snow pictures....

Anyone living here in the northeast will know what I'm talking about when I say, "enough is enough already".

Actually lots of folks across the country could say that this winter....

Little camper on the hill... home sweet home

plowing the "front yard"

I'd hang clothes on the clothesline if there were room

my little greenhouse frame is buried in the snow too awaiting spring

Just waiting for spring.

:)

Just a little new look

Thanks to Clover Lane's tutorial on how to make a collage and put it into your blog header, I was able to change the header and add a little "pizzaz" to this dull blog.

Thank you Sarah, and Carrie also who showed me where to go.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend all!

No pictures, just a little thought from my devotions this morning...

Jeremiah 31:3b-4a
...Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built...

This brought me to tears today.  Maybe the Lord will use it to speak to you in some way.

Planning for Spring

Sounds like a crazy thing to do on a day when we are expecting 18" of snow, but sure enough we must plan for the garden.  It has been a cold winter with a little snow almost every day, but thankfully that insulated our little camper and even when the furnace was nonfunctional for about a month, we were not too cold with just a little electric space heater.  We picked up our furnace on Friday last week and Mr. D was able to get it in again on Saturday.  It is working great.

On Monday we came home to frozen water.  I was just wrapping my mind around the idea of not having running water for the rest of the winter, when we discovered the problem was in the well house where a heat lamp bulb was broken when Mr. D was leveling the washing machine on Saturday.  After a night of the heat lamp being back on we have water again.  Yea!

I had a miserable cold all week end starting Wednesday afternoon.  It has cleared up good now.  I'm feeling almost 100%.  A cold that only lasts one week is a good thing.

So now on to more important stuff... planning the garden.   We have our seed order ready to go.  Mr. D and I went through all the seeds we would like to order this year.  I'm not getting huge amounts because our garden is quite small and we do save seeds.  We did purchase some Lutz Winter Keeper beets from Pine Tree Seeds. Mr. D thinks these are the best. 

From Gurneys we ordered:
Miragreen - peas
Gotta Have - It corn
Ozark Beauty - strawberries
Gentry Hybrid - summer squash
French Breakfast - radishes
and a Macintosh apple tree,  we are planting one fruit tree each year.
I wanted to order some more raspberries, but decided against it since they will be in here with an excavator this summer to get the work done, Lord willing, and I have not planting spot yet.

From R.H. Shumway's catalog we are ordering:
Herbs ...
   Sage
   Dill
   Basil
   Thyme
   Marjoram
Jacob Cattle - beans
Romano - pole beans
Straight Eight - cucumbers
Burgess Buttercup - winter squash

My mouth is watering already!  We have lots of winter squash seeds, lettuce, carrot, pak choy seeds left

Last year we had Ruth Bible beans which I really liked, so I saved some of those for replanting too. 

I started working on a reorganized gardening journal.  We've been keeping information in a wire bound journal and the only organization was by year.  We've been keeping poultry and garden (veggie and ornamental), all in one book.  It's getting hard to find information so time to overhaul the system.  I looked up some free pages online and printed a sample of each type of page.  Now I need to go down and get some copies made of each one and save the master copies for future entries.  I have a good size 3-ring binder for this, so it should be good for quite a few years.  Information we like to keep are:
Seed type
germination
yield
# of days till fruit develop (first picking).
recipes (how to prepare and how to can)
how long seeds can be saved (always date seed packets when they come in)
if the plants were started early then information about when to sow inside, how many days till ready to plant, success rate of transplants, etc.
if they are saved seeds then keep a record of which came from what season and picture or description of the fruit they came from - squash especially tend to cross pollinate and change over time.

There is also a garden map.  #'s corresponding to the # on the seed page keeps the map from getting cluttered.

We also keep track of how many quarts we put up so we can easily see if we need to plant more or less in the next year taking into account the growing conditions.

I also have pages of information on ideas to try someday.  Greenhouse plans, cold frames, fencing and trellis ideas, raised beds, controlling garden pests.  I want to add those into this book too with an index so that I can find them when I am interested in trying one.

We add compost and manure to the garden every year.  We also plant the garden in one or two days.  Memorial Day is the chosen day for us so we are 99% sure there will be no more frost.  Last year we hadn't tilled the soil completely before memorial day so we spent most of the day removing rocks and tilling.  Our garden in on a hillside with a small flat area on top.  Rocks have mostly been removed, but somehow there is always one more here and there to pick out.  The frost must drive them to the surface.

