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.

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.

Snowy Day

9 degrees this morning, with a bit of pink in the sky, which could mean more precipitation on the way, but I don't think it's predicted for today. Supposed to warm to 40. We shall see.

Yesterday was a good day to stay inside. It never got warmer than 19 degrees, with the sun only coming out intermittently. 

It was cozy in here, as we worked on various projects. 

I did some ebay listings and made 4 quiches also for the freezer, with one for dinner, since we are running over with eggs.

These two are crustless, which I didn't know was a thing until I googled freezing quiche. One ham and cheese, one peppers, onions, ham and cheese.

And two with crusts. These are pepper, onion, cheese and bacon.

This morning it's cold as can be, with a tiny bit of pink in the sky. The sun is up and it's promising to be a bit warmer, about 40 according to the weather station. We shall see.

Today we need to go out for a bit, but then we'll be right back home and snuggling up by the fire again. I am glad to see some snow at last; winter should have snow, at least it used to in our region. This year we have yet to see a Junco, or Snowbird. We used to have flocks of them every winter.

Stay warm, everyone.

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

Covid Journal, Day 340: Drip, Drip, Drip

34 and cloudy. We had rain showers overnight. More rain or snow or sleet predicted for today.

It's getting messy out there. The beautiful, dangerous ice is gone from the trees. The snow has melted quite a bit, but turned to ice in places where it's been packed down, like on paths and the driveway. The melting continues, however, and we hope it will be enough today to get rid of the worst of the ice. I am sad to see the beauty being turned to the mundane--dirty snow replacing the pristine white and sparkle. 

Then again, people are posting photos of flowers in bloom--crocus in my nephew's garden in Richmond, Virginia, daffodils in the Carolinas. It would be nice to see a little green again, and maybe a few of the early blossoms. But I am patient. I'd rather wait and not have them killed off by a freeze.

Larry took my camera for a walk yesterday afternoon, the dogs keeping him company. I considered going, but honestly I feel no motivation to get out in this weather. Am I getting old? I used to love to take walks in the snow, often being out for hours when I was younger. Now I am content to just look at it. My man can't stand being cooped up, as he calls it--I call it being snug and warm. So off he went, and came back with these photos. 

Apparently his first stop was the henhouse. The chickens have been literally cooped up for a week, so they were happy to see him open their trapdoor to the outside. Until they saw the snow. Larry said the birds just hovered in the opening, but none went out. I understand completely. 

Looking across the field we call "the flat" although as you can see it's not really flat, just more level than most of our land.

A drift almost always forms in this area. The snow hangs around here longer too, as this is a sheltered spot. The small trees have certainly taken a beating.

He had some happy companions. These two love it when we go out for walks. This is one our driveway.

Up on the ridge, you can just see the ice glinting on this poor bent tree.

And our old stalwart oaks, still standing though both are quite hollow in their centers. They've withstood so many storms, yet here they still are.

This is Day 340 of our Covid journey. We locked down a little earlier than some people, a little later than others. I began my count the day we decided that we'd have to hole up. Since then we've loosened up a little. We go into the grocery store now a couple times a month, have been to Wal-Mart a few times in the past year--a very few times. We shop at the thrifts when we go out, and have made a few road trips. What we haven't done is eat out, gone to any music or theater event or any other public event. We haven't made any overnight trips, and I've done no storytelling. We see only a handful of people, usually outside and for short periods of time. We've gone to only 5 or 6 doctor appointments between the two of us. 

I have to wonder, what will change for us now that the vaccine is becoming more available? I think that we won't change the way we're doing now, except that we will visit family, and maybe go to some outdoor live music events. We might make more road trips, but will probably continue to pack our own meals. Eating out will be rare, and only in open or outdoor settings. But maybe I'm wrong, and we will go back to the way we were? It's hard to imagine.

