Follow Me Friday

I know this is going to come as shock to many, but I woke up this morning and discovered that it had snowed again. Yes, sometime in the night or early morning hours Mother Nature decided that the children that live in this area were in need of another day off from school. Californians, as well as many European countries are familiar with year round schools. It is beginning to look as if this school district is going to become familiar with it too, without even planning to go that route. If I am not mistaken all of the allotted snow days for the school year were used up before the end of December. Usually when they go over their limit, they take away days from spring break to use as make up days. They do this so they won't have to run the make up days too far into summer vacation. All of that isn't looking too promising at this point. I just hope the senior class will get this year finished in time to start fall classes at the universities of their individual choices.

If you have followed Moodscapes for any length of time you will remember that at end of this past summer we put our house on the market in hopes of getting it sold so we can move to town. There were many factors involved in our decision to do this. However, we cancelled the contract with the Realtors right before the holidays. During that time there was only one nibble, but the couple that was interested were wanting to buy on land contract. I had a bad experience with a land contract before and we weren't interested in taking that avenue, so they never came to look at the house.  

We received a message the other day that someone else had inquired about the house and are we still interested in selling. With the real estate market as slow as it is right now, we decided to list the house again in hopes that we can get it sold before winter rolls around again. This means that our plates are going to be pretty full for the next few days getting the cob webs knocked down and preparing the house to be shown again. With a few breaks in the mix for me to have blood work done, a follow up appointment on Tuesday with the doctor for the results of the MRI of my brain  and then on Wednesday I am scheduled for a needle biopsy. Wish us luck on all of this.

I'm taking part in 'Follow Me Friday'. Lydia @ Still On The Verge is hosting this weekly event. It looks like a great way to find new blogs, make new friends and get new followers. So why not take a few minutes and click your way over to see Lydia and join the fun. Don't forget to add yourself as a new follower here at Moodscapes before you go. You will find the Follow Me Widget on my side bar.

Have a Blessed Weekend!

  

Mosaic Monday

Our first significant winter storm of the season took place yesterday and continued through the night. I had planned on putting our Christmas tree up on Saturday, but just didn't feel up to it.  As a result, there sat a few well worn sad looking boxes containing the tree and it's decorations in the living room waiting for me to find the spirit to put it all together. That spirit came when I looked through the french doors to the deck yesterday morning and saw snow floating down. 

Of course along with the decorating of the tree comes the prep work of dusting, cleaning and furniture rearranging. Done. Done. Done. Tree up and decorated. Done. The Christmas Angel on top. Done.

While all of this was going on our little Paddy Girl just wasn't real sure what to think of all of this activity in her otherwise stable world. You need to keep in mind that this is her first Christmas with us. She also was a rescue puppy from the dog pound, so we don't know what she witnessed or dealt with last Christmas.  I am sure that her little mind was active asking questions like: Why is a tree being brought into the house? What's with all of those beads, shiny balls and colored lights. Poor baby, spent quite a bit of time curled up on J.D.'s lap. She knew he wouldn't let any of this strangeness that was going on hurt her.

Have a safe and warm week.

 

Peaceful Easy Feeling

By her who in this month is born,
No gems save Garnets should be worn:
They will insure her constancy,
True friendship and fidelity.

~*~

We watched the snow fall all day today. There is something magical about snow fall. If you are fortunate enough and don't have to work outside in this weather or drive in it, then it can feel as though a peacefulness has slowly washed over you. It seems to muffle the sounds of the world around it and brings about a soothing quiet that you can not find anyplace else. Add to that the warmth of a fire burning in a fireplace or wood stove and you have the makings of a perfect day. Sunday we discovered that we have a water line frozen somewhere. We do have water though thanks to J.D. He has been bringing in water from the well for washing dishes, flushing the toilet and such. Of course living without running water at our command is a big inconvenience, but we are still very fortunate. We do have the warmth of a home to shelter us and working electric (for now). There are so many people that are out of a job and no place to call home. Please remember those less fortunate in your prayers.

Nearly two years ago I put together 'My Bucket List' and posted it here on Moodscapes. One of the items on that list was that I would like to attend a Martina McBride concert. On Christmas Day there was a small gift bag under Chris and Melody's Christmas tree with my name on it. Tucked inside that small gift bag, hidden under tissue paper was a copy of three admission tickets to the "Shine All Night" concert on February 21st featuring Martina McBride and Trace Adkins. Third row seats too. WOW! We are going to be up close and personal. I am going to have to hang on to Mel and her friend Kate..... They are both Trace Adkins fans and sitting that close to the stage someone will have to rein them in I am sure. I was totally surprised with this gift. Melody had tormented me from time to time before Christmas that I was going to love their gift for me. Followed closely with "I'm not telling though!" J.D. mentioned Christmas Day that he thought I was difficult to buy for and Melody told him her secret for making shopping for me easy.... Just read the 'Bucket List'. Well Mel, you were right, I did love the gift from you all. I am looking forward to February 21st and I am so very thankful that Mel and Chris use my 'bucket list' as a shopping guide.

