Monday, February 8, 2016

Black and White with a Splash of Color

We've been getting a bit of snow over the last few days which is finally starting to pile up and making it look like a real winter around here.  Yesterday we had that strange occurrence where it rained for a period of time with snow falling both before and after.  So, of course, we discovered when we went out for chores and clearing snow this morning that there was a coating of ice underneath the snow everywhere.


This is our back yard when we first started plowing this morning.


Our wood working area in the back is slowly being covered over with a blanket of snow.  Those maple logs are 16' long and many of them are a foot in diameter.  I'm encouraging Papa Pea not to order firewood again from the logger who delivered these.  (They were supposed to be "small" logs.)  Once the big logs are chainsawed into pieces, they have to be split, more than once, and most of them are so heavy we can't lift them up onto the splitter, but rather have to roll them up a plank.  Oooof.  Not looking forward to working up this pile in the spring.  The wood will eventually yield lots of BTUs, but it will take a bit of work to get it to that point.


I snapped this right after I had shoveled the deck and walkway.  You can see the frosty coating of ice I couldn't remove.


To add a little color to this post, last night I finished the second two pairs of mittens on a string for the twins.  They've gotten used to the mittens that "won't go away" and their auntie and nanny both love the way there's no more hunting for mittens for those four little hands when getting dressed to go outside.  I made these a little bigger than the first ones hoping they would still fit the two little munchkins next year.  Wishful thinking? 

8 comments:

Sandy Livesay said...

Mama Pea,

Lot's of shoveling and plowing you've been doing. Time to stay inside to keep warm, and maybe work on projects in your quilt room :-)
Love the mittens!!!! Winds were bad here with a chill 40 degrees. With all the wind we ended up losing 13 shingles.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Love those mittens. What a treasure for them to have. We haven't gotten snow yet this month. I've seen robins, large amounts of birds, and my bulbs are trying to bloom. Crazy. I heard cold weather returns this next weekend.

gld said...

The mittens are pretty enough to hang for decoration on the wall!

Be careful on the ice!

Think of all the body heat you will create working up that wood. WE are sitting here with about 2 cords of dry oak but are afraid to us the wood stove because of Max's emphysema. IO love wood heat.

How do you circulate it to the rest of the house?

Susan said...

We FINALLY got some snow - about 4". I feel better now. Love, love, love those mittens!

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - We had a wind chill warming here yesterday and today also. Morning chores had to be done in phases as we both had to come in a time or two to warm up our hands. It was a good day to be inside!

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - I've heard of a couple of different area in the country that have had bulbs trying to bloom. That's never a good sign this time of year. Yes, crazy!

Mama Pea said...

gld - Such nice words about the mittens! Thank you.

Yes, I know wood heat can bother folks with emphysema like your Max or asthma or other respiratory problems.

It continually amazes us that we have no fans or such to circulate the heat in our house. We have the stove in the kitchen and the one in the living room and the radiant heat from them just seems to permeate the house. We do have a floor register in hubby's office which is directly above the living room stove. The heat rises naturally to heat his office. The only room the heat doesn't get to is my quilt room in which I have a baseboard electric heater that heats the room up in a matter of minutes. Somehow it just all works!

Mama Pea said...

Susan - Whew! Now it's finally winter for you!

Thanks for the nice words about the mittens. The tiny twins are coming for a visit Thursday morning and will get them then.