Snow at Home

We landed in Spokane on 12/27- they were digging out from 4 feet of snow- It was slow going home and we found deep snow on our county road....

We made it into our driveway- but the three feet of unplowed snow was too much for our subaru
We plowed snow until we came to a stop.....

And then we started hand carrying our bags into the house- here is Kurt with the first load

Then it was time to bring out the BIG DIGGER- Kurt's excavator. That made short work of the deep snow in the driveway....

It was still a lot of work

Finally we got to digging the pathways to get us into the house. The snow was as deep or deepper than Joanie's knee...

Denver Christmas 2008

A family tradition continues- here are Amy, Betty, Lisa and Joanie making (Great-Great) Grandma Matter's Tie-knot cinnamon rolls. Mark is our observer (and just after this shot he managed to get a mouth-ful of the raw dough so he was banished from his watching post.)

Next we were off to the mall for a professional family photo- however young Mr. Mark would have nothing to do with the photo studio so we settled for this group shot in the middle of the mall.

Then it was back home for opening stockings. Mark was plenty excited about all that....

Here is Grandma Nonie watching Mark try out his new magic drawing pad. Mark learned to call this toy "Mark" because as each of us adults played with this toy with him we would write the letters of his name and say "M-A-R-K- Mark"

Here is Mark showing off for his Papa.

The week before Christmas brought the news that Amy is pregnant and due next August. It also brought her first bout with morning sickness- so here she is recovering on the couch.

On Christmas morning Mark went right for the rocking chair with his name on it that was under the tree

And here he is opening yet another round of gifts....

Before bed that night we took this picture of him playing with his train set- it didn't take him any time to figure out the controls (when he could get them away from Kurt and Tim!)

On Christmas afternoon we drove into the Rockies to find some snow-and try out the swings

The new shop is sealed in

Kurt worked hard to get the doors on his shop before another snow fall- here it is....

Even our neighbor horse, Silver, was impressed....

Minnesota in December

Joanie was in Minnesota from the 15th to 19th. Of course I ran into travel complications on both ends- but the weather once we got to the hotel (and as long as you were wearing long johns in the -29 degree windchill. Here are a couple shots from Thursday
Here is the view from the lawn of my hotel looking across frozen Detroit Lake. I walked out to the ice house you can see in the distance.

Here is the view on the way across the lake - I followed the tracks of an ice-fisherman's sled.

Earlier in the day we drove our rental car out onto the frozen lake surface.

And here is a picture of the ice- it's black and where there are cracks you can see that the ice is at least a foot thick- certainly enough for fishing and driving cars on it.

Snow and other scenes from this week

Friday brought us our first real snowfall- about 8 inches by Saturday morning. Our flamigos weren't too happy about it....

The Pine Ciskins (not sure about that spelling) weren't too happy either- but they came right around when Kurt brushed the snow off their feeders....

And here is the remaider of our crab apple crop- blanketed in snow....

The View out to the river changes every day- here it is under new snow...

And Ole St Nick avoided getting covered in snow- but he sends you all a cheery wish to have a Happy Holiday Season...

The last piece of siding goes up on the shop

Kurt took advantage of relatively warm weather this weekend to complete the siding on his new shop. Next steps, doors then wiring then insulation. Stay tuned for updates.

Here is Silver, the 36 year old horse that lives next door. Her pasture comes right up to the edge of our property and is a stones throw from the new shop. Silver comes out and stands near the fence every time we are outside. Of course we may have trained her to do that since we feed her a carrot a couple of times a day.

The Griswolds stop by

On Friday we met Tim and Kathy at the cabin they had rented in the Pend Oreille forest east of us. The intention was to help them cut a Christmas tree. Here we are being a big help.............(not)...............................

The next day they came by our house to show off their $5 tree. It's a beauty alright- but hey Mr and Mrs. Griswold, how tall are your ceilings?

Beautiful Sunset

Kurt caught this sunset this week. How spectacular! We love our view!

Wild turkeys come to visit

Our local turkey flock came visiting today. They have certainly grown from the baby chicks they were this spring.

Work is progressing, albeit slowly, on the addition to the shop. In the last three weeks Kurt and friends have put up roof decking, black paper and the tyvek sheathing. See.....


Next, Kurt installed the two windows...


The sun came out and the up went the new blue metal roofing and the some of the siding.....


Just to show you that Kurt has not learned anything from his stay in the hospital, here he is walking on the roof .....

Another week went by and LOOK- the old shop now has a new roof and more siding is installed. Almost dried in!