Near Disaster

Sometimes I wonder at the intelligence of this pup we have brought here to the farm. About 2:00 this morning, I hear what I think is the coyotes going through. This is not uncommon as we have quite a few coyotes here in Floyd. Then I hear Shadow(old dog) barking like crazy. Still not uncommon as he does not allow the coyotes to come to close to the house. After this my sleep induced brain makes out another sound. Jasper (young dog) in great distress. I open the upstairs window but cannot see him, however, his distress is getting louder. Hubby gets up and we quickly run outside to see what is going on. Jasper has somehow managed to get in the pond. However, he cannot get out because of the ice. He is whimpering so loud and struggling to get out of the water with his front paws, however they can’t get any traction on the ice. We have no idea how long this had been going on before we were awakened but he seemed to be pretty tired and definitely very scared. I run back up to the house and get a long pole. George uses it to break the ice on the edge but it was frozen so thick he couldn’t do much good. Finally he has some success. He takes the pole and pushes Jasper down the edge of the ice until he gets to the closest place to the ground. The pup is still struggling to get out but can’t. I lay down flat on the ice and stretch forward and manage to grasp a front paw and pull him out. He was extremely grateful and extremely cold. We brought him into the house and dried him off as best we could. As a special reward for all his hard work (and ours) he stayed in the house the remainder of the night to warm up. I think he liked that part. Here is another picture showing more details.

This entire adventure took about 1 hour. We are very thankful for the warmer temperature last night. This would have been terrible with below zero temps. We are also thankful Jasper seems okay, as we have all come to love him. Well, that was our night. God Bless.

January 12, 2010 0

Ice Skating

I know I’m going from one extreme to the next with my pictures, but I thought you all might enjoy a view from my front window. It’s actually quite pretty( if you like the look of ice). I am getting a little tired of looking at it though. We’re hoping for a warm up soon, especially concerning the bathroom water lines. I don’t think I mentioned yesterday but our potatoes also froze in the canning building. Ok, enough “woe is me” stuff. Life is still good and God is still in control. Today is the start of a new week. School as usual. I am thinking of making another batch of cinnamon rolls as the first ones seemed to go pretty good. Sometimes, making desserts here is a waste of time and money as we do not eat a lot of sweets. I think this time I will try the sticky bun recipe. I have read a lot about sticky buns in Amish books and think I would like to try them. Well time for school. Take care and God Bless.

January 11, 2010 0

Summer Anyone?

Ok, so I’m really getting tired of cold weather and I thought I would have a little summer . Garden growing, clothes drying on the line. Mr. Scarecrow on duty. That’s right. Stop. Take a deep breath. Imagine summer in full swing. Not wind chills below zero, frozen water lines etc. Today has been a nice day, church was good. The bad news was yesterday. I went up to my cellar to get some canned goods and discovered my canned green beans had frozen. I counted 40 quarts frozen and decided I didn’t want to count anymore. I just shut the door and walked away. I have never had cans to freeze before so I’m not exactly sure what to do. I researched this and from what I have discovered, as long as they stay sealed they should be okay. I pray this is so. So much work to lose them all. Anyway, it’s all part of life. I’ve been busy making aprons and discloths to sell. I have 3 aprons finished and working on the 4th one. I have about 4 dishcloths made. I am also working on another wall hanging. This one will be for Julie. Oh yea, I also have an afghan in the works. This is all done in my spare time. (What spare time?) Well, it’s time for bible study. Tonight’s menu includes brunswick stew, green beans(guess who’s bringing them) cornbread, mac & cheese and 2 different desserts, unknown at this time. God Bless.

January 10, 2010 0

Cinnamon Rolls

I made cinnamon rolls yesterday. Sorry for the small picture. I am having trouble with my blog pictures. I need some help, Dave!! Anyway this was my first attempt at cinnamon rolls. Jess has made them several times so I thought I would try my hand at them. They turned out pretty good. Well, it is still cold here. About 5 degrees with a wind chill of about -15 or more. Wind gusts of about 40 miles an hour today and tomorrow. Needless to say our water in the bathroom is still frozen. The girls had their first experience with washing their hair the old way today. Not a lot of fun but better than nothing, at least we are clean. It’s time for school to start so I better get busy. Stay warm and God Bless.

January 8, 2010 0

Apron

My first out of state order. Okay, so it goes to my cousin in Kansas but it counts anyway. Well, the big news here is Jess went yesterday for her ultra sound and IT’S A BOY!!!! My heart is happy. It amazes me to think of how good the God I serve is. To come from being a woman who thought she would have no babies to being blessed with children is just an example of how God loves to surprise His children. God is good!! Temperatures here are still cold. The high today is 24 degrees, wind chill of about 15. This is the warmest temperatures we have had in about one week. We have managed to keep the water running in the kitchen, but the bathroom has been frozen for several days. Oh well, at least we still have water. We went down to Jessica’s yesterday to watch Daniel while she went for her ultra sound. It was 32 degrees when we left her house, got back home to 16 degrees with a wind chill of about zero or below. Have I mentioned I do not like cold weather? This will make me appreciate spring more when it comes, right. I am making homemade rolls today and it is time to put them in the oven. Better go. God Bless.

January 6, 2010 1

Wall Hanging

This is my latest project. What do you’ll think? I have never been very good at hand sewing, however I have decided to hand sew each of my girls a wall hanging. Notice I did not say quilt(much too big a project). I thought though that a wall hanging would be do-able for me. I gave this one to Jess and plan to start one for Julie soon, then Grace. It really was a lot of fun. I guess because it was kinda different for me. I always enjoy trying new projects. Well the big news around here is the temperature. COLD!!! The actual temperature was around zero this morning with a wind chill of somewhere around 15 or 20 below. VERY COLD!!! Dave and Jess and Daniel came up this weekend. Of course, they are now accustomed to more southernly temperatures so they were very cold. But then we were very cold too. I really pray it doesn’t stay this cold all winter but I do recall one January about 5 years ago, the temperatures stayed like this for the entire month. Have I mentioned I don’t really like cold. Oh well, maybe this will kill out all the squash bugs that attacked our garden last year. We will (hopefully) find out Tuesday if Jess is having a boy or a girl. Sometimes those babies are shy and don’t want to let anyone know. Anyway she is starting to show her pregnancy and getting some flutterings which is very exciting. It was very good to have them up this weekend, they had not been here since Halloween and thats way too long. It’s almost time for our Sunday Night Study so I guess I better get busy. I’m taking leftovers from yesterday’s feast. God Bless.

January 3, 2010 0