More Snow and Garden Calendar

More snow came our way overnight and this morning. It was a regular little blizzard for a few hours. Charley put out bird seed for our little friends. That's the Pic of the Day at the top of my blog. He was celebrating putting out the suet. The snow is beautiful, but worrisome when you have to drive to work and school in it.

Here's a few shots of our friends:

grand central station

here I come!

me too!

hey, get out of here! there's no more room!

here come the cardinals

being nice and sharing the seeds

I think the birds and I are getting tired of winter. Charley picked up the Garden Calendar at Tractor Supply Co. today when we went down to buy more bird seeds for our feathered friends.



Here's what you're supposed to do in February. Click on it and it will enlarge.



It says to prune grapes on February 15th, prune decidous trees and shrubs on February 21 and prune blueberries on February 22. Looks like Charley has his work cut out for him.

Are you longing for spring yet?

Old Student Desk

I haven't been blogging a lot lately, because I've been cleaning out the attic and garage. I had a gift card for WalMart and a little Christmas money that I used to buy storage containers. I've went up and down the stairs into the cold attic sorting, throwing away, putting away for future yard sales and organizing. It's starting to shape up, there is actually room to walk in the middle now.

I've been doing a little in the garage, too. I had an old school desk out there that I bought a few years ago for $5 at the road side sale. Many times my son has told me to get rid of it, but I didn't want to, so I kept it. It is now in my family room.

The seat needed to be permanently attached, it's laying beside of it. I don't think anyone would want to sit in it like this.


We got some long screws and my husband attached the seat.


Two children's books. . . Jack and Janet . . . (my favorite)


and On We Go. . . Don't you just love the little Dachshund named Noodle.


Piled underneath the seat with a few other old school books.


The finished desk with school books on top, waiting to be read and studied.


I know this is not an elementary student desk, because of the size of the top. But, that makes it better, because us adults can sit in it and not get stuck!

Do you remember Jack and Janet and Noodles?

That's Easy!

What do you do when the temperature gets up to 50 degrees?

That's Easy! You wash your dirty, nasty, disgusting looking car. Snow and salt just does not do anything for the looks of a white car.


Sorry, no before pictures. It was not a pretty sight.

For those of you who know us, you are probably saying, "That's not your car."
Well, "Yes, it is." I guess you could say that we traded down.

We recently traded our Taurus, which had over 120,000 miles on it, for this little Ford Focus. It had around 5 miles on it! It gets pretty good gas mileage, too. Driving 65 on the interstate, it said we were getting 37 mpg. Sounds good to me. Charley said when he was driving 70, it said we were getting around 32 mpg. So I guess it's true what he's being telling the kids all along, you get better gas mileage when you go slower.

How's you car? Is it still dirty with salt and snow or did you take advantage of this nice weather and give it a wash job?

Bird Quiz

I have a small bird quiz for you.

Which birds like peanuts? (these are unsalted raw ones)

Do you think it would be the Cardinals, Juncos or sparrows?


Or perhaps, the doves?


Or the cute little chickadee?



Of course not! It's the Tufted Titmouse! He likes to grab and make a fast get away.


One more for the road. . . or should I say sky ways.



Every bird feeder deserves to have a peanut eater, and we have ours.


Another quiz question.

What bird likes to eat while keeping one foot tucked in under his feathers to keep warm?

Answer: the cozy cardinal

Hope you enjoyed my little quiz. Did you know the answers?

Out and About

We got out from under the covers and out and about this morning before the snow started.

In 2008 I posted here about Mail Pouch Tobacco Barns. We have one just a little ways down the road from us. I took a picture of the back side of it on the way to town.


I also took this picture of turkeys following each other across a field. There is usually around 2 dozen turkeys in this field along with a herd of deer. I guess they knew I had my camera with me and decided not to show today.


On the way back, no one was behind us, so Charley slowed down so I could take a few pictures. The barn is slowly falling apart. I'm afraid it won't last through the winter without collapsing.


These pictures were taken during another snow storm which is coming through today and tomorrow. We didn't make it home before the snow started to come down.



It's the leaning barn of Fairplain. I feel like taking some long boards and propping it up.



And here are three horses braving the cold and snow across the creek in front of our house.


Hope everyone's ready for the cold weekend ahead of us.
Bundle up, or better yet, stay inside if you don't have to go anywhere.

Get Out The Covers

In the old days when Old Man Winter arrived with his freezing temperatures and snow, it was time to get out the covers.

It was time to open the trunks and the closets and dig out the quilts, comforters, blankets and spreads.


I think I got this red one at a thrift store for around a dollar. I'll keep it out and add it to our bed covers, then maybe my husband will turn the thermostat down a little.



I remember when I was a child our beds were covered with a lot of quilts and blankets. I'd snuggle under them and pull them up under my chin and keep warm during the night. I remember once when I was all covered up, I looked down toward the foot of my bed and I saw a big black spider sitting on the top of the quilt, staring at me. I don't remember what I did, I couldn't hardly jump out, because I was in the top of a set of bunk beds. . . but, I probably screamed for Mom or Dad. I hate spiders, maybe that's when my phobia started.

If you didn't have a fireplace it was time for you to get out your gas space heaters and turn them on.

We're lucky, it's a lot warmer in our houses today. There's no sleeping upstairs with snow blowing in through the rafters on you. Most of us have insulation between the walls and we don't have to trudge to the outhouse through the drifts of snow!

So, if you can, dig out the covers and snuggle up til Spring arrives.

Do you have any cold winter memories to share?

Snowy Feathered Friends

I just had to post a few pictures of our feathered friends.

We got a new camera for Christmas and we have been trying to figure it out.

"I need a hat and scarf!"

"Make room, here I come!"

"Brrrrrr!"


"I'm so cute!"


"Help! Where's my perch?"

"Let's go! I'm out of here."


"Topsy Tervy Woodpecker"


"Togetherness"

"Breakfast at the local Feed and Seed."

I love watching our birds! I don't know where the Blue Jays are, I haven't seen any yet. I don't know where the pigeons are coming from. We're in the country, we're not supposed to have pigeons! I guess someone forgot to tell them this is not the city.

The price of bird feed has gotten so high that I was wondering if we could afford to feed them this winter. The cheapest bird seed we found in Ripley was at the local Tractor Supply Co. Before Christmas it was only 9.99 for a 50 lb bag. We bought two bags! I wish we had purchased more.

Do you feed the birds in the winter?

Resolutions and Lists

Some people are list makers and some people are not. Which are you?

I tend to fall into the non list maker category. But when I do make lists, I usually get things done. When I see that list staring me in the face, I will do at least some of the items on it. It feels good to be able to mark off my accomplishments.


So, my first New Years Resolution is to make lists!

I will put a list on the refrigerator and I will put a list on the wall in back of my computer.

1. I want to lose 10 pounds. This may sound easy to a lot of you, but for me, it seems the older I get the harder it is to lose weight. If I could just shut my mouth every time I'm around sweets, I should be able to succeed. When I'm hungry (or not), I grab the easiest thing in front of me to eat, which means a cookie or a piece of candy. I love sweets and night time snacking.

2. I want to get the garage and attic cleaned out and organized. We have a two car garage and couldn't get one small car in it if we tried. So in this freezing cold, snowy weather we have to park the cars outside.

3. Travel more. I may be able to accomplish this since my husband just retired. I love traveling in West Virginia and the surrounding states.

That's not very many resolutions, so maybe I'll be able to keep them.

I have some writing resolutions, also, but I will post about them on my other blog.

We were not able to see the 'blue moon' because of the cloudy weather. Did any of you get to see it?

I wish everyone a Happy New Year.