Jeff and I are in Maine now, visiting his family. Jeff's parents live on an island just off the coastal city of Portland. I am right now looking out the window over the water towards the skyscrapers. Pictures coming soon.

Icy Hikes in Mountains Like No Others

Jeff and I took the dogs to Elk Garden today to go for a hike. It was 18 degrees and windy, probably bringing the wind chill well below zero. The dark clouds were rolling up the mountain from below and passing over just above our heads with breaks of sunshine in between. Ice coated over all the high trees and, despite the fierce wind, snow held onto the branches of the low shrubs for over an inch.....horizontally. It was a beautiful site..more than a camera lens could ever take in. Jeff and I donned hat and gloves although after coming into a pass that protected us from the wind, I shed mine. Dogs, as all good dogs do, enjoyed themselves immensely, running up and down the trails, biting and snapping at the snow and ice(and dog legs). (Ah, life with dogs...nothing compares.) We discovered tracks of squirrels, raccoons, deer, and fellow man on cross county skis. No snowshoes this time, although as we could walk almost on top of the hard crust of snow, the reason for snowshoes in this particular snow is questionable anyways. We had a great time freezing our faces and wearing good dogs out. Now we are back in our warmer highland valley with an even warmer wood stove.

How is that for a description..I forgot my camera :)

Dad and I got a start on the ceiling today. It was slow work....but it was much more enjoyable than putting up drywall on the ceiling. Hopefully Jeff and I will get it done before we leave for ME next week.

I've been tagged by Sara to share some of my bookmarks. OK Sara, you asked for it. Just to be nice (and because this could take all night), I'll limit it to ten.

1) Meadowview weather......because I am a weather guru. Check it first thing every morning and last thing every evening...just in case :)

2) http://www.blackdogwriting.com/ .....well he is my husband. :)

3) Harris Seeds ....one of the seed companies I use for the flower field.

4) A Daily Dose of Spurgeon...used to use this but been slacking

5) Mother Earth News..... what a shock, aye?

6) From Wits End ....sister Rachel's blog...sorry, not open to the public

7) OK..this will be seen as strange but I did say before....I love weather....I was obsessed with this over the summer . You will have to look yourself to see what it is. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/rfcshare/precip_analysis_new.php

8) http://www.forestryusa.com/jobs.htm ..... gotta look now and then....once a forester always a forester

9)Irrigation Made Easy... a future project

10) Stone walls....A present project

I tagged Rachel, Taylor, and Jeff.

Possibly an ent?!?!

The bedroom...so far

The work on the bedroom was slow this week. Jeff happened to get alot of work the same time that I discovered I couldn't put the plank paneling on the ceiling by myself. So I stained the planks and worked on repairing some of the drywall. All of the old ceiling is down now...a sooty job. I had to mop the floor three times to get rid of most of the soot that dropped down from the attic.

Meanwhile, this week, I finished my raised beds for my cold frames and worked on glazing the windows for the tops(not fun), made a good start on my seed and plant orders, made some big decisions on what to try this year and what not to, found out I was already behind on my seed planting, and made thousands of more questions for myself. Slow but steady....and so soon it will no longer be slow paced...and I will be wishing for winter again.

We saw at least 8 pairs of cardinals at the feeder today. Here are some of them.

El Nino...going out...I hope

It finally snowed!!! Not a big snow but about 3 inches or so. Enough that Jeff and I built a 6' snowman. Hiking stick in hand. I forgot to take a picture of it....so I'll take one tomorrow and post it. I did take a few pictures of our house while we were out this morning though. I put an extra quilt on the bed tonight...supposed be darn near 0 degrees on Saturday night.

Your Japanese Name Is...

Kira Asukai

What's your Japanese Name?

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. In love, you tend to have high (and often unrealistic) standards. You are very sensitive. You tend to have intense feelings. At work, you need to do something that expresses your personal values. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist. How you see yourself: Unselfish, empathetic, and spiritual When other people don't get you, they see you as: Unrealistic, naive, and weak

What's Your Personality Type?

Warm Day

Something wrong with this picture!?!?! It is January!!!

Jeff, Nik, and I worked outside today because it was so warm and sunny. About 50 degrees or so.

As you can see we had plenty of help with all the animals.

I was building raised beds to put my cold frames on and Jeff was tearing out the satellite dish. Next week it turns cold again so back in the house we go to get some electrical work done and start putting a ceiling up in the bedroom.

How 'bout some soot!!

Me after tearing out ceiling. Must've burned coal here....ya think?

Storing up for the big storm of 2008!!!!

Now you get to take a break all winter....

This is what I heard a number of times when I was wrapping things up this fall from selling flowers. But :) ....with having a wedding in October and going to Japan for three weeks I have already fallen behind!!! I didn't get the perennials I would have like planted this past fall(hopefully this year) for spring flowers. And I'm beginning to wonder how I will ever be ready for summer!
So what have I been doing this winter since buying a house. Today I tore down half the ceiling in our bedroom without falling through it, started to build cold frames on the side of the house for growing early annuals, lost and found Wookie (at the dump), eradicated millions of English Ivy sprouts( at least it seemed like it), and decided to wait on building a hoophouse.
The rest of this month I am hoping to1) get the drywall up and put up the plank paneling in the ceiling of the bedroom, 2) sand down the old baseboards, 3)build four cold frames on the side of the house, 4)build a rock terrace, 5)plan and order seeds for February sowing. Then to Maine we go to visit Jeff's family.

Excerpt from the Last of the Mohicans

" 'Thou sayest well', returned David, ' and hast caught the true spirit of Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is predestined to be be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth, and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer.' "

New Years Resolutions 2008

With everyone else making new years resolutions....I finally came up with some (although one is actually for Jeff and I to do. :) )

1) We are going to be eating by 7 PM every evening..even in the summer(a truly hard feat especially with my "work till dark" mentality). Although Jeff does the cooking I usually have to get him moving by telling him what to make.

2) I make the menu and the shopping lists so my own personal resolution is to have some sort of fish twice a week and one meatless dinner once a week.

3) My farming business resolution is to support us 6 months of the year instead of the 4 months of last year.

4) Read a classic every month...I am reading the Last of the Mohicans now.

4) And finally, put all my camping and kayaking gear to good use. :)

Yes, every time we get a few spits of snow, I start to pine for the normal winters we had back in the good ole days. When one would wake up to temperatures in the teens and a fresh blanket of snow that would cover every brown thing in the woods and fields. Every tree and every blade of grass would lie under at least 6 or 7 inches of snow and power would be out all over the countryside. Those were the good ole days of Washington County, Virginia. The last few years have been a mockery. A few spits here and a few spits there just making us think we were getting snow. But I found a news from an article out of the Pittsburg Post Gazette.

"There are several reasons for the poor start, including the notorious El Nino weather system in the tropical Pacific, said Bob Reed, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

El Nino conditions create higher-than-normal ocean temperatures and affect the flow of the jet stream. Instead of frigid air zeroing in on the region from the arctic and Canada via the Great Lakes, the weather in Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic (thats us) and New England states has been influenced by drier and warmer Southwest and Gulf Coast conditions.

Mr. Reed said it appears the El Nino conditions are weakening. If so, it could mean a return to a "normal" winter. "But there can be wild swings back and forth in the weather," he said."(Laurence Walsh, 2007)

I have hope now. My pining for normal winters may come to an end. I don't care what people think of El Nino.