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

Covid Journal, Day 311: Snow Bird

27 this morning, overcast. Now some light snow and chance of freezing rain later. Temps in the mornings have been similar the past few days, but yesterday was a pretty day, almost warm at 40 degrees. 

We're having a little fluff of snow this afternoon, which isn't expected to amount to much. I'd remarked to Larry the other day that I had not seen any snowbirds, but they are flocking to the feeders today. Perhaps they've been here and I didn't notice, but I don't think they arrived until recently as I know I had not seen them before Christmas.

Usually these little visitors arrive at the end of November or beginning of December. When they come we know cold weather is ahead, and when they leave we feel pretty sure the worst of winter is behind us. The official name for these hooded and winged birds is Dark-Eyed Junco, but Snowbird seems to fit them well. The website Birds and Blooms has some interesting information about this species, including research that suggests that it is not temperature but the length of daylight that affects their migrating patterns. Which makes me wonder why the birds arrived later this year? While temperatures are warmer than historically, the length of days remains the same. 

This is an older photo from my blog, but one of my favorites.

Around here, Snowbird also refers to those who flee to Florida for the winter. It used to be quite the thing, and actually, it still is. Several of our friends do it, although I wonder if they left for the sunny lands this winter, with COVID still rampant in Florida. It might have been safer to stay home this year.

I had forgotten this beautiful song. Anne Murray sings it here. 

This poem was published in a 1928 edition of Poetry magazine. I subscribe to Poetry but didn't realize how long it had been in publication. One thing that is noticeable in older poems is the adherence to rhyme and rhythm in most works; today's poetry usually has a discernable rhythm, but rhyming is not often used anymore, and exclamation points are even more rare. This was written by Glenn Ward Dresbach, a poet born in Illinois, but who spent the later years of his life in Arkansas. Dresbach was originally an accountant, but his life was anything but boring. He worked in the canal zone in Panama for the Panama Railroad from 1911 to 1915, then moved to New Mexico to work, signed up and served in WWI as a medic. After the war, he married and moved to Texas,and later back to his home state of Illinois, still working in the financial field. In 1932 he quit work and devoted his time to writing poetry. He was widely published and well known as a poet during his lifetime, but his poetry has fallen out of favor in our times. Still, this little poem has images that I like, and I especially like the second verse.

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

Covid Journal, Day 305: Internet Limbo and Road Trip

Cold and snowy. The same as it's been since Friday--flurries, occasional a little accumulation which melts off quickly, then more flurries or occasionally rain. Definitely inside weather. Temperatures in the low 30's during the day, and not much change at night.

Well. I often brag about my internet service and how good it is, and then wham, it goes down. For days. 

At first it was a network outage, but now it seems the problem is with our equipment and the tech can't be here til Wednesday. 

So this old dog is learning new tricks. I had eBay sales that needed to be shipped, but without my computer, how could I get to the printer to print them? There is, it seems, a way. Actually two ways.

First I found that I could buy the labels on my phone and download them. Then I could hook my phone to my laptop via USB, and eventually get the labels to download to the laptop and thus to the printer. It took a lot of time, and I could not find a way to adjust package weight if it needed to be done, so some had to ship as they were, a little over the weight I'd entered when I listed the items. I think the Post Office will bill me for the overage, but I hate having them have to do an extra step.

Then a Facebook eBay group with lots of younger people told me I could make a hotspot with my phone. I'd heard of this but was absolutely clueless how to do it. Much finagling this morning and this afternoon, a useless call to the ATandT store where I bought the phone, more finagling and finally it's working. Fingers crossed. 

Technology is amazing, and sometimes an amazing and total pain in the patooty.

And then there's the old tech--our septic system. Suddenly the toilet does not want to flush. Larry spent a few hours of quality time with the snake, with no luck. So now he's digging up the lid to the septic tank, and probably we'll have to get it pumped out. Guess where out little stimulus check is going? Down the toilet, literally. 

