On the Road Again

Good morning everyone. Isn't it a beautiful morning? What a way to start the New Year; only -20 degrees at Windom, the closest weather station for my Weather Bug online.

This is just a quick note to let you know I am heading out to work again. This time I will be working as a receptionist in Daughter Brook’s town and will be living with her. It is close enough to home that I will be able to be here on weekends, schedule and weather permitting.

If I can get my laptop computer to work, I will still be writing some blogs and getting my emails. And I will be spending my free time knitting and spinning. Yes, my wheel Belle is going with me and I’m taking Maple’s locks to spin. I only have about 800 more yards to spin before I start my shawl.

Plied and ready for the edging.

And speaking of shawls, I can now show the graduation shawl I was knitting before Christmas. My friend Nancy has changed her career in midlife and is now a nurse. I am so happy for her.

This is the Knit Pick City Tweed Drop-Stitch Shawl.

It was my first drop stitch project and I found it very easy after the initial panic. So my next shawl project is going to be the Wool Peddler’s Shawl from the Folk Shawls book. Wish me luck.
I’ll close with a couple photos of my projects in progress.

Toe up socks using the magic loop method.


Just starting Bella’s Mittens, also using the magic loop method. Notice the Christmas Harmony needles.

I hope you all stay warm in this arctic weather. I’ll be in touch.

A Hard Choice

The other day I mentioned our missing cats. So before I go any further I will say, happily, that all three cats are accounted for and now doing well. And....all these photos were taken at earlier times…it is way to cold for me to go out taking pictures!

Most of you already know that we had decided to feed the feral cats that pass through. Both of us (Hubby denies it) are softies about any animals. Dogs are his favorites and as much as I love dogs, cats are very special to me. If I had to make a choice, and thank goodness I don’t, I would have a couple of indoor cats. But I promised Hubby that I would be happy enough if I had a least a couple of cats around. So we have set up my little garage/shop as a “cat house” with heated beds, a heated water dish and unlimited food so my friends can be safe and warm in the winter.

Cat house with barn behind it in December’s first storm.

The trouble started when we left for Christmas. Sister Connie and her hubby were going to check on the cats every other day. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas. They made it over 1 day to get the kids snuggled in before the big storm. But they could not make it back in. We don’t know for sure what happened before we got home, but we think we figured it out.

Bob.

The cats have a cat door so they have free accesses to the 3 beds, water and food. And there was a little cat path going in and out, so we knew they weren’t snowed in. However, when Hubby finally got the snow blown away from the “people” door and got inside, no cats were found. (Now this was the morning that we snow shoed in at -2 degrees. And our cats are not brave souls that like to be out too long in the cold.) As he was in there looking for the cats, I saw Bob from the kitchen window, coming in from the north grove. He was trying to walk in the snow but could only move a couple of steps at a time. I ran out, picked him up and took him into the cat house. He was so cold and stiff he could barely move. So we knew he had been out for a long time. I put him on the stand so he could eat, but he just sat there. Then we put him on the floor to go into a warm box, but he just stood by the door of one and stared into it. Hubby had checked all the boxes when he got in, but the bright sun outside had made seeing in the cat house very hard. So he checked this box again, putting his hand in. Out jumped the huge black and white feral cat that we had been feeding in the barn. He scrambled around the cat house and scurried out the cat door. As our eyes adjusted to the dim we saw cat hair all over the place, dishes upturned, and my office very messed up. It was apparent that there had been fighting going on. And it was now apparent to us that Socks or Boots (or whatever I call him various times) had chased out our cats and taken over their house. We got Bob comfortable in a warm bed, and continued to look for the other two. We couldn’t find them. So I went into our house to unpack, and Hubby headed to town for mail, milk and gas.

Gracie.

While he was gone, I decided to look again. Noah and I went out and I started calling for Gracie. I finally heard a loud meow down in the grove. So I went slowly (24+ inches of snow is hard to walk though for a 5 ft, older woman with heart problems), trudging down big drifts of snow with Noah leaping ahead of me, making a slight path. And I found Gracie in a wood pile, cold but in better shape that Bob. I carried her as long as she would allow, going slowly back up to the cat house. She immediately jumped on the stand and started scarfing down food. When I started to leave, Pickles appeared from who knows where and also started immediately eating.

Pickles.

So now all three are home, and last night they were locked in the cat house. It was -24 degrees and we are taking no chances that they could be pushed out again.

Noah the Trailblazer.

