The House is Sinking!

This is the time of year when it feels like our house is sinking as the snow level rises outside the windows. The steep pitch of the roof can suddenly place a huge bank of snow in front of our house within the space of a few seconds.

The other morning, Stephen stepped outside with his camera and his gentle closing of the door was just enough to send the snow off the roof, and his quickness with his camera resulted in these cool pictures!

(Note the dog running in fright! haha)

The Kids walking past with their farm chore buckets are now missing their heads, unless you crane your neck in the window to look up out at them. And that five second fall of snow can add quite a bit of shoveling time!

I remember back when a sunny winter day would bring out all of the sleds. Not anymore. This year it's snowboards. The curious ponies watch from the sidelines as the kids practice on one of their slopes in the horse pen.

Snowboarding off the peak of the garage roof marks this winter as a very snow-y one. This feat has only been accomplish-able once before in our seven years living here, so this is pretty cool! :)

From the peak, you could go either left or right and end up by either creek bottom. 

 

 Even the girls are into this crazy sport! Only Donna and I have enough sense to stay away form it. ;) We stubbornly continue to scooch down the hill in our little sled, soaking our pants on the melted snow and having a grand ol' time. ;) Actually, most often we go for walks. I've been attempting to train Kady, (our dog) how to pull and she now singularly pulls Donna in her sled. Score!

Our shops have been blessedly busy, employing everybody for their different skills for a few hours every day, but still leaving plenty of time for snowboarding, music making, and the evening board games. We were gifted with the opportunity to play at the Porcupine Mountains Snowburst Fest in exchange for free lift tickets, which was a big thrill for the kids to be able to snowboard all those big slopes and not have to walk back up them after each descent! :)

 Playing, singing and dancing. :)

 Valentine's day, I pulled out my bag of craft supplies and set the kids up to make cards while I wrote up a scavenger hunt. I used their cards as the clues and hid them about the house, ending with a few simple gifts. Some of their favorite clues were: "2nd shelf, 25th book from the left, pg. 72" (answer: the opening sentence was 'Papa went out to milk' and yes, the milk bucket held the next clue!).

"23 today" (answer: eggs. Sure enough the egg basket had a heart in it!)

 

Prizes! I probably had more fun putting this together than they did doing it! :)

 Despite the continued snow piling up outside, our minds are turning to spring. Plans are swirling in my mind with the same veracity as the snow pounding against the windows, demanding admittance during a blizzard. Where to put the potato patch this year, the new fencing for the smaller animals and the extra strawberry runners. So much to think about and plan! Sometimes the planning can become overwhelming, and it is those moments that help to squelch my impatience. We are very grateful for the off season to rest, plan and, of course, snowboard. ;)

Michael's crush: (it's her long eye lashes).

Our igloo grows with every snowfall and shrinks with every thaw, but continues to stand thick and strong. It's become tourist attraction for younger kids in the neighborhood, which we're happy about since the constructors don't feel that our youngsters use it enough. ;)

And, hey, just a note to say if anybody wants to follow us on Facebook, I am finding it's a lot easier to share short updates and pictures over there, so another way to stay up to date with our weird family and more convenient for me. :)

Warm today. Boys are going to stick a few taps into our bigger maples and see if we can taste the first sips of spring yet! Crossing fingers! :)

That's all for now--thanks for visiting!
 

Game Night in an Igloo

Hey Lovely Readers!!

 Sorry for my silence. Thankfully, I have finished writing my book (though the huge task of editing lies ahead) and a faster computer is coming to replace my very sluggish current one (which makes blogging a real bear). So, those two obstacles overcome should result in your hearing from me more often in the upcoming weeks! Are you happily smiling or grimacing and groaning at that news?? ;)

Anyway, I have some sweet pictures to share, of my silly siblings crafting a giant igloo and proceeding to play their nightly game of "the Settler's of Catan" out in it in it's a toasty 40 degree dome. T-shirt weather of course! ;)

Sorry for the crummy pic quality and crummy background. The mobile is a sore sight for pretty eyes!

A really warm day with very packy snow spurred the inspiration for this project.

Shovelfuls of snow produced solid bricks for building with (note Andrew's head inside).

 It froze the next day and is now a solid structure in the front yard, probably until spring...

Just tall enough for Andrew to stand in and 7 kids to play a board game inside.

Passing bricks inside to finish off the top.

The board game was Mike's Christmas present and it still sees nightly use (I can hear them playing as I type). Some blankets and cardboard base for the game made the inside cozy!

Shelf for the lantern--the only light needed when the surface is so reflective!

Shoes left out in the entryway tunnel.

Creepy cat says 'thanks for droppin by' and Annie says 'peace out ya-all!'

How it looked the next morning with a dusting of overnight snow...


Have you ever built an igloo??

Rest in Peace Dear Ol' Buttercup

It's a solemn day on the farm today, as we said good-bye to dear old Buttercup this morning. Not many cows in the world live to be 14 or get honored with tears at their passing, but Buttercup deserved hers.

