January 31, 2010

Todays plans were to do a few things around here then ride around and get snow pictures. Goes to show what happens when you plan things..they don't always work out that way.

Around 10:30am we lost power. We were semi-prepared...we had wood on the porch (covered) and we filled the tub up with water (for those wondering why....it's a great source of water to warm up and clean up with, or to flush toilets!) We hadn't built a fire in the fireplace yet, we didn't want to burn up the wood in case we needed it later...and now we needed it. So we built a fire, we hauled up more wood, we shoveled snow, and Ryan got some propane tanks filled for our portable propane heater.

It's always interesting trying to figure out what we'll eat when the electric is out. Today we made Hobo pies in the fireplace...









yummy finished ham and cheese hobo pie




later the wood was piled perfectly to set an iron skillet on it to heat yesterdays breakfast leftovers.


Later we piled the wood semi-level again to heat some water in our cast iron dutch oven so that Ryan could clean up and shave. It was boiling in no time!


Getting close to dark and the temp in the house is dropping. I have to say, I'm impressed with how well the fireplace did. We closed all the bedroom doors and only heated the living room, kitchen, hall and bathroom, and it got up to 71 in the living room.


About the smae time it was in the 20's outside


Lantern and bottle of propane ready to go...


Ryan made a run to Lowe's to get propane for our heater and was supposed to get food while he was out. The kids were hungry before he got back so they ate some Lunchables from the fridge.


Candles and Lanterns are lit..




Ryan remembered that we had some burners to fit on the little propane tanks. He dug them out of the attic part of the building and we fixed dinner on them...macaroni and cheese, deer meat (canned) and corn all mixed together.






We finally put a movie in my laptop for the kids around 7:30 and told them they could watch it as long as the battery lasted. I took this picture of them watching it and then the power came back on. Woohooo! 9 hours without power..we survived!


And finally a picture of Molly. I had carried blankets to the living room for us to use tonight. Molly was wiped out from running in the snow all day and thought the blankets were Heaven!

January 31, 2010

I woke up at 4am this morning when Abigail got in our bed. I looked out our bedroom window and the whole yard was lit up with the light from the moon, and the trees were casting shadows all over the snow. It was beautiful and I knew I had to try to get a picture.

I tried out the window but there was no way I could hold the camera still long enough to get enough exposure so I dug out my tripod, put on my boots and coat and went outside. Brr..it's was cold out...about zero degrees!

It took me a few minutes to figure out how to set up the shot to include themoon without wading into the 13 inches of snow. It also took me a few shots to find the right exposure but I finally got it.

I was so happy with the way this turned out. For you photographers: focal lenght 17mm, f2.8, ISO 400, shutter speed 4 seconds, focus - maual.

January 30, 2010 - part 2

After playing in the snow we decided to makes some valentines. I bought some sponges and cut hearts out of them, and we stamped different patterns onto cardstock.

Caleb only wanted to use orange, Abigail used more of a variety. We didn't have green so Abigail mixed some green for us. :)

Opening the paint




getting ready to start












and since we are working on Valentine's cards...here's some of our decorations


The kids love SpongeBob, so when I was cutting the hearts out of sponges, they wanted to make spongebob. It doesn't look anything like him, but they were happy. :)


Our boots all lined up...drying out.

January 30, 2010 - part 1

We woke up this morning to falling snow..forecast originally of 3-7 inches, then upped to 12 inches. The snow was falling steady and fast...most of the day it was coming straight down. We ended up with 13 inches.

Of course the kids wanted to go out first thing but it was only 14 degrees out. So I decide to bring some snow in bowls into them. Caleb wanted to use his cubing Wall-E to make snow cubes and Abigail made some snowballs.










We did go out around noon but it was not much warmer. It was a light powdery snow and the kids and Molly had so much fun playing in it!







It was light enough you could blow it.




Caleb would stand up, hold his arms up straight, and fall forward in the snow.


right after this Caleb lost Wall-E's head/eyes. We'll have to wait until all the snow is gone to find it.


Molly loved this!


Abigail was trying to build snow castles ...


but Molly grabbed it and ran off with it.



Blue eyed beauty


Please let me in..it's cold out here.


Let me in now! It's really cold out here, and this white stuff keeps sticking to me!

January 29, 2010

Abigail frequently gets bloody noses, especially in the winter. Tonight after they went to bed, Caleb fell fast asleep. Abigail came out a little later and said she thought her nose was going to bleed, and sure enough it did.

She wanted Daddy to hold her, and after it quit bleeding she closed her eyes and went to sleep on Daddy's lap. He was asleep soon after her.