Sledding In The Blizzard

Mommy, Can we go sledding with you? 

Honeys it's a blizzard out there. 

Mom. PLEASE!!! 

Silence. 

OK.

We had at least 6 inches of snow down so far and the wind had whipped it into huge drifts. It was light powder snow, perfect for Wipe Outs. The boys had both received snow sliders for Christmas from their aunt and uncle. These completely surpass the crazy carpets we have. Oh my goodness they are a blast! They are the shape of a body board with the hard styrofoam and a crazy carpet bottom. In no time I had the boys scooting down the slope on their knees with no hands. So much fun. After a number of runs I felt it was time for a bigger challenge.

Anyone want to go up to the field?

YES!!!!

We had been quite sheltered down at the house so the wind was a lot stronger up on the slopes. My only rule was you must fall down at a designated point so you don't hit the fence line. 

The boys did great and I took the prize of the best crash when I caught an edge and went rolling down the hill, snow flying everywhere. Eek!

When the snow turned to ice pellets we started the trek back to the house using the boards to shelter our faces. The last little bit back to the house we sledded down, Anthony on one board and Navarre climbed on with me on the other. I think we were out there for about 2 hours in the blizzard. Crazy Mommy. We were exhausted from climbing back up the hills countless times and our cheeks were so rosy. We all had huge smiles. 

Just another cool part of our farm, fantastic sledding hills.

Pipe Dreams

I'm not sure I would say I've attained a new skill but the plumbing is fixed! That was an experience. I'm happy to say I never lost my cool, however the sanity and judgement of the people who installed the plumbing in the first place was certainly called into question numerous times. 

It was crazy. One joint I'm sure was held together by will alone as when I gently pulled on it to test for leaks it fell apart! During the "operation" I found another leak in the middle of a tangle of pipes which reminded me of an old computer game called Pipe Dreams. 

In the end I had to rip down part of a wall behind the spiral staircase to reach the pipe to cut at a suitable location. This will enable me to later rerun the pipes and reattach the washing machine which had it's hook ups behind the staircase! Comedy of Errors. 

The bad part from all this was realizing just how badly I need to replace the plumbing. Finding out that none of the secondary cold shut offs work with the main one looking questionable is a little unnerving. The good part is I stepped up and dealt with the issue and Voila! It's fixed! Somewhat temporarily, but it's fixed! 

Happy woman. Time for a glass of relaxation.

Is That... Water Running?

We were rushing out the door yesterday when I heard something. It was the sound of water running. Leaning my forehead on the wall I said to myself "Please, please let that be either the toilet running or the tap upstairs." No luck. Groaning I grabbed the flashlight and started investigating. I discovered the shut off the valve to the future downstairs toilet had blown and had a steady leak. Great. 

The really annoying part came when I tried to find a shut off valve. Appearently there is none for that end of the house. Good grief. I turned off the shut off next to the kitchen but alas cold water still flowed freely from the kitchen sink when I checked. Down in the cellar I found the next shut off. Guess what! That one didn't work either! I find myself back down in the cellar looking at the main shut off observing the huge amount of rust on it. I take a deep breath and turn the valve, then head back up to check the taps. Thank goodness it worked.

Heading home today I'll be stopping in at my local hardware store for supplies and then finding the hacksaw. Time to learn something new.

Eggs and the cold

Farmer Tip: When you have eggs in your pocket be careful bending over! 

The weather has been freezing. I've been holding my own in the house with the battle of keeping the boys and myself warm. The wind the other night certainly didn't help. I have the Klachofen burning hot and the oil heat up when we are home. I've plastic'd off the mudroom as the floor isn't insulated, moved a carpet into the kitchen and made great use of duct tape. The kids come downstairs in the morning wearing slippers and sweaters. They are well trained. Hot breakfasts are a must and Anthony is back enjoying tea with his Mommy. The kids love having oatmeal as they can switch it up everyday with some new topping and also that they get to make it mostly on their own. Bonus!

The boys are great little helpers. I bought them snow shovels which they adore. Today they were running around with them after school making snow mounds and having adventures.

The greenhouse is holding up well. The snow is sliding off on it's own and it stood up to the wind thank goodness. I kept checking. 

My evening always includes two trips up to the barn one at dusk and the other around the kids bedtime. The first one is to turn on the light for the chickens and put down some feed in the coops. They have been roosting wherever they've wanted but with the temperatures dropping I've wanted them to cuddle together more for warmth. So usually at sunset you can hear a woman doing her best not to lose an arguement with a chicken. After they are shut in I gather the eggs (I'm averaging 9 per day!) and then grab the water bucket to refill and head back down to the house.

I have yet to get a messy pocket. I know it will probably happen eventually. Perhaps its an initiation to being a farmer. I've had one crack before, just the shell not the membrane. Bending down to pick up the water bucket tonight was followed by a curse word and then slowly standing up and checking my pockets. 

My second trip to the barn is to unplug the light. I've tried timers but they don't seem to work. I enjoy saying goodnight "Chickens". Walking with the flashlight I'm always wondering how freaked my reaction will be when I see an animal. So far this winter no glowing eyes.

Another neat thing was I found an egg up in the loft that was frozen. Shucks. I threw it to the compost pile and it bounced! Cool!