This year we want to get the tilling done earlier if possible.  That will depend on how wet the soil is.  We have a lot of snow on the ground and it has been a very cold winter.  I imagine there will be a longer time for thawing and drying out than usual.  If we can't till early I will probably hand turn the soil around the peas and other cold tolerant crops to give them a little head start.

This year we get to dig up the parsnips.  Yum!  They have been growing for two years now and they say to dig them up in the spring... if the mice haven't gotten to them yet.  I'm also excited to see how many of my herbs overwinter well.  I left some to reseed too, so we'll see what happens.  I'm also interested to see how our first apple tree does this spring.  It is small but produce one good sized apple last year.  The girls gave me this for Mother's Day last year.  We are adding a Macintosh to the mix this year.

We may have a few blueberries this summer too.  It's been a couple of years now and the bushes are strong even though they are small.  I hope they will start to produce well within the next couple of year.

So that is the plan.  What actually takes place is entirely in God's hands.  We plant and tend the garden, but God is the one who 'causes growth.  It's the same in our spiritual lives.  We can read God's Word and pay close attention to our testimony and our response to life events and people around us, but it is God who causes the growth.  He promises growth and maturity as we deal Biblically to the temptations in the way.

It is so hard sometimes to think the right thing during times of trial.  I am asking God for His grace dealing with  all the changes that will be taking place in the next year in our lives.  We will be taking on more debt with the refinancing of the house and land.  We will be hiring a contractor to finish the work, then there is the moving in process and all the repair that needs to be done in the house.  I don't expect it will be all done before we move in either.  It is exciting but just thinking about all the work that needs to be done is exhausting.  This year I have 2 weeks of vacation.  That will help much.  I may take a good chunk of that when we actually move into the home, so it doesn't get too overwhelming.

If you think of it, please pray that the move takes place this summer.  I am so ready to have my home back in one piece.

view of the woodpile from the top of the hill
all the wood is covered with roofing and blue tarp

this is the mobile home as it is now.  the porches are in the foreground
the roof will be higher on this side, so it is not on completely
the back has a complete roof.

So this is our home in many pieces so you get a visual of what's happening.  I will try to update now and then so you can see the progress.  

We have much more snow than this now.  Maybe I can snap some picture tonight so you can see how much.

13 DAYS! It can't possibly be that long since I posted here!  I've done nothing but sleep, commute, work, commute, eat, sleep, repeat.  I haven't even talked to any of my family since Christmas.  We've had LOTS of snow and the last storm gave us a little extra treat... ice.  On Wednesday I was driving Mr. D's car to work 'cause he was getting mine inspected.  After getting nearly all the way I stopped for gas.  When I did the car made this horrible clunking sound.  I thought for sure it was the CV joint and so I called triple A to tow it home.  2 hours later I was at work, but poor Mr. D had to pull the car all apart and work on that all day in the cold after I got him up at 5 to plow the driveway.  Thank you sweetie... I love you!

This morning we got up to another 5 inches of new snow.  We had run out of propane during the night, so there was no hot water.   The snow around the camper is up to my thighs now.  At 5 am trudging through the snow to light the water heater so I can have a warm shower worked better than the alarm clock.  I've been wide awake ever since :)

I have 4 gas cans and one 30lb propane tank to fill today and they are all in the back seat of my Neon.  On the way to work I discovered I hadn't taken the matches out of my pocket from lighting the water heater... so if I get stopped tonight on the way home... they're going to think I some sort of terrorist or pyromaniac.  YIKES. 

I've been thinking about things I could do this year to get a little more organized.  *chuckle*  I first of all got a small notebook and titled it "Household Management".  It includes such things as daily/weekly/monthly goals,  Bible reading schedule,  memory verses, notes from church and prayer requests, general information/phone numbers/phone card number and various other emergency information.  I am hoping this will make my life a little easier, but already the thing is BULGING.  I may need to get a bigger binder, but then I'd need a bigger thing to carry it in.  At my age, you'd think I could keep this stuff stored in my brain, but it seems the older I get the harder it is to remember.

