12 Below Zero Here in Pennsylvania

January 22nd - Saturday - 12 degrees below zero this morning - drifted snow everywhere

You can see from the pictures that we are running out of space to pile the snow by the garage. Yesterday when we went out to shovel our driveway of the six inches of newly fallen snow, our grandson, Shawn was just pulling into the driveway with his truck and snow blade. Lou and I were glad to see him, he made quick work of the drive and even took some extra time and helped finish up the hand shoveling. He was on his way to help out many other people on his list and Lou and I put on the finishing touches only to find out the wind was going to blow hard out of the north and fill it up again, so we did what was necessary and came into the house and decided we didn't have to go any place yesterday and made plans to finish the job today.

I closed up the blinds in the rooms that faced the north and had a fire in the fire place and spent the day enjoying catching up on magazines and a couple of cleaning projects.

I found a pillow in a magazine that I liked and thought it was pretty expensive. It was made from felted wool, of which, I have many colors ready to sew with, so I asked Lou if he could draw the sheep for me, and sure enough, he could and did, so I have it all ready to stitch on the felted black wool. Susie and I had started doing this several years ago and I really enjoyed doing it, in fact, I finished one project last year while we were traveling.

I also came up with a baby blanket pattern to make on circular needles. I wanted to make one for Krista, but have been waiting for her to find out if it were to be a boy or a girl and now that we know it will be a boy, I will await her color scheme and this will make a nice project to work on in the RV while we are traveling. My mother had always made all of the baby blankets and now that we don't have her with us, I will give it a try with knitting one. Guess if I can knit afghans, sweaters, socks, mittens and such, I should be able to do a baby blanket.

I have enjoyed doing the scarf for my coat, that I will be taking to Florida, in

the evening while we enjoy a movie. I have to admit, Lou's idea of winding two skeins of yarn together make this scarf so much easier and it is going much faster, but the needles are some that were my mothers and they are metal and I had gotten used to bamboo and that stitches slip off very easily, so I have to be very careful.

You will note the picture of the female pheasant. This morning when I cleaned off the front porch and walk, I noticed "large" bird prints, but thought perhaps a crow and dismissed the thought, but this afternoon, I slipped out the front door with my camera to take a picture of a drift and there she sat, so I was prepared. She was all settled down in our burning bush. Lou hasn't seen her yet, as once again, he is at his friends house working on that poor old tractor again.

Seems to be the time of the year for bad things to be happening. My brother had the misfortune of having a pig go between his legs and before he could get off of the pig, the pig took him for a ride and took him into a drinking fountain in the barn and broke some ribs, so he is in some serious pain. Thankfully, his son is able to help him with the chores, as the bales of hay and straw are heavy to lift with broken ribs. Families are great things to have close by when we need them and they are always so willing to help us out.

Everyone stay warm and be careful of the icy spots.