Saying Goodbye

We recently had to say goodbye to an old friend.  Zeppelin was 18 years old when she died.  She had started to lose weight quickly, she went blind and deaf, and a few weeks later she passed away in my arms.  The children were petting her and letting her know how loved she was.  Sebastian was even curled up next to her as he had been much of her last few hours.  We all miss her.  We remember how her fur shone in the sunlight.  How she cried her special meow as she hunted socks in the hallway.  How she would come running to groom Sebastian if he called out to her.  She was a sweet cat and we loved her dearly.

A much belated December

Winter, nothing much going on here.  Trying to stay warm, active, and not go crazy being stuck in this tiny house with 4 kids and nowhere to go.  With Chris working full time with our only vehicle, and living so far from anything, we don't have many options.  We do crafts, play in the snow when its not too cold, do schoolwork, cook, bake, and read.  There are plenty of chores to do still.  Chickens to be fed and cleaned.  Pets to care for.  Cleaning to be done.  Wood to be chopped.

Chris has installed a wood stove in the storage/mudroom he built on the North side of the house.  Its not an insulated room, but it takes the chill off that side of the house and when we really turn up the stove we get enough heat off of it to open up the window to vent the heat indoors.  It warms up the mudroom enough that wet and snowy winter clothes can be dried out there instead of taking up precious space in the house too.

Chris and I have been developing our house plans.  Chris has done all the drawings and most of the conceptualizing.  I do more of the trubleshooting and fine tuning.  A new friend who Chris has done work for is a carpenter who has built several of his own houses.  He has very kindly offered to do up our final house plans for us!  He has our plans and is working on them now.  We're very excited to see the pictures in our heads being formed on paper, one step closer to attaining our dream.

Trailer park Christmas lights

Cute kids!

Solstice wasn't so sure about sitting so close to "Ho Ho"

 Every year we make a gingerbread house.  Something different every time.  In fact, its rarely a house at all.  We've done a gingerbread lighthouse, a train, a bird house, a carousel, a Christmas tree, a barn, and a few others.  This year it seemed fitting that the children chose to make a gingerbread chicken coop!  It turns out it was a great homeschool math lesson.  We made measurements and scaled it down smaller so that our gingerbread coop was a miniature version of our real coop!  And of course we had to make a gingerbread doppelganger for each hen!

 

Happy December! (Do you know how many tries it takes before you finally get one where everyone is looking at the camera and not making some kind of silly face or blinking?!)

Winter's beauty

The pine beside the chicken coop, so heavy with ice and snow its boughs reach the ground

Raspberry canes after freezing rain

Maples tower above Chris as he repairs some damage to the roof sustained in the ice storm

The ice coated branches ring like chimes in the wind

Chris's attempt at making a skating rink out of pallets

Our view towards the road

Plenty of snow for fort building