Pretending can make it real...

 ...Yes, it's been snowing for the past 254 hours(I meant 24, but it seems like 254.  A little type there).  

 I was outside early this morning to run the snowblower since the temperatures will soon warm up and the moisture could turn into rain anytime.  

What do you get when you have 8 inches of fresh snow on top of what's already on the ground and then it starts raining?  Let's just say it becomes a sloppy mess.  

The best thing to do is to get rid of as much of it as you can in the walkways and on the driveway.  

it's beautiful outside and not cold.  It would be wonderful it the date was Dec. 24th.  

Tonight we "spring forward".  Maybe, just maybe, it will mean that the snowfall is finally the LAST one!  

Therefore, I am only thinking "spring" from now on  - or sometimes "summer".  

We have basketball games and an XFL football game to watch today. 

 I'm working on a sketch of Miss Lady using colored pencil.   The art classes at the community center are fun, especially since I am learning new techniques.   The instructors, Kathy Gorup, Kally Thurman and Vera Gadman, have introduced us to both pencil and colored pencil drawing, watercolor and also acrylic painting. I missed the acrylic sessions, so I hope they will be taught again some time. 

I've done my first transplanting of my Red Robin tomatoes and started the seeds for four varieties of peppers and also my garden tomatoes.  

 I am hoping to have some of these ripening on the those plants by May.  

I also took my begonias out of storage so that they can begin to grow once again.

Happy Spring Forward Day.

I swear you'll feel better after listening to this song.

La la la la la de ho

Whether the weather be rain or snow

Pretending can make it real

A snowy pasture, a green and grassy field

In like a lion.

Beautiful, but cold.  

I read my friend Marianne's blog this morning.  She was up and out there about the same time that I was(4:30 a.m.), except - I didn't go out there.  I sent the dog instead.

I have to agree with everything that she said on her blog this morning.  You can read all about it at Slight Detour. 

Jon and I had to spend all afternoon yesterday in town so that means this morning's job will be to run the snowblower and clear the paths since they are predicting somewhere between 7-12" of new snow over the next few days.  I sure hope they're wrong, but it's not looking good.

I know I'm late to the party but I just finished watching The Queen's Gambit.  Who knew a series about playing chess would be so riveting.  If you're looking for something to watch during the next snowfall event, I highly recommend it.  

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Patty.  She and my brother Roy are vacationing in Cabo.  Good idea.

Good idea.

The frozen land.  

The howling wind.

The brr cold.

When the wind is howling outside all night long, I don't sleep well.  I woke up at 1:30, 3:30 and 4:30.  At 5:00 A.M. I finally gave up and got out of bed.  Our low was 0.2 degrees. 

Yes, that's ice on my window...

I decided to do indoor projects for the next couple of days.   

Yesterday I setup my seed-starting lights and tray warmers to start my tomato and pepper seeds.  

Good idea.

Which brings to mind the movie Jon has been watching, Never Cry Wolf, based on the book by Farley Mowat.  The main character, Tyler, is sent to the Canadian Arctic wilderness to study the impact of wolves on the caribou population.  

The opening scene is a classic and in our family we often quote Rosie's(the pilot) line, "boredom Tyler, boredom".  You won't regret watching the clip below.  "How do you beat boredom?  Adventure."

Rosie flies Tyler into the wilderness and drops him off on a sub-zero frozen lake.  Seems kind of similar to what we're experiencing now.  Sub-zero frozen!

He is rescued by an Inuit named Ootek, who takes him off the ice and helps him build a shelter.  Ootek's response to several of Tyler's ideas throughout the movie is always, "Good idea". 

Our front porch with windblown snow and anything that isn't tied down has blown away.

Today's project won't be quite as much fun as yesterday's since I decided I would begin to work on filing our taxes.  At least I don't have to go outside.  

At the moment I do not have a crescent wrench in my hand, seeking adventure.  

Lady says, "Good idea, mom".             

Some assembly required...

 It all began with a new problem. 

 I have always set up my gro-lights to start my seeds in the bay window.  The problem - Miss Lady has decided that is her favorite spot for a nap.  She can nap and/or watch out the window for those pesky varmints.   

So, where to set up my seed-starting this year? 

My decision was to purchase a metal shelving stand and to set it up in the pantry.  I could easily suspend the light fixtures from the wire shelf.  

As always, some assembly required...

This is the shelf.  At the moment I only have a couple of plants on it as I'm not finished sorting everything out, but this will work.  It's a nice stand and rated to hold a lot of weight.  We put these shelves together last week.  

Well, one shelf led to another shelf and so on. 

 

Our pantry has our washer/dryer and a freezer in it, plus some shelves for pantry items.   I guess I should say that it was kind of a pantry, but not really designed to be one. There has never been a design.

