Snowy Saturday

We awoke this morning to find that it had snowed. The weatherman had been forecasting snow, but he was a little off in his prediction of 1-3 inches. We ended up with closer to 6. But since it's Saturday and I didn't have to drive to work in it, the snow was actually fun! So I put on my long underwear, grabbed the shovel, and the camera, and headed out for some fun in the snow. I had plenty of company.

Even Boots was out enjoying the snow. I love how Pepper leaves a path like a plow... and Boots daintily walks through the snow leaving perfect tracks.

Some scenes from the farm on this snowy day:

Ahh... the beautiful landscape. Wait a second... PEPPER- GET OUT OF MY STRAWBERRIES!

Our road. It's not plowed, but at least some of the traffic has made some tire tracks.

Pepper waiting by the door as if to say "Can we go in now?" You know what that means...

HOT CHOCOLATE!! Raspberry hot chocolate with marshmallows...in my Illini mug.

One must have the proper beverage to help with blogging on a snowy day!

Blazing Inferno

Along with the camera, another recent purchase is a wood stove for the basement. Previously, our basement had no heat. Which, as the person who does the laundry down there, can be rather chilly this time of year. As in...need to put on the coat before I go to start a load of whites...cold. It also makes the floors cold too (a minor downside to hardwood). So to solve both problems (and my griping), we purchased a lovely wood stove. Nick has been working endlessly in the basement to get a spot ready to install the woodstove....and tonight...he light the first fire.

Can't you just feel the warm radiating through the computer?? (I just love my new camera!)

Make no mistake... it's still a scary basement... but at least it'll be warm as I make my dash down to do the laundry. Turning the scary basement into a not scary basement is on the agenda... but for now, I'm just happy it's going to be warm!

Out with the old....

And in with the NEW! Camera, that is!!

For my birthday, Nick got me a new camera. It was backordered, so I've been not so patiently waiting for Mr. UPS man to deliver my birthday gift. He finally delivered!! And it's great! 10x zoom...10 mega pixels... oh how wonderful. It also has aperature settings and some other photography words that I don't know...but I'm going to find out!!

Good bye old camera... You've been faithful and forgiving...

Hello NEW camera!! I hope you're ready. We're have lots of pictures to take this year!

Update from Baby H.

Hello everyone!!
We woke up this morning to some snow and ice. I tried to convince my mommy to stay home for a snow day, but she said there was too much work to do to stay home. How unfun. I bet my grandma's would have let me stay home...
So instead I'm practicing my karate while Mommy tries to concentrate on the computer. Wax on... Wax off... Hi-Ya!
~Baby H.

What a week!!

What a crazy week! Monday was Nick's birthday. I am happy to report that I successfully made angel food cake from scratch. All credit goes to Nancy's recipe and her generous loan of her egg separator...and my mixer. Whipping those egg whites was actually quite fun! Monday afternoon we headed north to Indy. While I would like to say the trip was solely for pleasure, we had a conference on Tuesday. But we did enjoy a fantastic meal at the Weber Grill Restaurant. I highly recommend it!!

Tuesday through Thursday we absorbed all we could at Hort Congress. I look forward to it all year long- 3 days of veggies, fruits, farmers markets, and a trade show where I get to dream of all the stuff I'll need for my farm market. As a bonus, all this information is also helpful for work.


Thursday afternoon, we headed even further north to Illinois where we braved the ice to drop in on my dad. By the time we started, the ice had turned to rain and it was safe driving all the way up with the added bonus of pretty scenery. I don't like to be out in it, but the ice is pretty!!


While in Illinois we were able to catch up with my uncle Loren, aunt Sue, and cousin Chucky at Ziggie's. No trip to Mendota is complete without Ziggie's for breakfast! I've even got Nick hooked!


Congratulations to my little brother, Matthew, who had his first wrestling meet and won (he's the one on the left)! Good job, buddy!

Happy Birthday, Nick!!!

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday dear Nick!!

Happy Birthday to you!!

I love you! So do your dogs.

Poor Boots- Part 2

As you will recall...Boots is the cat that adopted us a couple months ago. After the new year, we discovered that Boots had an abscess on her hip. Thanks to some good advice from friends with cats, we took her into the vet and got her on her way to feeling better (yes, Boots is a her). Unfortunately, this morning when I went to feed her, the abscess was back and it was a whole new definition of gross. I should have known something was up last night when she only ate a couple of bites of her Friday treat of chicken and tuna wet food. So this time, Dr. Kevin is going to keep her until Monday so he can flush it out a couple of times.
I don't usually consider myself an indoor cat person...but for some reason, I'm incredibly attached to this one. In many ways, her personality is more like a dog than a cat. I'm trying to convince Nick that she'd heal faster in the basement by the wood stove, but he's not on board quite yet. When I asked if we could let Boots be in the basement with the wood stove, he asked if we could let Pepper live on the deck. Obviously, negotiations will continue on this topic.
Poor Boots... feel better soon!