Not Complaining...

The sun coldly climbed over the mountain and the house this morning.  The ice reflected the morning light.  Not a breeze stirred so it seemed warm after minus degrees yesterday.

The pond was still frozen as my driver flew by this morning.  Yes, still had to be driven but the snow is beginning to melt and there are rumors of spring like temperatures in the week to come.

So today, I chose to see the beauty in the frozen landscape. 

 I listened to birds sing and discovered jewels in the ice.

As the snow begins to retreat,

I believe, maybe, spring will come after all.

Thursday's, OH, Gosh, She's STILL Whining About That Snow!

It was still a four wheel drive day as my driver took me to work.  Minus four degrees F...too cold!  In this picture it is hard to tell where the snow ends and the pond begins.  I tried to take pictures but the windows were frozen shut and my driver was flying.

Oh, the pictures I COULD have taken if someone wasn't driving forty-eleven miles an hour!  Here is my masterpiece, a blur outcropping of snow covered rocks with my hand and camera reflected in the frozen glass.

The road looked like glass and the few cars we met were going slow unlike my driver...but the sun was shining and that made it a better day.

The sun, in all its winter glory, shined brightly and make the snow look like diamonds.  The warmer weather is coming...I just know it.  If it's not here soon, does any one  have a good recipe for groundhog?

The Icy Fingers...

of winter

Touch my cheek

Leaving red upon ivory.

The dread locks of winter

Block my vision of spring

While my heart cries, "Tulips!"

Snowy Favorites

Happy Valentine's Day!

Looking Out The Window Of My Car

I'm Gonna Thrash Him!

We are still covered with snow.

It is cold!

And muddy.

Just let me tell you...I always loved it when Mom started a story that way, she was gonna let somebody have it, tell them how the cow ate the cabbage.  WELL,  just let me tell you about Hubby!

You have see from the above pictures, this is not the fun snowy winterland from the romance novels.  This is sloppy mud over your ankles where the feed spots are and slick snow that you can bust your behind on in a New York minute. We are sliding vehicles, splashing tractors, and slipping boots just to get stock fed.

Hubby goes to put out hay, on the tractor.  He flies through, stabs the round bale with his hay stinger, floors it to the gate, splashes through the creek, flies once again through the pasture to his carefully selected feeding spot for the evening.

Yes, I am grateful we have a tractor and the hay to feed but I am telling you this man causes more work....He brings me the phone.  Why?  He can't find his cell phone.  He knows he lost it during feeding and it is probably in the creek, under the mud and he run over it with the tractor and he can't find it anywhere.  He's mashed it, it's gone forever, he's the disaster man is what he is!

Okay, so my job is to repeatedly dial his cell phone to help him locate it.  Good plan if the cell phone is reachable.  So I am dialing and dialing and dialing.  His cell cuts off at four rings, goes to voice mail and I don't know where redial is on this house phone.  Where was I?  Oh, yes, dialing and dialing and dialing.  He comes back to the house with a hang-dog expression and says I can't find it, it's gone, it's mashed, it's trashed, I will never see it again.

Silly me, even after living with this man all these years, I feel sorry for him.  I pull on my muck boots, wrap up warm in my big coat, don my wonderful mittens and start to search.  Tracking Hubby is easy, it is like tracking a herd of wild horses, easy to follow.  I did tell you it was cold, right?  I am walking and looking and hoping his cell in not brown, cause that is the only color I am seeing with occasional spots of white. 

My sister has heard his sad tale and joins me in the search.  We are cold, it is getting dark, but because we are nice, we are still looking.  I said, Marcy, it's too cold to look for a phone. She said, I'm getting cold, I think I'll go in.  Me, too.

About this time, Hubby hollers, I am going to the office to see if my cell phone is there.  Now, if you lost it while feeding, why would you look in your office?  We are frozen stiff, muddy and now, I suspect, I am probably gonna get a little mad too.

That's right, it was in his office, just where he left it!!!  I am gonna thrash him for sure!

Cold, Ya Think?

Sunrise In Northcentral Arkansas

on Wednesday

I thought the blurred one was just as lovely.

The hay is reassuring because it looks like we will need it all.

Every where is ice.

Ice and snow, with promise of more.

and the cardinals decorate the trees like Christmas ornaments.

Things Are Cold

But we are very lucky.  We do not have feet of snow or lots of rain.  The ice has formed on the water garden.  The animals come through to drink and I must remember to break the ice.  They are spoiled to the water garden since I made them a path to the water.

The fires are going and they feel good.

My latest foster dog is doing well.  Here Gentry is looking for the laser light that she chases.  Gen sits and is house trained and leash trained.  We have an application...hoping Gen gets a forever home soon.

This Week's Phavorite Photos

Son and Mother

Lady Bug in ice

Fox squirrel with walnut

Roosters

I Know!

How about some ice photos?

The sun still rose.

The Sun still set.

The animals were fed.

Life went on...At The Farm.

Can You Guess?

More ice pictures and a surprise at the end of them!

I am delighted! Y'all really missed me!


I shall tell a cold tale tonight.

I had hauled all the water for the evening from the spring and was ready to settle into my reading by candlelight.

I decided at that moment I needed to wash my hair, right then, right now, no waiting, no warming, I was going to get this done.

So I leaned over the bathtub with my two buckets of icy cold spring water. I picked up my homemade dipper made out of a milk jug and poured it over my hair.

Boooshh! That was cold.

I took a deep breath and told myself how tough I was and how dirty my hair was and went back to it. Pouring a generous amount of shampoo into my hand I preceded to lather up. Not bad, warming up now with the friction. Then time to rinse, okay, you can do this and you'll have it done.

I picked up my handy little scooper and dumped about a third of a gallon of still cold, still icy water on my head and tried to rinse. No luck! Too much shampoo...had to call the hubby for help.

I believe he was somewhat delighted with the prospect of being asked to pour cold water on my head. I can not imagine why!

He carefully dipped and poured with me giving directions. To the front, not down my back, only on the front of the head. He's says but your back is soapy too and I believe he was grinning. I am quickly trying to rinse all the shampoo out as he dips one more time! To the front I say as he delightfully lets it run all the way down my back!

Finally the third jug removes all the soap and I can hear my hair is squeaky clean.

Hubby says want me to rinse anything else?

I politely thank him and say I am taking this bath in stages and quickly wrap a towel around my head and run to the heat. Now, I know he is smiling and has really enjoyed torturing me.

Here is my surprise! A summer swim! It's coming soon. It has to!