March, now

In like a lion indeed! We're all home today- schools and roads closed due to Winter Storm Saturn. She
sounds scarier than she looks, but I say that from the cozy comfort of the wood stove's warmth.

We're spending the day playing outside,

Climbing stairs, 

Playing peekaboo, 

Bathtime/Booktime, 

Chicken-checking,

And finally shelling the rest of last summer's beans. 

Perusing of seed catalogs, a snowshoe hike, a nap for Xan, work on our new table/dining booth for Jake, and a lot of homework for me ahead. 

Snow days, oh how I love you.

Driveway Sledding

We can't drive on it these days, but it is a great sledding hill!

Strange Weather We're Having...

Freezing rain on Monday, ice on Tuesday, snow on Wednesday. Its been a strange week, and I've hardly been at school. My last post, wahoo-ing Jake and I for being smart about our vehicles and our driveway should be disregarded. We both drove our cars up on Monday night, and Jake went to work on Tuesday, meaning he drove his down. Mine stayed up here, and might remain here until spring. The combination of precipitation we've received has made our driveway an ice-skating rink, now with 7 inches of soft snow on top. Today we hiked down the hill through the woods, not on the driveway, because it felt safer, despite the steep pitch and deep snow.

Here's some scenes from the last few days:

Other discoveries made: dry beans can be cooked in the crockpot! Beeswax, olive oil, and eucalyptus oil works like Vick's VapoRub! Our house can be 81 degrees and still feel cold!

This weekend we're headed to the Westby Ski Jump with some friends- a rollicking good time, featuring amazing athletes. Truly an amazing thing, these guys. Google it!

We hope your shovels and snowblowers served faithfully today.

Luna

A full moon tonight, and a winter storm today.

That splotch of white in the distant center is the roof of our house. We're thankful for our cozy home and warm fire and staying put for the rest of the day. 

Shortly after we finished our coffee we drove both cars down to the bottom of the driveway, and hiked back up. They're calling for ice and snow and treacherous road conditions around here through the day and night, and as Jake said this morning, "we're finally getting smarter" about preparing for these types of weather events and their effects on our north slope, and hence, our mobility. He refers to winters past where we've been stranded by combinations of extremely cold weather, diesel engines, and 2-wheel drive. Once we thought we were cleverly outsmarting a forecasted storm, and left my car halfway down the driveway on a flat spot with the emergency break on. We woke up to find that freezing rain overnight had iced over and somehow under the car, causing it to slide down the driveway and into a deep ditch, where it stayed for a few days. 

The snow is coming down now, and the skies are pretty gray. The bird feeder has been busy this morning-  mourning doves, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, blue jays, and red-headed and downy woodpeckers. The juncos are my favorites, with their round white bellies. The squirrels are getting braver too, perhaps egged on by the threat of snow and ice.

I'm thankful for a warm fire and cozy home today!

Another pot of coffee, some weekend NPR, oatmeal cookies, and a lot of homework. Downton Abbey to look forward to for later.

Stay safe out there!

Update, 2 hours later:
These "ice-balls" (?) are precipitating and piling up fast. It sounds nice on the steel roof, and we're so glad to be underneath it.

Happy New Year! Resolutions, etcetera

 We spent the holiday week in sunny Vieques, Puerto Rico, and had a fantastical time in weather paradise, basking in the loveliness that is the Caribbean home of my MIL and FIL, Jake's parents and Xan's Abuela and Abuelo. It was love at first sight for Xan and those two! Pictures, if you're interested, here.

Back now, and settling in for a long winter.
Happy about it, mostly.

We went snowshoeing as a family (first time this year/first time ever!) with a friend this weekend around Sidie Hollow Lake, and gosh, it was fun. 

When we got home, after Fortnight and a VERY IMPORTANT FOOTBALL GAME, we enjoyed some cozy time by the fire. 

That's kind of the way of things around here right now. Coziness. Fires. Staying up too late because there's too much fun to be had.

Otherwise, concentrating our 2013 goals, also known as New Year's Resolutions.

We're planning projects, like better curtains in the greenhouse, less screen time, and redoing the concrete floor. Finishing the breakfast nook, beautifying the yard, de-cluttering our rooms. 

Personally, I'm on an endeavor to divine the foods and activities that make me feel the best. I'm taking it slowly, removing a food or adding in something each week or month. This month I'm attempting to remove refined sugars and wheat. Drink more water, and take fish oil. 

