Home on the Range

Guest post by Crazy Fox.

We went to a cattle ranch and we saw a lot of cows and some babies.

There was over 325 cows all together and we got to feed them all.

We got to ride on a hay wagon and it was fun.

The cows were hungry.

I like this cow a lot because he looks cool.

These cows are heifers. That means they have not given birth to a calf.

Just One Extra Hour . . .

So much for resolutions.

We woke up this morning to fresh snow. I had big plans for today. A new week, a new year and a new schedule. We were going to start school as soon as the Zookeeper left for work. The only problem is, I love to have fun with my kids. I love to make memories with them. I think it is one of the joys of home schooling to tell your kids they can go play in the falling snow. We still got all our school work done. We just took one extra hour of Christmas vacation.

Little Lady and Crazy Fox making snow bricks.

Digging Badger making a stockpile of snowballs.
(Thanks Great Grandma and Great Grandpa!)

Crazy Fox sliding down the hill.

Digging Badger on his snowboard.

Little Lady doing what Little Lady does.

Little Lady's Tobaggan Trouble

This morning's fun started out great. Little Lady lugged the toboggan up the short slope and waited for her turn to go down. She has learned it is better to let one of her boys go down first to pack down the snow.

She was all set and ready to go.

She gave it a little forward heave ho, but she didn't move.

Her brother gave her a little help and she started in a downhill direction.

But still no speed. None at all.
She leaned over the side and started digging herself out. All three of them were laughing so hard. Little Lady continually cracks us up. She was just so matter-of-fact in the way she decided that she could dig her sled out and gain the speed she was looking for. All the while laughing with that deep belly laugh, the genuinely tickled laugh that can not be reproduced. It is the laugh that comes out of her when she is making other people laugh. The noise that allows her to get away with almost anything.

One more little heave ho, and she was off!

Little Lady guiding the toboggan like a pro.
Can I have some hot cocoa?
I love that girl!

Our Knights in Shining Armor

We are in the middle of our Christmas break from school. We have been studying medieval times. The boys have not given up their lessons completely though. They have been taking advantage of the snow and acting out jousting tournaments in our yard. But instead of horses they are using sleds and instead of lances they are using pool noodles.

They have been doing this a lot.

Through the Eye of a Child

Through the eye of my child the new layer of powdery white snow is exciting.

It means a few more days of winter fun, sledding and snowball fights.

And the promise of more mud.

It's a Sun-Shiny Day

The sun came out yesterday. It is back this morning too. Last week we were out shoveling the driveway and I remembered back to when we were living in the sun belt of Arizona. Someone told me one day when I was wishing out loud for even a slight change in the weather, "You don't have to shovel sunshine". On that day I would have done anything for a wintry snow storm. Or just about anything besides sunny and warm. I didn't take the comment well. I wanted to tell that person to stick it where the sun don't shine. But I didn't, because I knew my frustration was not really at the person who pointed out the obvious, but at the bright shining ball in the sky.

Well, Mr. Sun, I'm glad your back and I'm sorry I said those things about you. I have missed you. We all have. I guess it's true absence makes the heart grow fonder. We had a sun-shiny day snow cone out back to celebrate your return.

Our Winter Wonderland

Here's some of our favorite pictures from yesterday's storm.
(You can click on the collage to see bigger pictures.)

Snow Much Fun

It snowed all night and into the afternoon. We woke up to about 6 inches of snow! It was great.

We made a bull's eye target for a snowball throwing contest. The kids had a great time "coloring" the snow.

Then they all lined up and fired away. The snowballs were flying in every direction.

We made some stairs so Little Lady could get to the top of our "hill" and then went sledding and snowboarding down. We went in for a snow cone to cool off. We didn't even have to shave the ice! After some nourishment, we went out front and made a small snow fort. It got demolished before I got a chance to take a picture.

We made an igloo and started working on a penguin to live in it, but we were too worn out from all of our fun. We had a great day being together and playing in the fresh snow.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” John Ruskin

Hot What?

