The Snowstorm that wasn't a "Hooey!"

I guess the scientists have taken to naming storms.  The ice storm was apparently christened with the name Gemini, and this huge dump of snow we received over the weekend has the appellation of Ion. 

Whatever the title of this storm, it sure was a doozy.  Saturday, Faith and I were discussing the supposedly upcoming snow storm. We thought it was rather silly how they were making such a big deal of it, and thought it was just because people were still scared after the ice storm.  So when we headed off to bed, I told Faith that I was convinced that this storm was "hooey!" (an expression from our new favorite movie) and that we would wake up with barely any snow. Sunday morning I walked into the kitchen, and Faith looked at me and said, "the storm was no hooey." 

And it sure wasn't.  That morning we had already accumulated 5-6 ish inches of snow, and it was still coming down!! 

Paths were quickly dug so that we could make our way to the animals; the sides of our walkways piled up to a couple feet. 

Sadie Rose thought that while this snow was very exciting, and she did like jumping in it and "swimming" through it for a time, she really would like it better looking out from the inside!! :) 

We cleared the driveway... once in the morning... again after noon... and finally at night we cleared off another 5 or so inches, and didn't make it inside till nearly mid-night!  =D 

The next morning our total was probably around 12-15 inches; it was hard to measure because of the drifts. 

It was SO deep in spots, and very beautiful.   But as the day wore on the tempurature began to drop... and continued dropping.

It was in single digits and super blustery, but the animals had to be taken care of, so out we went into the frigid world. 

Sadie loved dashing up and down the paths while we were out; her eyebrows were frosted over making her look like a raccoon. :) 

After shoveling the driveway multiple times the sides had grown into mountains.  We had to cut through one of the mountains to make a way for Faith to get to her bird feeder.  Therefore we dubbed it "La Birdie Pass".  :)  

We hope you all are staying warm and safe during this frigid weather (it was -14 this morning) and if things do warm up and melt this weekend as they say, we will have our canoe for rent. :D

~Chs

The End and the Beginning

Another one of our families' traditions is having a fancy meal New Years Eve to celebrate God's goodness in the past year.

We always have fun making it as fancy as possible, pulling out all the good china, crystal, and decorations.

The Menu:

Apple Cider

Cream of Chicken Soup

Brined Roast Duck

Butternut Squash

Sauteed Broccoli with Almonds and Bacon

Fresh Cranberry relish

Orange Apple Stuffing

Cream and Jello Dessert

While we digested the delicious repast (or "good grub" as Dad called it :) ) we had fun remembering through the past year, recalling some of the firsts, events and fun happenings of 2013.  Later that evening we splurged on a decadent dessert - Homemade Chocolate Eclairs. I had some lovely photos of that delightful dessert, but somehow they were lost in cyber space.

Being the old fogies that we are, we didn't stay up til midnight. We had somehow lost the fascination of that when we "grew up" and really couldn't see why we should lose a good nights sleep, so we went to bed late for us, around 11ish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breakfast the next morning was simple, but the best!  Soft, silky, flaky Currant Buns, with fresh Organic Oranges.

One of our more recent traditions has been to go on a New Year's morning walk.  This year's was a little later due to some of our morning schedules, but at 10:30 we headed out to meet Mr. Reiche at Lake Minnewanna hiking trails.

Josiah proposed taking a shortcut across the lake, and had to chop a hole into it to find out just how thick the ice was... after we had already all walked out on the lake. :P

One of the main reason for choosing these trails was that we remembered there being slopes covered with Wintergreen plants.  We found the little hardy green leaves, but the berries had all disappeared.  No matter, the leaves almost taste just as good, so we collected some of them for use at home.

Sadie Rose had LOTS of fun sprinting over hills and dales, and dashing across the lake.  It was beautiful, if a bit freezing, and we all enjoyed are walk immensely and went home with appetites well sharpened.

Good thing too, because we had over 2 months worth of cheese, crackers and other snacks hidden about the house being saved for this momentous occasion.

Josh and Theresa joined our family and Mr. Reiche for an enjoyable luncheon while we watched Captains Courageous (again... I told you it was one of our favorites!).  We munched, played games, laughed and talked all afternoon.  Faith of course looked through her seeds and catalogs (another New Year tradition) and Josiah and Mr. Reiche looked through the pile of coins that had been emptied and counted out of the various change jars, and banks around the house (yep every year!).  Our party was briefly broken up, when I had to run off to work, and Mr. Reiche made a visit back home, but it soon revived with some new additions.

We were very happy that both the Roehrer and Bryson families were able to join us for fellowship and fun that evening.

It had been a long time since we had a gathering of this sort, and it was a delightful time with a very full house! :)

We are so grateful for the blessing and guidance of our Creator through 2013 and are looking forward to all that he has in store for our family in 2014!!

For 2014 here is my prayer (borrowed from C.H.Spurgeon)

"May January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus."

~Chs

The Week Before New Year

Throughout the years our family has gathered a growing amount of year end traditions.  Some of them were deliberately created, others just kind of grew of themselves and we adopted them, and of course they have all been adjusted and "trimmed" to fit the years and our shrinking amount of people at the homestead.  One of our traditions is that the week or so before New Years, we begin what we call, for the lack of a better name, "special days".  Basically, each member of the family gets one day (or portion of the day actually) to choose an activity that they would like to do in particular.  

