More snow pictures from this wonderful winter:

It's going to be a while before we can use our front door. Our poor dogs are sad that they can't see out "their" window to watch for "bad guys"....or kitties.

Out our back door. I'm sure the dogs wish they could just have an indoor bathroom. The highest part of that fence is about 10' high.

The tree line you see way back in the distance on the left is our farm. This is the road to our house, and as you can see, in most parts it's down to just one lane due to these huge drifts across the road.

This is the view as we have to leave out of our drive. The drift is so high, that we have no clue if someone is coming towards us as we pull out or not. The one or two people who normally drive on this road are retired farmers who drive slow enough, that it's not a problem. The problem is the people with suspended (or no) license who use our road to avoid police and they drive like it's the interstate...not gravel.

Once the road crews come by, we have to "clean up" the mess they leave and push snow back out of our drive and further off the roads. On this day I rode along with Jay while he moved snow at several locations with the blade on the front of his truck. We even grabbed some lunch and went back out. Guess that was a date? LOL

At this point....I know how this poor kitty feels. lol

Project 365 ~ Week 15

I'm a little late today putting my pictures up. It's been such a crazy busy weekend that I just didn't have time to upload my pics until now. Anywhoooooo....here we go with Week 15:

Sunday 4-5

We had a nasty snowstorm rip through the state. Our county was among the hardest hit (lucky us). We received 10" of snow and we were all like "Are you kidding me? It's April!!" Thankfully, within a few days it was all melted.

Monday 4-6

Austin's car was still on our farm, buried in all the snow from the storm, so we gave him a ride to school. Gabby went with me after school to pick him up.

Tuesday 4-7

"Spa Day". Haircuts, baths, blow drys & brushing. As you can tell, Gabby is less than thrilled with it all. LOL

Wednesday 4-8

It was a beautiful day out, so Jay had me drop him & Austin off at a golf course in a nearby town while I got groceries and ran a few other errands. Sorry this picture is dark, but it was almost sunset by the time they were done, and it was at that moment I realized I didn't have my picture for the day. Austin tried to walk quickly out of view, but ha-ha...all this photo practice means I've gotten quick!

Thursday 4-9

Vet trip for Tucker who needed his shots updated and for Gabby who had a "gunky" ear, which I found during "Spa Day". Turned out she had an infection, so after a weeks worth of ear drops, she should be good to go.

Friday 4-10

Ringo scared the daylights out of me around suppertime. He was laid out flat on his bed and honestly appeared to be near death and his gums were solid white. I ran him to the Vet ER clinic and after a short time, he perked up. Not sure what happened, but they think that his heart rate dipped causing him to pass out (as can happen in elderly people) and since he is almost 11, it possibly could be what happened. Thankfully he is fine though now. This picture was on our way home.

Saturday 4-11

I ended up making fruit and veggie baskets to take for a family gathering for Easter. Today I went to the store and bought the baskets and other decorative items, and then I headed to the grocery store to get all the food. Then I spent the next 3 hours prepping everything (cutting all the veggies, pulling apart all the grapes, etc), so that on Sunday I could put it all together right before we left. Whewwwww....what an exhausting job! A lot more work than I thought they'd be. I'll have a picture of the baskets for next weeks 365. :)

There you have it. Another week done. Head on over to Sara's through the link in the sidebar and check out all the other great 365 pictures!

What I Don't Like About Melting Snow...

What A Great Day

Yesterday was one of the best days we have had in a very long time. It was cloudy, rainy, damp and just plain yucky outside. So what made it so great?

This:

And this:

And do you know why we had mud on our roads and ponds in our fields? Because according to my vehicle, we had

This:

51 degrees!

F-I-F-T-Y O-N-E D-E-G-R-E-E-S!

People - this is February. This is Iowa. This is not normal.

Oh but we'll accept it!

It was still cold enough that when the heated water dish was empty the farm cats took turns sitting in it. The big sissies.

