Winter Driving Conditions City Versus Country

This is the road we live on.
On the way to the highway

This is highway 32 out our direction. It is a 4 lane road, but you can't tell it.

This is highway 32 down towards the city.

Amazing what more snow trucks and traffic can do for a road.

Our city living friends didn't understand why we were late for work or why our kids were out of school.

How Much Snow?

Last week we got a storm that set some new snow records for our area. I know could have been worse like out in DC, Boston etc., but bad enough for us. We already had about 3 to 4 inches left on the ground from our last snow storm. This storm dumped about another 8 inches on top. With blowing and drifting spots got ugly. Just how deep was all that snow?

Chest deep for Labradors Opening up the access door to the garage

No dinning on the picnic table tonight

Sorry this is sideways and I can't get it to turn but it's the view out my back door.

There should be three steps here.

Over my boots deep.

When I reached the kennel the snow was so packed I hit my 5 foot 7 inch head on the 6 foot doorway.

Drifts near the rabbit barn were so deeply packed that I could stand on top of them and clean the snow off the top of the 12 foot barn!

Birdies

While at grandma's house for a sleepover this weekend the kids made bird feeders with grandma. They took pinecones, coated them with peanut butter and the bird seed. We hung them with twine on our blackberry bush just outside the back door so the kids could get a good view of the birds enjoying their treats. It didn't take long for the birds to start feasting. The kids got a kick out of watching them. Kudos to grandma!

Valentine's Day

Hubby has been out of town for the last 5 days and I must admit I'm lonely. Today is valentine's day and he won't be back until well after midnight. So I spent the day with the next best thing my kidos. They spent Friday night with their Grandma in georgetown cause I had to work early the next morning. I missed them terribly, but My mom took me out for a nice early valentine's dinner that helped pass the time. I had a good time watching the kids open all their goodies from the family members. Here's some of the action.... M&M's from grandma mixed with valentine's card from school all over the table
Frisch's coupons from Mimi

Grandma gets flowers

Ready to open

Littlest Pet Shop

The loot from grandma and uncle.

Out with the old and in with the new

I talked a few days ago about purging our animal supply so I could travel and focus on the dogs more. I also mentioned wanting to get down to having just dogs and rabbits. well we've done a good job of finding homes for some of our critters, still a couple left to go, but all in all it's much more manageable. Anyway we have big big plans for our rabbitry this spring. We plan on moving to a partial colony type set up instead of all hutches. I think it will be better and more natural for the rabbits. They will have loads of space to romp and it will be easier to feed them hay which is the best food for them. We plan on putting up an enclosure in our current rabbit barn not sure yet if we are going to put in a mesh floor to prevent digging or if we are going to go with dirt. If we go with bare ground the rabbits can dig like in nature, but it will make them harder to catch. We will also have to bury the fencing about 2 feet to prevent digouts. Two feet sounds deep to me when I have to dig it out. We plan on only putting the does in the colony enclosure so we can control the breeding a bit more. Since our daughter may start doing 4H this is important. Our bucks will be housed still in hutches. I'd like to do a buck enclosure, but I fear they will fight and hurt each other, so for now anyway it will be hutches for the boys. So with this expansion into colony raising it allows us to have space for more rabbits. I think the feeding will be easier since most of the rabbits will be in one area. Just some quick hay a few pellets and a bottle of water and they'll be good to go. Now I'm filling each hopper with food and each cage needs a water bottle, much more time consuming. So we are waiting for the weather to break to get a start on the pen, but we have started the colony introductions and all seems to be going well. After the pups left we decided to use the whelping box to house a few rabbits together.

These are our new zealand white does in the whelping box, everyone is playing nicely!

For valentine's day Hubby and I invested in some colored New Zealands to add to our herd. This is our new black doe. I just picked her up today.

Our new red New Zealand doe, again just picked up today.

A couple weeks age we got the kids a couple Japanese harlequins for getting good grades. This is a black harlequin.

This is a chocolate harlequin. We are going to have some more harlequins coming our way next weekend. I just love their colors.

snowy february

Great big snow flakes.....

equals a lot of snow.

Perfect for making snowmen or snow humans as I call them.

This is our son's snow human.


Our daughter rolling the base.

Our son decorating his snow human.

He told me it was a girl and her name is Joey.

Our daughter's snow human with no name, but she says it is a mommy and she started working on building a snow baby.

A Favorite Spot

Stryker was born and raised in our home and ever since he started to toddle around the house his favorite spot to lay is on the air vent in my kitchen which is located just under the curtains to my sliding door. He has always nuzzled under the curtains and on to the vent and three years later things have not changed a bit except his size. This picture was taken last night as we all sat at the table nearby eating dinner. This is what happens if you set boundaries and don't feed them table food. Even though we were eating salmon, which always smells up the house, the dog chose to lay in his spot and wait patiently until play time after dinner. My dream come true after living with a dog who begged and panted on my food for ten years. I swore to never have to eat with dog breath masking the smell of my food again.