Our sunshine has subsided to another snow storm. The rodent was right. So far anyway.

The kids and I enjoyed a relaxing day doing some minor projects while the Zookeeper was working. I actually had a chance to sit down and look through a magazine that has been sitting on my counter for about a week. Around 4:00 we looked outside and it was snowing again. The boys waited until 5 minutes before sunset to go out and play in the snow. When I couldn't see them from the house I called them in. "Can we have hot chocolate, pleeease". Well, we are just about out of hot chocolate, but thanks to that magazine I read earlier I had a new recipe to try. Everyone has had hot chocolate, but have you ever had hot vanilla? I thought it might be a nice change of pace. We had all the ingredients on hand, so we made a pot. I think it would have been really good, except for the new brand of vanilla I just bought. I neglected to read the ingredient label and it has way more alcohol in it than the kind we usually use. Why is there alcohol in vanilla? It does not taste good. The chocolate-cinnamon whipped cream was delightful though. I guess we'll just stick with the good old stand-by for now . . . hot chocolate.

Little Lady entertained herself for quite a while with all her bow and barrettes this afternoon. Isn't she lovely?

Crazy Fox tasted the hot vanilla, but decided he doesn't like my new concoction. Too much alcohol.

Digging Badger would not even try it. He is completely a creature of habit. He likes about 3 things and one of them is hot chocolate. He decided to just have orange juice.

I think it may me affecting his vision.

Happy Groundhog Day

Well, according to a famous rodent, we have six more weeks of winter to look forward to. I will admit, that after all the cold weather and snow we have had, yesterday I did have a yearning for spring. The sun was out and it was almost 40 degrees. The ice patches on our driveway had melted and it was almost dry. And then this morning we had a fresh dusting of snow, but the sun is out now. I love living in an area with four distinct seasons. Just about the time you can't take any more heat, it starts to cool down and the leaves turn. And then before you know it the pumpkins have been carved and it starts getting cold. Next thing we know our spring bulbs will be popping up through the defrosting ground. I am looking forward to spring, but am content with a few more weeks of winter.

Phil's official forecast as read 2/2/08 at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob:

Here Ye! Here Ye! Here Ye!
On Gobbler's Knob on this fabulous Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2008 Punxsutawney Phil, the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators, Rose to the call of President Bill Cooper and greeted his handlers, Ben Hughes and John Griffiths.
After casting a weathered eye toward thousands of his faithful followers, Phil consulted with President Cooper and directed him to the appropriate scroll, which proclaimed:
"As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be!" Here's the official Groundhog day site.

One Snowman's Story

This is one snowman's story. . .

It all started one snowy afternoon about a month ago. Crazy Fox rolled the fresh, powdery, snow into a big snow ball and then another and another. Each one placed carefully, one on top of the other.

Twig arms were freshly cut off of the bare tree and placed in the appropriate spots. Crazy Fox willingly gave his new snow friend the scarf off of his neck, and The Zookeeper chipped in with his hat. Everything was going smoothly for Mr. Snowy. We even had fresh carrots in the fridge. The perfect nose was chosen and stuck in place. Now all that was missing were eyes and buttons. Everything was covered in snow. What will become of this Mr. Snowy if he has no eyes? Don't worry. . . The Zookeeper's Wife is very resourceful. Of course with the purple pony party looming, there was lots of extra homemade purple playdough in the house. So, we just made a few balls for purple eyes and added them, centered just above the nose. Although, the eyes weren't sticking very well. Just at that moment, we realized there was bark covering the ground just beneath the snow. We dug in a bit and found three bark buttons to finish Mr. Snowy's attire. Handsome, isn't he?

Crazy Fox told Mr. Snowy goodnight and went to bed himself.

The next morning we went out so greet Mr. Snowy and see if there were any cheery birds sitting on his shoulder. There are always cheery birds sitting on the shoulders of snowmen in picture books. Have you ever noticed that? But we did not see any cheery birds sitting on Mr. Snowy's shoulders. What we saw instead was awful, almost gruesome.

