Let It Snow

Thursday morning we woke up to snowflakes falling from the sky - big snowflakes. We started with about 5 inches of snow on the ground, left over from the weekend. By around 10 a.m. the 12 inch ruler stuck in the snow was registered around 10 inches. The snow was really dumping on us. It seemed like it wasn't very long at all until this was all we could see of the ruler.

Soon the ruler was completely covered. It was time for a new measure. I sent the kids out to find something something we could mark on to make a taller "ruler". They came up with this old piece of PVC pipe.

The snow kept falling until sometime in the afternoon and stopped at about 14 inches deep. And that is where it stayed until last night when it started falling again. Right now we have about 16 inches, and it doesn't look like it is going to stop anytime soon. The weather forecast says that we probably won't have any thawing taking place until next Sunday. I haven't lived here long enough to know if we've ever had snow this deep, or lasting this long. It is pretty impressive.

We were going to go to a retirement home and sing this afternoon, but that was canceled, so we don't have to go anywhere. We are going to stay cozy at home. And I am going to get to work on some Christmas presents. I've got something cute to make for my littlest niece.

Walk on a Winter Morn

This is the first morning it hasn't snowed since it started on Saturday. People up in the mountains have a couple feet of snow. We might have 5 inches. The kids have been playing and enjoying the snow enough for all of us. And I even found something good about the snow. I really love it's beauty. This morning it was about 1 degree just before the sun rose for a crisp and sparkling blue day. After morning worship I decided that I needed to get outside to enjoy the snow it the best light of the day. We bundled up in warm layers and set out to discover the delights of the season.

The cats had been out before us making tracks in the glittery whiteness. We followed the tracks through the garden, and then out to the road. Come enjoy with us some of what we saw along the way.

The Sumac tree is one of the most festive in the yard, each red clump of seeds dressed in a soft white coat.
Pine boughs nestled together in a snowy white quilt.

The neighbor's albino yard moose was the best looking I'd ever seen him. I can almost imagine him sticking his head in and searching for a mouthful of tastiness.
Grasses attired in winter white caplets seemed ready for a caroling throughout the neighborhood
Even though the temperatures bit at our scarf wrapped noses, everything seemed so fresh and alive. The air was so clean smelling and invigorating. We walked briskly from scene to scene and soon our blood was pumping warm. What a wonderful walk on a winter morn.

Sunset Rainbow

On the evening of June 6 we looked out our south east windows to see this rainbow. What was making the rainbow?

The setting sun out our northwest windows was casting enough light to leave a rainbow in it's wake. What glory from the hand of the Creator!

Sunset July 2

There weren't as many clouds in the sky on July 2, but the sunset was still spectacular as a fiery red sun sank below the horizon.

Isaiah 60:19-21 (King James Version)

19The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

20Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

21Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Sunset July 1

Summer weather is here and I'm enjoying every bit of it. I'm very glad for some warmth and sunshine.

Here is the sunset from July 1. What a beauty!

School is Out

It was really sad to lose my caterpillar family, but not near as sad as what other people are experiencing around the world with loss of homes and family members in Burma, flooding in some places, drought in others. My heart goes out to these people. It has put my loss in perspective. And I'm forgiving the neighbor man. He must have thought he was doing us a good thing. He didn't know what he was really doing.

The high today is around 46 degrees. Fahrenheit! Last night it snowed at my friend's house, just up the hill, and it was still snowing when I talked to her on the phone later in the morning. It is raining and windy here, and just a few days until the first day of summer.

We have finished up homeschool for the school year and it's time for a new schedule. Forest is going to keep reading all summer. Emily Rose has lots of fun learning projects she is itching to do. I'm convicted that we need more of God in our life, more of the Bible and more time for prayer. So we are trying having worship three times a day. Daniel prayed three times a day. The Bible says we should pray continually. But I have found that if we don't have time set aside for the family to come together before God, we don't do it. Honestly, we were struggling to make it once a day, which didn't make me happy. I think our sights are set so low, so I've raised them here and are worshiping together three times a day. I think it is having a good effect too. There isn't so much time between times of prayer. We are praying more for each other, the struggles of the day, our character flaws, for more of the Holy Spirit, and for other people in need. It is a good thing. We are singing more in the day too. That is also a good thing.

