SNOW DAYS

          I cropped, manipulated and spliced together 3 photos after our last dump of snow, which was very wet and heavy.  Although they can't be seen, I shoveled out three walkways from the house to the studio, garage and woodshed.  It was pretty easy shoveling even though the snow depth was over the top of my gumboots.  I also mucked out the chicken coop the same day and fluffed up a fresh bed of straw.  I wasn't sure if I should have worked myself that hard since I had just finished being laid up for a few days by some sort of pesky bug.  However, other than feeling a bit tired, still not much of an appetite, my achy-breaky body seemed to be alright.  I had no sooner finished my chores, leaned the shovel up against the wall under the studio veranda and was looking forward to a nice hot soak in the tub with a good pocket book, when the power went out.  Usually, the power comes back on before too many hours go by but 27 hours later, around supper time, Kapow - the lights lit up, the fridge and freezer began humming and the water pump began chugging away.  The day before, Sarah cooked dinner on the wood stove and we ate by candlelight, which wasn't exactly romantic but very pleasant just the same.  Today is Friday and usually on Fridays, Sarah and I go to the Woodstock Farmer's Market, mostly to sell her baking and canning wares, but because of the power outage, she was unable to get anything done; so while I sit here relaxing and writing this Blog, she is in the house busily working away, mixing baking ingredients, kneading dough and getting everything ready to throw into the oven.  Tomorrow, my friend Lyndon Canam and I will be driving into Woodstock to drop off some of her orders and pick up any money she may have earned through the week at the Farmer's Market and do a little last minute Christmas shopping.

          Freya the goat doesn't much like the snow and cold weather; mostly stays inside the barn and munches hay - she is such a glutton, not only wolfs down her own food but figures the chickens, cat and dog food should be hers as well.  Unlike Freya, Luki, our Great Pyrenees dog, loves the cold weather and snow; I'll often see him during the day, stretched out in the snow fast asleep.  However, that being said, after the sun dips down behind the tree line and darkness descends, he can usually be found inside the small barn snuggled into the straw.  Which reminds me, I should probably clean out their barn today and lay in some golden sweet smelling straw.  I'm not sure when it's supposed to snow again and even though the temperature is on the mild side, none of the white flaky stuff will be disappearing soon, which is alright with me.
          Yesterday, since I was beginning to feel like my old self again, I popped the top off a cold beer.  Much to my disdain, when the temperature hit -18C and I was sick, the wood stove in the studio went out and 2 full cases of Moosehead Pale Ale froze.  It tasted like skunk water and it almost brought tears streaming down my cheeks when I started pouring it into the nearest snow bank outside the door.  Now for those who don't know, beer and piss are about the same shade of yellow in the snow so when Jessica and Sarah came out to see me, they thought that I'd been hanging Mr. Happy out taking a leak - it's not that I don't do that sort of thing out here on the 50 acres of semi-wilderness, or running around in just my Fruit of the Loom, but I immediately set them straight on that score.
          I bought the girls gifts for Christmas this year, which is something I don't normally do, Sarah just says their gifts are from both of us and tomorrow I will be on a quest to buy something for my wife.  She's been complaining about how sore her back is lately and I was considering a good, very large sized bra (she's delightfully top heavy if you know what I mean, wink-wink) which brings to mind what my father said  to a saleslady so many years ago when he was shopping for some lingerie for my mother, "I want to buy the sexiest pair of panties in the store!"  I've decided against that and have a few things on my mind.  Unfortunately, I can't say what I'm thinking about since she often reads my ramblings.  At least she's low maintenance, so I'm quite sure that whatever I come up with, she will be satisfied.  I know what she bought me, because yesterday, when we were shopping, I told her I was going to check out some warm winter gloves and she said not to because Santa might bring them.  When I said, I doubt that, 2 women who were standing near us piped up, "If she says not to go look at the gloves - she means not to look at the gloves."  Women - who can figure them - cheers, eh!