In A Perfect World......

in a perfect world ....

huh?

I am not the only one sick and tired of this horrible winter weather

but I still feel the need to gripe about it!

This comic was in our Sunday paper.

(click on all to enlarge)

I think they about sum it up here.....

I just need to think more positively and be thankful

for the things that are so good in my life.

I need to give up complaining about the things I can not change

and take care of the things I can change.

I need to not fret any longer over the bitter cold winds that freeze my face when I am out feeding my animals.

I just need to be thankful that I have those animals

to bring me such joy the rest of the year!

Like itty bitty baby goats!

Farm fresh eggs!

Goat cheese!

Goats milk ice cream!!

etc etc

I need to not fret anymore when it is about 10 degrees

outside and 50 mph winds

and three of those precious little baby goats from

last years crop decide to just open the gate and go free wandering to and fro.

I need to bite my tongue when those said goats

try to maul me with the feed bucket....this

they would do if it was sunny and warm and the roses were blooming.

I need to wire my mouth shut so I do not call them names like

"you.... you.... you..... yidiot head" (inside joke)

and threaten their very life cause they were so stupid when I tried to get them back thru their gate.

They didn't want to do the "single file follow the leader" method.

They chose to do the "let's test her patience and go in only one at a time method".

One would run in the pen and the other 2 would poke their head thru the woven wire fence on the outside of the pen. Then they would all switch places.

This little game of cat and mouse went on for a good 15 minutes.

Goats are as bad as horses when they get out.....they go CRAZY!!!

Did I mention it was 10 degrees outside and a wind chill of a gazillion below?

Did I mention that the snow is still up to my knees in places, frozen, knobby and almost immposible to walk on in others?

I need to be thankful that I had a nice warm bed with a nice comfy pillow to lay my head on

last night......even though I laid in fear that my house would just blow off it's foundation and roll down the hill into the fishpond.

Even though my dearest husband was lying beside me oblivious to the whole

winter blizzard outside the window and was snoring at the best of his ability.

Even though that said warm bed is in a really nice new master bedroom that is only a couple years old, but the winds were so fierce that the cold air was circulating around my head.

Yes Lord I am Thankful for my many many many blessings!!

Please just help me to remember this in the trying times.

Amen!

So now I will test my patience as I head out to brave the elements this morning

to run some errands and go to Michaels and get some painting tools. I have a couple coupons burning a hole in my pocket!

Then I have to hurry home and make Homemade Noodles for the freezer like my friend over at Hickery Holler!! She makes this look so easy!

I know it's just a farce!!!

Maybe not. She can do anything!!

After that a good old nap is on my agenda!

What will I do?

If I need to move my car tonight?

Nothing!
It is buried and will be until about June
by the looks of things.
It is under many many many inches of snow left on the ground from
from last week , sleet, freezing rain and more snow.
It has been coming down since 1AM when I came home from the concert
and it is still coming down!
I have no idea how deep it is. Very very deep in places because of drifts.
I think it is supposed to continue thru tomorrow
then another storm is coming thru I think on Tuesday
and Wednesday!!
All I know is that I am sooooo Thankful
that I am not working outside the home right now and
having to travel in this mess.
Also I don't think the grandkids will get to play on the boat
this summer because they will be in school all summer long!!
Sorry kids, quit doing your snow dance!!

Old Goats.......

live here.

Well not here as in the photo above, but here in the home that houses this laptop!

I have been vacuuming my house for the past almost 4 hours.......seriously, from ceiling to floors, baseboards underneath, behind, around, between, near and inside of everything that I can reach in each room..........and I am still not finished.

We put that big ole outdoor woodfurnace in 3 years ago like maybe this week in Feb.

We were told that our dust level would be soooooo much better after that was installed and we also put in a heatpump (like we will ever be able to run that again in our lifetime due to the outrageous power bills that we have here in our area) but it is supposed to filter the air, isn't it? That's what we were told anyway. The blower for the heatpump blows the heat in our house and through the filter. Still it is so dusty in here.

I admit it was one week ago that I vacuumed the whole house but it looked to be a couple months ago.

