Thank doG It's Friday!!

FINALLY it's the end of a long snowy week!! The Federal Government has been closed all week, so Carl has been off as a result. My office closed 2 days, but unable to get to work today it seems like I have been home for days and days... We found (and paid) someone to plow out our driveway on Tuesday. But Murphy's Law being what it is, the Wednesday snowstorm that brought another foot of snow was accompanied by high winds which caused snow to drift across the driveway, snowing us in yet again. Carl is working on shoveling (yes, I said shovel) and we're hoping that by Saturday night we'll be able to get out again. If not, we may have our own episode of "The Shining" with me playing the role of Jack Torrance! Thankfully our power has stayed on, and we are well stocked with all that we need.

I think that the dogs are getting tired of the snow too. I know they are missing being able to run and play in the woods that they love so much. Rudi (below) was on her way to the bird feeder for her favorite snack--Can't blame her for trying to get there--There's always something on the ground that she thinks she can't live without!

Charlie waits patiently by the gate--Is he hoping to make an escape too? I wish it were as easy as opening a gate to leave!

Enjoy your weekend!!

A Snowy Wordless Wednesday

Say it Ain't Snow!!

The weather report for Tuesday says 5-10 more inches of snow is on the way. I think the look on Maguire's face on Saturday pretty much says how I'm feeling about it all too.

My Grasshopper Ways...

You may remember the story of the “Grasshopper and the Ant.” I remember this story not because I read it in a book, but because I saw the Disney cartoon. In the cartoon, the grasshopper fiddles, sings, and eats the leaves off trees while the queen of the ants warn him that he'd better prepare for winter too. But the grasshopper continues fiddling and singing. When winter finally comes, the grasshopper becomes almost frozen from the cold. He can no longer play his fiddle. In desperation, he knocks at the tree where the ants live and begs them to let him in. The queen ant gives her “I told you so” speech and ends with “Take your fiddle...” and after the long pause she says “and play!” So in the end, the grasshopper earns the warmth and food of the ants by playing his fiddle.

I am reminded of this story because Carl and I are like the grasshopper in the story. We are SO unprepared for this winter!! These last 2 snowstorms have really held challenges for us. I had hoped that the lessons learned from the last snowstorm would get us through this one; they really haven't. Our power went out on Saturday afternoon. With almost 3 feet of snow, no firewood and temps below freezing outside, it was getting chilly inside. The dogs however, were great warmers last night--There's nothing like a Golden Retriever or two (or three) to help you to feel cozy!! But with very little food that didn't need to be cooked, no running water, (everything in our house is electric) I have to confess that I was getting a little concerned and we both were a little hungry too. Carl and I worked today and got my van and part of the driveway all shoveled out. About 2 hours later we were wet and pretty cold. I was trying to warm up and feeling pretty discouraged about it all and was just about at rock-bottom when suddenly the power was restored!!!! An answer to a prayer!! We've now had a hot meal, have warmed up and feel like we can again conquer the elements--Who needs the Ants?

Hunkering down again!

Well, here we go again!! The snow is back, and the prediction for this storm is for 2-3 feet before it all ends on Saturday night. I know this may not sound like much to some of you, but for an area that is only used to getting around 17 inches a year it's a big deal--The bottom line, we are real wimps here in Virginia!!

At the start of the winter, I didn't mind the snow because I really enjoy a good snow day and having a good reason to stay home! But I have to admit that with all we've had this year it is starting to lose its novelty because I'm not nearly as excited about this snowfall as I was about the others we've had.

I know you're probably tired of looking at my snow pictures, but it seems to be what my life is all about the last couple of weeks...Below is the view of our road as I was coming home from work this afternoon. You can see that the road was starting to get a glaze on it.

The 22 inches of snow we had in December really caught us off guard and unprepared with a way to "get out." Because we had no one to plow for us, or a snow-blower, we ended up shoveling the entire driveway. Since we've not been able to get a plow for our "lawn-tractor" we decided to park my van close to the bottom of the driveway to make getting out easier--At least that's our hope! This is the "old road" in back of our house that leads up to the open field. It certainly looks different in the snow, doen't it?

Home snowy-home!!! Which is where we'll be for the next couple of days--If the power stays on and we have an internet connection, it's not such a bad place to be snowbound!!!

Hmmmm...There were no pictures of the dogs or mention of them in this post...How'd that happen??

Another Snowy Saturday

We've had about 5 inches of lovely snow today! Knowing it was on the way, I got up early, went to the store, the laundry-mat to wash dog beds, and the final stop was at the 7-11 for a Big Gulp--We got the dogs fed and walked just as the snow started to fall at around 9:30 this morning.

As I was unloading my van afterwards Charlie was sitting in the front seat waiting for a car-ride. Unable to coax him out I left him there. I have to admit that I forgot about him and remembered him about an hour later. He was still sitting in the front seat waiting and hoping for that ride...How could I say no to this face?

It was actually a nice little drive around our area. I took a road I'd not taken before and it was pretty scenery and we saw a fox and several deer.

Good to see that the mail was being delivered because sometimes in crummy weather it isn't. Charlie seemed much happier.

