Drawing

Here is a picture drawn by our middle boy.

February

February has been rolling right along and is now nearly gone. We have spent plenty of time playing in the snow and shoveling the snow, and plowing the snow, and roof raking....

Here we are taking in the sights at the Higgins Armory Museum. Not our first trip and certainly not our last. The boys have been making lots of (chain) maille lately between that and their interests in Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying brought us back to the museum again. These kids "study" even when they are hanging out and relaxing!

My artist son spent some of his visit sketching rapiers into his books. I've got to find a way to upload some of his drawings, and music too. His advanced guitar ensemble class is going to be doing a bunch of gigs this semester. We're looking forward to watching them play.

Here is another shot taken at the museum.

We got another foot of snow between the storm on Friday and Sunday. The fence is about to disappear under the snow and our chicken run is quite under the snowbanks too. Tomorrow we may get some rain on top of sleet & ice. I do believe the melting will begin soon. The horse is shedding like crazy and the daylight is feeling so much warmer now. Spring is around the corner! We may have over 3 feet of white stuff on the ground, but it won't last forever. I think I'll go skiing again this afternoon. :)

In the evening, watching TV we find that we are the furniture for our cats. We have been enjoying a little more TV now with our netflix streaming movies right over the internet. We have been watching old TV series; lately "Monarch of the Glen". We've still been reading aloud to the kids in the evening. Lately it's been Harry Potter to our youngest. The older boys still laugh at the funny bits even though they haven't read the books in years. We love to read aloud even though all of the boys (of course) could read these stories on their own. There's just something special about reading aloud. Hope your homes are cozy and warm too.

~Rachel

Winter Chores and Sledding

What is going on in this picture? Winter chores. Our manure pile and hay storage are over the bridge and out in the back field. It makes for an awful lot of plowing...but sometimes it creates a bit of fun too. We could use the truck to move things around, but an ATV is so much more fun on a warm day. This day was 20 degrees with sun and no wind. That's an outdoor day in my book! Out back with the manure, back up with the empty bucket and hay. Repeat. And again. But what do you do with the workforce while schlepping? Why, you drag them along on a toboggan! Of course. And you take one fun run up and down the driveway per trip.

This silliness didn't last long. The teens fell off and had to run. :) Sometimes they were standing up as they went by. Other times I'd see a pig pile of boys. Sometimes 3 of them all sitting....

I enjoyed doing the mucking up at the barn and "supervising" as the men did the rest of the work. The kittens were exploring the new hay in the barn and my dog was hanging out with me, patiently waiting for his turn to chase the ATV. As soon as I drive it he is in high gear. I have to be careful not to run him over as he herds the ATV and I need to go very fast to keep ahead of him. Even at his ripe old age of 10 he stills runs at about 25-28 MPH. I have to do 30 to get away from him. !!

Here is my first attempt at a video on the blog. Our new camera seems to have a smoother uploading process. This is the sledding hill behind our house. The boys have made some interesting trails this winter. Enjoy!

~Rachel