Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[Henrietta23]

Just got an email from the translator we worked with in Russia when we adopted DS. We had lost touch but I tracked him down last year. I just zipped off some current photos that he will print and share with the orphanage where DS live until we came and brought him home. We were obligated to so for the first three years after the adoption, but we continue to send pictures from time to time, partly to show that American adoptive parents of Russian children do love and cherish their children.

 

[Bethanial]

Hope your day tomorrow goes better, Hen

As for snow days, we don't get too many of those down here, but we DO get rain days. Good ol' Georgia red clay, and LOTS and LOTS of sand, combined with more mileage in dirt road than paved in our county means buses and cars will bog down. We don't usually get more than 1 or 2 a year though....

 

[TanksHill]

Merry Christmas!!!

 

[kcsunshine]

I think we are required 178 days. We started at the first of August then we were slated to end at the first of May. We missed 28 day last year.

Wow, yeah, that's a whole lot earlier than us. And a whole lotta snow days. We usually only have 3 or 4 unless we have one particularly bad storm. The year I got married we had 12! We went to school until June 28 that year. The wedding was on the 30th. A little too close for comfort!

We have gravel roads and side roads galore too. So an inch of snow shuts us down.

Down here they talk about main roads and secondary roads. Secondary roads are always bad during snow and ice because they don't get any salt treatment or scraping. I worked with a guy once who told the boss he had to go home during a snow cause he lived on a "thirdendary" road.

 

[Farmfresh]

We live on an "Emergency Snow Route". I think that means they pile all of the emergency snow on it, because I can't really tell much difference between it and other side streets in bad weather.

 

[Denim Deb]

We live on the last house on a dead end road. Last year, we had so much snow piled up at the end of the street from the snow plow that we could just barely get into our driveway!

 

[Henrietta23]

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Ours, overall, was very nice, with some weirdness thrown in to keep it real.
We got out of school Thursday and had a mad rush to get last minute stuff done. Friday morning as soon as the chores were done we hit the road south to my in-laws' in NY. We made record time and got there in under 2 and half hours. SIL and her kids were already there. It was great to see them. We immediately noticed everyone was much more relaxed than the past few years. Could it be without soon-to-be-ex BIL a lot of the tension was missing? We exchange stocking stuffers with this half of the family and presents with the kids, which means DS, 16 yo niece and 18 yo nephew. The stocking stuffers are where it gets weird. I wish we could just skip the whole process honestly. I got: a pair of neon pink chenille socks with non-slip soles, a tool to help people with arthritis open pop top cans, a miniature picture frame with a single place card (M_____, no. ___) mounted upside down inside, a yoyo, a pair of gardening gloves, a bottle of hand sanitizer and small package of trail mix and a set of 3 candle holders shaped like Christmas ornaments. I will use the gardening gloves and the hand sanitizer. The rest, well, I'm still scratching my head.....
MIL made a nice dinner with a gorgeous ham, plain baked sweet potatoes, broccoli and green beans, cranberry sauce, brown bread, and plum pudding for dessert. DS and I could everything but the bread and pudding, but I'd brought GF pumpkin muffins. SIL and niece had a breaded eggplant dish that they microwaved. MIL served dessert and I was surprised when I passed and even more surprised when niece did. She didn't have any fresh fruit in the house! But I had brought a box of clementines and niece and I had those and DS had some GF gingerbread cookies we'd brought. While I was thrilled that MIL did such a great job making food that DS could eat, she didn't stop worrying that everything so plain. Well, it HAD to be!! She was upset that I brought goat's milk butter for DS but used it myself as well. Her "butter" was much healthier. Um, it was margarine....but that's a battle I'm never going to win with her! We had a nice long visit and headed out in time to get home, milk and head to church. In our own cozy, friendly church! Yay!
At home I still had a little wrapping to do, but nothing too bad.
We had a nice Christmas morning at home, in our jammies. I love love loved my gifts! DH got me new sheepskin slippers and a bathrobe as well as a pair of insulated overalls from TSC!!! DS got me a bead for my bracelet. He chose the "angel of love" which was just so heart warming and sweet. Love my little boy!!
Christmas dinner was at my parents' with them, my brother and his girlfriend. We had our usual crazy weird, playful arguing time and exchanged gifts will all of them. They started doing gift cards a while back and it works just fine for us. I got two from Kohls and one from Bennington Pottery from my mom. We will go up to VT later in the week and hand choose some more dishes for our new collection and not have to pay shipping.
Now we are hunkered down for the possibly blizzard heading our way. It is snowing very fine snow out there now. There's no more than a dusting but they assure us we will see a minimum of 6 inches. The northeast hills could see 2 feet in some spots. On the weather map we always seem to fall on the line between the lightest and heaviest accumulations, so we shall see!
The little goats have never seen more than a light snowfall. That should be fun to watch! They came out this morning to greet me. Daisy was right in my face, then jumped up on a rock, leaped to another, charged at her brother, leaped back up on a rock, hopped down and stood on her hind feet. I haven't seen her this playful in a long time. I wonder if it's the change in the weather or if maybe just maybe she's going into heat????

 

[Henrietta23]

We live on the last house on a dead end road. Last year, we had so much snow piled up at the end of the street from the snow plow that we could just barely get into our driveway!

We are on a dead end road too, but about half way down. It is really wide and either they plow it all the way to the sides and we have huge snow banks, or they don't and we have to shovel out a path for the mail truck to drive up to the box because they aren't allowed to exit the vehicle.
I grew up around the corner from our town's Chief of Police. Our street was one of the first sanded or plowed every storm so he could get to the station.

 

[freemotion]

We are right in line for the big amounts of snow! (Everytime I type snow, it comes out snot!) We are running around with the last minute preps (securing woodpile tarps, picking up the last of the pumpkins off the lawn, picking up sticks in the paddock so dh can snowblow a path for the hens and the goats....and me! etc.) This is the first time I actually sent dh to the store before a storm....but only because I ran out of ziplocs and am freezing Mya's milk in prep for drying her off, the pregnant little bugger. She just passed the three week mark of her big night of romance.

I still haven't gotten that buck rag into the mail, and was planning on tomorrow. Seems like I never have the car when the PO is open and I have time for an errand. I hope the ones I've promised cultures to are also reading this.... :/

Anyhoo, glad you had a nice time and it didn't break the bank!

 

[Henrietta23]

Ooo! I was hoping you'd see the bit about Daisy soon! She's being extra sweet and friendly so I'm hopeful. Of course I don't actually have a buck on stand by so I'm not sure why I'm so excited.... poor planning on my part isn't going to get her preggers, is it? The past few weeks have been insane and I am feeling very disorganized and anxious about it. So anyway, I'll be happy to get the buck rag whenever it gets here! Maybe I'll have some time to find a boyfriend for her to visit out here.
We braved the store this morning after church and it was quite a bit busier than usual. I didn't need a lot but we got a few things and got the heck outta there asap.
The snowblower started right up so we will have our paths to the barn too.
I have to go fill bird feeders on the deck. We just checked all the waterers for the animals down in the barn. Time to start a pot of stew!