This storm beat out the last storm ..... tired of shoveling!

This is a little over kill, but so was the storm! So I will make you suffer along with me! hehe (can you tell we were traumatized by all the snow?) I feel like we live in Lake Tahoe without the benefits of the ski lifts!




Looking out the sliding door. The snow was chest deep.
The swing set....compare with the last snow fall.
Looking out at the beehives! Can you see them?!
The deck.....look how blue the sky is!
May not look like a lot of snow he is plowing, but he had been plowing a number of times before this just to keep up! His left arm was killing him by the time he was finished...poor guy. I see a snow blower sometime in our future :o)
Front walk...Why we didn't have church for 2 weeks in a row......

We did a lot of baking of bread, brownies, lemon bars and soup! Yummmm..... what is it about snow that brings out the homemaking skills?

The snow storm to beat all snow storms

That was some snowfall here! Here are some of the pics we took during and after.

Gordon took a series. He took one shot every hour Friday afternoon into the evening and the next morning.It's a good thing he snow plowed at midnight the night before...this would have been a lot worse!


Our neighbor...his driveway runs the entire length of our property! And I think WE have a long way to plow!
The garden and beehives...The swing set!

The glider swing.
My busy little snow plower!
I know there's a walkway somewhere here......Sorry for all the pictures! But this was quite the snowstorm and there's a LOT of snow here :D

Disney Marathon

Gordon and I flew down to sunny, warm sleeting, freezing Florida to see Venita and family and to be volunteers at Disney World's Half Marathon on Saturday morning! We got up at 3:30am to get there by 4:30am. We were at water station #6 :o) There were 17,102 finishers on our race! WOW!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so Venita took a picture of us volunteers after the event. Venita came down with the flu so she didn't feel well enough to go with us :o( I was so sad for her. It was because of her efforts that we were all signed up for the event! There was Sarah, Tim, Gordon and I. We were layered up to the gills! I had on a sweater, fleece jacket, ski coat, plus the wind breaker and a rain poncho they gave us. It was COLD! What ever happened to going to Florida in the winter to get away from the cold up north?


Gordon and I each came down with the flu too! I got sick Sunday morning and Gordon got sick Monday morning....ugh! But we still managed to have a good time :o)

The missionaries came for dinner Monday night. I took some dipping chocolate with us, so we had a great dessert of dipping all kinds of goodies into dark Belgium chocolate....yuummm!

Thanks Venita and Tim for a good time :o) Next year, same time?....but with warmer weather please?

A Beekeepers Soap

Yes - we did it! We made soap yesterday! And it even turned out :o) Gordon made soap way back when in chemistry class, and I know that Melissa has done this type of thing for a job. So for them this is easy-peasy :o) But it is all new to me and WAY fun to boot!

Here are our supplies all set up.

I am measuring out the specialty oils and fats. Our recipe includes beeswax and honey from Gordon's honeybees :o)
These are the molds that Gordon made from wood and we lined with wax paper.

Here is Gordon stirring the Lye very carefully outside where it is freezing!

We have combine the melted oils and fats with the lye and I am mixing it with a hand blender being careful not to fling the mixture about.


Me in my protective gear! (have to be cautious with the lye) I look like something from a sci-fi movie!

This is near the end when it is thickening up (reaching 'trace') and I am finishing it with a wire whisk. (it's gone through saponification! I am learning all kinds of new words....be impressed....cause I am!)

It's been poured into the molds and we tried to even it out with a spatula.

We cover them with their lids and then wrap them up in a blanket for 24 hours.

Gordon just removed them from the molds.

Now they are cut into something of a bar!
Now we let it cure for 2-4 weeks. We'll keep you posted :o)