Rain, snow, cold, warm, snow, cold...

We have had such odd weather lately from freezing rain to heavy snow then horrid below freezing temperatures to almost 40 degrees, all in the same week.  Our lawn is paying the price.  The heavy rain on the frozen ground (covered by a thin layer of ice from the previous freezing rain) has created little ponds and puddles all over the place.  Now, it's snowing so all the puddles are becoming slushy snow.  As of late, we are unsure if we should be wearing snow or rain boots.

Life is pretty quiet on the farm, as to be expected in the middle of winter.  The hens are still doing well, they are 12 and strong!  They DO NOT like the snow and stay in the coop whenever there is snow on the ground.  

We are starting to plan for the spring.  Farmer J is now thinking that we should get a couple of sheep instead of goats.  After traveling in Ireland, I have always wanted a few sheep.  I would love to have the boys experience having some baby lambs on the farm as well-- we just have to make sure Farmer J doesn't want to cook them up for supper!!

The farmhouse is staying nice and warm.  The wood burning stove continues to work well.  I am still not a very good fire starter but I'm great at keeping a hot fire going throughout the day.  

The one major annoyance in the farm in the never ending amount of Box Elder bugs and Japanese Beetles that we find.  I can't tell you how many I flush down the toilet on a daily basis.  I thought they would just be a summer nuisance... but I was severely wrong!  

Better go...looks like JJ's school might be closing (due to the snow) after all!  

I'll leave you with some of J's recent pictures from a snow camping trip (staying in the below yurt) near one of the Great Lakes. 

Paradise lost...Paradise found!

A week ago, J and I were basking in the tropical sun of Key West, Florida. The trip was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary! (Our anniversary is in April but we didn't want to leave the farm in busy and exciting spring time!) We left our fridgid, icy, northern climate on a dark and cold Monday morning and arrived in a sunny, island paradise by lunch! It was surreal to go from shivering to sweating all in less than 8 hours.  Our skin was in shock from going from the very dry environment of the north to the ultra humid environment of the south.   Every day the weather was the same, sunny and 80 degrees.  The vacation was full of good food, daily trips to the beach, daily bike rides and daily Rum drinks.  We stayed at the 'Speakeasy Inn' above 'The Rum Bar'.  "Bahama Bob" made the best Pina Colada! If you are in the area, it would be worth your trip to check out this lovely establishment.

Thankfully, toward the end of our trip, we were longing to be back with our children and back to the farm.  It's a wonderful feeling to be excited to return to your 'normal' life.  Without living here on the farm, I'm not sure that would be the case!  Farmer J missed his chickens and was glad to see that our "chicken sitter" did a great job! 

When we first returned home, it was quite warm (for this area) but very icy!  You could skate on our lawn and making the trip to the chicken coop was (and still is) a slippery feat!

Despite the cold, the chickens are doing well.  J has the lights and heaters connected to timers to decrease extra chicken chores (i.e., trips to the coop) and decrease the electricity bill.  We can tell the chickens feel "cooped" up but we are hesitant to let them out as we have spotted a hawk flying around the farm!  See below! 

Here's the hawk high above the farm in a tree right above the garden. 

Minutes later, the hawk took out one of our beautiful song birds that was happily eating away at our bird feeder.  The hawk is definately a bird of prey.  Yikes-  we have to protect our chickens!

Slowly but surely, we are taking down holiday decorations and gearing up for the last leg of winter! I can tell the days are getting longer and Groundhog's Day is just around the bend!  We are dreaming of spring baby chicks, the arrival of seeds in the mail and wearing mud boots instead of snow boots!