Hoping that you all stay warm and safe during this winter weather.

White Christmas On The Mountain

J.D. did a movie clip of part of our snow covered property the other day when the snow was still fresh and brilliant white.I tried to post it here, but it is too large to upload. I have posted some pictures of our snow instead. We had fun watching Buddy as he bounded through the snow like a jack rabbit with a half run, half jump and sinking up to his belly with every hop. Now that it has been there a few days and has a crust on the top of it, he walks on the top of the snow occasionally falling through the crusted top. It is more work for him now and not so much fun.

We ventured off of the mountain today for my doctor's appointment. While we still have lots of snow on our ridge, the area below is quickly becoming snow free. With it only three days until Christmas I am pretty sure that there will still be snow on J.D.'s mountain come Friday morning unless it warms up enough to rain.

This time of year always sparks memories from long ago in a little town called Washington Court House, Ohio. I remember when we had a really good snow my mother would take a large bowl out into the yard and fill it with snow. She would then bring it into the house and with a little sugar, some milk, and a dash of vanilla she would work magic and make snow cream. She spooned it out into cereal bowls for my brother Joey and me. To a little girl of 7 or 8 years old that snow cream was better than any ice cream cone from the Dairy Queen in the heat of summer.

From snow cream my memories continue on to playing in the snow. My mother always bundled us up nice and warm before sending us out to get our daily dose of sunshine and fresh air. I remember my mother saving bread bags in a kitchen drawer. To insure that we didn't get wet and cold from the snow she put those same bread bags over our mittens and over our socks before we put on our boots. When we were fully bagged, it was then time to go outside and build our snowmen. We happily broke branches out of the trees for the arms, all the while wishing we could build an army of snowmen so there wouldn't be any branches left to be used for switches on two children that lived in our house that sometimes misbehaved. Well, Joey misbehaved a lot more than I did. Joey and his friends would build snow forts and have wars throwing snow balls back and forth at each other. We didn't just go out and play for a few moments, we played until Mom forced us to come in. She always treated us to steaming cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows melting on top when we came in out of the cold.

Things have certainly changed over the years. Mothers no longer make snow cream, mainly because our skies are so polluted the snow really isn't clean when it falls to the ground. Not a lot of children are motivated enough these days to leave their televisions, video games, computers and the comfort of the sofa to go outside and play in the snow. I find that all a little sad and I wonder what will the snow memories be for these children when they grow old?

Here I Am !!...(Says Jo While Jumping and Waving)

I am sending great big smooches out to my Tersie for doing a post while I was away. Thank you Sweetheart, you did a great job and I really liked that you added the pictures of the snow and my Grand puppy, Lucy.

I have to say that there were times when I doubted we would ever have electricity again, as well as Internet service. We decided that we would upgrade our Internet service from home to professional so we could get extra bandwidth. We had been operating on 200 MB per day and on today's Internet that isn't a lot and of course when we hit that quota we were punished by not having service for 24 hours. For $10.00 more a month we were able to increase that limit to 350 MB per day. This was on Tuesday that I called to upgrade. This upgrade process required re-registering and setting up the system again. The system just wasn't letting us re-register. Most of the day Tuesday I was on the phone and went through several tech support people, all of which did not speak English well enough for me to understand their instructions with out asking them to repeat themselves at least three or four times. The last tech guy I talked to was named Omar and spoke English better than me. He asked about the weather, of course by then it had started to snow.... He checked his resources and told me that it was snowing in Germantown, Maryland. With that bit of knowledge, he then explained that when I want to get online my computer sends a signal to the satellite and it bounces back to the server at Germantown, Maryland, in turn Germantown, Maryland returns a signal that bounces off of the satellite to me. If just one of us is having bad weather there usually is no problem, but if we are both having bad weather I might as well forget about it.... I won't be getting online. He then suggested that I wait until one of us is having good weather and call back.

Well that wasn't going to happen any time soon. By Wednesday we had about 4 inches of snow on top of the white fluff we had accumulated on Sunday. Then came about an inch of sleet and freezing rain. That of course was followed closely with another 4 inches of snow. After two flickers of the light bulb, we found ourselves with no electric. This stretched out for three days and at times I felt as if we would never again have electricity in this house. I waited 24 hours before I called to see if they had an estimate for how long we would be without electric service. I was told by a pleasant voice that it should be back on by 6 PM that evening. I waited until 8 PM and called back for a status update and was told by a fairly hateful voice at the other end of the conversation that there was no estimate on when service would be restored. There was no need for his attitude and there was need for giving me false information earlier when I called. Between those two AEP employees they trampled all over my good nature and left me feeling as if my last nerve was going to spring at any moment.

