Well here we go!

Be glad I didn't start out with yesterday morning's musings. It was very Bah BAH Humbug. Really it was quite an eye opener.

Perhaps I'll write about it some other time.

We all think about Christmas Decorations right after Thanksgiving. After all, the decorations started to appear right after Halloween in the stores. The Christmas muuu--saccc started then too. 

[One of the reasons I do not listen to the run of the mill Christmas music is that it is heard everywhere in November and December, there is no escape! Your favorite Christmas music is???]

So I started with the simple things. I changed the shower curtain from the fall forest to the winter forest:

I like feeling like I am walking into a snowy scene when I walk past the bathroom door.

The Living Room -- 

and..now you have seen most of our house!

I brought in the rickety old table from the porch, I thought this might be a fun place to put Santa's Visit Lego build and the Gingerbread House along with the Wood Cabin we are still working on. The totes have all of the decorations in it. 

This corner used to be the corner where I put up the Christmas Chair. The concentrator was replaced with this monster of a thing. This corner has been rendered useless. 

That opening is our tiny downstairs bedroom that was part of the addition. The original house ends at that opening.

This wall that greets you when you walk in the back door. I made those wreaths so many years ago.  I save unique Christmas Ribbons and labels for packages. 

I purchased a pre lit 4 foot tall Birch Tree. I like it because I can use it all winter long to bring some nice light into our living room on these dark evenings.

The nesting box is exactly that, a nesting box for chickens that my mother in law had for years. She used it as a coffee table. I use it to put things in to look at.

I like old wooden boxes.
I like trees and sticks... and milk weed pods for bouquets.

In the winter the sun comes right in the south windows and shines in your eyes if you are sitting on the loveseat. So I tried curtains and they were horribly ugly. The blocked the sun and made the room so dark. 

[Note, that cabin heater is the heat for the whole house. It keeps it warm too.]

While browsing for a nice Fall Shower curtain I saw in a review how a woman used a beautiful forest scene as a backdrop in her bedroom. Someone else used it as a curtain for a sliding glass door.

So I did this.

It lets enough light in to keep the living room bright and cheery and is easy to open and shut. The orange in the corner is the basket of stuff I keep Charlie's stuff in for going out.

The Christmas Chair. Well. Hmmm. I am thinking about it, but of course am going to change it up as I always do.

As for the music? I like Trans Siberian Orchestra and instrumental music. 

Christmas Eve and Other Stories and the Christmas Attic. Favs...

Wayyy dislike any other versions of over played music. 

March ~ Hello!

 

Welcome March. The Mud Month. The ugly brown month.
The opposite of November Ugly month.

Already tired of the colors of brown mud and now dirty snow, I decided to brighten up the one part of the house I can change up often. Don't laugh too hard. The above is what I had designed and ordered for a shower curtain and squishy bath mat.

I'd made a photo of a stream years ago into a shower curtain that was really quite expensive to do. I decided afterwards to just purchase ones on line. I have a winter one, a fall one, and my stream one. I wanted something bright and cheery to walk by. 

These are May photos from last year. The rug is from my east garden while the bleeding hearts were blossoming. The wild geranium is on the edge of the summer pasture. I went out on a dewy spring morning with low fog and found this beauty.

My house is so tiny that this is like a huge artistic pallet. You can see this from the porch door. Don't laugh, we DO close the door when using the bathroom. But I do like it. Very cheery. 

I was very surprised at the quality. I ordered it through Walmart and it came in 5 days!

On another note. The first day of March was bone chilling cold. It never got above freezing and I should have worn YakTraks or snowshoes to hike the valley in. Thank goodness I had on my Muck Boots. I walked right in the creek and enjoyed seeing the last of the icicles hanging off from branches just above the creek.

Mr. Charlie was having an easy time of it. He walked right across the crusted snow. I was wishing I was Charlie.

We found the deer that we'd seen a month ago. The birds and other members of the clean up crew had left just bones. Nature has a way of cleaning up after herself.

I made it to the 'campground' as it was once dubbed. The Peterson family used to all camp out in this area along with the mix of cattle that ran the land. They generally all camped during the summer holidays, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. Kids ran around and swam in the creek. Fireworks were set off and they had great cookouts and parties. 

They've all grown up and no one comes anymore except the 4 wheelers and the UTV's.

There I am on one of the banks watching Charlie.
I called and we headed home carefully. It took me twice as long to get home than normal. Stupid me for not wearing the proper foot gear!

Imagine trying to follow all of my previous boot prints. This week's high temps will melt the rest of the snow. It should be an interesting week to watch the changes in the valley.

As the snow melts, moss, lichen, and bones will show up. I smile in anticipation.

Hiking and new stuff

 

After 4 months, my friend Bill was able to feel up to hiking again. So I took him to the Ice Caves. The ice isn't well developed but I though it would be fun just to show him where they were in case he wanted to take his wife or grand kids there.

Covid raged through his house. His one son lives in the lower level and was sick for 4 weeks but finally was able to get back to work after testing negative. Bill said he went in because he couldn't breath and his test was a negative and the diagnosis was acute asthma attack. Phew. His wife is a nurse at our local hospital, she was home for 10 days with exposure and tested negative. She is back working long hours with our little overloaded hospital.

Bill also got a double whammy with Sciatica. He is just now getting back to walking. So we took it easy.

The 'cave' formation he is standing in will have 3 foot thick wall of ice formations this winter, depending on the weather. He will actually be able to get behind the ice...thus the name Ice Cave.

The photo above is his reaction to seeing 'the bowl' of ice for the very first time. There were all sorts of WOWs.

I explained how the ice formations developed. North hillside, no sun, sandstone caves...and seeping water...and very steep hills! 

The ice will continue to develop in areas like this all over the Reserve so I have routed short enough walks to many spots where Bill can enjoy the ice too. I generally time those hikes and walks to be about 3 hours which include driving there and back.

Another short jaunt took us to Weister Creek and the mini ice wall.

I led Bill on an old equine trail that we used to ride on 30 years ago. Bill keeps telling me he'd get lost out there and many people would unless they understand how the land lays. 

He commented that he'd need another few trips to the caves before he'd dare take the wife or grands. He wasn't comfortable to try and explore on his own. Smart fella to admit that. 

I've hiked all the horse/bike/foot trails this place offers with the exception of one trail. That is almost 50 miles of trails and about 50 miles of ones that are not official trails [ones I hiked and rode before it became the Reserve].

On another note!

~~~~~~
I got weary of the winter shower curtain that I just put up. It is pretty but just looks cold. I've had it for a few years. I have a few of them. I have a summer one of a photo I took and made into a curtain. I have one for fall with pretty leaves on it, and the winter one...plus a white lace one.

I told Rich that I wanted to spruce up the colors in the bathroom after Christmas to a bright and cheery curtain. I wanted something to remind us of things to look forward to in the bleaker parts of winter.

This will be the mat to step out on:

This will be the curtain:

That should brighten things up for sure. I think this will be our Christmas gift to ourselves as it is slated to arrive after Christmas.

Sunday afternoon Charlie and I went out back for a check on the neighbor and his camera. Since he had pointed the camera to view my side of the fence, I'd attached silver garlands to branches to wiggle in the wind and set off his motion detector.

The camera was moved to view only his side of the fence.
Hmmm, I wonder if he enjoyed the thousands of photos of the garlands waving in the breezes?