When winter stops you cold...

I was just about to start this post, and I noticed that my previous post was about being unprepared for winter.  Interesting.  Since that first storm, we've lost power 3 more times, and amassed about a foot of snow -- then it was almost 60 degrees today (and we lost power...hmm...).

The latest storm came to us on the day before Thanksgiving. I'm sure you heard about it on the news or were a part of it if you live on the east coast. It wasn't anything out of the norm except that it happened before December...barely.  Anyway, I'm not here to write about a storm, but rather the effect of having said storm and what it does to our life.

Since we've lived here on the farm for the past 2 years, I have really come to enjoy the winters.  I think that many farmers feel this way -- it's a time to reflect on the past growing season, take stock of what worked and what didn't work, and start planning for next year.

That being said -- we had many more things on our "before winter" to do list.  We make a lot of lists in this house, and if we get to everything on the list before the predetermined deadline, then it's a lucky day.

Anyway, the storm arrived the day before Thanksgiving, and we lost power at about 6 pm.  We are fortunate enough to have a wood stove for heating our house and for cooking (though we have a gas range, so we could cook without the wood stove), a composting toilet, and a generator.  Usually, when we lose power, we only use the generator for a couple hours at night to let the water pump more water up from the well, and to use lights for reading or whatever (though we have definitely embraced candlelight).

We LOVE our Waterford-Stanley! In the winter, we cook almost exclusively on and in this stove, and it keeps our house so warm!  It is Dec. 1, and we haven't turned our heat on yet.

It was already our plan to try to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal in the wood stove, but without a back-up, the challenge was even more fun.  We learned with this power outage that none of the outlets in our kitchen is connected to the generator. Excellent. When making the pumpkin pie using our long pie pumpkins, I thought about moving the stand mixer into the living room to blend the squash smoother, but I figured people could handle some chunks -- and they could. Dinner was a success, and everything cooked swimmingly in Stanley. I think we'll do it again next year, power or no power.

It was really the day after Thanksgiving that struck me as wonderful.  I've been making a conscious effort to change my thoughts and my perspective trying to shift it toward the positive, and Friday morning was the perfect opportunity.  After cooking all day the day before, I was tired, and I was looking forward to a lazy day by the wood stove.  The dogs, however, we unfazed by me being tired or by the fact that there was a foot of heavy snow on the ground.  Anna was working, so I couldn't even pawn the dog walk off on her.  So, we went for a snowshoe.

It was glorious.

At first, I was grumbling about being cold and tired, but then I decided to stop and really look at where I was.  This is what I saw.

Clearly, the dogs did not need a shift in perspective to enjoy this walk.

I mean, really? I live here?!?!  How fortunate am I that I get to walk out my front door to this? The vast majority of people have to drive to get somewhere like this.  I spent the rest of the walk marveling at the beauty of the snow on the trees with the sunlight all around.

When I got home, I made some tea and cozied up next to the window for some quality reading time. One of the perks of farming is the off-season.

Wake up. Coffee. Dog walk. Yoga. Read. Dog walk. Read. Bed. Repeat.

Can't complain about that to-do list.








......also we cut firewood at some point...there's that.

Gratuitous dog and snow photos...

Baxter's favorite toy -- Chuck.  He flips it around, does back flips to catch it, pounds it into the snow, and then roots it out with his nose. Best. Day. Ever.

Really, he loves the snow, we promise.  Oliver's answer to this predicament....more rolling in the snow!!!!  As soon as the snow hits the ground, he starts rolling.  He usually doesn't make it 100 yds up the driveway without rolling. Adorable.

The view from our deck. Can't complain about that.