But despite all this hassle we have had some fun. I bid on another online auction and we picked up our stuff Saturday in the beautiful little town of Mount Hope, in southern WV. It was a squally day for travel, lots of white-out snow, then sun, then snow, etc, etc. But the roads were fine and it was nice to go to a town in this state we'd not yet visited. With my storytelling we have literally been all over the state and seen hundreds of little towns and communities so I was surprised to find we'd not been to this one.

A few pics from our trip:

On the way down, it was pretty snowy, but not much traffic.

It was a pleasure to see the Capitol dome finally cleared of scaffolding and tarps. Apparently it needed a lot of structural repair, which has taken a couple years to complete.

In the town of Mount Hope, there is evidence everywhere of a prosperous past, with many beautiful homes and businesses.

And this was the source of the prosperity: The New River Coal Company, which mined the regions rich seams of smokeless coal. Larry talked to one old miner in the town who said he always worked in coal seams that were 6 to 8 feet tall, a luxury to a coal miner. Often they had to crawl in seams as low as 24 inches.

We think these may have been company houses at one time, owned by the New River Company. The above photo is the building that must have been the company store, and is now a church.

This large, stunning building must have once been a hotel. I am not sure what its use is today; perhaps apartments. 

Sadly, this town, like many in Appalachia, is dying out. It looked like the downtown might have been on the verge of a new start, because there were several businesses that looked as if they'd opened recently, only to have to close because of the pandemic. The auction was the sellout of an antique store that was closing up shop, and most of Main Street was empty storefronts. So sad.

A few miles away, we saw a former stripmine site, or perhaps one if the new infamous mountaintop removal mines. Churches are everywhere in the coalfields, with good reason. It's a dangerous occupation.

And on the way home, several whiteouts made drivig interesting, but not dangerous as there was little traffic and people slowed down. These squalls would last maybe 10 miles, then it would be clear again.

And at home the next day, we had several beautiful snowfalls with the sun shining. A sparkly sight indeed.

Yesterday morning, we were covered again with a light snow cover. Today is more of the same. January weather for sure.

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

Covid Journal, Day 257: This and That

30 this morning, cloudy and feels colder than the temperature indicates. Maybe because the humidity is high? The sun came out in the afternoon, and tonight we expect temps in the low 20's. 

I got into a little project yesterday. You know how you save recipes, expecting sometime you might use them? I had a folder full of loose pages torn from magazines or printed from online sources, and a notebook full too--all disorganized. So yesterday I pulled them all out, found another notebook and some file folders, and began sorting.

Four hours later, I was done. I have one notebook for baking, the other for meals. Now, let's see how many of them I use. Some I know I will because they're old favorites. Others? Well...come this time next year, I'll re-visit those notebooks and do some weeding of recipes that weren't used. The only problem i ran into is that the one bigger notebook doesn't fit in my cookbook cabinet. So now I have another problem to solve.

This was a sad moment. A Facebook group I'm on has a Secret Santa thing, and one person offered a not-so-secret giveaway of some beautiful glass. I was thrilled to be getting a gorgeous cobalt pitcher, about 100 years old. But this is how it arrived.

Wrapped only in a cut-open bubble mailer, and wrapped around with a feed sack, then placed loosely in a box to shake around all the way from Arizona. Really heart-breaking.

The snow is still with us, although it has melted a bit today. I stepped out last night to snap a photo of the Christmas lights under the snow. So pretty. 

Today we took the camera for a ride across the ridge, just to look at the snow.

This one is going up the driveway--somehow I have them out of order. You can see how much the snow has melted.

This area always drifts in when we have more than a couple inches. The neighbors have had fun busting through it.

I've been slowly getting the Christmas decorations out. I'm close to finishing up. It seems harder this year for some reason and I don't feel the usual excitement I always have this time of year. I am hoping the spirit will grab me when I get the tree up, but before I can do that, I have to finish painting a buffet that is right in the way. So, back to work I go.

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