Overall, in the course of the year, my goal is to locomote mySELF via hiking, running, showshoeing, skiing, paddling, biking, and swimming for a grand total of 500 miles. I'm so far, on January 6, thanks to hiking and snowshoeing, at 5.5 miles, approximately 1% of my goal. I'm already behind, but I know that the bulk of these miles must be logged in the summer months, and for that, I search for this, and this, and am on the lookout for a fine pedometer. 

Why, you may ask, do I post my resolutions here, in such a public venue? Because, knowing myself, having an outlet through which to track my progress, or at least report it, is a measure of accountability for me. So, bear with me, if you choose to.

And now, on to food! 

For holiday gifts, I made neighbors and co-workers and family members and friends jars of rosemary/lemon sea salt. I haven't had any reports as of yet, but we've tried ours on eggs and grilled meats and enjoy it well.

For Jake's birthday this weekend I had intended to make him his favorite dessert, pumpkin pie. I was distracted when writing out the grocery list, and forgot to include pumpkin on it. We had frozen squash and fresh squash in the house, but I decided to improvise with sweet potatoes for this oat crust pie. Jake's verdict is that it is better than pumpkin, (less mousse-y, denser) and there's enough in that crust (oats, flax seeds, almond meal) and in the filling (mashed sweet potatoes, mostly) that has made us feel it was an appropriate breakfast for the last two mornings. Sans whipped cream for me, but Jake is an avid fan.

I made bibimbap for dinner tonight... Asian-style comfort food at its best! Crispy/chewy rice, salty bulgogi, garlicky kale, sesame carrots, and a fried egg atop. Mmmmmmmmm! I remember ducking into a booth in an underground restaurant full of monks with Maraget while visiting Seoul a number of years ago and tucking into just this thing, but it was served in a hot stone bowl, and warmed us up so well we never wanted to venture back out onto those cold January streets. I've never made it at home before, and it took the inspiration of Bon Apetit magazine, gifted to me for my birthday a few weeks ago by a dear friend.

Around here, kale is the House Vegetable, and this guy got in on the action recently. 

I think he liked it!

For the first time tonight, he's sleeping in his OWN crib in his OWN room. We'll see how long that lasts. For me, I mean. 

Sweet dreams, little fella. 

And to you, faithful readers.

Burning Birch

I heard this on Wisconsin Public Radio this morning.

An excerpt: "To burn birch is to split birch. Its charitable, and splits as crisp as celery. Amateurs can impress friends by splitting birch. Among woodsmen, birch is favored of old men in flannel who no longer want to fight oak wars. They have given up on elm- it is no disgrace to give up on elm. Ash is a good substitute, but you will one day be too old for ash. For old men, redemption is birch fire."

Burning Birch, by Justin Isherwood

a dog story

A neighbor up the hill got in touch late this past week, saying she'd seen and heard a dog from the direction of our driveway when she'd been walking down the lane to get mail. She'd wondered if it was our dog, but didn't think so, and whether we knew anything about it. We didn't. 

She said it was a big dog, with a big, throaty bark. We hadn't heard it.

This afternoon we walked down the driveway to get our mail, which we'd forgotten about yesterday. Lupine dashed down the hill and around the curve of the driveway and we heard this unknown dog's big bark. It was baying from the hill above the turn in our lane. It wouldn't come, but wouldn't go far. I hiked up the hill towards it, and a light-colored something on the ground. It was another dog, curled up next to an old wood pile, dead. It was clear that the barking dog had been sleeping in the leaves right next to its dead friend for a number of days and nights. It still wouldn't come to us.

The dead dog had a collar, and a tag with a phone numbere. I called and delivered the news to an older fellow who said he'd been missing two dogs for five days. Jake drove to the township hall to meet him and led him back to our place. The barking dog came to his owner, wagging and whining, and hungry, and Jake carried the other one down the hill and put him in the man's truck. The man was shaken, but thankful we'd called.

We'll never know what happened, there were no visible wounds on the dead dog. I feel badly we didn't know sooner. Maybe they'd been there all week, and we drove by them early morning and late afternoon and didn't hear or see them. I keep thinking about those dogs, and how the barking one, Clyde was his name, wouldn't leave his friend. Buddy. Buddy was the dead one. Clyde barked at people walking by, which where they landed only ended up being our one neighbor and us, asking for help in the only way he knew how. He did the right thing, and got them both home in the end.