Words of Inspiration on a Snowy Day

This morning after chores I started to tidy up around the house and I came across something I had bought on my last trip down to Amish Country. Of course, I got sidetracked with "life" and those other important things and just set this aside. This card captures so much about what I yearn to do in life. From the soft blue dress (a signature of the many demin dresses that hang in my closet), to the basket of wool, and the quilt that rests upon the bench. I am going to frame this today and hang it up to remind myself to slow down to accomplish my dreams and enjoy the very essence of why I live in the country with my sheep.

"The cloth was woven and garments were made by the very persons who wore them"

( cards by "of purpose and spirit," Denise Skwira & Charles McCamy)

This is the quote on the back of the card that captured my heart.

I know.....its really cold outside!!!!

The beautiful blue sky today sure was deceiving because afternoon temps did not even reach -4 and the wind chill was keeping it right around -14. The animals kept trying to find some warm spot in the sun rays but it wasn't happening. Morning and evening feeding chores seem to take twice as long when it is this cold.

The chicken coop has this nice frozen overhang going on. Its frozen to the chicken wire. I got to frozen eggs today but was able to get 2 more before they froze. Dixie found the frozen ones to work well as hockey pucks.

Yesterday the UPS man delivered my Pfaltzgraff ware I ordered. The pattern is "Remembrance". I started it when I got married but continued to buy pieces even after I got divorced. The pieces I ordered were from their "By Request" catalog. I got all these pieces for $23 including the shipping. Anyways, the package was on my front porch and when I opened it, it was like opening up the freezer. I let it get to room temp before unpacking it because I didn't want the stoneware to break.

I love the little measuring cups and the pie plate w/the bird......the watering can will give me hope that spring will arrive soon I hope:)

Is Someone Going to Close School??

1.) 4:30 am.......the large urban school district that I teach in (hint: in the city of Cleveland) had not closed school....its early though.
2.) 5:30 am showered, cats & dogs fed; ready for barn chores.......still no closed school
3.) 6:00 am came in to get hot buckets of water for goats & sheep......still no closed school
4.) 6:30 am obviously I have to get ready for school.
5.) 7:00 am mini-van is warm and ready to go.......still no closed school.....digital temp. in van is telling me its -14
6.) 7:05 stop at the gas station to get Coke because I ran out at home.....ladies at the station want to know why I am there.....still no closed school but van temp. now says -10....what progress
7.) 7:10 starting my drive into Cleveland......radio is informing me of all the accidents due to black ice......still no closed school
8.) 7:30 am call my friend Shari who is an assistant principal in the same district......wow, she has a worse potty mouth than me........still no closed school and radio is saying over 200 schools have closed
9.) 7:50 am big traffic jam so I listen to the radio tell me about all the closed school except mine
10.) 8:10 am I was suppose to be at school 20 minutes ago......traffic is not good
11.) 8:20 am my bladder kicks into high gear after having drank a 16 oz. Coke
12.) 8:35 am I arrive at school, lets see that was an hour and half drive, at least I do not have a first period class......gotta get to the bathroom ASAP.....not easy to do when the parking lot is a sheet of ice and snow and I have my laptop bag strapped on
13.) school is looking pretty empty........well there are 26 of the 75 8th grade students there
14.) off to the computer lab we go......kids were really good, they typed their business letters, worked on their friendly letters.
15.) find out that of the 630 some students in the building....about 200 should up. Gee, could it be because 96% of all the students walk to school and a large number of inner city people do not own or believe in shoveling their sidewalks????? Not too mention many of the side streets are poorly plowed because some people just leave their flippin cars parked in the street and did I mention that the temps were hovering at zero with windchills below zero?
16.) 2:30 school is over, kids that came were really good and the boys are happy cuz I took them to the gym to play b-ball at the end of the day.
17.) 2:35 pack up all of my stuff and I am off
18.) 2:45 stop at the store to pick up "stuff" I need....spend $55
19.) 3:40 arrive at TSC down by my neck of the woods....picked up cracked corn, new flannel shirt $7.00, misc. stuff.......spend $25
20.) 4:30 arrive at home to start evening chores.......its 8 degrees. I am happy that everyone is well and okay. I tell the chickens I appreciate the 2 eggs even though they are frozen solid and they appreciate me giving them fresh warm water.
21.) 5:30 evening news starts and so do tomorrow's school closings......I don't bother to watch
22.) 7:oo pm dinner is done, watch Young & the Restless on Soap Net.
23.) 8:00 pm recheck everyone in the barn and decide it is really flippin' cold out so I decide to bring in Jingles and Jangles my outside cats. Since some of my indoor cats have issues with them I can put them in one of the crates in the basement but at least I know they will be warm tonight.

