Snow Day!

After a week of freezing rain, we finally have snow!!

The dogs had so much fun playing in it!

Dogs playing in the snow

I had fun throwing snowballs for them to chase, they never found them.

The chickens were not sure what to do with the snow.

Chickens eating snow

Winter Weather and Spring

Thanks to some winter storms, we are living in a nasty winter wonderland. If it has to be this cold I’d love snow, but instead we got ice and cold rain.

The weather deceived me, Saturday was so warm I didn’t need a jacket, then it’s so cold there is ice on all the trees and I have hidden inside the house.

            Every living creature here wants spring. The chickens are not happy with the cold dreary weather, they have in fact tried to come inside. The dogs want to play outside but quickly come back to the fire. The ferrets… well they snuggle under the blankets and ignore us, so maybe they don’t care. But I do! I want warm weather, flowers, plants, and Spring!

            And worse it turns out that technically my wedding is in winter. I think of March as spring, but my friend told me it is technically still winter. L I had wanted a spring wedding… so I pretend it is and have spring flowers and colors.

            And worse than my wedding being in winter, this spring there will be no baby chicks! With 7 chickens already we don’t have room for more, so no spring chickies this year.

           

            The idea of no baby chicks makes me wants to search out and buy land immediately. Baby chicks are my weakness and I need more! And if we get land I can get other baby animals… all baby animals are my weakness and I tend to come home with them.

           

            For better of worse there is no room for any more animals so I try very hard to resist the urge to bring home animals. We will see how long it lasts…

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! Or slightly belated Valentine’s Day.

We had a busy Valentine’s day.

My ideal Valentine’s would have been to sleep in late, have a leisurely breakfast, spend a peaceful day doing nothing and then have a nice romantic dinner.

Instead we had to wake up, drive to Memphis and drop my car off at the dealer for service. Luckily nothing major was wrong, Happy Valentine’s day to me. Then we went and bought a new suite and shoes for Vince for the wedding. He will look so snazzy, Happy Valentine’s day to Vince.

sneak peak!

We finished the day with Mexican with my parents, Happy Valentine’s Day to us all.

My Sweet Vince gave me be roses and chocolate covered strawberries for valentines.

I made him Socks.

Basket Weaving and Living Off-Grid

I made the red one and Vince made the blue one

I meant to post this earlier but life got in the way.  Along with taking the spinning class at the Oxford Fiber Festival, Vince and I took a basket weaving class. My mom was supposed to take it with me, but she was sick so Vince and I used it as a fun date. I should mention he was really good at basket weaving!

            We learned how to make an egg basket, which is designed to safely hold the eggs being gathered from the coop. I must admit the only reason I wanted to take the class was because it’s an egg basket and I have a love of all things chickens.

            Basically the design of the basket allows the eggs to gently roll around without breaking, YAY! Now if only someone would lay an egg so I can test my new basket!

            The lady who taught the class was a wonderful teacher and such a cool lady. Because of the nature of basket weaving there was time to talk. She told us how she lives completely off grid and has since she was about 16, and that her father built her cabin from trees they processed at his sawmill. When she first said off the grid, I thought solar power and well water. It turns out she means no power at all! No fridge, dishwasher, washer (she says you miss this the most) or dyer. That week my dishwasher broke and I freaked out after two days without it, clearly I would not do well without any power. However, I did notice she mentioned lecture series she had recently listen to and she seemed to have learned a lot from them about ancient Greeks, so she is clearly spending her time being more productive than me. She was interested to ask Vince about teaching Latin to younger kids, and her knowledge of ancient Greeks was impressive.

            I’d love a life with less media and electronics, I’d love to spend my time perfecting useful skills, but I need my fridge, dishwasher, and washer! … And I really love Netflix… I don’t want to live without Netflix...