Stories from Sweetgrass Farm: new snow and Valentines....

Friday, February 14, 2014

new snow and Valentines....

snow....snow...snow..... now, I know it's winter... I know we get snow, we live in the north, but it would seem that we are in a "every three days - a storm" mode... and it's ruining my dog training schedule!!!!

But, aside from the snow, it's the cold. We are breaking "cold" records all over the place, we usually get one or two really cold days, and then it's mild again, but this winter it seems that we have weeks of bitter cold.

The sad thing is, we are really chewing threw our wood piles... and since it's the only way that we heat this house.... that means something... we have a call into Rick for another order of wood... and not so sure that just one load will do it.

The doggies come in like moving mounds of snow. I am so happy for the cellar entrance way, because I can leave them to dry off some before coming up into the house. Saves on keeping the floors dry and clean for sure...

And the horses look about the same..

But they all have nice heavy coats, a warm barn to hide in

and plenty to eat.... goodness July seems far away when - it the heat of the summer - we were stocking the hayloft.....

I have been sticking to my "new year's resolution" of working on getting my "ufo's" (unfinished objects) done. Here's the latest in my long list of "to do's".... the funny thing about these projects is most of them are so close to done, and they needed just a few more hours to complete. I guess I just get bored when projects seem to go on "forever" and put them away.... but, new leaf!!!!

Aside from "regular" work, plowing seems to be Ed's main job this winter. I say this each year, but I am so happy that we have the equipment to move all this white stuff..... and between the farm and keeping the camp road open... there is always plenty of plowing to do after each storm.....

The wood furnace is working out so well, our house is always toasty and warm... but as I said earlier, the wood supply is "ify" right now....

and more plowing...... the banks are getting higher and higher.....

Morning walks to the barn are still wonderful though. For one thing, because the horses are waiting, it means I must go out each day.. and some mornings with this cold, it would be very easy to just stay in and hide.....

Almost every trip to the barn, Mona comes with me. She is the funniest cat... almost more like a dog at times....

We keep a careful eye on the bees.... so far, so good..... I like to go out to the hive... give a thump and hear them buzzing inside. Hopefully we'll get a warm day soon, so they will have the chance to fly.....

On Valentine's Day I had a chance to drop in and see Mom and Dad.... and we also had the chance to get all the little ones together. Sadly, this doesn't happen often enough, so it's just a matter of "making it happen".... family is too important to let time slip by....

They are all so cute together, and close enough in age that they enjoy being together.

Reagan has a birthday coming up very soon.... It's been such a fun year watching him change from that little new born into a little kid......

Got a call a few days later that our friends needed some help in getting hay. I love being able to "help out" and we dug out our big trailer and made a run for some round bales.

Though this trip went well.. I said to Ed that I feel so blessed that all our hay is tucked away in our barn. If we had to make hay runs like this all the time, it would get old fast. Besides, the price of hay in the winter is a whole lot different from the price of hay in the summer time!!!!!

But, I did take advantage of this trip and picked up some shavings for us. I bought a huge load of shavings late last summer and have just run out. It's much cheaper to buy it in big loads, but since my horse trailer would have to be dug out to do so.... picking up a few bales will work for now....