Ruby Slippers and Georgia Peaches

We had three whole days without any snow. It was marvelous, glorious and the snow was melting everywhere. There were puddles to be jumped in.

Then we had more snow. A white out. It was nice….but not nice. All that melting snow turned to ice with new powdery snow on top of it. So everyone is driving on one big sheet of ice…all the time.

Winter is long here. Really long. We girls took a walk last week and were DELIGHTED to see dirt, mud and gravel on our little lane. We haven’t seen it since November. NOVEMBER!

One day this week we got 8.5 inches in two days. Now it’s snowing some more. We are a little tired of it.

Calving has started and it’s still a little too cold for the babies. They are checking everything every hour and half to two hours. Today it’s just now getting above 0 degrees. When the calves hit the ground, they are trying to get them up, dry and warm. Some of the time they are checking for calves during white out conditions. Most of the time the workers are making it to the newborns, sometimes they don’t. Hopefully, they will have some relief by Tuesday. It’s supposed to warm up to the mid-thirties.

(mule deer hopping away)

(long winter’s walk)

(Double sunset. Straw bales stacked up for a wind break)

(same view as above picture, but during a white out)

(our view most of the time)

(long winter days equals lots of time learning inside. She decided she wanted to write letters all on her own. First time for the A, P, W, S and Q. All self-taught and encouraged. Writing over her morning message from Papa Bear.)

This blog post by a cell phone company is a great reminder of why people live in this state. Take time to read it.

http://unionwirelessnews.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/100-reasons-to-love-wyoming/

And not to put a damper on Georgia…

Top Ten Reasons to Love Georgia:

http://www.toptentopten.com/topten/top+10+reasons+i+love+georgia

and another for Georgia:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/073005/opi_20050730002.shtml

(Sorry Kansas…couldn’t find a good one for ya….but you know why it’s great to live there. Open spaces, pretty sunsets, salt mines, amber waves of grain blowing in the wind, the never-ending wind, Herb McPherson, Kansas Day, extremely good people, see storms coming from miles away, the big huge deer, the other wildlife, etc.)

There are tons of other reasons to live other places, but I only need three to live where I’m at right now:

From Sunday afternoon (Feb. 2^nd) to Friday morning (Feb. 7^th), the girls of the family didn’t step outside, not one step, nada…of the door of the house. I opened the door for a total of two times…maybe. It opened in the morning for Wooster to go out, then for him to come home in the evenings. That’s it.

The temps in our little spot didn’t break in the positive numbers until Friday morning. NEGATIVES…..ALL WEEK LONG. Not the “feels” like temps, but the REAL temps. The “feels like” was just even more in the negatives.

On a day where the negatives got around -5 for the high, Wooster joked and said that it actually felt a little warmer.

The days inside were spent working on school work, playing, playing, playing, eating and playing some more. We would all get excited when we would hear the guys bringing the tractor by to feed the mamas in front of the house. Ruby would run to the back window to watch them, and wave. The young guys are really good about glancing over and waving back.

(last time we were outside. Sunday afternoon)

(School work. Making George Washington’s hair.)

(Clara playing. She likes playing with her reflection on the front of the dishwasher.)

So, what do we do when the air warms up to 12 degrees?

WE GO OUTSIDE!!!!

On Friday, the girls ventured to the library for story time, got stuck behind 600 mama cows, watched ducks play in frozen waters (from our warm truck) and made it back inside. That was all of our “outside time”. On Saturday, Wooster had a half day off, so he and Ruby did some nature walks and snow play. Then on Sunday afternoon, there was more snow play, riding the tractor for the hay busting for the young cow gals and cattle discussions.

So, what’s on the agenda for the next seven days???

Not the negatives…but…

Positives and OUTSIDE TIME!

I’m sure you’re familiar with the movie. Excuse the language at the end.

We haven’t been killed off by the Indians. We are still around. We’ve been working hard on the two littlest people that live here, playing, learning, cleaning and eating. It pretty much sums up our day.

Right now, both girls are sleeping and I’m surrounded by an exploding dress up box, Clara’s random toys scattered around on the floor and a new princess castle tent (Thanks Aunt Donna!) standing guard over all of it.

Four loads of laundry haven’t been folded, there is a load in the dryer, a load in the washer and I still have two loads to go. There were a few “accidents” yesterday that put laundry day behind. I haven’t even made it to the dishwasher yet.

I also have some homemade yeast rolls rising on top the warm dryer, the rest of the week of planning for “homeschool” to finish, the rest of the month’s baby food to make and bathrooms to clean at some point.

And it’s still cold….in the negatives cold….and the “feels” like in the double negatives. It’s beginning of February and it will be this way until March. We’ve been told it will be a little warmer then. Until April. In April we’ll get a little more snow…until May…then a little more and things will start thawing out by Memorial Day. Most gardens can be planted around the last of May and the beginning of June. Then it will get hot in July and August….triple digits. September will bring a very short fall with a few days of snow mixed in. The middle of October we will get our first real snow and winter will have begun all over again.

We did have a few days of the temps being in the high thirties and low forties. It feels like spring when that happens. The snow melted off the deck/porch and we got to play outside for long periods of time…sometimes twice a day.

(at the local Archeological site playground. People stand in line on January 1^st to get camping spots for the upcoming summer. It’s only three miles away from our house.)

(inside snow play. When’s it was too cold to go outside to play in the snow during our winter unit, we made our own out of shaving cream and cornstarch.)

(Writing her name. She looks thrilled, but it was a big accomplishment for her.)

(static electricity is always fun to play with)

(sledding with friends, their papa and Goose the dog is always fun too.)