Of course we have been sitting here under another blanket of snow. Snow=mud, mud=dust in the house. It is really sunny and sorta warm today and some of that snow is melting nicely too. I even have a window cracked to let some fresh air in the house......dreaming of spring!!

Then the stupid man on the stupid radio told me that we are going to get ...."A WINTERY MIX TONIGHT AND IT WILL TAPER OFF TOMORROW AFTERNOON"!!!!! WHAT?????

My poor foyer looks as if a bunch of old goats live in the house now. I sure wish it looked like the one in the photo above! I was thinking/ well planning to mop the floors after vacuuming today..................now I am just pouting....I can do some serious pouting incase no one has told you that about me, I wrote the book on pouting!! No mopping today!!!!!!!!!!!!

~

Since I am discussing Old Goats here, I will tell you a story of my first experience that I can ever remember about goats......... I was prompted to do this after reading a post over at

Hickery Hollow yesterday! If you have not been there please go over and read some of her hilarious stories about being a southern girl!!

When I was a wee little tot...all of maybe 3 years old, my brother and I were at home one night with my Grandma Goldie...remember she was my favorite person in the world? Our parents were out somewhere and it was getting late. We heard a knock on the door and I, being the nosy person that I was then and still am for that matter...hehehe......went and grabbed the front door and flung it open..........................................OMG I just about fell over dead!! I was scared to death. All I found when that door flew open was a couple big ugly goats standing there looking thru the screen door at me.....I was face to face with the brutes and I just screamed and jumped in my Grandma arms and then my mom stood up on one side and dad on the other side of these goats laughing hysterically.

They had each ducked down beside the goats where I could not see them and all I could see was 2 goats. I remember wondering how these goats knew how to knock on a door!!!!!!

My parents had decided for some strange reason that we needed a couple goats. Best I can remember we named the mother goat Nanny and her son Billy!!! How original was that?

Daddy tied them to our swingset for a few days but I wouldn't go near them so he moved them and tied them to an old pickup camper top so they would have a shelter underneath. They soon had all the windows busted out of this camper and stood on it daily. I don't remember what happened to those 2 goats but I didn't really care. I was so scared of them!

Who would have ever believed that I would grow up and actually raise goats?

and the weather was so hot.......

but it's looking pretty "Cool" inside......

If you read my last post from yesterday you will understand the hot weather thing.....LOL!!! Hey don't laugh it is working!! It's called mind games!! It was just what I needed to get me out of my funk and get me going!! I'll have to remember this trick, maybe next summer when it really is too hot to go outside maybe I will work on a quilt or something that I usually would do in the winter ;-)
yes we live in an old house.....yes that is a bathroom off of the kitchen, shown above, which was not by choice..............yes the floors are wood.....no they were not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, so I did not harm any innocent wood in this project.....yes it is now white.......yes it will be hard to keep clean.......yes, no yes, yes, no......yes I love it now!!!!!!


yes I love the look of the cracks showing.....good thing cause they are too big to hide! ......yes I love the way the floor brightens up the room....now I have to wear shades!! Danny said he ".............. love the way it made everything brighter too, that since we are getting so old and blind that we need every room brighter"......I asked, "Can I paint the cabinets white?".........and what do you think his answer was?.......NO!!!

yes it is 3 different colors here.....OMG the things that I show you guys, I should really be ashamed to go out in public cause I might run into one of you at the mall or somewhere!!!

The floor was gray when we bought the house...yuck....I gave up on waiting for a new floor and over the years I have decided that I like durable over new and pretty......after I painted the living room floor about 7 years ago and it has held up so well until now, I knew that paint was the only way for me. Especially on this ugly floor. I started painting it red a few months ago and boy oh boy was that a disaster.....as soon as the paint dried it had a weird texture like something was wrong with the paint......what a mess.