In a conversation with Tersie at some point during this experience, we talked about how beautiful this snow and ice was, yet it had such an adverse affect on so many people. I am sure that lives have been lost during this storm and I heard that there are places that won't have their service restored before the middle of the month. JD and I were far more fortunate than most people. We did have two wood stoves in the house that kept us warm, as well as served as cooking surfaces to fix coffee and meals. We had lots of candles and kerosene lamps for night so we didn't have to sit around in the dark. We also had the well to draw water from for flushing the toilet and washing dishes. Our drinking and cooking water comes from the spring and we had a good supply of that.

I looked at this whole experience as a message that we need to slow down and live simply so that we will see the beauty in the world around us. It was like a winter wonderland. Even though the tops of many trees was bent over and so many snapped and broke from the weight of the ice and snow, when the light of the sun reflected off of the tree limbs it was like they were all covered with glitter. An awesome sight to experience. The photos captured some of that sparkle, but the lens of the camera just doesn't do it justice.

While we were sitting here without the conveniences that we have come to depend so heavily on, I finished reading a Gladys Taber book and finished crocheting a poncho that I had been working on for T~Bear. I fed the birds and enjoyed watching them at the feeder. I even noticed a couple of robins that had decided to try and stick out the winter here instead of flying south. During the months when they are usually here I have never seen them eating anything but worms and bugs. Now that they find themselves with their usual cuisine not available to them, they have been eating the seeds that fall to the ground from the feeder.

We had a total of three days with no electricity. Friday afternoon we decided we would make the trip to town and shower at Chris and Melody's. The buzzards were starting to circle overhead when we went outside. We got to visit with the boys for a little while, pay a couple of those first of the month bills, and get a few more supplies to see us through more long days of roughing it. After dinner we had settled in for a quiet evening of listening to the wood crackle as it burned in the wood stoves and watching the flames dance around on the logs. I had laid down on the couch and turned the portable radio on to try and catch a news broadcast to learn what was going on in the world. All of a sudden I heard these strange noises and saw strange sites all around me. Sounds and noises that I was sure I would never experience again. Lights and the ceiling fan had popped on and all of a sudden there was that gurgle~hum~hum sound from the refrigerator. Sounds from the blower on the wood stove jumping into action. The neighbor's security lights came on causing the ice on the trees and the snow on the ground to come alive again with all of the beautiful glistening and sparkle that only God's Hand could create.

As for the computer......... Another long story made short. Saturday was an exhausting day of dealing with one Tech guy after another until shortly after supper when I gave it one last try for the day and we had a huge breakthrough and the online experience once more became a part of our lives. At one point one techy guy told me that he thought we needed to have a technician come to the house for the sum of $125. JD made one more trip to the dish and deiced it some more and we were making headway at last. I am thinking the next time we want to upgrade our service, I will have one of our computer savvy grandchildren come and take care of it for us. It is way too much stress on me.

It is great to be back and thank you all for the sweet comments that you left while we were gone. I hope you enjoyed Tersie's post, she has quite a gift with words. Have a blessed new week and please keep those that are still without electric in your prayers.

Reflections

We made a quick trip off of the mountian yesterday afternoon to send the Dish Network receiver back via UPS. By the time we got back home it was drizzling freezing rain. The snow was already coated with a nice thickness of ice and this new moisture would only add to it. As I was sitting at the computer last night, I glanced out the window and was facinated with the reflection from the security light off of the ice covered snow. I grabbed the camera and out the door I went. One thing I had forgotten when I took the picture is that a shot in the dark needs a very steady hand. Otherwise you don't get a real clear picture, but that just adds to the creativeness of the shot....don't you think! lol

After my fretting over how blurred the picture turned out, J.D. (Sweetheart that he is) stepped outside in the cold and took the shot again. It is a much clearer picture. Now I am wondering why the difference in the color between the two pictures. They were taken only a few minutes apart. Perhaps there is some sort of strange atmospheric stuff going on here on the mountain late at night that we just weren't aware of before now. {{ Place Twilight Zone music here}}

Today is supposed to be high speed hook up day.................. We will see.

Have a great day and stay warm.

Snow... Snow... Everywhere Snow

My Cyber-Sis, Julia (~aka~ Queeni), over at Interruptions and Willzmom at Lots of Little Things have tagged me for a new meme. It’s a 'Six Word Memoir', inspired by the story that Hemingway, who once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. He came up with: For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.



For more examples, check out Not Quite What I was Expecting: Six Word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure, written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser.