Here's our schedule/framework for the day, in case it might be of help to someone else. I don't like to plan it too tight the whole day through. We need time every day that is flexible. We may get off the time a little bit, but we still follow through the order of events. There are three times a day to get back on track.

5:30 Mama's up for personal time with God; shower, dress
6:30 Kids are up. Forest starts breakfast. Emily Rose has personal time with God.
6:45 Mama to the kitchen. Emily Rose empties dishwasher.
7:00 Breakfast with family
7:30 Family Worship.
8:00 Emily Rose piano practice. Forest and Mama clean the kitchen.
8:45 Mama and kids go for a walk
9:30 Studies: Forest - Reading and phonics, Emily Rose study of choice
10:30 Activity time: Projects/play/service/usefulness
11:30 Lunch preparation. Mama and kids. Clean as you go.
12:00 Lunch. Wipe table. Dish in Dishwasher so not much cleaning is needed.
12:30 Worship.
1:15 Cleaning projects/laundry/other cleaning
2:00 Yard and garden work, if needed
2:30 Activity time: projects/play/service/usefulness
5:00 Supper preparation. Forest Empties dishwasher.
5:30 supper
6:00 Mama and Emily Rose clean the kitchen - everything! Shiny!
6:30 Play/projects/service/activities
8:00 Worship
8:45 Kids in bed. Tuck ins and prayer.
9:00 Forest asleep. Emily Rose lesson study. Parents in bedroom.

A Beautiful New Day is Born

We weren't anywhere near a campground as we traveled south between Death Valley and Mojove National Preserve, when it started getting late, so we found a quiet spot on BLM land to spend the night. It was so quiet there. No people noise. No light, except the light of the stars and the full moon. The air was fresh and clean and peaceful.

I crawled out of my sleeping bag just before the sun.


The moon was close to setting just as the sun started to send color around the curve of the earth, giving the hills a rosy glow.


The yellow back lit sky silhouetted the interesting shape of the hills.

It didn't take long until it was up, spreading warming rays over the desert sand.

Morning filtered through creating shadows and colored light on the hills.

Even the barren, rocky washes were beautifully catching rays of the sun.

A beautiful new desert day was born.

Sunrise on Death Valley

At the end of the first day I got to see the sun set and then the full moon rise. We were camping at Stovepipe Wells. A large parking lot style campground, with a back row reserved for tents. Around the campground there are wide open spaces and big views surrounded by barren hills.

I woke up before the sun. When I got up the first thing I saw was the setting full moon in the west. After that was down, I turned my eyes to the east, and saw the colors that proceed the sun start to glow.

There was an orange glow.
Followed by a golden yellow glow.The western hills started to glow a rosy pink.
Then back to the east the sun peaked out from a little notch in the hills. It was the beginning of a beautiful day. The weather was perfect. The night cooled to 50 to 60 degrees, and the day warmed to the low 80's. The warmth felt perfect to me, not even close to the scorching heat of summer. I soaked it in and enjoyed every minute of it, though the kids felt a little wilted sometimes. I am pretty sure I wouldn't like it there in July, but March felt just fine to me.

Death Valley or Bust

We got an early start on our trip to California, in hopes of making it all the way to Death Valley in one long day, so we'd have less days of travel and more days of play. We got started even before sun sun rose. We had packed the car the night before.
I'm sure you'd stare if you saw our car go by on the highway. My husband has devised a way for us to travel in a small, economical car, and still take everything we need for camping. We look like modern Hillbillies or something. The trash can contains all our sleeping bags. The ice chest is snugged in the back seat with the kids. The blue roll is three layers of egg crate foam wrapped up in our ground cloth so it will stay dry, and mama will sleep comfortably. The black boxes contain sleeping pads for the kids, food, kettles, cooking equipment, and other odd things that need a place to go. In the trunk there is clothes, extra shoes, more food, the camp stove, tool box, the tent, and winter coats. The 2 gallon water jug is setting outside between the black boxes and the trunk. Tooth brushes and hair brushes and flashlights are in the pocket in Mama's car door. Non-perishable food for the day is on the floor in the car under the ice chest. Water bottles are on the floor under my son's feet. Pillows are tucked under and around people. Storybooks, laptop computer, camera, drawing supplies, journal, maps, etc. are in a bag by mama's feet. Good thing she has little feet. Dad doesn't fit in there as well when he wants to trade off driving.

