Hibernation Isn't Just For Bears

(Summer At The Cottage)

HIBERNATION

The internet described hibernation this way...

"To hibernate is to go into seclusion and sleep/rest

for an indeterminate amount of time,

sometimes days, weeks or even longer."

This is exactly what I feel like doing right about now.

The weatherman is predicting freezing rain tonight

and a 100% chance of blowing snow tomorrow

and a high of 18F

with a chance of more snow on Wednesday.

I'm beginning to feel like the fellow below!

(Internet)

I feel like I just want to crawl into my nice cozy bed

and cover up with one of these....

(Country Living)

(Country Living)

I don't know if it's just me or maybe a lot of

you are feeling the same way.

It seems like this has been a very cold

and misserable winter for most of us...

especially those of you in the upper

mid-west and north east.

This cold weather makes me want to go

back to bed after doing chores

and stay there while supper

simmers in the slow cooker.

I know spring isn't far off but in the meantime

I thought I'd share some cozy places

that would be wonderful to

'hibernate' in.

(Better Homes And Gardens)

(Layla Grayce)

(Layla Grace)

(Country Living)

(Country Living)

(Country Living)

(Country Living)

(Country Living)

(Shabby Chic)

Even this little fellows bed looks like a cozy place

to curl up for the night/day...

for days...weeks...or even longer

until SPRING finally

returns.

Until then...stay warm and safe.

Are you feeling the same way?

Maura :)

Chickens In The Barnyard

Friday is a special day.

It is 

Farm Friend Friday

over at Amy's at

Verde Farm.

This is Amy's first Linky Party for all of us

FARM Bloggers!

So I hope you will pop on over to visit

Amy and her hubby Richie in

West Virginia.

If you haven't been to visit her before I hope

you'll check out all her adorable

critters and take a look around

their beautiful farm.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy

a few pictures taken around our farm.

Some of these you have seen before

...sorry...

A lot has changed since these pictures

were taken. Fences have gone up,

buildings have been sold and taken down,

picket fences are going up, and

unfortunately our old

barn we were looking

forward to restoring burned down

last July. 

These photo's bring back happy memories.

I hope one day we will have another barn.

In the meantime when we get the time

(once the bee colony is re-located)

we will start renovations

to our old corn crib.

You never get bored on a farm.

Do you have a project you'd like to finish this year?

Enjoy your weekend!

Maura :)

I'd Rather Be....

...in my garden.

I'm sure every one of us would rather be in 

their garden right now.

Some of you lucky ones are probably

already out there having fun in the dirt

like my blogging buddy Cynthia from

Beatnheart

But...this is what it looked like

Tuesday here in our part

of Kansas.

We were lucky

as we got more wind than snow 

with this last winter storm.

I know some of you out there got hit

pretty bad. This has been 

a terrible winter for many of you

in the east and northeast and

some in the mid-west.

I'm afraid spring will be a long way 

off for many of us this year so

if you are like me...you will be spending 

some of that indoor time thumbing through

seed catalogs and dreaming of getting 

your hands dirty.

This is what I dream of when I think of spring.

These photo's are of the 

first year of our front garden when

we lived in the city.

It was a LOT of work putting this garden in

as we started from scratch with

hard clay soil.

After LOTS of compost, manure,

and lots of other good stuff

we were ready to start

planting.

By the time we left the city for the country

the garden was 5 years old

and was a well established

cottage garden full

of David Austin

climbing and

shrub roses

and many other perennials.

Looking back at these photo's makes me

realize how much work we have in store

for us here in the country.

The picket fences have to be finished before 

we can start on the garden but

I've already got drawings

made and my plant list

started.

COME ON SPRING!

I'm linking with Tracie from

Fishtail Cottage

for

Cottage Flora Thursday

I hope you'll pop on over to visit Tracie's

wonderful blog and check out

all the other garden bloggers

who are taking part

this week!

Are you already making plans for your garden?

Maura :)

'S' Is For Snow

A typical heavy snowfall over night.

Here in our part of Kansas we don't get very much snow.

I think the most I've ever seen in one large snowfall here is

about 12 inches...at the most.

As many of you who follow me know...I moved here from a ski village in the mountains of British Columbia and each winter we got somewhere between 40-60 feet of snow.

During an El Nino winter we sometimes got a bit less snow and more rain but it was always a white winter.

Me shoveling the roof the first time that winter

The picture above and the two below show a particularly 

bad winter where we had to shovel our roof off 3 times.

See that large window? At the end of the snow season as I was laying on the living room floor (split level home with another large window under that one) my children

walked past the upper window on snow that was higher than the bottom of the windowsill. 

My two oldest boys made shoveling the roof

fun. They'd make chairs and TV's out of snow

and do flips off the roof or slide off. 

See that lower roof level in the above picture...that all had to be shoveled off before the upper roof was shoveled onto it. Then it all had to be shoveled off again.

The picture above shows our old deck that was 14X28. 

What you see is the snow from only 1/4 of the roof
that had been shoved off onto the deck. Before we could do that

the deck itself had to be shoveled off to make sure there

wasn't too much weight on it. 

THEN all the snow you see there had to be hand shoveled off

and paths had to be shoveled to the garage and wood shed.

We had a 10hp snow blower for the driveway and sidewalks.

The picture above was taken in 1975.

That shed looks short but it's not and 

the door handle is at regular door handle height. 

Yes that's me pulling my oldest son...wow 

I was skinny...probably from all that shoveling ;)

This picture above is my two youngest

taken years ago sitting on the snow bank

at their grandparents in MARCH!

This was another bad winter with lots of snow.

Last but not least is an old picture of my oldest 

daughter standing on the deck showing how much

snow we had gotten over the weekend. 

The snow had already packed down by this time!

It was truly a WINTER WONDERLAND until the middle

of February...by then 'cabin fever' was beginning to 

set in and we were all ready for the snow to quit.

Something that is pretty amazing is that school was 

seldom closed because of snow.

Even after 11 years of living here in Kansas it still

makes me laugh when I hear the schools are closed

because of a few inches of snow. 

I guess it's all in what you get used to.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Maura :)