Beauty or Beast?

Beauty or Beast--you decide! :)



We are to get more snow this afternoon. I was kindly alerted to the fact when Patricks' cell phone went off (beep-beep-beep!) at 4 am with a weather warning/alert/update. As I try to get back to sleep, another beep series as a reminder of a text message was there.....I gave up and got up.
(By the way, I got these photos of the snowflakes off of WeatherUndergrounds' awesome photo gallery.)

It has been chilly, altho Monday was a high of 44, melting my pathways enough to make them sheets of ice by the time the sun went down and it cooled off (fast I might add).

On a lighter note--the neighbor told her 4-year old he had a cowlick this morning. He mentioned he'd been to my house and "Dolly did it". :) Kids, you gotta love 'em!

Kyle quit his one job and will just work at Pizza Hut for now. (yeah!) Less for me and him to deal with.
Monday Patrick and his mom went to see Aunt Elenora. She is tired, but holding her own for now.
Jared got a TV given to him, so requested our "old" Xbox and some games. At least he won't be bored when he has time off!

I spent Monday working on laundry catch-up and cleaning out the fridge. The dogs and cats loved me! HA Then I'd created a monster load of "stuff" to wash from doing that. Oh well! I also got Jerky ready and started to dehydrate it. Won't last long around here! :)

A wonderful article I came across this morning from the Small Farmers' Journal.
Congo Farm Project-From Starvation to Sustainability
http://smallfarmersjournal.com/congo-farm-project-from-starvation-to-sustainability


Enjoy!

Musings and Bummer News

I'm tired of snow pictures, so dug this one up from this past fall. It's a river we cross on the way to a friends' house.

We've warmed up to the high 20's, but don't think it will last long. Predictions are another Arctic Blast to come for the 22-23. Hope they're wrong! ;)

Morningland Dairy had court the 11th and 12th, not sure the outcome thus far.....I haven't heard anything.

Fuel prices are up, grain prices are slowly rising, cattle prices are excellent (and have been for awhile). This means more $$ for the consumer. Milk prices are holding steady, but it takes more fuel costs to get it to its destination, hence rising retail prices. Sadly, many of the price increases aren't paid to those who grow/harvest/milk/etc. Its absorbed by those transporting and processing and packaging it to sit on the shelf for you to buy. :(

After stuffing our freezer full (and do I mean FULL!) with the latest beef (Porterhouse the steer--no, its not for sale either!) :) I am planning on dehydrating more veggies this summer to save room in the freezer. I also need to get a 'freezer replacement' growing. Since it takes time for them to grow, we'll have to be careful with what we have to last us.

And canning, oh boy do I plan on canning lots more. The weather this year wasn't so agreeable for some things, so am hoping for a better growing season/year this year. I ended up canning 3-4 quart batches at a time just to get things preserved. (I usually do 12-14 qts at a time normally. If I'm going to make a mess, I might as well make it worth my effort-ha!) So we have some interesting variations on our salsa, since I did scaled-back batches. :)

Jared has a 4-day weekend (lucky him!) and has been searching for a used car. He asked me to help him find some real milk in the area....so we are working on that.

Kyle has been pestering Q-tip and she just eats it up. That cat owns him, not the other way around!

Patricks' (very Loved) Aunt Elenora, well, we just found out earlier this week has an un-operable (think I spelled it right!) brain tumor. The outcome isn't good, and a short one at that. She's been moved to a Nursing home in Lincoln. Pat's mom and brother Mike have been visiting her alot since the weather has calmed down. (Mike is laid off [factory closed down], so am glad he can help out right now!) Needless to say, its hit everyone pretty hard. Keep her in your prayers, please!

Snow Day(s)

Dolly giving Anna a bath while it was still snowing Monday morning.
A view from my kitchen window early Monday morning--at the corner of the deck is a smaller rain gauge I have. I went outside and took a kinda-sorta reverse photo. ;)


We managed to get over 7" of snow Sunday thru Tuesday morning. Now the bitter Arctic cold is here.....sunny this afternoon with a high of 6*, but the windchill is -15*.


School was cancelled Monday, so Kyle went sledding and then he and his girlfriend watched "A Beautiful Mind". Ky had recorded it, and kept pestering us to watch it, finally we did. Not something I'd normally figure a 17 year-old would watch, let alone want us to watch it, but it was good. (I don't watch too many movies....and hadn't heard of it. Come to find out, it was made in 2001, starring Russell Crowe.) We had a free Starz weekend on the TV, so I managed to record a few more movies, now I can watch them at my leisure.



Jared didn't have any classes Monday or Tuesday either, due to the storm they had. He said they'd gotten 5 inches of snow. He's been studying for some tests they are going to have.

They have been warned that the first 3 weeks of February they are going "camping out"--I guess to do more training.

He has been selected to be the Saw Gunner--he'll carry an M249 Saw Gun (its a "light" machine gun--look it up, its pretty intimidating) complete with 200 rounds. The whole thing weighs 22#, not including more extra ammo. His vest pack (he's modeling it in the photo) can weigh 45 pounds itself, not including any other items he'll need in his backpack, which can easily weigh over 50#. None of this weight includes his bullet-proof vest, which also weighs 15-20#.

And that's the update for today! ;)

At the bus station in Kansas City, getting ready to head back to Ft. Bragg. :(
We saw some very interesting people, shoes/boots (one gal looked like she'd skinned Bigfoot and stuck its fur on her boots.....seriously!!). And even more interesting hair colors and hair styles. It was a reminder of why I don't follow/care about "fashion trends"--it totally trumps common sense and practicality! ;)




There was plenty of Nap Time around here over the Holidays!! Jared's cat Tig sure missed him...but you can see she turned 'traitor' and slept with Kyle and Q-tip as well!

New Year Bovines

Happy New Year Everyone!! :)

Anna is on the left, Dolly on the right, eating the last of the hay out of the "hay wagon" Patrick built last year. I took this from my kitchen window with the zoom lens, hence why its a bit fuzzy.

A quick post to show you how small (short) Dolly is, that is a full grown white hen (left) and my big Buff Orphington rooster (on the right) in the photo.

The New Year is proving to be a busy one already.....more updates/photos to come later this week! :)