24.) 10:00 pm late night news.......LOTS of schools closings......but not mine but heck the temps are only projected to be -8 with windchills from -15 to -25.
25.) 10:35 pm someone in the school district in which I work has a break through in common sense and closes school for tomorrow.


26.) Dixie wants to know if we can build a snowman tomorrow like the one I bought for her at the pet store.........well since my school is closed tomorrow I think we can but we'll wait for the temps to go up above zero:)

Counting Sheep on a Cold Night

The next 3 nights are going to be bitterly cold, some of the coldest Northeast Ohio has seen in a a good year or so. I just came in from doing my "late"night bedcheck with the animals. The J-Crew & the 2 bucks are good to go in their barn; Johnny is being a punk about the lean-to so TJ and Samuel are sleeping next to each other on the one outside wall. In the big barn the Nigerians are all snug together. Cubbie, my oldest Nigerian wether is sleeping in the little hay wagon; LaManchas are all snug together, Miniature horses are in their stalls and comfortable; and where are all the sheep? The majority of them are outside under the overhang......didn't they hear the radio in the barn tell them that its going to be 5 degrees tonight??

I leave the door under the overhang open just enough so the animals can come and go. I guess I worry that everyone will be fine in the cold weather. I am just curious if anyone who is reading and has sheep, do you close them up in a barn at night? do you let them have free access to come in and out of a barn at night? Guess I am just being a worry wart about the coldest nights of the year coming up.

Harvest Thyme's "Autumn Thyme".....who likes to sleep outside with her mom by the way:)

Snow Update

So, when the snow finally stopped late yesterday I figure I ended up with around 9-10 inches of snow. At least this snow was a lighter, powder snow as opposed to the wet, heavy stuff. FWB stopped by yesterday to drive up and down the driveway to pack some of the snow down with his truck and helped me shovel up around the house. This morning my new neighbor got out his farm tractor and put a blade on it and did his driveway and mine....both are the same length.

The driveway now that its all cleaned up!!!! Yippee!!! Boy, did I get lucky getting a neighbor with a farm tractor & blade!! I took over a huge plate of those chocolate chip cookies, some homemade chocolate suckers, and some yummy peanut butter Ritz cracker sandwiches dipped in milk chocolate.......hey, a single farm woman has to do what she has to do!! LOL

I decided to shovel a path down the fence line to the manure pile because I refuse to let the manure pile up.......okay it was a small task but so much easier to take the wheelbarrow down and Dixie can walk down the paths!!

Notice Harry, my wethered Shetland with the gray fleece coat on. He totally lost his wool the last month. I do not know if it is from stress, diet???? I am thinking of doing a skin scrape to see if there is something going on. Anyways, with it getting so cold, I did not want him to get sick so I took an old fleece coat, cut off the arms, and slipped it on. The neck is small enough so he can't get it back off. He seems much better with it.

ReRun ventured off the path only to discover that yes, the snow is deep!

Snow and sheep seem to go hand in hand......notice Spirit's mini look alike in the background? I have to smile when I see them because they look exactly alike!

One has to wonder what first year little lambs like Autumn think about this white stuff??

Well, snow has consumed my weekend and since the driveway is all cleaned up, I have to go to school tomorrow.......I wonder if we will get a snow day this week......maybe a cold day because its suppose to be really, really cold by Friday...........if I wear my PJ's inside out its suppose to bring a snow day......I can always give it a shot:)