Long Winter

It's starting to feel like a long winter.  Most years we have one good snow and that's about it.  This year we've had several snow storms, a few ice storms and we've lost power twice for multiple days.  The first ice storm was in November, and we just had another in February.

These pictures were taken back in January.  One of the few storms where we didn't lose power.  The ice was pretty and only lasted a few days. The melting and refreezing caused the kids to miss quite a few days of school.  Although the main roads were clear, back roads were a mess and most of the county is back roads.

When the sun hit the ice everything was glistening and looked quite magical. It's really hard to capture with a camera though. 

Through snow, ice and freezing conditions our shiitakes still grew. It's really pretty amazing. i never expected that we'd be getting fresh mushrooms all winter. It's usually only a few at a time, but every time we have a warm spell they just start popping again.  This has helped me fulfill my constant need to grow stuff, which is usually pretty impossible in the winter.

Although i don't ever really do New Year's resolutions, i started this year with the strong desire to learn new things. Lots of new things. Although i learned to macrame years ago, typing hemp in my collage days. i wanted to learn this new macrame that i keep seeing. It's done the same way but uses really thing waxed cords.  Learning to wrap a stone was my first goal, now i'm working on re-learning all the different knots.  Most of it has come back pretty easily, but i'm struggling with changing direction while knotting. As soon as i get one knot figured out, i have to do it on the other side of the piece, in a different direction and then my mind just goes blank and i forget how to do it entirely. i never realized how much harder it is to learn things as we get older, but i can attest that it is very true. i'm hoping with enough repetition i'll finally get it to click.

Bread baking is another of my New Year goals.  i've really been enjoying the process of making  (and eating) homemade read. So much so, that's i make at least one loaf a week.  i have a couple favorite recipes, and plan to slowly add a few more.  i'd like to start making sour dough with a starter, but have just been making simple breads like challah and a basic honey white bread so far.

Over the weekend we lost power again due to high winds. It's still dropping down below freezing at night, but we have the woodstove for heat and we have a generator to keep the fridge/freezers going. 

We've a couple nice days giving us a little taste of spring, but March is planning to come in like a lion with lows of 10 degrees and possible snow next week.  

As always i do enjoy the slowing down of the season once we get passed xmas, but am also very eager for spring.