How's the Weather?

I don't know about where you live, but up here in the upstate, we're into the hardest part of winter.  That's the part when we don't ever see the temperatures above 20.

We pretty much just get used to switching out the chicken's water several times a day because it doesnt last but an hour and it's frozen solid.  

The snow is here to stay until the beginning of March.

Snowstorm-wise, we've had a mild winter thus far.  But the temps have been in the negatives and single digits now for three weeks straight with the occasional 17, 12, or 20 degree day.  

The sun has shone clearly about 3 days in the last month.  This was one such day.   

We take our daily dose of Vitamin D to make up for the lack in the sunshine.  Even if it was shining all day though, it'd still be too cold to benefit from it. 

A newer lady at church who moved up from Tennessee asked me "Is it always like this???"  

I said, "No, it's usually much worse.  This year is much warmer because of global warming." 

(that's a joke.)  :-) 

Despite the freezing cold temperatures, constant chapped lips and cheeks, and cracked and bleeding hands, I love the upstate weather.  The four seasons are beautiful.   

Spring and winter in one week

Hello friends!

What a week!  I don't know about you, but here in upstate, our weeks are flying by!  Last weekend, our weather was beautiful and sunny and I thought spring was coming.  Gwendolyn and I raked out all of the flower beds and picked up all of the sticks and leaves in the yard. 

 

Dan bought a cheap trailer that needed quite a bit of work, so he has been able to devote some time to that. 

 

A few months ago when we were furnishing our house, a lady gave me a stack of these small plastic chairs.  Gwendolyn calls it her "baby blue chair".  Lucinda and Gwen love to sit in them.

 

 

 

We were having several wagon rides each day

And walks to see the horses down the road happen pretty much every day.

 

 

One day Gwendolyn and I read the newspaper together outside right before it started raining a bit.

 

 

Remember me mentioning buying that old trunk?  Well, I finished it!  What a little sanding, staining, painting and polyerthane can't fix!  Check out the completed project!  It's missing the handles and big clasp in the front, but that doesn't matter to me since we'll be using it for décor.

 

 

Then early in the week, we woke up to 7 1/2 inches of heavy, wet snow.  It wasn't worth plowing, since it was in the 40's and we knew it would melt in no time.  We got out our makeshift sleds out and pulled the girls around and then made a snowman.  It was fun, and something different to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

In just two days, all of the snow was gone, with the exception of a pile where our snowman was.  We are enjoying getting projects done here at the house.  I've made two curtains, made to-do lists, and mostly finished everything on the lists! :D 

Hope your week has been just as productive! 

Stay safe!

Snowy Weather in NY

 

Well, I was wondering for a bit there when we would get more snow!  It snowed about four times in the month of November, but then December was pretty snow-free.  A few weeks ago though, we got enough snow to make up for all the snow-less weeks.  We got about four inches, which was like nothing...and there was a weather prediction for the weekend for us to get 6-10 inches.  Then it changed to 12-16 inches.  The last update we saw before falling asleep Saturday evening, it said 20-24 inches.  When we woke up, there were 10 inches, so we had to cancel church. 

 

 

 

Dan went out to start his truck to plow out our house, the church, and the neighbors who he usually takes care of...and his truck wouldn't start.  After charging it and trying to jump it using my car for about four hours, we finally got out the snowblower and cleared the driveway. 

 

 

We ended up getting 24 inches, so it was fun!  Gwendolyn wasn't too amused with it, so she and I stayed inside mostly. 

 

And made blueberry turnovers, blueberry pie, and shoofly pie!

 

And Gwen played a few songs on the piano as well. 

 

Other than the snow (which has now turned to ice), our lives are pretty uneventful! 

Hope you all are well. 

 

The First Snow of '18-'19

On Monday, we got a dusting of snow, about 2 inches.  It was a wet snow though, so it was mostly slush and quickly turned to ice after two nights of 11 and 15 degree weather. 

 

Today we took a few snow pictures.  Ok, a lot of snow pictures. 

 

It's Gwennie's first snow! She also celebrating her half birthday yesterday, so that was exciting!

 

 She mostly just wanted to eat the snow...

 

 

 

 

 

We're supposed to get about 8 inches today...and Dan's plow stopped working last night when he hooked it up.  So he is currently at the shop trying to get it fixed before he has to go do some plowing and the snow gets too deep. 

 

 

Weekly happenings in Granville

Some exciting things have happened in Granville lately.  Let me first say that the Thanksgiving season came SO QUICKLY this year!  I had been hearing all about how gorgeous the autumn leaves would be up here, so I had my eyes open, on the lookout for those colors!

One day, the leaves were starting to turn a rusty brown color, and then we got this huge rain and wind storm in the night.  When we awoke, the leaves that were still on the trees were completely dark brown.  So we missed the beautiful colors this fall. 

 

But the crisp, fall (and winter) air is here to stay! 

On October 27th, our church held a family and friends night.  We had a bonfire, and hotdogs and hamburgers as well as s'mores. 

  

 

We were so excited to have quite a few visitors there!

 

I think everyone had a nice time. 

 

I celebrated my 26th birthday last week.  Dan bought me some candles (I had been out of candles for a long time and missed them!) and took me to dinner.  It was a nice birthday. 

 

On Saturday, it snowed here!  That was the second time it snowed.  Of course it blew around more than anything. 

 

 

People up here think I'm crazy, but I love snow and winter!  The worst thing about the snowy weather will be having to cancel church services. 

I absolutely love church, and I'll miss it when we can't have it.

 

On Fridays, we always go to the local nursing home and sing songs and Dan preaches a short message.  This past week, we finished our service, and the staff started gathering together all of the residents into the dining hall.  They were going to have a small ceremony to honor all of the resident veterans!  So we stayed for that.  I really enjoyed it.  We DID sing the Star Spangled Banner (accompanied by a cd track) and it was arranged for an orchestra, not a choir.  As a result, I was jumping octaves the whole time, and Dan was the only brave soul to sing a G above middle C.  haha!

 

 

 

 

 This is the picture Dan took of all of the veterans. 

 

I was going to post a few videos of our little dog, doing some tricks, but they wont upload for some reason, so I'll post them next time. 

Until later!