A BRAND NEW YEAR!!

Something called a POLAR VORTEX came down and blasted its way over more than half the USA. Snow and ice all the way to Alabama. Never seen this much snow in ten years some were saying. The stores were packed and people were smart to stock up. Literally nothing was running in our area..... for 3 DAYS. Kids are off school because of the COLD not the snow. Plows ran 12 hours shifts and they got the roads cleared pretty fast considering how much snow we had. THE COLD is something else again. I ventured out onto the porch and right back inside. Way too cold for me to breathe in, 14 below zero and 25 below when the wind kicked up. NASTY..Colder than ALASKA..that polar vortex was nothing to fool with. I started wearing so many layers of clothes I feel like an Eskimo... Welcome to 2014?? It's starting out very weird.
                       

This was a shot of town with 6 inches of snow..where they put 14 more I have no idea.

 I have had this blog at blogger since 2010. I have tried to keep it separate from my Wordpress blog.  Blogging is a venue to express our feelings or talents to the world. 
Well it seems to be really dying out now. I will keep mine around, and write when I feel like it or when I have something to share. What's been happening in my world is something that I had been forbidden to discuss on a public blog. I know that sounds kind of weird but I it's the way it is. Some already know what's going on..others can take any kind of guess they would like. I am NOT in mortal danger or taking drugs etc. but I can say life is not a bed of roses right now. It has not been for some time. I make the best of each day and try to move on. I made some goals for 2014. We will see how well I do. I will update when I can, until then..here are some photos I managed to take while shoveling out this past week. My camera is on it's way out. It has a mind of its own and I have to re do almost every shot I take. Still it takes nice photos.

This poor bush almost broke under the heavy snow, the drift is almost as high as the fence is.

 The snow is as high as the top of the handle. Below you see the van covered up, that is not all drifted snow, it was really deep. 

This was taken before the storm also. We had about 6 inches on the ground.

Stay warm and well my friends...

        

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

FOR some it won't be so merry. A real bad ice storm set thousands without power in our state and it could not come at a worse time. Men are frantically working on restoring it and more snow and such could make it a really tough go of it. We managed to get the least amount of ice and I was glad. Our driveway is a skating rink..so cold the salt won't melt the ice on the roads or the sidewalks. Treacherous is a word that many people are using over the past few days. I managed to get my shopping, what little I did, over early. Was so glad I did that!  I went in the pouring rain to do my small tasks and prayed I would not catch pneumonia it was so cold. 
HAPPY to sit home now and keep warm and eat my Christmas dinner. More on that later..      

I WON!! I won a drawing for a cookbook from our beloved  blogger BETH MARIE!! I am thrilled, and honored.It sure was a shock and then I also got an early Christmas present of a new tablet and so I am trying to learn all the new things on it. I love it so far and it is so fast and easy. No wonder the clerk said that it was the best seller of 2013..I can imagine all the children in all the grade schools having these to work on..soon the pencils will be gone and the tablets we used to use. Soon kids will ask..what is a pencil?? OH MY!!  That is progress I guess. 

So for the menu for Christmas dinner..we missed Thanksgiving being so sick, so Turkey and Ham and all the side dishes we want this year. I will get back to normal after the new year. I am not making or baking any sweets this year..Jello is as close as it gets for me. I did find some nice sugar cookies in the store so will enjoy them too. 
                                  

I will close this with a photo of the last tree we had in our old home..We kept it up until FEBRUARY..YOU heard that right. It was the last tree mom saw and enjoyed and we just did not have the heart to take it down early. I hope you and your family have a wonderful and MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

BLAHHHS

Haven't felt much like writing lately. This bronchitis or whatever it was is still hanging on and the coughing fits are the pits. I got out for a few minutes to get much needed groceries and it just wore me out. My my, I guess I still have whatever it is. 
Fever lasted for several days so it made the think the FLU, sure didn't act like it though. ANYWAY...Christmas is only three weeks away and I just cannot get into the mood this year. We missed Thanksgiving entirely. I even watched the Macy's parade and tried to get into the holiday spirit. It just wasn't the same I guess. No cookies or treats, no appetite for them really. Kinda feel that BLAHH and hope it goes away soon!!
Snow and cold coming and that will really set the tone I guess for a white Christmas for us this year. Got to get busy and plan a meal and set up a tree..Hope that jogs the ole Blahh right out of me.. 

