Still winter

As much as the lingering sunlight in the evening tells us it's Spring, the feet and feet of snow on the ground remind us it's very much still winter.

We saw a patch of our actual driveway this week. This very slow gradual melting has caused us a few problems. The ground is hard enough that the dogs can now stand on the top of the snowbanks and launch themselves over the fence.

The 2 feet of snow above our mudroom roof is melting and dripping into the mudroom. This was fixed quickly by removing snow on the roof.

We are all starting to get antsy to see the sun and feel it's warmth. The thought of sitting on the porch sipping coffee in the morning fills me with so much anticipation. It will need to be at least 20 degrees warmer for that to happen.

Dogs escape

I said last week we needed to keep a path cleared in the dog yard. Well then all the snow blew around and I did dig out a little path and the dog door but I did not expect the back part of the yard to fill in overnight with blowing snow. Usually the snow is so powdery that the dogs don't venture out on top.

Who wants to walk in snow that goes over your head?  Well they must have been feeling courageous and found the six inches left of the six foot fence was not enough to hold them back.  I'm sure it helped that they were outside when the mailman was making his rounds.  We found them both moments after their escape one sitting on the front porch barking, the other on the back.

So out we went to fix the situation. I tried to get all the kids out to help but the older ones pointed out that we currently only have two shovels since one was lost months ago in the snow.

 

  So my youngest helped as always.  Between the two of us we got the perimeter cleared in an hour.  He loves any chance he can get to work on the roof of the shed.  He was practicing his action movie stunts by jumping off the roof into a roll onto the snow below.  He's getting quite good.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Clay Studio

I have been spending my mornings in such a creative whirlwind lately.  Most of it is just in my mind as I watch the snow outside.  I feel like I need to be up and  making before the kids are awake.  Since I am using the Clay Co-Op for my studio that is not going to happen.  So instead there is planning, lots of planning going on.

 

I love this layout, very simple, small and efficient. This would fit in our upstairs kitchen perfectly.

This is totally how we are going to fix up the sink because you don't want pounds of liquid clay running down your sink.

Now for the roadblocks. We live in the middle of nowhere.  It takes a lot of money to have clay shipped to me.  It doubles the price of it because let's face it, clay is heavy and it usually has to come by big truck.  So that means driving somewhere to pick it up (6 hours away) or finding someone locally who is buying clay and becoming their bestest buddy. 

The next issue is that while I do own a wheel and a kiln both are in my shed which is snowed in to the roof. Plus they are both in pieces. The wheel I took apart a few years ago to "fix" and it's still in pieces. The kiln didn't make the move well and has a cracked lid and some broken elements. Both can be fixed. Then I need some power to the kiln and it won't be living in the house so that needs to be wired in our mudroom.

So this is what I do instead, plan, and wait for spring.

Ski school

 

This year our kids participated in ski school at the local ski hill. The boys both chose to snowboard. Our daughter chose to learn how to ski. I chose to knit.

It was a great program that lasted eight weeks and by the end of it they were all skiing and snowboarding much better than my husband and I ever have.

Most importantly all three of them have developed a passion for it. I see lots of knitting in my future next year.

Lesson learned

This week we learned that we need to keep the path dug out to the shed OR we need to build a door from the house to the shed. My love and I both want things out of the shed. I want my pottery wheel which lay in pieces to fix and my Love wants his chop saw to cut trim. My man even tried to dig out the shed the other day. He made some steps up in the snow because it is 3 or more feet up from the walk to the snowpack top. Then he pounded down a path for the saw to travel once freed. Then he started digging. The shed is buried. There is about six feet in front of it. Some is from drifts from a recent blizzard, some from the roof of the shed being shoveled off. He got about 3 feet down but alas he still had 3 feet to go. So we will just have to wait for spring to melt the snow away. Of coarse the forecast for the next two days? Snow. Up to two feet more.