I don't feel bad for them at all either, because they are wild, and they are mean. This one for example growled long and loud at me for getting within a 6' distance to take this picture. I reminded him of the saying which has to do with not biting the hand that feeds you, but I don't think he cared.

For one brief second I felt a little bad that they were out of water until this nasty ol' kitty hissed at me as soon as I stepped closer to fill it up. Fine, deal with dehydration your own way and drink from a mud puddle. See if I care. I had Jay fill it up later.

I know that today doesn't signal the end of Winter. After all, this is February. This is Iowa. This is not normal.

But we'll enjoy it as long as it does last.

Nature's Beauty

A couple of nights ago we were driving home around 10pm and it was very very foggy. Like, don't drive much over 30mph kind of foggy. I found that really bizarre because it was also around -10 degrees outside. How could you have fog when it was so ridiculously cold?


I have not attempted to hide my dislike of Winter. I admit it and I own up to it. But just when I am starting to look online for lakefront property someplace where it doesn't snow and they put umbrellas in my drinks, God gives me something to smile at right here in the frozen tundra.


The fog was still as thick as pea soup the next morning. Around 10:00am it started to lift and it left ice crystals on everything outside. Look at these two trees in front of our home:

How incredibly beautiful are they? They looked like the Christmas trees you can buy that have been flocked. These pictures don't really do them justice though. To see them in person was almost breath taking.

Ok, this is one thing you don't get to see in those tropical locations, so I guess that helps make winter, uh likeable? No. Enjoyable? No. Let's go with....tolerable.

Old Man Winter Is Getting On My Nerves

I have never hid the fact that I don't like Winter. But not wanting to be known as a whiner, I have actually tried to make nice with Winter. I have thought to myself "You know, honestly, this is not so bad. Yes it's cold, but as long as the roads are clear I can deal with the cold. Ok Winter, it's cold, but I will tolerate you with no whining."

Then the snows came.

Then the winds came.

It became whiteouts and blizzards that forced us indoors.

Snow continued all day and night, making it dangerous to drive anywhere.

And winter laughed at me. It mocked me, saying "No whining huh?" Let's see how you feel about this.....

Winter created nasty drifts. High enough to cover the 4' fence we had for our dogs (you can see the top of one section of it in the back towards the left side).

Winter created higher and higher drifts. Ones that reached up to the 6' fences and beyond.

Even in the shallowest of spots, the snow was up to Tuckers belly and he was not amused. After all, it's hard to go potty when your um... "woohoo" is buried in snow.

Still we did not whine. We kept singing "We Shall Overcome" (ok, not really, but go with it).

Then Winter brought forth dangerous wind chills. Cold enough to send Weathermen into a frenzy. Warnings were issued. Schools were closed. Panic erupted!

Dogs who don't understand the word "Windchill" continued to run over the snow, until their paws were frozen and they were stuck, unable to walk, meaning we had to go rescue them. Of course, with us weighing more than 12-15 pounds, we sunk to at least knee deep and were not amused.

Still we did not whine. We muttered unkind things to Winter under our breath, but we did not whine.

We had to take the dogs out one at a time on a leash to find a rare shallow spot, since there were no places for them to go to the bathroom. When it's -30 or worse windchills, it seems you are out there for hours!

We muttered under our breath at Winter some more. But still we did not whine.

Then my dear husband did a wonderful thing. He bought a snowblower. We have a large blower on our tractor, and a blade on the front of his truck, but this will do smaller areas....and most importantly, it will create potty places for the dogs. And they will rejoice!

I now laughed at Winter, because my man has outsmarted it! Go ahead and mock me Winter. Go ahead, I dare you!

Then dear husband showed me how to run the snowblower because he said it's something I will probably do most of the time while he's running the tractor and truck.

Ummmmm.....Excuse me? Wait...What? Me? Outside? Right now? Pushing that machine? Out in the cold?

Ok Winter, you win. You got me. I am not happy, and yes under my 6 layers of clothing....I am whining.