COLD

COLD!! We have been stuck in the 20's during the day and teens at night with no sun and no break from these temperatures.                 

It's good if your freezer dies or maybe you overstock and need some extra room in the freezer. Just stack it all outside. No problem. It stays frozen with no chance of a thaw.

I know, it is the middle of January and winter, but honestly, I could use a break. We even got the freezing rain today. Not only is everything frozen but now doors are frozen shut, and everywhere you step it's SLIPPERY.

I try not to be a complainer when it comes to the cold. I know I am not a cold weather kind of person and don't want to make it miserable for anyone else by my complaining. But a gal can only take so much without a break. I need some warm air!! Anything in the 40's would be warm and balmy right now. See, I'm not asking for much. I know what is a reasonable temperature for the season. Not really too sure about what Mother Nature's idea is about that reasonable temperature. Obviously we see things a little differently.                                     

I am however, a big dreamer. I am dreaming of warm 80 degree temps, soaking up those rays of warm sunlight, digging my toes into the warm soil and the warm, sweet smelling breeze blowing across the tops of the ripening wheat. Yep that's me over here, dreaming of summer. I am a summer lover and I know that soon my dream will come true. It's the being patient part that is the hard part.

Ice Magic

 Cold. Sums up our neck of the woods. Went out and took some photos of how cold it is here. Everything is covered in ice and has been for about 2 weeks.                  

This is water that was running out of the hill side. It was stopped in its tracks. Just like that. Zap!! Frozen.

Jack Frost has been doing some decorating here. I have to say, he did a pretty good job. This tree is absolutely gorgeous decked in all of its ice crystals. 

The countryside is quite pretty when it is all covered in white. Not just any white though. It is layers of ice crystals-we call it hoar frost. Something to appreciate even though it takes some pretty cold temperatures to get this look. I took it for granted (in the sense that I grumbled about it) until my Sister came to visit one winter. She was very taken with it and said it seemed so unreal and magical. I never looked at it that way until then. You know she was right. It is magical and not something you see all the time.

Quiet and Peacful Moments

I love waking in the early morning on weekends. For our house we have the weekends off. No hussle to get ready and out the door first thing in the morning.

I like to be up before everyone else in the house. It is so quiet and peaceful. There are few of those moments it seems.                                                                

These are a few pictures that I have taken where I have felt that quiet peacful feeling.

The golden sunlight in the evening as the sun sets and casts its golden rays across the countryside making everything drip gold. Love this time.                                 

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Antiques

    Barns. Old wooden barns. If they could speak, they could tell some stories. These are quickly becoming extinct. There is a movement to help preserve these 100 plus year old works of art. In their prime these barns were thought of as part of the workings of the farm. A necessity for daily housing of farm animals. Built by hand by the coming together of neighbors, friends and town folk.  

  Now days it's hard to come by these old wooden barns. We are lucky, we have a few scattered throughout the wheat fields and small towns. Some in better condition then others. Some still being used, some sitting lonely and forgotten. I love these old relics of the past. Of course I love antiques and living with them. So one of these old barns is the ultimate antique. 

                                                                                 

     The picture below isn't a barn, I know. But it is our First Christian Church here in  our small town and it's all wood. Over 100 years old and built in the same fashion as the barns. It has the original seating and wood floors and all of the stained glass windows are original except one. Pretty amazing. They just don't build things like they used to.

Let's Get Going

     I am so ready to get going. My mind is full of ideas and things that I am eager to get started on this year. Some are left-overs from last year that we were unable to accomplish due to life happening but I have a whole bunch more of ideas bouncing around in my head that are eager to make their way out and become more then just an idea. From visions of new flowers in the flower garden, coop improvements, adding chickens to the flock, to the Hubs and I throwing out ideas for all of the things we would each like to plant in the vegetable garden along with home maintenance, stripping paint from the kitchen cabinets, fixing up the dog house, planting trees and bushes, a new gas tank for our little VW Beetle (so she can be driven-what a gas saver she is), to new tires for our other vehicle and maintenance on the lawn tractor......I have so many things running  around in my head that want to get out. I am sure I will come up with more - oh, like what kind of roses I want to plant in the yard and doing an arbor for some climbing roses or maybe grapes, and a pathway from the patio to the coop....ok, ok, I'll stop but I think I have painted a pretty good picture here. Ready to get it in gear over here and get things going!