a pretty winter

These pictures were all taken last week. This week has been nice and balmy and a whole lot of our snow has melted. It feels better outside, but it's not nearly as beautiful. It's supposed to snow overnight, so we'll likely be coated in fresh white by morning.

This is Hattie's favorite place to be. She loves watching her brother and sister and yelling, "I-are! Eh-Eeh!" Also she can climb up onto anything now which makes life a little more intense. Thankfully she is proud and usually alerts me to her new position by clapping her hands and loudly announcing, "Ididit!" That's my cue to come from the other room to figure out where she is now precariously perched.

I've also figured out a good mom trick. Typically Ivar wants to stay inside and Elsie is up for going outside. But they both need some time outdoors so I have started telling them, "you just have to be outside for 10 minutes. I don't care if you stay in the warm room (heated a bit for the water spigot) in the barn and play with the cats the whole 10 minutes and then come back in." The mom trick is that the kids usually find something they're interested in like visiting the goats and sheep, riding their bikes in the barn, building baby snowmen, looking for possum prints or pulling each other in the sled. Those ten minutes never end up just ten minutes. But those ten minutes get them out the door.

Thankfully the ice didn't do any damage, so these pictures are still lovely to us. And the picture below is of a huge black walnut we had taken down because it creaked so badly. We were glad it came down on our time...look at how hollow that tree was!

And on a sad note, a coyote got into the chicken yard and ate one of our best layers! (Not Henny or Penny, Kathy!) Goldie (in the lower right) apparently didn't go back into the coop one night. We didn't see her but a coyote did. We've been hearing them each night and man coyote howls are ominous! The dog left tracks in the snow and some grey fur on the fence so we are pretty certain we know who to blame. But the very next day Rory put up an electrical mesh fence around the chicken fence, a motion-censored flood light and an animal cam. These chickens have never been so safe.

Other than that, January keeps marching along. I woke up with a terrible bout of Vertigo this morning. I am always so surprised when it hits because you never really plan it. It knocked me out a lot of the day, but finally this afternoon after a round of the awesome head exercises, I got everything set right in my inner-ear and life could carry on as usual. So I made spaghetti and cleaned the kitchen. And my "as usual" felt really good to do because I was healthy again. Funny how a sick body can throw everything back into perspective. There are so many things to be grateful for, especially a healthy body.