Pixie

 Miss Greta wanted a major hair change and decided on a pixie cut. She loves it and we don't have to battle the curls any longer! It's a win!

Into the Deep Freeze

One of the reasons we like where we live is because the winters are fairly mild. We might get down into the teens at night for a week or two but that's about it. Our summers are pretty miserable so it's nice to have mild winters. Well the past two weeks have been anything but mild! Nearly the entire country has been dunked into the deep freeze and it's been quite miserable. The saying goes "I love winter, said no farmer ever." It's true. Keeping animals alive outside in -15 degrees is tough. We have farmers down the road that are in the middle of calving season. The calves freeze to the ground before the cow can even dry them off. It's heartbreaking. 

I'm lucky to have cozy houses for the horses and goats that are bedded down in deep hay but they are still shivering when I go to feed in the morning. It takes about an hour to feed, bring fresh water and hay to all the critters. The hoses are frozen so buckets of warm water must be brought out to fill the stock tank. It's quite the work out. I don't know how the northern states do this every winter. Pretty sure I'd move. 

Our area has been dealing with rolling black outs now due to the power grid unable to keep up. We haven't been effected by this luckily. This coming weekend is supposed to be in the 40's and next week in the 50s (and SUNNY!). I feel like it's one day at a time around here. I have to really work myself up to put on the four layers and trek out to feed all the critters. This too shall pass. 

They line up on the south side and soak up the sun.

Wesley got a work out clearing the driveway and sidewalk.

I Love......

 I love.....sunny days when the dogs curl up in the warm sunny window......hugs from my big kids as they leave for school (5th grader and 8th grader).......working stock tank heaters......wearable blankets.....lunch dates with my work from home hubby, even if they are take out in the car.......evenings with all three dogs piled on my lap.......puppy kisses.......peppermint mocha coffee each morning, Greta loves this too........the hope of warmer days ahead, it's currently -15 actual temperature......morning soaks in the hot tub with my hubby......the fact that more vaccines mean lower infection rates, can't wait to get mine......making big lunches and eating them with Sean while watching our shows (just finished The Expanse-so good-and now watching Lucifer).....the hope of brighter days ahead after a long pandemic year....Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow!

 We don't normally get much snow in our winters. We're lucky to have two or three inches all winter so you can imagine the delight when we woke up to 6 inches of snow on the ground. It was during Christmas break so the kids didn't get a snow day, although I'm sure they would have if they were in school. 

The kids played in our yard for a day and then I remember my folks have a great hill that my sister and I used to slide down in our youth. There wasn't a whole lot of snow left by the time we remembered but still enough to have fun. 

 

This and That

We celebrated Sean's birthday last month. I try to find something that he wants but hasn't already purchased for himself (which can be difficult). He told me how neat this paint spray can holder was a few months ago and I was able to get one ordered. He can hang it in his shop and clear off all the spray cans of paint that use up one whole table.

 

It's always a challenge to get exercise and sunlight during the winter. We are a family who hibernates in the winter but we've been trying to go for a walk regularly and Bean sure enjoys it!

I wanted to make something for family this year to commemorate 2020. I thought about toilet paper ornaments or dumpsters on fire that I could make with clay but settled on this idea to do a cartoonish caricature of each person with a mask and toilet paper. Some were turned into ornaments for the Christmas tree and others were little shelf sitters. Sure was fun to make and a much needed change from dog sculptures. 

 

This is the last one I did, luckily they got a little better as I did more.

As for hibernating all winter.....I do love a good blanket and video game. The blankets never covered all of me so I had to make sure to wear a warm sweater. That is until I found this wearable blanket. It's so warm! The dogs all swarm to me when I have it on. Most evenings you can find me under this blanket with three dogs sleeping on me while I sculpt. 

 

Cooper

 Our little pandemic pup just turned one year old. That little tiny black fluff ball has turned into a 30 pound rambunctious dog. I asked Sean to get some pictures and we realized how hard it is to photograph him. He's always moving and investigating. Happy birthday Coop! 

 

 

Christmas 2020

 Christmas this year looked a bit different than normal. It was just our little family celebrating because of COVID. We sure missed seeing everyone though! I tried to keep most of our annual traditions intact so that the kids didn't feel like they were missing too much. We decorated gingerbread houses (I found already assembled ones this year, which made it all the better).

I made a massive Christmas dinner consisting of snow crab, shrimp, turkey and all the fixings. We stuffed ourselves! Also had quite a bit of left overs to enjoy the next day. 

 

Christmas morning brought lots of fun things to two excited kids. It was a nice, quiet and cozy Christmas. We sure hope everyone had a great day!