This year we had everything from, Bible name word games, {Dad}

...delightful, yet treacherous hikes through the wondrously white world, {Josiah}

...miscellaneous word and complex number games, {Mumsie}

...making and decorating gingerbread creations, and drawing games,  {Christianna}

...a visit to the Sloane Museum (which was VERY interesting), {Faith}

...and for the final day before New Years Eve, Charity introduced us to the 1937 version of "Captains Courageous," which has become one of our favorite movies.

It was a lovely, entertaining, and educational week, and a wonderful end to 2013.

~Chs

A Simple Prayer for the New Year

The other day when I was helping my Aunt Carmen, I came across this beautiful poem in a frame standing on her bookshelf.  I know I have heard it before, but I read it anew and was struck with the truth of it, and thought it would be a wonderful year end, and new year beginning prayer to meditate on.

"LORD, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred... let me sow love.

Where there is injury... pardon.

Where there is discord... unity.

Where there is doubt... faith.

Where there is error... truth.

Where there is despair... hope.

Where there is sadness... joy.

Where there is darkness... light.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled... as to console.

To be understood... as to understand.

To be loved... as to love.

For

It is in giving... that we receive.

It is in pardoning... that we are pardoned.

It is in dying ... that we are born to eternal life!

St. Francis of Assisi

The Ice Storm Part 3: {Return}

Though the sunset was certainly peaceful and beautiful that Tuesday evening as soon as it slipped behind the horizon, the temperature plummeted.

By 9:00, when the guys went out to re-fill the generator for the night, it was a "roasting" negative 2 degrees!  It snowed throughout the night, and when we woke in the morning there was a lovely layer of snow on top of the ice.  

Thankfully it warmed up during the day, and that afternoon we were able to go on a delightful (if somewhat acrobatic) hike.  But more on that later....  The evening went as it had for the past few days, and we were just sitting down to dinner (planning to check on the generator right after) when we received THE call......

The Power had....

Returned!!!

We were very grateful to the mercies of God for the safety we enjoyed during our three and a half day power outage, and for the beauty he created.

~Chs

The Ice Storm Part 2: {Company}

 After the power officially was out, we ran upstairs to start our generator, and then finished our time of worship together.  Later that day we received a call from Grace.  They (Grace, Tim and Julian) too were out of power, and unlike us didn't have a generator, so it was getting rather cold and dark in their house.  We quickly offered that if they wanted to they could come over and spend the night, since we at least were able to have hot water and run the furnace. We were thrilled when they agreed, and that evening we had company.

Grace brought along Shine, a very sweet Golden Retriever, with her, and Shine instantly fit in, looking for people to pet her and a warm place to sleep. :)

Julian was thrilled to be able to stay at "the farm" but unfortunately his favorite person, "Uncle Dewey" (Josiah) had to go to work on Monday.  So Julian hung around with me for the morning while we waited for Uncle Dewey to get home.  We played with Magnets, making all sorts of neat wheels and pyramids.

Then we got out the Dominoes and had fun making shapes with them for a while.  Soon after lunch Josiah returned and he and Julian had fun all afternoon building, playing and creating stuff.

Sadie Rose came in to say Hi! and at first she wasn't so sure about the visitor, but after a little bit, she and Shine became rather good, if slightly nervous, friends!

That evening after supper we called Mr. Reiche and went over to introduce Julian to the famous sled run!

Mr. Reiche had put all his lights on, and they were even more beautiful than usual with a layer of icicles and snow on all of them, giving them a beautiful glow.

Julian went down first on Uncle Dewey's back, and then repeated the experiment with his Daddy, enjoying it immensely.

Even Grace was persuaded to take a run down with Tim. (I think they screamed more than Julian... :D )

After quite a few runs down with the sleds we headed out back for the zip line, and had a blast pulling people up, and riding down.

Julian even went down backwards twice with Uncle Dewey!

We headed home, worn out, but happy, after a fun as always time at Mr. Reiche's sled run.  Our second day (first full day) without power ended.

Tuesday dawned, and we were still powerless.  But it really didn't bother us too much.  Julian was happy he got to stay longer, and due to the wonderful gift of a large generator and house hook up, we could pretty much do anything we wanted, in reason. (Mr. Generator would give us the fits each time we turned on the stove, or oven, and the time we dared to try to do both.... well he got so mad he blew the fuse!!) 

Grace and Tim had to head off for work back in Swartz Creek and to check on their house, and I was gone in the morning at the barn I work at, but back on the farm, Uncle Dewey and Julian were busy creating.

On Monday when Julian and I were playing with the Dominoes, Charity had found some videos of some pretty awesome domino creations.  Josiah of course was not to be out done, so he helped Julian create one of his own!!

That afternoon the sun began to phase in and out, and I ran outside each time it peeked to try to catch the glimmers and sparkles on the ice covered branches.  I failed.

But the sky was blue above, and the temperature just a tad warmer than it had been.  In all, it was a lovely day!

Later on, Grace called letting us know that they had power back at their house, and would be back soon to pick up Julian, pack up and head back.  Julian had to get at least one more Lego Soccer game in with "Uncle Dewey" before they left.

It was a blast having company for a couple days, and hopefully it won't always take a power out to get them to come again. :P

The day ended calm, sublime, and peaceful, with a dazzling sunset, and we headed off to bed.... still to the hum of our faithful generator.

~Chs