It was a nice drive. Charlie was right, we needed a little jaunt around the snowy country side.

Reality Came on Sunday!

Well, we had a great snow day on Saturday! I loved everything about it--The food, playing with the dogs, and just hanging out! It could not have been a nicer day at home!

Living in the country has really been a learning experience. I've learned that we need to be self sufficient, because we have no neighbors, and it's "just us." We found this out our first summer here in the country when the lights went out. We had no water, no candles, and no batteries or flashlights, and dead cell phones. That only happened once. The next time the lights went out (and they did!) we had everything and more and it went smoothly.

We've had the same sort of thing happen with the snow...On Sunday, we had a big reality check!! This is a picture of the top of our driveway, and our reality was, that we needed to dig ourselves out from under the nearly 2 feet of snow so that we could go to work on Monday. Thinking it wasn't a "big deal" we had a plan that at the time, didn't seem like it would be too hard to pull off. The plan was for Carl to shovel out the main part of our drive-way by the garage. We figured we would only need enough space for me to back my van out of the garage, drive over to the top of the driveway and then I'd make my run down to the end, and as simple as that, we'd be out! I wish it had been that easy...I quickly got stuck. Not being deterred by this set back, we dug my van out, and tried it again, and again, and again...At four o'clock in the afternoon we were still trying to shovel our way down to the end of the driveway, and my van continued to get stuck. We had made progress and were about 3/4 of the way down the driveway, but it was getting dark and we had to give up and we came back inside, defeated. I will say that the dogs were a great comfort in my discouragement over not being able to dig ourselves out. A couple of them came to me and quietly wagged their tales and put their head on my leg and just looked at me with their soulful eyes...It was much needed and appreciated.

In deciding what our next step would be, it was a big help that the Federal Government was closed today (Monday), and we didn't need to worry about Carl getting to work. However, I needed to be at my office to cover for our office manager who was going to be out. Fortunately, the "new girl" in our office (you remember, the one who drives me crazy & talks too much) only lives about 10 minutes from me, and I called and got a ride from her--Funny how her high energy and endless chattering about everything didn't bother me on the ride to work and home this evening...

Carl finished the job of shoveling the driveway this morning, and we have learned our lesson, the hard way...We will either be purchasing a snow-blower, or hiring someone to plow our driveway in the big snowfalls. My love of and hope for snow-days isn't going to change--I'm already looking forward to the next one, but I'll also be looking forward to not having a morning-after reality check!

All Snowed In!!

Monster?? Historic?? Significant?? Paralyzing?? These were all the words I was hearing on the news yesterday morning describing the impending storm and it was sweet music to my ears!! Feeling like this time the weathermen had it right, I went to the store and stocked up on all the needed snow-day food! I have not been disappointed!! As I write this, we are nearing a foot of snow and it's still coming down! In Washington DC, they are expecting up to 2 feet! Needless to say, everything is shut down and we are snowed in!! I know there are people who are complaining about it, and I feel badly for my friend whose son is a Marine and is trying to get home from Quantico for the holidays--But I couldn't be happier about it!

The dogs share my opinion about this cold white stuff!! We've had fun today letting them out to play in it. We did have a little bit of drama when I'd taken 3 of the girls who can be off lead and Josh, (pictured here) who is "okay" off lead with me to feed the birds. The girls stayed with me and were munching on bird food (they think it's delicious) and I was dumping snow out of the feeders when I heard Josh howling and barking in the woods--In that moment, I realized that I'd forgotten all about him!! I hollered for him to come back and he didn't--I started to panic and Carl who had heard me calling for Josh (actually I think the whole county heard me!) came out and helped look for him. Thankfully our renegade returned from his adventure!! Feeling relieved and "thanking God" I have told Josh that he has blown his chance of being off lead like that again!!

We are now all warm and settled in for the rest of the day. I've got an apple pie baking and there is scalloped potatoes and ham in the crock-pot for dinner and we're watching movies and the birds outside...I just love snow-days!!

The Snow is Here!

Snow finally came to Virginia! It snowed all day and I loved it!! It will be short-lived though because it's supposed to warm up and melt today, and we'll be back to the muddy mess--But we will all enjoy it while it's here.

I did get a couple of the bird feeders set up during the snowfall and I thought it would take several days before the birds would find them--I was wrong...This morning as I'm writing this there are Chickadees, Juncos, a Wren, Tufted-Titmouse, and a red-headed-woodpecker enjoying breakfast. I do need to get the platform feeder set up for the Cardinals which are also stopping by too. I really enjoy watching the birds from my desk.

The dogs loved (LOVED!!!) the snow yesterday and this morning!! Since we have some newcomers that were not here last year, it's hard to know how they will react to it. Maguire loves to eat it, Cowboy loves to roll in it, and Hamlet, as you can see by the picture just tried to keep his eyes open during it.

It was a good day for all of us--I made chili in the crock-pot, had a nap, and we watched the movie "Twilight" All is well on Mountain road...


I took these this morning--Even Tanner (bottom photo) was feeling up to enjoying the snow!