Okay, let's take a break from this saga and take a quick quiz?

1.What is one of the main ingredients in play dough?

2. What do you sprinkle onto icy sidewalks to melt the ice?

3.When I say pepper, what is the first word you think of?

The answer:

That's right . . . .Salt, Sodium chloride, NaCl,

Now, back to the story. . .

Where his sparkling purple eyes had been the night before, was now eaten away, by all the salt in the play dough. The Zookeeper's Wife no longer felt like a creative, resourceful mom. Instead, she saw before her, all the hard work her son put into building Mr. Snowy ruined by a snowman's worst fear. Flesh eating bacteria. Salt. The rapid melting of snow.

Upon further inspection, the flesh eating bacteria had spread, deep into his torso. He was doing all he could to stay standing, fighting against the disease within him.

We had to act fast if we wanted to save him. First we tried a skin graft, but his body rejected it. He could not take much more. So we decided to do a complete head transplant. We had a donor ready and waiting, but when we placed it on his torso he crumbled. . . to the ground. . . into chunks of snowman. The bacteria had completely eaten away at his body. So we quickly rounded up a donor torso and placed it onto the lower portion of his body. He was weak, and started to wobble, we thought we were going to loose him. We gave him some support around the base and hoped he could hold on through the procedure. We attached the new head with little trouble. We even gave him some deep-set bark eyes. They were not as sparkly as his first ones, but much healthier for a man of his kind. We bundled him up in his scarf so he could recover from the traumatic night that he had barely lived through.

He was able to stand tall again. He's practically new, almost, a bionic snowman.

But lately we have noticed that Mr. Snowy is loosing weight. His health is declining again. There is nothing else we can do. Sometimes you just have to let go. He can barely lift his arms and he has lost all of his parts. The life of a snowman is a tough one. Staying out at night in the freezing weather, knowing that even though you want the sun to come out and shine, it is the worst thing for you.

It could really leave a hole in your heart.

One Rad Snow Fort

It was so nice to have the Zookeeper home today. He finished off all the touch up painting in Little Lady's room while the rest of us did school. After lunch the Zookeeper and the boys did an extensive . . . er . . . quick look up of how to build a snow fort. We had a snow block mold in the garage that had never been used. We have never had enough snow to use it! It started snowing this morning and hasn't stopped all day. It is supposed to snow into the night and the next 3 days. The boys had fun building a snow fort with their dad.

Then they practiced their hitting with some snowballs and a bat.

Little Lady went outside to check out the snow fort and then everyone came in for some hot chocolate.

A Rare Queit Moment at the Zoo

For those of you who live in sunny southern California or in the never ending warmth of Arizona, your missing out. Yesterday morning as we woke up to another snow fall, I couldn't stop myself from sitting on the porch in my pajamas to watch the snow in it's peaceful, almost too quiet descent. The whole world seemed to be in slow motion. Huge flakes were floating down from the sky in complete silence.

Except for Barney.

"HeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw HeeeeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, it's snowing again." (Barney sounds a lot like Eeyore when he talks.)

But in case you sunshine people want to have your cake and eat it too, here's 30 seconds of Winter, Idaho style.

And here's a less quiet clip with Barney being Barney. Enjoy.

No More Mud . . . For now

After yesterday's mud-scapades, we woke up to a few inches of fresh snow and frozen ground. All the mushy spots in our yard, (including our driveway that was not easily passable yesterday) overnight, have become solid ground again. . . never to return . . .until the next warm day. But for today we can be glad. Look at the color of the sky. It is so vibrant. Everything looks clean and fresh. I love the snow!

This was the view on the way into church this morning.

One Foggy Morning

When we looked outside on Saturday morning it was like a frosty treat! It was foggy and frosty. Every tree was hoping to be a weeping willow. The way the frost clung to everything was so beautiful. Here's a few of our favorite shots.

Even Barney was a little "greyer" than normal.

Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.

-Unknown-