Snow Day!!

Wow! This snow sure took us by surprise! Sure, they'd been calling for it all day and the previous day, but how many times have we actually had the snow that's expected?

As the snow began to fall Friday night, we invited our community group over for some pizza, snacks and games. We all watched in amazement as the snow kept coming, and coming... Two of the couples left together and called us about 20 minutes later - they only made it halfway down the street and were stuck! They started walking back with plans to crash with us for the night, but some friendly stranger with 4-wheel drive stopped and took them home. It's nice to hear good samaritans like that still exist today.

Jesse and I stayed up until the wee hours of the night, enjoying the fire and watching the snow fall....

Saturday morning arrived and it was STILL SNOWING!! Jesse measured and estimates we got about 15 inches. Unbelievable!! I haven't seen that much snow in a really long time.

It really is a Winter Wonderland. Madi loves the snow and jumped right in, whereas Rummy stood on the porch shivering. I didn't want to embarrass him by posting a picture, he tries to come across as a manly dog.

So, what do you do when you're snowed in?? Jesse and Scott played Xbox 360 pretty much all day long and then went to the neighbor's and played pool for awhile. I, on the hand, painted part of our living room. It took me pretty much all day long. The color is Smoky Blue and it covers 3 walls. I'll be finishing the rest over New Year vacation (hopefully). The other color is called Prelude and is a lighter shade of blue. I'll post more pictures when everything is complete and the house is put back together!

Cherries!

I have been anticipating the arrival of our cherries this year for awhile now. I had big plans for cherry preserves, cherry pie, eating fresh picked cherries.... A couple weeks ago, the cherries started ripening and I knew the time to pick would be coming soon! Occasionally, I'd go into the yard and sample a couple that were ready. Earlier this week, however, I started noticing a few of the cherries looked moldy.

Hmm, strange.

Sadly, this mold stuff started to spread to a majority of the cherries. We are guessing that it is Blue Mold Rot:

• Blue Mold Rot – Most critical disease affecting cherries. It is caused by various molds and begins as a small, round brown spot on the fruit. The pulp underneath this brown spot is moist and a light brownish color. As blue rot mold progresses in cherries, it turns white and forms a bluish-green residue on the outside ultimately rotting the entire fruit.

Today, Todd and Tobey came over to help us pick through all the moldy cherries to get a few good ones. We got 6 quarts total. Not too bad, but when I consider last year's bounty (see last year's post here) it makes me sad.

A Few Good Cherries

With 3 quarts of cherries each, I'm hoping to at least make a small batch of preserves and Tobey was talking about making a couple pies.

Madi was sad too because she enjoyed eating the cherries as they fell from the trees.
Hopefully next year we won't have this problem. Until then, I will be trying to figure out what causes this Blue Mold Rot.

Ouch

I was lying on the couch after work, relaxing after a long day. Sweet little Madi was lying next to me. It was raining outside, we were cozy and warm. It was nice. Then Jesse came home from work and everything changed.
As he opened the door, Madi jumped up to greet him. In her excitement, she used my face as her jumping post. You can see the results below. Ouch.

Carrie is sick... i.e. she does not feel well.

So this morning Carrie got up and felt awful. We have class tonight for nearly 4 hours so I suggested she stay home from work and get rest. She agreed.

The attack... sadly, it finally happened.

What you are about to see is not cute, pretty, or anything nice. This was a dangerous encounter with a deranged, wild dog.... frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if this animal had rabies. Look at your own risk.

This first photo is of the dog searching for prey.

The dog angry because it is having a difficult time finding prey.

Prey found... sad.












As usual, Rummy is laid back and happy. Though he witnessed the attack he did not take part.

Carrie - The Dog Talker.

Carrie is great with our dogs. In fact, she is so good they like to use her as a pillow. Rummy is a great dog and Madi is not bad.

Finished up the back and prepping for our vegetable garden...

So today I was able to nearly complete the back of the yard. I still need to add about 6 bags of mulch. I've put 16 bags on so far... however, there are still some spots that you can see the soil. I am really pleased with the way it turned out.



After I finished with the back I turned my attention to the vegetable garden. There is a spot on the side of our deck that is a great place to install a garden. This will be our first attempt at growing our own food so we wanted to start small and work our way up. We plan on planting cucumbers, squash, zucchini, spinach, and tomatoes. All but the tomatoes will go in the ground. In an attempt to plant more variety we opted to plant the tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. The plan is to plant everything on Sunday after church. Our friends Paul and Heika are going to share in the garden. Heika wants Zion to experience planting and working the land so she can see what comes out of the ground. I think it is a great thing to get young children into gardening and generally doing things outside. In fact, I can remember when my Papaw had a garden and he would always be out in the backyard work the soil. The memory has stuck with me ever since I was a child and when we purchased our house a vegetable garden was on the top of my list. The idea of eating food that I have grown makes me happy. It is the way things are supposed to be.




Also, today Carrie planted some flowers. She is beautiful!



Here are some miscellaneous photos. One is my dog Rummy - He is dangerous and will attack you if you say something bad about Carrie, Madi, or I.
I got poison oak or something and it sucks!!!