 

The Corona Chronicles Entry #13

 Day #295

What a year it's been! Definitely one for the history books. I'd like to say things are getting better in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak but I can't. We are close to the 350,000 mark for deaths in this country alone. It seems like most people around me currently have it or have had it. The months ahead look to be worse than ever. 

Our family continues to hunker down and not leave the house very often. It's reminiscent of the spring months when the state was shut down. Summer allowed much of the country to live normally but many doctors were saying the fall and winter months would be some of the darkest days in our history. I think they might be right. 

 We've stayed healthy so far. The kids have been home doing remote schooling from Thanksgiving until Christmas. The plan is for them to go back to school the beginning of January. The remote learning, as nice of an option that it was, was not working well. Some kids were in school (the majority were) and some kids were home doing remote learning. The remote kids were left behind in general. It was hard to hear the teacher, questions weren't being answered and grades were declining. Back to in person learning they go. 

Sean has now been working from home since October 2019. The plan is for him to possibly return to work in person this summer. Of course that will depend on the effectiveness of the newly released vaccine. I know I will take it when it becomes available to my age group. I read that while most people don't die from COVID many are left with reoccurring health problems. The number that stood out for me was that 18% of people that recovered are still having problems. No thanks.  

We're in the tenth month of this pandemic and I dare say we've figured out how to make suck a little less:

1. Movies! We've done the Harry Potter marathon and the Die Hard marathon. I signed up for HBO and have slowly made my way through the movies on there. 

2. Cards with the family. We played UNO and Skip Bo with Sean and the kids and had a nice evening, will try to make that a weekly occurrence. 

 

3. Buy groceries online. I'm really enjoying just adding my regular groceries to my online cart, setting up a time to pick them up, popping my trunk and I'm on my way. No human interaction. I've been making a list with 14 meals on it and buying groceries for two weeks worth of food. It's saved quite a bit of money and I've been getting more creative with my meals.

4. Online church. I've missed my church community but I won't put them at risk to return to in person worship. The majority of our congregation is 60+ years old and I do worry about them. I'm thankful that the church does recordings of the Sunday services. 

5. Take out. We have our favorite restaurants and I do miss eating in them but that is one of the worst places to go right now. I still want to support them so we order our food online or on their app and pick it up and either eat in the car or take it home. Sean and I have had some great dates eating lunch in the car.

6. Video games. We got "the kids" a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. I put that in quotes because I'm the one that wanted it. I love Nintendo games and was super excited to play the new games. Our public library has a ton of Switch games so I've been getting those to play on it. It's a nice way to test a game and see if it's worth paying $60 for. 

7. Organizing and cleaning. I'm not sure what has happened to us this year but we've been cleaning and selling stuff that we don't use anymore. We're kind of pack rats so it's been super nice to clear out old stuff. The basement was pretty bad and it's quite usable now. Even made a few bucks too. Win win. 

8. Since the movie theaters and most entertainment venues are closed we've tried to find joy in going somewhere....some days it's just a drive into the gas station to get an ice tea. Just getting out of the house is a treat most weeks. We took the kids to the park to stretch our legs and get a fun drink.  

Cooper, Rockets, Gunieas and Night Show

 Our pandemic pup Cooper finally got to the point where his hair was so long it was starting to get matted on his legs. My plan was to buy a shaver and learn how to shave him at home so I wasn't hauling him into the groomers ever other month. Apparently I put that off too long and decided to let someone who knew what they were doing give it a go. My parents highly recommended their groomer Jessica so I took him in and she worked her magic. Cooper looks like a whole different creature. He has eyes! Who knew? 

 

The fifth graders do a rocketry project each year and this year Greta got to decorate a rocket, put it together and shoot it off. I think it's a fun project for the kids and reminds me of doing the same thing each year when I was a kid in 4H. 

 

So the guinea fowl experiment came to a close last weekend. As you remember I got several guinea keets from the feed store and hatched several more out in the incubator. They were integrated into our chicken flock and all was going fairly smoothly. They were free ranging and returning to roost nightly with the chickens. The only downside is that they were incredibly LOUD. I mean I knew this from the beginning. I was warned by everyone that I told that they were loud creatures. I just wasn't prepared for the constant cackling. It was like we lived in Africa and there were these strange cackling calls all day. I had mentioned to the neighbors that if it ever got too loud for them to let me know. Well, they let me know in a text that it was a bit much. I agreed. I gave them to a guy that had a dwindling flock and needed more. I hope they have a good home. 

With COVID-19 on the rise the school has had to change up a few things. Once of them being the band and choir concerts. The band director came up with the idea to have an outdoor concert at the football stadium. We were all able to socially distance from each other while enjoying music. The kids did a great job! The high school band finished it up with night show. They turned off all of the stadium lights and attached glow sticks to their uniforms and preformed a fun show for us.