There was a fold-up table, which was always covered with assorted canned goods, etc. plus my spare oven.  In other words, there was "stuff" everywhere.  If you didn't know where to store something, you put it in the pantry and closed the door.

 I decided it was time to add some more shelving to get all of the pantry goods off of the floor and maybe I could actually end up with a counter with nothing stored on it.  Organization.  That was what we needed.

Voila!  

A counter with nothing on it.  I actually have a place to fold the clothes when I take them out of the dryer!

It did not happen overnight.  This kitchen island and the pantry cupboard needed to be assembled.

The first one only took us a couple of hours.  We figured we did a good job for two old duffers.  

We had basketball games to watch in-between the assembly projects.  

We needed to stop. 

 

Tomorrow is another day. 

 

That's what we told ourselves, but what we really needed was a break.

The new cupboard is a nice place to store our collection of dried mushrooms. I noticed our supply is running low on several of them.  I hope we finally get  more moisture this spring and next fall to help the mushroom crop.

Before I ordered the cabinets I took many measurements to be certain everything would fit.  I only had one problem.   My countertop oven has a rounded protrusion out the back of it and when I measured the depth, I didn't notice it.  The original plan was for it to set on the cupboard, but it was too deep.  

Revision.

At the moment it's on the wire rack, but will have to be moved when all my plants start growing.  I will need all three shelves.

The pantry is definitely not up to Martha Stewart standards, but it sure works for me.  I managed to get almost everything stored somewhere on a shelf or in the cupboard and not on the floor! 

We were actually disappointed to get up this morning and not have another cabinet to put together.  

Or not.

This morning we're enjoying the arctic blast that's headed our way.  It's been snowing since about 7:00 a.m.  As I write this we now have eight inches of fresh snow with more coming down.  

I took these photos around 11:00 a.m.

It's about 1:30 right now and Jon and Lady are walking out to the satellite dishes to clear the snow off.  We now have eight inches of fresh snow.

It looks like I will need to get the snowblower running.  

Nope.

I have decided to wait until about 3:30 to run the snowblower in hopes that the snowfall will end shortly after that and before the temperature drops to minus -?

UGH!

February - the "hope for spring" month

We're getting close to halfway through February with Valentine's Day tomorrow, which makes me happy.  Yesterday we received a cute valentine from grandson Ben.  He has learned to use Adobe Illustrator to create his artwork and has designed greeting cards.  His Valentine's card includes his drawing of a pig(his favorite animal) and his version of a proton pack -  from Ghostbusters(one of his favorite movies).  Such a talented young man!

Most of the snow has melted away in Hope, but at our elevation we still have the dirty snow.  There are bare spots showing up in the lawn, but not enough.  Miss Lady doesn't seem to mind and spends a lot of time playing fetch with her assorted toy collection outside.  She has figured out how to toss the ball so that it will roll down the hill and then she can retrieve it.  It's her favorite thing to do.

We aren't at the mud stage yet, but we're close.  Then it will be bath time and another new experience for her.  I hope I survive it.

We have been watching the Gonzaga games and of course, the Super Bowl.  It was an exciting game this year with the teams being evenly matched.   We didn't get too carried away with the football snacks, but we did have chicken wings with a glaze of peach-pepper jelly and a bit of soy sauce.  

Last week I made a Mardi Gras wreath for my friend Julie Bishop.  The snow still had a hard crust which made walking on it easier so I could cut some boughs. 

For many years I made her a Christmas wreath but this year I was recovering from RSV and didn't have a chance to get outside before the temperatures dropped to below zero.  "Laissez les bon temps rouler, Julie!"

This year Fat Tuesday is Feb. 21st.  That will be the last day for feasting and to party down before Ash Wednesday.   I am not Catholic so I don't have to give up anything for lent, but don't count me out on the feasting part. 

I have been enjoying eating popcorn again since I found out after allergy testing that corn(and corn products) no longer disagree with me.  It has been two years since I ate popcorn, which was one of my favorite snacks.

I now have a new popcorn popper and it works great!   It was also a great snack to eat while watching the games. 

After the game was over Jon and I spent about an hour putting together a new set of shelves so that I have a place to start my seeds for the garden.  I used to set everything up in the bay window, but that spot has been taken over by Lady.  It's one of her favorite places for a nap, besides my lap.   It's also a great place to be on the lookout for varmints invading her space.  

It seemed like it would be an easy project but was frustrating as some of the "clips" to hold the metal shelves in place kept slipping.  We did finally get it together and now I can begin to set up the lights.    It's time to plant the Red Robin tomato seeds, my favorite patio tomato for many years.   

Monday Night in New Orleans.