wind to knock the snow out of the trees.

It is absolutely beautiful outside, but for the most part I am enjoying it from inside because I have no desire to take any chances with my new knee. Larry has been out and about a lot, shoveling a bit of the walk, setting up a heater in the cellar, bringing in wood for the fireplace,  taking care of the chickens, etc. Today he walked up the hill to where he parked our vehicles to the snow off and let them run a little. It was a difficult walk, as there is a crust if ice just below the last snow so he had to crunch through that with every step. He said he was wishing for snowshoes! But he dressed very warmly and took his time because he didn't want to be a statistic of the storm. I hate leaving all this work on him, but I know I must.

The dogs, of course are loving it. They are like having little children, going in and out all day to play. No worries about Buddy running off in snow this deep!

I have stayed busy doing some cleaning and some canning. I put up 13 quarts of pinto beans and 6 of corn chowder. Our oldest son gave us a gallon of maple syrup made near his home, which needed to be divided into smaller containers for storage. To do that, I heated the syrup to 180°f , put into sterilized jars with new lids, and then turned the jars upside down for 10 minutes, per instructions from a Canadian government website. This is enough syrup for  at least a year or two. And do delicious.

It's good weather for canning--the extra heat is welcome as temperatures haven't reached higher than 25°f this week. Tonight will be very cold, and I think tomorrow night will be single digits. Fortunately Larry was able to fix the problem with our main heating stove--the orifice needed a good cleaning. Wellhead gas is not quite as clean as gas that has been through the compressor stations, but we rarely have any issue with it. Except when we do! It is a blessing though to have free gas and not have to worry about a terrible bill.

This cold spell is expected to stay with us for most of next week, so the snow won't be leaving anytime soon. We don't have to be anywhere,  so we will just hunker down and enjoy this down time. I finished one of the books I bought to read over Christmas, an older title called Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer. It was a murder mystery, and even though I knew who had done it almost immediately I continued reading because it was such a well-written book. Now I am reading another murder mystery, called Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan. It too promises to be a good read. I think I have 2 more similar books that I bought in December, along with a dozen others waiting to be read.

While I am writing this, Larry is snoozing under the colorful throw made for us by granddaughter Ashley. Lord knows he's earned the rest! Snow is still drifting by the window, the fire is crackling, the dogs are sleeping, and I can't think of anywhere I would rather be at this moment.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Snowy Day

27°f, or -2.7°C. Snow all morning, then flurries, cold and windy the rest of the day. Currently 25°f.

We have certainly started the year on a wintry note. Light snow yesterday soon melted, but today's early snowfall is sticking around---although it did melt off the paved roads and walkways,  very nice of it to do so. Larry took the dogs for their morning walk, and got caught in a pretty intense squall that created whiteout conditions for about 15 minutes. They didn't turn back, though. 

We went out around noon to tidy up our booths in Ravenswood and redo the window. Rhe new van did beautifully, as we thought it would. All wheel drive is a true blessing here.

It was so funny to come off our ridge and down into the Ohio River bottomlands. Up here we had 3" of snow; by the river, no snow on the ground at all and only a dusting in the surrounding hills. Elevation can make a big difference! 

All the Christmas stuff is out of our booths now, except one shelf I will keep as a year-round Christmas shelf, because people into vintage Christmas will buy no matter the month. We shall see how it does.

I forgot to tell you a strange thing we heard yesterday at the DMV. A man was talking to the clerk behind the counter, a lady he evidently knew pretty well. She asked him how he had been, and he said, "I'm fine now, but I almost died last year. The doctors didn't know how to help me. They said it was a problem I had had since birth, but I had no idea. Said my brain was too big for my skull."

Well, that got the attention of everyone in the room. He added, "Three doctors sent me home to die, but then I got sent to this hospital in Pittsburgh, saw a doc there who said, 'I know how to fix this, no worries. You'll be right as rain in no time.' I was there 2 weeks, and now I'm just fine."

Of course I had to Google this condition, because how could such a thing possibly happen? Well, it can, and in one of 3 ways, and is called Chiara Malformation.  Learned something new there.

Back to today: we stopped at Walmart on the way home, to get a small electric heater to put under the tractor if we get the big snow some weather models are predicting for Sunday and Monday. The tractor runs on diesel, which gels up in cold weather. Diesels are notoriously hard to start in winter. So, just when we might need to plow ourselves out of here,  the tractor may not start. Inconvenient! We bought a little heater for the root cellar, too, because if it gets down to 8 degrees or lower I want to be sure nothing freezes in there.

Walmart was packed with people preparing for whatever might come. Four or five other people were looking at heaters, one man was buying a ventilator and a gas can, and I was so glad we did not have to venture into the grocery section where apparently much madness was ensuing. I was intrigued by the ventilator--- I suppose it is something to provide safety if using an unvented heat source inside? 

Seed catalogs are arriving daily, but I have not looked at them yet. Last year I went to Ohio's Amish region around Sugarcreek and bought almost all of my seeds from Berlin Seed Company. I think we had a very good garden year, considering the drought, so I intend to buy from the same place this year. Every year we say we will not plant as much. And every year I plant too much. We did cut back some last year, not planting one garden area, but I guess I made up for it with succession planting. Because why leave good soil to weeds when it can be growing something useful? And then there are so many things that can be grown...but maybe instead of more veggies, I should replant with flowers. A thought worth pondering.

Speaking of flowers, I brought home these marked-down beauties yesterday. The baby's breath will dry and be pretty for several weeks; the red ones i am not sure about, but they feel like strawflowers so they may dry too. Fresh flowers in winter just make me happy. And these cost less than a fancy coffee.

Closing with more snow pictures. These first 5 are in reverse order (thanks, Blogger) of our drive out today. Bottom one is in our driveway, the others are the ridge road. 

And homeward bound this evening.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.