Nov.and Dec. 2011

The wind shredded the front of our hay barn, so Steven used old roofing as siding. Not very attractive, but it's keeping the wind, snow, and rain out of the barn.

Victor is helping him in this picture. He's behind the tree, and Steven is in the doorway.

It was cold, drizzling, and windy while Steven did all this. Sure nice to have the weather kept out now though.

Tim in his Crusader costume. He ordered chain mail that goes under the tunic, and it's here now, but he didn't have it yet when he brought this part of it up to show us.

Tim 'bunny ears'es Steven!

We took out the couch and brought one of the lawn swings in. It's nice to sit there and swing, and watch a movie or just talk. Really makes people do a double-take the first time they come in and see it! I kept saying I was going to do it!

Tristan. All grown into a good-looking young man. His old nick-names of "Pip Squeak" and "Twi-Twan" just don't seem to fit!

An icicle hung from the bottom of every single dip in the roofing!

Stephen, Emily, and Barbara watching you-tube videos while sitting on the lawn swing.

Scott, Bryan & Kristine and their dogs, and Steven.

Odie thought if THEIR dogs got to be in the living room, she should be too. She gives Steven 'puppy-dog eyes' and begs to stay!

Tim plays with a Christmas "thing". What do you call something like that? It's not a decoration. You push the button and the snowglobe spins and it snows, and it changes colors inside.

Emily waited until the last minute to wrap presents!

Jan. 2012, up to the 19th.

Steven unloads stuff from the car. We've been parking up here closer to the house, except when the snow is deep. Nice to spoil ourselves in our old age!

We've been boiling and filtering rainwater and snowmelt water all winter. It's mostly for dishes, laundry, and showers.

I put a coffee filter between the top and bottom parts of the funnel. You can see the dirty circle of where I just poured water through.

I saw the cat and dog eyeing each other, so I grabbed my camera!

"Hah! Attack" The cat takes the offensive!

The best present in the whole world, even better than the last time I got the best present in the whole world, which was running water in the kitchen sink after 6 1/2 years of living here!

This is an Indoor Laundry Center!

I feel so incredibly spoiled. Seriously. No more kneeling and leaning through the shower door in the winter to do laundry in a bucket, then deciding whether to wring it by hand or lug the bucket of wet laundry outside and stand in the snow to run it through the wringer! This is wonderful, and I am very grateful.

We had very little snow all winter, until the 3rd week of January. So we went out for a lot of walks in the sparsly-snowed woods.

Steven and "Odie"

The cat went with us on several long walks. We were worried we'd lose the kitty way out there in the woods and have to go cat-hunting, but the cat always stayed with us.

It's resting on a stump while we enjoy the view.

And what a view it is! Maybe doesn't look like much in the picture, but you should have been there!

Very little snow always means a layer of slick ice on our road. We had to stop and chain up the tires on our way DOWN the hill! We couldn't control the car! This is about half a mile below our place.

This is 3 miles from home. Steven took the chains off so we could drive on the pavement.

Now on the way home, Steven is putting the chains back on so we can go up our road. We'd been out to the post office, 7 miles away.

Cold fingers.

We finally got our deep snow. We got about a foot of snow over a few very cold days. It hovered around zero, day and night. This was the middle of the 3rd week of January. Steven is using the roof rake he made, to get snow off the shed roofs.

Steven fired up the snowblower and cleared the paths. I shoveled the ones he couldn't run the snowblower on.

And there he is, coming from the woodshed to the house.

Well-earned rest! Steven, sprawled over the footstool and looking at his computer!

For Barbara's birthday Steven took her out on the snowmobiles. Here he pulls one of them onto the driveway for her. His is ahead of it, waiting to go.

There's Barbara, taking off on the snowmobile!

Barbara... a quarter century old!

My beautiful Barbara! 25 years old! That's a quarter of a century!

There she is, cheeks sucked in, looking old, like the crypt-keeper! lol She made her own birthday cake: Chocolate/peanutbutter! Victor is demonstrating his approval!