The big antenna by the right turn signal is for my husband's ham radio. There's a little two meter ham antenna on the roof of the car.

All of the stuff on the back of the car sets on a metal rack, slipped into the hole you would put a trailer hitch in. It works good if you don't have it too heavy on the back, but you have to be careful, because the extra weight can cause you to wear out tires faster.

Packing out car like this made our trip really quite affordable. We averaged about 33 mpg, and spent only about $240 on gasoline on the whole 2,400 mile trip. We didn't stay in a single hotel. Camping fees averaged $10 - $12 a night. In San Diego we stayed with friends. We didn't go out to eat one single meal. We planned our meals and brought along delicious food to eat along the way using our campstove, or simple foods to eat in the car while driving. I'm not sure how much I spent on food for the 10 day trip, but I'm thinking it was just a little more then we usually spend on food. We had purchased a National Parks Pass last June, so that got us into the five National Parks we visited. We have more then covered the cost of the pass now.

We only bought about $14 of souvenir type items, some postcards and a guide book to the critters of the desert and a couple small ones about the wildflowers of the desert.

The place where we spent way too much money was on Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. It cost more to visit these two places together, then it cost for all of our gas on the whole trip. $320! (I'll give you more of my thoughts on these two places on another day.)

All in all, it turned out to be a great trip, and one that we could afford. I don't think any of us felt deprived in away way, because I did my best to make sure everyone had what they needed to be comfortable on the trip. We had lots of fun family time together. And stories either read by me or on mp3 made the miles go faster.
We left our house thinking of warm weather and sunny skies in southern California. We were surprised to find snow on the road just one hour from town. Hope we don't need tire chains. We didn't even think of putting them in.Breakfast featured one ripe mango per person, in a baggy, all ready to eat.

The rest area sure was cold.

Nevada was still cold too, but the moutains and skies were beautiful!

At a rest area Forest Zoo found me the first wildflowers of the trip. I have never seen anything like them before. Do you know what they are. They were pretty tiny.

It is not Raining Rain for Me, It's Raining daffodils

April Rain
By Robert Loveman (1864-1923)

It is not raining rain for me,
It’s raining daffodils;
In every dimpled drop I see
Wild flowers on the hills.

The clouds of gray engulf the day
And overwhelm the town;
It is not raining rain to me,
It’s raining roses down.

It is not raining rain to me,
But fields of clover bloom,
Where any buccaneering bee
Can find a bed and room.

A health unto the happy,
A fig for him who frets!
It is not raining rain to me,
It’s raining violets.

Of Snowfall and Little Birds

Sunday morning we woke up to freezing rain, falling on the remains of the couple inches of snow we got earlier. It was a slippery mess out there. Little birds were searching around for something to eat, so I started sprinkling some sunflower seeds on the deck.
By 9:00, it started snowing. I wasn't sure it was going to stick, because it was so wet out everywhere, but then the snowflakes started getting bigger and bigger, maybe around 1/2" to 3/4" round. They were so large they almost knocked over the birds when they hit.

See the snow on the birds tail? That's a sample of how big one snowflake was.

Around 10:00 the deck started turning white, and birds came in with intensity, looking for something to eat.
The cats took notice and found a front row seat to the show, eyes glued on every movement out the window. The most numerous birds were Oregon Juncos and another shade of junco.

Mr. and Mrs. House Finch came. I haven't seen them for a long time. They were skittish and hard to photograph, but amazingly I caught them together at one time.


There were white crown sparrows which were impossible to photograph because they were very alert and quick to take of at the slightest movement. These other sparrows, (not sure of which kind it is) were a little easier to photograph and seemed to be very hungry. As the snow got deeper, I sprinkled seed right by the sliding door, so that it wouldn't get covered by the snow, and the birds got braver and soon were eating right by the glass. That is how I got such close up photos, right through the glass, after I cleaned off all the finger smudges.

By bedtime we had around 8 - 9 inches of snow. Forest was just delighted!

I took this photo the next day just as the sun was getting ready to set.

Glasses Found!

Wonder of wonders, the eye glasses that the wind blew away two weeks ago were found this morning, in a pile of wood chips. They actually weren't too far from where they started, but we sure couldn't find them. Some guests at our house found them when they were out doing some work for us. They were dirty, but not damaged. Of course, they were found after my husband had already been in to have some new ones made. They will be great back up glasses now.

