Snow At Last!

Snow in December and January is just something we expect! Our NY winter weather has been so unusual for most of this season, with mild temperatures, rain, and sometimes sunny skies, that some of us were actually missing the snow. This is Rather a strange phenomenom for me, since I'm not a winter person. I never thought I'd be so happy to see snow! Waking up to a winter wonderland this morning gave me such a feeling of contentment. The white flakes were a welcome and beautiful sight as they fell from the skies, covering the drab landscape with a soft, clean blanket of white.



I didn't even mind the cold when I walked up to the barn to feed the cats.



The outdoor furnace was chugging away, keeping us cozy and warm in the house.



We have an enormous woodpile, thanks to our friend Leo and his sidekick, Will, who cut our wood on halves...meaning they cut some for us and take some for themselves. This is a wonderul help to us since Ross's health won't allow him to do this strenuous job without aid. The neat part is that Leo and Will love to cut wood, for the exercise it gives them, and they're more than generous in their efforts. I don't know what we'd do without them.

Leo is also a trapper and the same friend who helped us try to catch the raccoon. Thankfully, we've had no sign of it lately. Leo said when he stopped in today that it's probably hibernating now. It could be snoozing in the top part of our machinery shed behind the barn (shortly after the attack I saw its tracks going up the ramp leading into the shed), but hopefully it's further away, denned in a tree up in our woods.

Our resident sparrows were out in full force today, along with lots of other birds eager to fill their tummies. We haven't seen much bird activity around the feeders until now because they've been able to find enough to eat without handouts. The sparrows are regular visitors, along with a few others, but today we saw a few that have been staying away. I took photos (of course!), which I'll post another day.

The Cut Leaf Maple looks stark, but still has an interesting shape against the winter landscape.

Last night I drove to a budget meeting at church in my car and came home with this fancy truck! How did that come about you may ask? Well, I got brave and drove my car at night to see if the lights would go out again. I had a theory to test.

My good blogfriend, Apple, mentioned that her car sometimes does the same thing when her lights are on high beam, and when she switches them to low they work.

I got to exactly the same spot it happened before (2 miles down the road) and sure enough, pitch black again! Eek! Flashers on! My first thought was to go right back home, but I tried the dimmer switch, and presto, lights! Aha! So I kept going, tried putting them on high beam again just to test and yep, black again......so back to dim.

Our mechanic friend, Dave, was at the meeting and he's the guy I needed to see! He said, "You take my truck home, and I'll take your car". So that's how I came to arrive home in that nice big truck. Ross was very impressed and wondered just what went on at that meeting! I told him it's not who you know, it's what you know (I'm the treasurer, you see) ;)

So the good news is, we think we've found the problem. The bad news is, you can't just buy a simple dimmer switch, you have to buy the entire turn signal stem and it costs almost $4oo. With labor, this is going to be an expensive fix. Oh dear, oh dear!

Well, as Malcolm Frazier (one of Australia's past Prime Ministers) said, "Life wasn't meant to be easy". Profound words indeed...yep.

It'll be so nice to have the problem fixed...it's been a worry. So I'm counting it among our blessings this week.

And rejoicing in the snow!

Go figure.