So, in Buttercup's honor today, a little cow eulogy:

Buttercup was our second cow, arriving to our farm 10 years ago, 2 weeks after we got Daisy (whom she outlived by six years). She had spent the first 4 years of her life on a dairy farm, treated like, well, a cow. She came home to us banging at the trailer all the way down the driveway, and jumping out with a "who do I kill first?" look on her face. That first year, she was more bull-like than milking heifer-like, and we all thought the pretty little heart on her face was a bit misleading, as she would chase us out of her pastures and drag 13yr. Andrew (her poor milker) skiing along behind her, futilely clutching her lead rope as she trotted about whither she pleased.

Years later, new cows coming and going, Buttercup became the patron of the pasture, teaching the new girls how to milk by day and how to escape the pasture by night, always leading them home again after their short vacations around the neighborhood. Her character tamed to earn the sweetness of the heart on her forehead; the new milkers learning the art of milk extraction on her saggy udder and the youngest kids riding and lounging on her bony back as she sunbathed out in the pasture.

This farm housed its first bull on her behalf; since she wasn't taking to an AI, she earned herself a real live bull-friend. ;) She had several babies, most recently gifting us with Violet, Michael's little girlfriend in the pasture, to carry on her legacy of wonderful milk before she died.
 

The barnyard seemed somber today, as I stopped in to visit the animals after my walk. Of course, it may have been the cold, but I prefer to think that they were quiet in respect of dear ol' "ButtaTuppy" (as the milkers affectionately called her). Despite these kinds of cow-passing sad days (that I don't suppose every teenage boy has), I still find this lifestyle to make up for them in its simple joys, like doing farm chores.

Buttercup, we hope you are heartily welcomed into warmer pastures today! Thank you for sharing your life and your wonderful milk with us all these years--your presence will be missed on this farm!

In addition to Buttercup's passing today, our pump randomly decided to pick this day (mid. Jan., mid. blizzard) to poop out, leaving animals thirsty and dishes dirty. We have a new one coming tomorrow, and with a bit of hard old-fashioned work, we managed to water all the animals and wash the dishes this evening anyway.

For all that today, I still found it to be a wonderful day. With the kids coming in like snow covered eskimos, I was scraping ice off the bases of the windows and mopping up snow puddles, finding the urge in me to sing heartily with the other girls in the room. Even when the snow was whipping up to bite my cheeks on my walk with Cady today, I still felt like giggling at the frigidity of it all.

The realization that happiness is not something that can always be found in life, but something that we can always choose at any moment, has been sitting in the front of my mind lately... maybe it's asking to be written into a song. It will have to wait until I finish my novel first. Hmm, these white-out blizzardy days are wonderfully cozy for writing, reading, knitting, singing and making music!


Stay warm and happy out there!! :-)

 

For Grandma...

Hello Readers,

This post is for our dear Grandma, but the rest of you can take a peak too. ;) Some of you know, but for those who don't, our Grandma is a wonderful painter and has passed some of her artistic passions on down to her grandchildren.

I know this post is a bit redundant to the last one, but since the cold and snow have prevented much outdoor activity, the paint brushes have yet to be laid to rest and so our pile of beautiful artwork continues to grow daily!

Here we go with Johnny's work. From left to right: a lightening storm, the northern lights over a lake, a goshawk (like one that we had trying to get a chicken recently) soaring above the mountain tops, a colorful abstract art and random planets out in our solar system. Pretty creative and colorful head, our little boy has!

Mike's northern lights and bird returning to her nest art. I love the free flow color that comes from a young head uninhibited by various art rules or structures. I think his colorful bird could be an album cover! 

Donna's little 4yr. art is among the most fascinating to study when it comes to an uninhabited mind! And this little sweetie loves to paint!! She's always making birthday presents for various family members, regardless of birth-dates. Last night, she talked Mom into baking a birthday cake with her for Annie and Theresa (haha, I think Mom's becoming a sucker to a cute face as she gets older!)!

Theresa painted this scene in a couple of days. You can stare at it for minutes and still not see all the details. If you can feel the energy of this one, then you'll have to agree with me when I say I think it sprung right out of our little country girl's heart!

And Lizzy! Geeze that girl... We can't keep up with her. Just took these pictures yesterday and already she has more beauties not captured here. I think her work really exceeds that of a 13yo and is a real voice for her quiet heart.

Lizzy has been in discussion with me about starting up her own blog as a space to share her artwork and stories. Pretty soon hopefully! It will be linked here, so you'll get to see it. I think she's also getting ready (confident enough) to post some of her work for sale in her own section of thatfamilyshop.com (coming soon!)

Standing at the sink washing dishes today, I was thinking about how I'm doing with my new years guidelines. I must admit, I fell out of the habit a bit around the week leading up to the grand opening of our new shop, and spent way more hours on the computer than I even care to tally, but overall, I was pleased to note that most of the guidelines are pretty habitual I think.

Today:
-A brisk walk and a romp in the snow with Kady (our dog) was my gift to myself.
-This blog post is my gift to someone else (Grandma; because I know how much you love seeing our art!) -Cleaning the floor was my effort at bettering our space.
-Listing products, conversing with customers and working on new items was my work in the shop.
-Lastly, for cultivating my creativity, I learned a new song on the guitar and now I'm off to finish writing chapter 40 in my book (can't wait to finish!).

I want to add more to the guidelines, but with the shortness of these winter days, it feels like a lot just to get those simple goals met, so I guess I'd better keep 'em easy.