Here are the meme rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4. Tag five more blogs with links
5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I came up with two........... My first choice was: Life's A Journey, Hang On Tight. Although this is true of most of my life, present day life for me is quite a bit different so I did a wee bit of a variation on my original.

Life's A Journey, Enjoy The Ride!

With that said, I tag the following people to take part in this meme:

Diane at Diane's Place

Tammy at The Pink Magnolia

Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner Of The World

Mary at Mary's Writing Nook

BJ at Sweet Nothings

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Since my last posting we have had snow twice. We received about 2 1/2 to 3 inches of the white fluff on Wednesday. I ventured outside with the camera and took a few shots to share with you.

As you can see Frog Dog was completely covered. I brushed away a little hole so his smiling face would show.

There is usually very little traffic on our road, but for some reason when it snows there is even less. How ever the Postman's creed still holds true.

I can't wait until it warms up enough to once more sit on the pergola and drink my morning coffee and just enjoy the fresh air and sounds of nature.

Our welcome rooster is a bit taller than Frog Dog so he didn't require brushing off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Do you remember me mentioning that we were going to be getting high speed internet hook up via satellite? Well, yesterday was the day that the tech was scheduled to come. After the last experience with the Direct TV tech not being able to make it up the mountain due to snow, I scheduled this one in the afternoon, thinking that if we got snow, by afternoon the snow plow would have the roads cleared enough for traffic. It was a good thought, but it didn't work. About 2:30 the tech (George) called and said he was outside of Louisville, KY and would be here in about 3 hours. Right after I hung up the phone, the snow started to fall. It Fell.. and ~ It Fell.. and ~ It Fell.

Two hours later, he called back to let us know that he was hung up in traffic between Cincinatti and us because of an accident. By this time the snow had not let up. Adding what had fallen to what was still on the ground from Wednesday amounted to about 7 1/2 to 8 inches of snow. There was just no way poor George was going to make it up this mountain without 4 wheel drive. As a result, we had to reschedule. Hopefully come Saturday afternoon we will be buckling up the seat belt on our computer chair (mental note: install seat belt to computer chair) and whipping around cyber space at neck break speed.

Have a Great Friday and Wonderful Weekend...........

Let It Snow...Let It Snow...Let It Snow

I woke up this morning to howling winds outside. The wood stoves had burned down to just a few coals left in the bottom of each. This means that JD and I slept well last night which is unusual for me. I am usually up and down all night thanks to the fibromyalgia. Well after listening to that wind blowing, it didn't take long for me to get those wood stoves stocked and a fire burning in each of them.

While I was working on that, the coffee was brewing. Can't get the morning off to a really good start without a cup of coffee.

I have been sitting here at the computer trying to think of something interesting or perhaps inspiring to post on my blog for today. I keep coming up blank. I went looking for graphics that might spark my creativity...... All I managed to do with that was enjoy the graphics I was looking at. No sparks of creativity there. Hmmmm... Do you think I could have writer's block?

There is a window in front of the computer and as it started getting daylight outside I could see that it has been and still is snowing. My response to that is 'Let it snow...Let it snow...Let it snow'. The snow is an indication that it has warmed up a little bit from the single digit temperatures we have had the past few nights. I know that temperatures that low is needed to keep the insect population down when the warm weather gets here, but it doesn't take many days of those low temperatures and I am ready for wee bit of a warm up.

JD is working on a post for his blog JD's Soapbox, that shows the progress we have made with our 'Little Home on the Mountain'. He will probably have it posted in a few hours. Please stop by and visit our home. When he talks about all that has been done to this house and property he always give me equal credit. I will be the first to tell you that I have done some, but the majority of the work has come from JD. The man is amazing. Does it sound like I am bragging on him? Well, I am!

Now I am going to finish this post up for the day and give JD a turn at the computer. Have a Great Day everyone and stay warm.

A Wonderful Surprise

Once a week we try to spend the day with our youngest grandson, Seth. Yesterday was Seth day. He is growing like a weed and seems as if every week he is doing yet something else new. For the past few days we have been getting weather warnings for a winter storm for Ohio. The worse of this winter storm being to the north and gradually tapering off to rain/sleet mix by the time it reached southern Ohio. I have to admit that I was disappointed with the thought of all of that wet stuff coming our way. I find few things as relaxing as watching the snow fall while staying warm and cozy inside, with a wood fire burning. With the weather forecast being so bleak we rushed to the store before coming home yesterday and stocked up on supplies in case we aren't able to get off the mountain for a while.

What a wonderful surprise when I looked out this morning and saw all those white fluffy snow flakes drifting from the sky.

About an hours worth of snow and half an hours worth of sleet!

I love my wind chimes!

Wonder if a cushion of snow would be soft to sit on?

View of front yard from kitchen window.

Special note from Jo: Thank you God for indulging me! :-)