The Weather Outside is Frightful.....

We are developing webbed feet here.  Sunday was a miserable day, it rained steadily all day.  We went to a family Christmas brunch held at one of our nieces on Larry's side.  There were twelve kiddos between the age of 'almost three', to thirteen.  Eight girls and four boys.  Noisy and hectic and a lot of fun, and so good to see everyone again.  Their grandparents buy them matching pyjamas which they all have to put on before doing their gift exchange.

Grand nieces and nephews

Once we got home just after dark, our four legged kids were expecting some attention,  so on with the boots and rain gear and reflective stuff and I had a white umbrella, and we slogged around the block in the dark.  

Yesterday was a decent day, but the rain started up again just after 6pm and was still coming down this morning.  Except this morning there was sleet in it and we had a snowfall warning in our weather forecast.  We had been working on getting the moss off our roof.  We had resorted to pressure washing it off.  Sounds wrong I know, but that was our last resort.  We have some trees on the south side of the house, but none overhang the roof.  In the summer the roof is in full sunlight all day.  By the amount and thickness of the moss you would think that we lived in a cabin buried in the trees.  Anyway, with the snow in the forecast, we wanted to get the worst part of it done before the white stuff started.  I had worked on it yesterday, so Larry said he was going up there today.  We have a long line tied around the chimney and the person up there is supposed to tie the other end around their waist.  I was mighty ticked off when I arrived home the other day and Larry was up there unleashed.  

It was really miserable out so we donned the heavy duty rain gear and slogged the dogs through the bush.  There was standing and running water every where.  The upper veggie garden was covered in pools of water.  

When we got back, Larry went up on the roof and I went to clean a chicken coop out.  They get dirty fast at this time of the year.  So little daylight, such long nights makes for a lot of hours spent in the coop.  I got that cleaned out and rebedded in nice new hay, and pushed the wheel barrow up to the garden where the dirty stuff was spread and then will be covered with some mostly composted horse manure to help it rot down faster.  Then I worked on making the over hangs around the coop more protected from the snow so that the hens had a decent outside spot to hang out, out of the weather. You would be surprised though at how many of them wander around in the rain, picking at this and that.  After a couple hours outside in the cold sleet, we had had enough.  Digits were starting to freeze.  I'd been proactive ( usually I tend to be reactive, well proactive in my head, but not usually physically taking the action).  So I laid down some long pieces of corrugated fibreglass roofing.  The plan was that if it snowed, it would be easy to shovel the snow off them and then flip them out of the way and expose some grass to the hens once the snow stopped. Brilliant eh?

Then I went around the garden and picked the last of the broccoli and took all the decent beets and carrots out of the ground.  We have some cold weather coming too, and the broccoli definitely won't survive it, and if we don't get enough snow, the root crops won't either.

We spent the rest of the day inside.  I amused myself trying to take a decent picture of 'Anna', the Anna's hummingbird that is regular visitor. I didn't succeed in getting Anna in focus.  I like the shot of red in this photo though!  Maybe on a sunny day I can tell if Anna is actually not Anna, but Andy. Thanks to Granny Marigold for educating me about the hummingbirds that over winter here.

Most of the Christmas decorating is done, and I'll have to give Larry credit for doing the majority of it.

We even have a Minnesota section on our tree!  Thank you to Connie from Farside of Fifty for those two.  Both handmade, the Santa from a milkweed pod, and the fish, with our names and the year painted on it's belly, hand carved from basswood.

This is Bella, getting into the Christmas spirit.  I was going to tell you about Bella. I will, I promise.

More projects underway.

The bar table and stools are getting a makeover.  They are a Christmas present.  I was doing so well, and now seem to have stalled out a bit.  I really need to  get myself back in gear.

And then this afternoon I took the top off the coffee table footstool thing in front of the couch (in the bottom right corner of the photo in front of Luna).  The webbing was old and sagging and there were two sagging holes at the ends. I did a makeover on it a few years ago, but the webbing seemed okay then.  Now webbing is off, a piece of plywood has been cut to replace it, and a support piece needs to be added.  

Looking very pretty after the sleet turned to wet snow.  It continued on and we got a good two inches of very wet stuff.  The lights flickered a few times this evening, and some people lost their power.

David and Melissa and their two dogs are arriving from Edmonton on Friday night.  

Things are going to get a bit frantic in the next few days I think.