Snow and Snow Ice Cream

We finally got the snow—and then some more. It snowed Monday night about 3-4 inches. Lauren and I missed our Classical Conversations day, which means we’ll now go into May (still a whole lot better than June!). Rebekah’s class made up on Wednesday, so she’s still scheduled to be finished at the end of April. Then last night it snowed again, another 4-5 inches. The girls had a great time, building a snowman, tromping through the woods, and sledding down a gully they found in the woods (and avoiding or not avoiding trees in the process). I also got to make two batches of snow ice cream. So it was a success. Now I’m ready for spring and garden season. But seeing how it is only supposed to be in the 30s for highs tomorrow and Saturday, the snow might stick around for a few days.

 

Better than Snow Ice Cream

There wasn’t enough snow for snow ice cream and only barely enough for Rebekah to construct this tiny snowman:

But what little we got was pretty while it lasted (it’s raining now, and the snow is all but gone).

At least Rebekah enjoyed being out in it—and I think the chickens did as well.

 

And since it’s raining and rather mushy outside, why not stay inside and make these:

 

 

Three for Three and A New Garden

Jenna is now three for three in acceptance letters:

 

And I’ve decided to abandon the former garden plot for this spring. The soil is poor and the deer are incorrigible, so we are going to do raised beds beside the house. Hopefully, I can get the soil like I want and keep the deer out much easier. And this way, we don’t have to wait for our neighbor to come ploy up the plot before getting started. We hope to begin construction next week to be ready for some early spring veggies.

It snowed again today, but not enough to stick. The girls are hoping for at least one good snow before spring arrives.

Dancing

We’ve been talking for awhile about going to the Folk School on Tuesday nights to take contra dance lessons. While we haven’t made that yet, some of the homeschool families from our Classical Conversations group got together and took ball room dancing lessons last night. It was lots of fun for the parents and the kids.

Earlier in the week, Dana and I got away for a prayer retreat at Ridgecrest Conference Center on the other side of Asheville in Black Mountain. We got to eat at a couple of places, including the best Mexican Food we’ve had since we’ve been here. We also had crêpes at a small French Restaurant.

 

After this week, Lauren and I have our first of two breaks this semester from classes. Hopefully that will give me some extra time to catch up with Jenna. She’s writing her senior thesis on C.S. Lewis’s fiction, and I have a decent amount of reading to do in order to properly grade it!

 

 

Heat and Cold

The heat was fixed on Monday. And Tuesday morning it snowed—a little. And so the girls made a little snowman.

It’s cold in here, but the chickens are colder.

We don’t have any heat and haven’t for a week now. The heat pump still works, but heat pumps really don’t work when the temperature drops into the 30s and certainly not when it is in the 20s. It is our back-up, propane heat that is not working. Supposedly a part has been ordered. It gets down to the mid 50s in the house by morning. We have some space heaters, but schooling has been taking place under blankets for at least part of the mornings. Thankfully, the afternoons have been nice and warm for the last couple of days, but that is supposed to change soon. I’m just glad I’m not in a chicken coop!

Correction

The girls explained to me that my last post was not very clear. And it seems that others have thought so as well. So to clarify: the chickens are alive and well. It is all the work they require when it’s really cold that I was referring to: like having to remove the frozen water several times a morning.

We think they will survive the winter; I’m just not fond of going outside when it’s 1° to feed them and water them.