HAVE A WONDERFUL SAFE  HOLIDAY SEASON AND....
                                                         

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

For  all those who visit here, 

Have a wonderful, happy, safe Thanksgiving!!!

I'M SICK...

I am sick of just trying to keep going. I am sick of getting behind in everything. What the heck is going on? I look at life so differently now. I hate the way things are and seem stuck..stuck and cannot get out of my own way. I have "adapted" one person said to me. Yes, you could say that and then again.. NO I haven't. The pressure every day to just do one little thing that can help out..well it's not easy. The situation is grim,and trying to find a way out of it.. tiring. Is it any wonder I don't blog any more as this seems to be a daily thing for me. Pick yourself up and move on..easy to say if you are not involved. Easy if you are not attached to the situation. I am surrounded daily with reminders of past things and need to move on and then not able to. Sounds like depression to me. I have a lot of things to work through. I get joy from sun light..watching nature, breathing fresh air, cold or not, and spending time on line searching for new ideas. I got my retirement checks all sorted out, what a hassle that was. Seems powers that be could not figure out some things and kept asking me the same questions over and over. I dreaded hearing the phone ring. I am setting some goals for the winter. One thing at a time..one thing at a time. This too shall pass..

BARN CHARM

This barn was in the process of being painted brown. 

The top of the barn had a sign that was a black and white cow. I am guessing it was a dairy farm.

See-through barn that was pretty shaky looking. 

BARN CHARM TUESDAY

I miss our Barn Charm Tuesdays.. I liked seeing other's barns and posting my own photos of them. Something "charming" about them. I hope that one day they will reopen a blog site for them. Now I am posting my own photos today.. Hope you enjoy them.  As you can see there is still plenty of green here and up north. These photos were taken last week. This barn was very close to the road.. I was so surprised.

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

 

IT'S DEAD AND GONE...

Well it looks like this blog is dead and gone.. I can write whatever I please because of the lack of readers here... sooo it's okay to post that the fall came and in the nick of time because our AC quit. I got so tired of standing trying to tinker with the controls. It was one of those digital display ones that keeps your room at a constant temperature. You would think that would be wonderful. I did.. UNTIL.. it got a mind of it's own.
It started displaying weird numbers and letters, and flashing on and off like it was having a seizure. I kept praying when it was 90 outside for just one more run to keep us cool. It was an older model but worked great. Sis decided to just let it go......
LITERALLY... she opened the window and after much prying on the braces...let it go out the window. It hit the ground with a bounce and landed right where our car had been sitting not 5 minutes before. IT broke into many pieces. The sound carried all over the neighborhood. Too heavy to lift it, we had to tug to get it up and flipped over to move it out of the driveway. ON the way out the window it decided to hang on the storm window and break it all out. So now the whole window is completely a mess.
Glass everywhere..OH JOY!! NOT!!!

WELCOME FALL.. please don't let winter come yet.. we are not prepared!!! Trips to find someone in this tiny town who does glass repair, (good luck with that) will be forthcoming.   

 Neighbors think I have went crazy as they see me go to the mail box and flail my arms in the air to keep the mosquito's off me..they are vicious and huge this year. It seems they have made a camp out of our yard and have called their army to 
stay for the duration. I looked up on a search engine what I could make myself and came up with this combination. The recipe consists of three household ingredients: epsom salts, beer and Listerine.  Combine a third of each in a garden sprayer, then wet everything in the yard.I was told one application lasts the season.  Boy you can bet I am going to try this at least once. Well maybe next season...this one is on the way out. BEER??? any kind will do it said..been a long time since a bought a beer..never liked the taste of it myself. 
Well gotta wrap this up here.. more later.. Have a great day.. the weather permitting that is..