It is now all finished getting white but I am in the process of putting the shine and protective coating on it...........I am putting liquid gold on it......yep at $46 a gallon I call that liquid gold don't you? It's called Varathane which is designed for floors, it is water based, low odor (has no odor), made for high traffic areas, gives a diamond hard finish and the bestest part yet.....besides the no odor...woowoo....is that it dries in 2 hours......it actually dries in about 10 minutes........can you believe it? Well the proof is in the pudding!!! I'll keep ya posted on how it wears! I purchased this at Lowes today and came home and then looked it up before I opened it.....I mean at $46 I could take it back if it got bad reviews right?....I didn't find any reviews but I did find it online for $62 a gallon everywhere.......also I had a $10 coupon off a $50 purchase at Lowes. I was able to talk to the reps from Olympic (my favorite paint, and the white paint is theirs) and from Valspar......they told me they didn't have anything that even compared to this stuff!!!!! I was a bit overwhelmed until I stuck a brush in it and it is wonderful stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

now the thing is this is just the room off of the kitchen....:-{ .......I still have the kitchen to do

so pray for me some more "HOT" weather....LOL!!!!!

My lifesavor's.......

These were in the mail yesterday! Did some one hear my prayer requests? I have cabin fever/spring fever so bad right now. I always get so tired of the cold days of winter but never this early. I am by no means bored. Don't get me wrong there because I have more hobbies than you could shake a stick at but I am so over the snow and cold. The snow is just "laying around waiting on somemore"...as my father-in-law used to say! Well come on and get it over with!!!!
Be still my heart!
When I opened this catalog I was in heaven. I knew that there was a light at the end of the tunnel! That there was a promise of Spring!
I love squashes and cucumbers. I dream of making more of my lime pickles. I made almost 60 pints of them last year and haven't hardly touched them, I think I am hoarding them! I believe I will make potato salad and deviled eggs today!! Sounds like a warm weather meal to go along with my dreaming of warm weather theme! We had the blah blah blah winter bean soup yesterday.......but it was down right yummy!!!!! A winter 6 bean soup. yum yum!!


I love peas and beans


What more needs to be said here?
I will be able to start my own seeds for all my plants again this year since I am not working! We are always so much happier when we do that. Other than the fact I can't stand to let a single plant go to waste and feel that I have to plant them all even I do have 43 tomatoes already planted ;-)

My Blue Angel!

Heard that song?

Well this little beauty made my heart sing! Danny even liked it! I have/had a New Dawn rose on either end of my pergola that is in my front garden. The pergola is dead as is one of the roses and the other rose has gotten sooooooo big that it looks like a rose tree now. I think it is past repair. I have been promised a new pergola but he didn't get around to it this past summer but maybe this spring! What you think about 2 Blue Angels one on either side and meeting in the middle??

I told him I thought we needed a pergola at The Fairy's Rest with Blue Angel's too........he didn't give me an angelic reply to that one!!!!

Ooohhhhhh!!!! Oouuhhhhhh!!! Aaawwwwwhhhh!!!!

My blueberries! I have a freezer full of them too. Yep I am a hoarder! I get that honest though. My mother just "knew" that everyone would starve when Y2K hit! She had so dagummed many cans of Treet on the shelves in her cellar that they could feed all of Virginia on Treet alone for a week!!!

I was trying to decide yesterday what I wanted to make with blueberries and never got around to deciding on anything. Leslie called me this morning to tell me that she was making this! I have been to this site before.... Blueberry-Recipe.com but I don't remember if I made anything or not. I think I will find something today!

Leslie also told me immediately how happy she was that she had this same seed catalog in the mail yesterday!!!

See, great minds think alike!!!

If you are a gardener you will know where I am coming from here! If you are under a foot of snow that won't move you should know where I am coming from too! Either way I hope I have put a little glimmer of hope for warm sunny days in your heart too!!

Winter.....

doesn't officially start until tomorrow...so what do you call this?

I call it a dismal disaster!
these ice daggers are heading right for the windows

with 20 degree weather I am not really hankering to have to replace windows so I had Danny get out there and break these biggest icicles off. I suggested that he take a really long stick and hit them. I looked outside and he was standing up under this huge sheet of melting snow and ice hanging off the side of a steep roof using the short handled snow shovel to knock this ice off!!


He obviously hasn't had a roof full of snow fall on his head like I have.......
but we won't go there girls!!!

Shut up Robin!!!