Sailboat Covered

We have really been enjoying heat, lights and water this last week, since the power came on last Sunday, one week ago. In this past week there has been so much to do. In one of the storm pictures you could see a blue tarp whipping around in the gusts, no longer protecting the sailboat underneath. We cleaned the water out of the sailboat, and it now has a new improved covering - two cargo nets covering a tarp, and lots of rope. It will be a chore untying the thing come summer, but the wind shouldn't do it for us first, without taking the whole boat and trailer with it.

We have done a full week of homeschool, now since the end of Christmas vacation. It was really hard for the kids to get back onto the routine, but by the end of the week, it was feeling really good. Forest has made a big leap of confidence in his reading skills. He's eight now, and I am starting to think that eight is an important age for boys who aren't quick to learn reading. Because reading seems to be less of a struggle, other subjects seem to be coming along better too. Emily Rose has been telling me that math is boring and getting too hard, but then she told me this week that it was actually getting interesting too. I'd love to figure out how to really like the learning love fire under her. She is capable of so much, but can wallow herself down in disagreeable thoughts so quickly, so she looses her will to even try. She is making progress though. She still loves reading, vocabulary, and geography best of all her subjects.

I am hoping that this week I can get all those Christmas decorations back into their boxes for another year. I hope I'm not the last one to do this.

Peace After the Storm

After the big storm, there was peace. It was almost as if it didn't happen, except there is enough debris around to remind you that it did. As the sun got ready to set the evening of the storm, the clouds revealed their golden lining lighting up snow covered peaks. It felt a bit like a rainbow promise after Noah's flood.

Some of you have asked what happened to my husband's glasses. Well, they haven't been found yet. From his best calculations, he figures they are likely out somewhere in a neighbor's field or beyond.

More About the Big Wind

My daughter has written her version of what happened on the day of the big wind. She was the one who actually saw the antenna tower go down, and she wrote about it in a vivid way. You can read about it on her blog.

And the Tower Came Tumbling Down

The big wind came, and we got to watch as it blew most everything off the neighbor's roof.
Dust filled the sky, making it a dark, foggy looking gray.
The wind was blowing when I got up in the morning. It was pretty stiff, but not too unusual. We can get winds that shake the house, rattle windows and whistles down chimney pipes. But I felt like something was different. I made breakfast for the kids and I and started over my plans for the day, but they were not to be. I felt impressed to fill pitchers of drinking water, and have my daughter fill the bathtub with flushing water. Just about the time that was done, and my husband was going to head over to the office, the wind really picked up. Things were really rattling and banging around outside. My daughter looked out the window, and screeched, "The wind just blew Daddy's tower down!" I couldn't believe it! My husband went shooting outside, as did the kids. If I had known how strong the wind was, I wouldn't ave let them go. I raced to change from a skirt to jeans, thinking my husband might need some help.

Once outside I couldn't see anyone. I couldn't find my husband. I ran to the road, and found a flying garbage can that I captured and ran to stuff in the shop. It almost carried me away. I found my husband wrestling with a large antenna piece that had broken off his 90 foot ham radio tower. He was trying to hold it on the ground. I ran to the house for something. Then my daughter came in to tell me that the wind had blown away daddy's eye glasses, leaving him sitting there virtually blind. He had no idea which way they went. The wind was close to 100 mph, by our best guess, but no one really knows. The highest recorded was 78 mph, but that was several miles away, and they don't know what the wind speeds were after their instruments stopped working. My husband says it was the strongest wind he had ever been in, and he has been in some really windy places before.
The wind did damage at almost every house on our road. Trees and branches knocked to the ground. The wind didn't take any of our trees, but it really messed up the winter remains of my garden. The leeks no longer has tops, and the kale was uprooted. Bark was blown away, and landscaping cloth pulled up.
The biggest surprise of all was to find my husband's tower in a twisted pile stretched across the driveway. He says it was well secured with guy lines. But for it to go down as it did, two guy lines must have snapped at once. He found evidence of a bolt as big as his finger snapped in two. But do you know what the miracle is? The tower didn't hit the shop, any nearby vehicles, or the power lines, and it could of done so. God is good. Even in the bad things we find his care. He was with us in the storm.