Ramblings

This evening I am sitting in our living room which is probably 80 degrees or so. The rest of the house is about 68. The fire feels so good. We got some good wood this last batch from a black locust that we cut down only a few months ago but despite it being fairly new wood, it's dry and is burning so long and hot.

I can sit on the couch and see the main road this time of year because the trees are leafless. Yesterday the big tanker trucks came by and sprayed salt solution on the roads in preparations for this storm moving through. I can tell how icy and slick it much be because the headlights move slowly across the width of the window. I was nice enough to park the Explorer in the garage so Jeremiah can take it tomorrow without having to scrape ice off the windshield. I'm wonderful right? I have chili simmering on the stove and it just smelled so so good. It was perfect...warm fire, simmering chili, cold cold cold outside and me...inside...warm, looking out into the cold. Perfect! 

I don't think it made it above 24 today...overcast and a bit foggy even, felt colder. It was flurrying snow and ice when Drew and I left for the grocery store this morning shortly before 9. They were salting the sidewalks when we walked in.

It was a busy busy day. We didn't arrive back home until 11 and after rushing groceries in it was time to get Drew back out the door to catch the bus, back in to put groceries away, bake a cake to take to Rachel's class and while it was in the oven, I hussled out to the goats with warm water though there wasn't any ice on their buckets. Being under shelter really keeps them from icing over even when the air temp. is 24 degrees out. They so appreciate the warm water.

I wanted to kill me some goats yesterday! I really should take the camera out when I feed. There's always something worth documenting. Yesterday I went out and the little angels had about 900 lbs. worth of straw strewn about!!! YES, that's NINE HUNDRED...with a 9 and then two zeros. We bought 2 large round bales of straw before the last storm. I opened one up to bed them down well and tried to tie a tarp around it. Goats decided they had to get underneath and check it out so I hauled 3 gate panels to it to make a pen around it with the 4th side being an unused pen's fence.

They hadn't touched it after the gates went up but that's because they hadn't been outside of the barn since the snow started falling 2 Mondays ago!! We finally got rid of most of the snow this past Monday when the temps warmed up and it took them a few hours to knock down the gates, rip off the tarp and have a 900 lb. bed of straw to lay on all day! Stupid goats. I didn't have the strength to throw it all into a tall haystack so I covered it the best I could and grumbled some choice words to them about it and almost didn't feed them dinner...I thought about all 12 of them BEING dinner...for me.

After the cake was done baking, I worked on getting some packages ready for mailing while they cooled. Then it was back upstairs to make frosting, take it to school, serve it and then rush back home with the kids after school let out. It was spitting ice when I went out to feed this afternoon. It hurts your face when you walk into the wind which is all the way out to the barn. I am dreading this storm. I'd much rather have the cold than the snow. I hate gearing up with boots to go feed, falling in snow, slipping, trudging, getting wet, falling, trudging, swearing...

Snow is hell. I freakin' hate snow! I would rather deal with negative temps than to have to trudge through snow so hopefully this storm doesn't dump much. Hard to imagine this place green and full of life with this crappy weather. On that note though, 2 weekends ago Jeremiah got the generator up and running. We needed a longer extension cord for it which ended up costing a fortune. He had to make it as I don't guess they sell generator specific cords with special generator plug things. He taught me how to hook it all up and run it. I wrote the directions down in case he's out of town or at work and I need to start it up...not too difficult and we can run everything but the dryer and the stove on it but that's why we have the woodstove and why I have been practicing cooking on it! Not to mention the fact I'd just assume hang clothes up around the house on hangers than use the dryer. I'm trashy, it's official.

As for stuff around the house...wood requirements are kicking our butts this year. Which, I guess, is to be expected. We're playing catch up...some day we'll be caught up on that front but one can only chop so much wood at a time.  This latest bundle we got, as I said, is burning so well. There's still a ton out there we just have to get it and getting wood gets old real quick when you know it's going to burned just as soon as you stack it...it would be nice to know that the work we're doing stacking wood will be for future use. ::Sigh:: Someday.

Still haven't painted anything but the basement...I wanted to get the kid's rooms done for Xmas but just too much going on. I did buy the paint for the 2nd basement room today though and we got it textured last Sunday. This weekend's chore is to prime and paint in there. I want to paint a wall in the living room red, the rest of them white or country white or something. I picked out the color today but will wait until I am ready to get it all mixed up...which I say is within the next two weeks but I've said that before too. I want to get this popcorn crap off the ceiling and can't really bare the thought of the mess just yet.

I made a big pot of beans last night for dinner. Simmered them with some pork steaks on the wood stove yesterday and was a bit afraid of how the whole meal would come out but it actually was pretty good. I cooked up some rice to serve the beans over the top, liquid was almost as thick as a gravy, had enough meat for a 2nd meal (tacos) later this week and plenty of beans for 3 meals worth...that's what I call cooking ahead. I used them in the chili tonight and can I just tell you how delicious it was!Well, it was delicious.

We went to Sam's club (Walmart's version of Costco) on Friday after the kids got out of school. It's in Wichita and most people would think that's a hop skip and jump away but I hate going down there. We bought the membership in August. We've never belonged to one of these big bulk warehouse stores because it was never worth it. We were a small family and we just didn't need the bulk. Now the bulk comes in handy for some things but I really think after all is said and done (membership costs and gas+time+hassle to go down there), it's not worth it!

I amaze myself at being able to memorize the prices of things that I buy to compare. There really isn't too much at Sam's besides yeast, Gatorade, a few herbs/spices and large cans of tomatoes that is cheaper. I hardly think those items are worth it! You'd think things like 3 dozen eggs and 50 lbs of flour would be cheaper at Sam's, but you'd be wrong. I did buy a big thing of All free and clear laundry detergent the last time I was there in August. Would you believe I am still using it? And it said good for 110 loads. HA! Little do they tell you their recommended amount is about 3/4 more than you really need, concentrated or not. I wash a whole years worth of laundry for about $20. I tried making my own soap once...for the effort, $20 is cheaper.

I dread waking up tomorrow to find my walking path out to the goats covered again in the white crap. I keep thinking spring though and maybe someday it'll be here. It kind of reminds me of the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Seven brothers went to town and kidnapped their beloveds, took them to the spread they all lived on but not before creating an avalanche in the pass stranding them on their "own side" until spring and preventing the townsfolk from coming to get their kinfolk. Anyway, the girls sing a song about the snow falling and falling and falling mentioning January, February, March, April, May...J.U.N.E and when you're, "about to forget the whole thing...all at once one day it's spring". I kinda figure it'll be like that here...or, you know, not. Whatever. Maybe this winter will just roll right into next and it will be like one long year in hell.

Past the children's bed time now and still haven't cleaned up from dinner. Been nice to sit here and just relax as I haven't, "had a chance to pick my nose all day let alone sit down for half a minute" as I so eloquently put it to Jeremiah when he asked how my day was. Well, the kids thought it was hilarious anyway.


Good night.

P.S. The phone rang a bit ago. It was the kid's school. The district is closed on Thursday due to icy road conditions. Free day for them. Not too long after we got another call from the Hutch. school district. I told Jeremiah all kids get a free day. But him? All teachers had to report. HA! What a low down mean and dirty trick. Course I told him the truth...only I have to wake up early and get to chores...just like every other day. Oh well, maybe we'll get the room in the basement primed and painted earlier than this weekend.