Our snow total here in the valley was only 14" anyway that we could measure but our local news reported last evening that we were under 26" here in the valley.........our phone started ringing off the hook with family making sure that we were coping under that much snow!!!!! We aren't sure where those folks were that measured it at 26" but it must have been in a snowdrift!


and for the record Hallmark has ruined my Christmas............yes ruined it.....I should have my house cleaned and lots of cooking and baking finished by now but they put all those sappy deliciously heart warming Christmas movies on there around the clock and I can't hardly pry myself or my husband away from the sofa and TV to get anything done! We made a pact this morning that we would finish the movie that we were watching and not watch the next one so we could both do some things around the house......I cooked lunch, did laundry and dishes and finished wrapping presents....he knocked down icicles, shoveled 3 1/2 miles of paths around the farm so that I could feed tomorrow if he works, among other outside things. We fixed our plates, ate lunch in front of the TV and didn't move for 2 more hours!!!!!!!!
I had to catch Clark Griswalds sleigh ride before I got up to blog..........LOLLOLOLOLOL!!!!! ..... now my Christmas movie watching is complete, not finished but I am complete even if I don't get to see anymore!!!!!

Makes a good photo op......

have 4 wheel drive will travel........ I think he wanted to get out of the house so he could have some male companionship...hehehe......so we had to go to our favorite hardware store and stand around the stove for a while letting him chat with the boys about how we would get back home, and get inner tubes for a night of sleigh riding/snow tubing at Leslie's house with the grandkids, she has a super big hill and 4 wheelers to pull us up to the top of the hill!!!..........this barn and farm is owned by his boss and I have always loved it. I have wanted to get a good picture and paint it in oils but I never have took the time to get a snapshot of it til today......I told Danny as we were going down the road to stop immediatley if I yelled "Kodak Moment!!" and he did......Look at that blue sky!! This was not enhanced either!!
we are surrounded by tree farms every where even Leslie has a tree farm...... maybe the trees will slow me down if I come off her hill too fast tonight.....

main road......
we live on a dirt road and have about 1/2 mile of it to get to the main road.....the dirt road had a drift that we went thru that was up at the top of our big 3/4 ton pick-up ..up to where the windows start..........I freaked out!! I was screaming.......when we got thru he said...."Now that was a Kodak Moment"..........then when we made it to the main road there was only one lane open....kinda scary going around a sharp curve on the wrong side of the road!!

here we are coming back thru the drift ......the camera didn't capture how deep the drift was and we were actually almost thru it by the time I got the picture snapped......I had to have a little talk with Jesus before I tried to get a picture!! ......for those of you that know me you would understand why I wouldn't want to be stuck in a snowdrift that kept my truck doors from opening!! Better yet, why no one else would want to be with me in that situation!!!!!!

How high's the snow, honey? 2 feet high 'n rising...

Remember Johnny Cash's song, "How high's the water honey?"

Well this is snow and a lot of it!
My back deck, thru the window, can't get the door open, still snowing, more expected til 7PM tonight, it's now 6:27 AM

this rocker is in it's stationary position (you know with no one rocking in it, unless that's Frosty sitting there) and it rests comfortably at my knees when I am sitting in it, I measured and I figure this is about 19" of snow!!!!


you can't tell by these pictures but it is still snowing pretty heavily........Someone Please Take It Back..........I like a White Christmas as well as the next person but come on now......bad timing! There are 2 major highways that are shut down, 77 and 81............all the Christmas travelers stranded in this......oh yeah it's roughly 25 degrees out there too........the National Guard has been helping on 81 and set up a shelter that now has more than 300 stranded motorists..........not the way I want to spend my holidays and I am sure it's not theirs either.....PLEASE PRAY FOR ALL THE FOLKS WHO HAVE TO BE OUT THERE FROM RESCUE PERSONNEL TO STATE HIGHWAY WORKERS TO TRAVELERS!!!!