The next step... get a good supply of string.  Problem is, I only have 10 fingers... or should I say 8 fingers, 2 thumbs.

Now for some pictures.  I haven't taken too many, but thought you'd like a few of snow and a couple of Christmas and maybe a few random shots. 

Here's Mr. D with his "Christmas Tree".  Of course we have no room in our camper for a tree, so he grabbed the flyswatter and stuck an ornament on it and proclaimed it to be our tree.

Thankfully Esther, a friend from church, came to our rescue and loaned us a very small tree... so here he is with the real tree.

On December 27th was Joanna's birthday and we decided to go do something together.  That day we got the first big snow and so we were delayed getting together, but we did get to a thrift store and KMart and a latte.  Here is her little camper in the woods when she got home...

Driving on all the back roads made for a fun night.  We have lots more snow now.  I'm sure her little camper is now well insulated.

This was the cross stitch I made for Mr. D.  I found this pattern of his favorite hymn and knew it needed to be done.  I will hang this in his office when we get into our home.

On Christmas Day we called Heather and Dexter.  We also talked for a little while to Brandon.  In some small way we are all together... Joanna, Doug and I talking on the phone to Heather.

Here's little Esther one of our neices, wrapped up in a blanket from Aunt Jean and Uncle Peter.  Perfect!  We had a wonderful weekend in Maine January 1&2.

Well, this post has officially come to an end.  I must return to my duties and have been having issues adding each picture today for some reason. 

Hope you are all staying warm.  Keep thinking about spring... it's just around the corner.  Break out the seed catalogs and a hot cup of tea and sit before a roaring fire dreaming about summer gardens.  Except the "roaring fire", I'll be doing the same.

Love y'all.

Cool Party and Giveaway....

Make sure you visit Prairie Flower Farm for a wonderful party.  If you have not signed up to get her email updates you're missing many encouraging words.  Make sure you visit today 'cause there's not much time left.

First Week

We had a wonderful trip to Maine last weekend.  I was a little shaky about going 'cause our little furnace still isn't working, but don't you know... God took care of everything.  We had weather so warm it felt a little like spring.  On Saturday Dad looked at the thermometer and it was reading 60 degrees.  The little girls wanted to go sledding, but came back in soaked 'cause the snow was melting furiously fast.  No need to worry about anything freezing here at home.  All my anxiety was for nothing.  One of these days I'll throw out all those anxious moments and realize that God is able.  How many, many times I have doubted.  I'm far worse than Thomas! 

I've been keeping up with my 90 day challenge so far... barely... hope I can keep up.  I've been giving our neighbor a ride to work in the morning which gets me up about an hour earlier than usual.  This is not a bad thing.  I just sit in the local coffee shop with a hot cup of morning coffee (the only shop that gives you a bottomless cup for .80 still), and pull out my Bible and read.  It's a little noisy, but after teaching school all those years I have learned to read or study with noise around me.  It's not ideal, but it works. 

It's been busy at work with a new logistics system in place and we're all trying to get used to it.  I am doing the daily upgrades on data entry such as new customers and gps locations making sure the orders are all entered correctly.  We generally take about 250-300 orders per day.  On any given day there may be 25+/- that have some errors.  Doesn't sound like much, but this new system must meld with the old, so all the data needs to be exactly the same.  Soon everyone will know how to enter data accurately and there will be fewer errors.

We've not had any significant snow since last weekend's thaw, so all around the chicken coop is icy.  We lost one poor hen who froze in the ice.  We didn't see her at first because  she had tucked herself in as close to the coop as possible, but apparently didn't have the strength to find the entrance.  Inside the coop is quite warm due to a deep litter.  That will all be cleaned out in the spring and we'll start building it up again in preparation for next winter. 

Seed catalogs have come and we've been shopping a little for the garden.  We do save seeds, so thankfully there isn't need for much this year.  With all the mechanical repairs that need to be done, we have a much depleted budget.  I did order some new items and also some strawberries and raspberries.

I promise to have picture on the next post.  I mistakenly left my laptop in Maine.  Mom and Dad are bringing it back when they come back in a couple weeks. 

A friend of mine emailed me this funny about a week ago.  Thought it would make you smile today and no, I am not eating donuts with my coffee... we have plenty of that at work.