Our hard choice or rather my hard choice is whether to get rid of Boots. Hubby was going to head out with a gun that day, ready shoot him. I am not so inclined. I love cats and don’t want to kill any, even the ferals. And if Boots would stay in the barn with the bed in the straw and eat his own food, all would be well. But then I don’t want our pet cats to suffer either. Sister Connie says living in the country sometimes means hard choices. Hubby says Boots must go. Maybe they are both right. I will probably give in and allow him to put the big feral down. We have put too much effort in trying to keep Bob alive, raising Pickles from a kitten and giving Gracie a warm home to allow a stranger hurt any of them. I won’t like it, but I’ll make the hard choice to protect my beautiful friends.

Let It Snow?

Well, we made it. The trip home was mostly clear, and very beautiful, until we got off the interstate and headed up Hwy 60 at Worthington. Still beautiful, but the roads got steadily worse. And when we got onto the county road, it got interesting. Drivable, but snow packed in some places and ice in others. As we headed north, the snow got deeper and deeper. When we hit Storden, MN, we got a little nervous. If they had that much, how deep was ours going to be?

Frosted pine trees in Rapid City.


Frosted prairies in South Dakota.


Interstate windbreak in Minnesota.


County road at Heron Lake, MN.


Storden, MN snow.
Well, as hoped, Charlie, our road maintenance man had taken his BIG Pay Loader and cleaned out our driveway and the yard area. But unfortunately, he had done that on Sunday, and by Monday afternoon, it had drifted shut. We could not get in the driveway. Days like this are the reason most people raised in the north carry “survival” gear. And along with our insulated coveralls, packs, hats, scarves and heavy gloves; this year we had new snowshoes and poles in the car, courtesy of Cabalas and a used sporting store in Rapid City. So Hubby geared up and headed down the driveway on his snowshoes to check the house. The yard and the driveway by the house were fine, but 2/3 of the driveway was impassible for our car. Hubby shoed back up the hill and we headed to Sister Connie’s for the night. Happy puppies and warm soup awaited us.
The Big Pay Loader.
Then yesterday morning with -2 degrees temperature and a heavy south wind, we came back to the house and both of us shoed in. It was not as fun as normal snowshoeing, because of the extreme cold. But we made with only some very cold fingers. Hubby started blowing snow to open the cat house and look for 2 missing cats (I will talk about that tomorrow), Charlie’s son came and redid the drive, and Hubby walked back up the drive to get the car. We got the car unloaded and headed back to Connie’s to get the dogs. Then went to Storden for the mail, Westbrook for milk, back to Connie’s for items forgotten, then got home and snuggled into a warm house. By the time all that was done, Hubby was too tired to finish blowing snow. So today he plans to blow a path to the barn to get out the tractor and front end loader. Then he can clean some more paths so we can get around to different buildings and the animals can get around the yard better.

Usually, if we are home when it snows, Hubby can get a jump start on cleaning off the drive and the yard. However, with this much snow, I don’t think he could have kept up with it. We can’t get an accurate depth reading, but we have somewhere between 25-30 inches, depending on where you measure.

We had a wonderful time in Rapid with the folks for Christmas, but we are glad to be back home, and thankful we made it safely. Now we just have to worry about Daughter Brook, who is driving home today….AND IT IS SNOWING AGAIN.

The beauty of winter skies…one of the many reasons we live here.

Holiday Blessings

Over the river (the Missouri) and to the woods (the Black Hills) for Christmas 2009. We made it a day before Snowstorm of the Century (as some were calling it) blew in. And we are still here. The storm totals at home are over 23 inches. There is not as much snow here, but the wind has made the trip back to Minnesota impossible right now. Hubby and I are waiting for a calmer Monday to trek across South Dakota. By then the man that plows our township roads will hopefully be able to get into our place and plow us out. I’d really rather not walk in ¼ mile in 20+ inches of snow. And that doesn’t include the drifting.

But while we are here, we had a wonderful Christmas with my parents. And daughter Brook with granddaughter Erin made it in to town for a short Christmas Eve. They had to hurry back to her other family 20 miles away before Interstate 90 was closed. So they are also spending extra time in South Dakota.

Now we are enjoying staying in a beautiful apartment, swimming and hot tubbing, playing Skip-Bo and of course…..eating. I'll share photos when I get home to my computer.

We were blessed this Christmas to be able to spend the holidays with our parents and that our whole family was somewhere safe from the storm. I hope your holidays were happy and safe too.