My crazy husband doesn't take a weather man seriously. He thinks they always feed us hogwash. If He was doing a job for one of these folks and they tried to question his skill at his profession he wouldn't like it nary bit now would he?....but....he wouldn't listen to them calling for snow yesterday and heed warning, so he waited until after the roads were very well covered and everyone and their brother was out on the roads, to head home. It took him 3 1/2 hours to travel a one hour trek. I told him I didn't want to hear about all the crazy people who almost made him wreck!!!!!!!!!!! Men!!!!
at least he got home safely.......



while I was getting my pictures my power started flickering really seriously .......... woooooo I made a mad dash to "draw up some water" and now I feel that I am ready if it does go out. If you don't hear from me in a few days you will know what's happened.....I have 3 batteries for this laptop but there are issues with batteries and this laptop.........long story!!

and the dearest husband who doesn't believe in a weatherman did not get the wood in for the wood cook stove like I asked him to do.......... his little hiney may get cold and hungry!!! We don't have heat when the power is out even though we have that great outdoor wood furnace, takes electricity to blow that heat inside!!

So I hope all you guys out there are safe and warm today!!!!

Love,
Becky


update 9:50 AM~~~ not snowing and may not get any more~ wooooowooowooooo!!!
Dearest hubby got out and measured the snow and it was only 14" on the table! I stand corrected. Must have blown under the rocker cause I know I have more than 14" from my knees to the floor!!
25 miles of 81 shutdown, more than 1000 cars stranded and more than 100 tractor trailers stuck in the snow!!! OMG!!!
I still have electricity!!

Saturday in SW Virginia....

"Ugh!! Ugh!! *#**@()**@### I hate this stuff!! My legs are too short!"

"I should be in the Caribbean on a farm."

My girlfriend can't even come out cause she's smaller than me!

Carolers singing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!"

Whatever!

"Yeah right there. That's my best side.!"

"Now listen up. You are to do as I say"

" Onward march! Hut two, three, four...."

"She thinks she is some kinda goddess......

my nose is cold."

drip.....

What? Bamboo does not like snow....? Go figure!

Winter Wonderland!

(I think I like my camera!)

Snow bound but dreaming of summer

(The pic above is a friend of ours that was neighbor kid who grew up beside us and we ran into him at the lake last summer and pulled him and his son on the tube. The area of the lake behind him where the kids are playing is called Ryan's Branch and we have spent some great summer afternoons playing in the water there most of my and my childrens life. It is about 2 miles from our land.)

Now back to reality!!

We are setting here under about 5" or maybe more of snow and are expecting it to snow thru 11 AM tomorrow. I am not liking this either. You see I live in the boonies and I work an hour away in the town of Blacksburg Va where the roads are always cleared early. The roads out my way, at least half of my commute in are always covered until the last thing. So I am expected to be at work no matter what kind of weather we have here. Most all the rest of the staff live close by the office and can be there no matter what. I am praying that they will close the office tomorrow so I won't be in trouble.

I know that winter is almost over even though it doesn't look that way. (I am sitting here listening to the sleet beat down on my metal roof as I type.) DH and I took in the Roanoke Valley Boat Show yesterday along with some friends. The troubled economy was evident at the show too. The amount of vendors were about half as many as last year and the crowd was very slim, of course it was raining buckets of nearly frozen precipt all day. It is hard to get in to boating with frigid nasty weather.

I was into it though. It is in my blood I guess, being raised in a boating family. DH however loves to boat and fish and look at the new boats but boy that is it. He draws the line at purchasing a new/newer boat. He would really like to have a bigger boat for all the family to be able to ride together (instead of looking like a refugee boat loaded down ;-) but I think he is waiting for someone to give it to us. I found a great deck boat on Craigslist and at first he was OK with calling about it and as the day went on he started talking about his usual thing that he brings up when ever I want to spend any money........the undercarraige for his bulldozer needs to be replaced. I have heard this so many times that I am sick of it. Enough already.

You see I am not that much of a spendthrift that I would not allow him to spend the $12,000.00 + on this because that would be obsurd. You see he brings this up to make me feel guilty and change my mind about the purchase that I am wanting to make and agree that he should just go ahead and get this taken care of........then in about a week or two we are talking and he says that he doesn't feel that it will cost him 12K that he can do it cheaper and then in another week he says it doesn't need to be done for a long time......3 weeks he says "Well I am not using it that much anyway so it will last forever the way it is." Why does he do this to me?? I guess I will will just have to go find the boat that I want purchase it and bring it home and show him. I told him today that was my plan so he will be wondering when he will come home to a newer pontoon or deck boat. That's OK I can play mind games too!!!!