(Clara working on her pincher grasp and standing up in a walker)

(moving cows. Looking North. Bighorns to the east and Rockies to the west.)

(Helping move cows down the road. In late December. Ruby likes saying “Come on, girls!”)

(Working a few cows through the chutes. A few days ago.)

(Ruby the Horse looking out from her stall.)

(frozen pastures and pretty colors)

(more inside snow…much nicer and warmer to play with)

(Eating…we do a good bit of it.)

(Dissecting deer poop during our forest unit. She’s wearing a deer mask)

(the little mamas crossed the frozen creek and ended up in our yard for a little while. The snow melted for a few days but came back shortly after this picture.)

There isn’t a shortage of things to do around here. On the ranch, they are busy getting ready for calving. Two weeks ago, they rounded up the seasoned 600 mamas on 10,000 acres and moved them 10 or so miles back toward the ranch. They are hanging out on a few hundred acres until next week when they’ll move them the rest of the way back to the ranch. They’ll stay over here until calving is done.

The younger, first time mamas are now in the pasture in front of our house. They will begin calving the last few weeks of February. When they start, everyone will start checking on them every two hours. All the workers will go on different schedules to make sure the mamas and babies are not having any trouble.

Wooster has been busy doing maintenance on all the trucks, tractors and other equipment for the ranch. He and some others are also rearranging the shop, processing some new tools, putting out hay and checking on the bulls. The girls are busy mucking out the stable, checking on water levels, busting ice and fixing fences.

With all that going on, I’m sure you’ve thought “Why don’t she write?”

Here’s a recap of some of the things that have been happening over Christmas.

(My view when I came around the corner during the day on Christmas Eve.)

The deer are still visiting. They found a honey hole. Those leaves that a little girl played in… the deer have found them and ate every last bit of them.

She stayed on the porch for a good while. She came back later and Ruby watched her. Ruby yelled a good rowdy “Hey!” and both Ruby and the deer got scared.

They all came back the next night and ate everything.

They also make pretty designs in the snow when they are grazing.

(if you squint hard enough, it looks like a snow flake.)

On to Christmas….

(Wooster’s French toast before going to work on Christmas morning.)

We continued the Advent Jesus Name ornaments. That’s not the official title, but that’s what we are going to go with. Starting on December first, each night the girls listened verse by verse the Christmas story out of Luke. They also listened to Wooster read the Christmas story from a little board book. When those two things were done, they got to uncover a number. Under the number, they either got to: hang an ornament with a different name of Jesus, get a little trinket or get a piece of candy. There, of course, are more ornaments to hang than anything else. The ornament has a different name that Jesus is called in the bible. Wooster will tell Ruby the significance of the name and why He was called it. She then gets to hang the ornament on the tree. We do twelve different names. On Christmas Eve, the last one, Messiah, is hung.

Christmas Eve, the girls got to open one present. They got some new pajamas (Ruby has her new ones on in the picture. Clara has on a pair from an aunt.), a small movie, a bag of popcorn. They got to “camp out” on the living room floor, eat the popcorn and watch the little movie.

Christmas morning Ruby got a new red sled, a hoppity ball and a stocking of treats. Clara got some new teethers and some rubber ducks for bath time. We also got a Kindle Fire, a children’s picture book about Wyoming and a new feeding tray for Clara’s seat, but those items didn’t come until two days later.

We also had homemade French toast with black berry butter/powdered sugar with warm butter syrup for breakfast. Wooster had to go to work but was back for lunch. One of the girl interns from Massachusetts ate lunch with us. The menu was: Tangy tomato brisket, hash brown casserole, black-eyed peas, sweet corn and buttered rosemary rolls. Dessert was homemade sweet potato pies.

There’s been a good bit of sledding being done.

(Action shot of Ruby sledding by)

(Ruby running behind Matthew and Clara in the sled)

(Matthew and Clara. Old barn/stable on the left. New stables on the right.)

(Matthew and Ruby sledding and about to run over Mama.)

Special thanks to everyone who took time to send things our way. The girls have enjoyed every single thing…even the wrapping paper.

At the end of the day, most of us look like this.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Right before Christmas, some of the guys cleared some new snowfall off of the little road. They were using tractors and a loader. They pushed the snow into big piles right behind our house.

Ruby and Clara had just got a box of snow suits from an aunt. They all went outside to test them out and have some fun.

New snow is a good bit of fun. The mountain of snow is pretty good too. They’ve made snow slides and dug a few tunnels through them on another day. Of course, a good play in the snow requires some hot chocolate when they come back inside. Just don’t forget the ample amount of marshmallows.

Since we’ve been married, we’ve not had a live Christmas tree. But since we are jumping feet first into this whole Wyoming life, we got a real tree this year.

All we had to do was get an 8 dollar permit, and then trek up the mountain to pick out our tree.

It was snowing and windy. It’s a long ride on snow and ice, 11 miles up the mountain.

The journey took about an hour.

Basically our whole journey looked like this. As the rain/snow fell, it would freeze on the windshield. We couldn’t use the wipers.

It’s basically a step above Charlie Brown’s tree. It will do. It was 6 degrees with 20mph winds. We walked to it, cut it down, took the pictures and were back in the truck in about 5 to 10 minutes. We pretty much walked to one and said “Yes.” We saw the one for next year as we were driving away. It took us about an hour more to make it down the mountain. As we were going down, the cloud lifted or went further up than we were.

The tree has done really well. Hardly any needles have fallen off. Ruby decorated mostly the bottom half.

She likes to line things up. She likes order. J

We have a very small fake tree that she can play with and rearrange ornaments. She leaves the big tree alone.

Clara just likes to look and play.

Everyone enjoys the Christmas tree and we are looking forward to next year’s already.