More pictures from the spring: Snowday!

Even teachers like a good snowday!

View from the front

View from the back

Tea and scones-the perfect way to celebrate the day!

Hooray for snowmen in the front yard (and friendly neigborhood kids who take pictures)

Roasted maple butternut squash soup

Or, what to eat on a Tuesday that feels like it should be a Friday...


Roasted maple butternut squash soup

1 butternut squash (medium/large, peeled and chopped)
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
 salt and pepper to taste
3 TBS butter
1 Tbs dried sage
1/4-1/2 tsp allspice
1/4-1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4-1/2 tsp powdered ginger
4 cups water
2 cubes of vegetable bouillon

Chop one medium/large butternut squash into 1-inch chunks.  Place in a baking dish, and toss with vegetable oil and maple syrup.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and bake at 375 until soft (about 40 minutes).

Once squash is ready, melt butter until bubbling in saucepan.  Add sage, and cook till sage is browned.

Add squash (including juice), allspice, cardamom and ginger to the saucepan.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes, then add 4 cups of water and the bouillon cubes.

Boil for about 15 minutes, then blend using an immersion blender or a blender.  

I liked it with cheesy bread (good cheese melted on toast).

SO GOOD.  Also, yay- butternut squash from McNeils, maple syrup from McNeils, sage from our garden!

Snow in October

Again with the snow in October! We got about 8 inches of snow, when absolutely none of the leaves had fallen off the trees.

Our journey North

We set out on a fine February day for a journey north...little did we anticipate how we'd have to pass through frozen wastelands on the way to a birthday party...

Starting out...sunny and 50...

A few hours later...still sunny and mid-40's, but what's that on the horizon...


Getting cooler and cloudier...hmmmm....


Freezing point! But still some blue sky...


*sigh* no more blue sky...and why can't we see the mountains anymore?

Oh yeah...that's why-welcome to Siberia!

Snow in Virginia

We finally got snow last week - although we missed the storm this week, and now it's mostly all melted. It was our first real snowfall south of the Mason-Dixon line, and it was an experience.... we were slightly unprepared by how poorly the roads would be treated and managed. We took the afternoon (which was a snow day) to shovel the snow off the driveway. It was a loong, looooong driveway. Just saying.

After we shoveled the driveway, we took the opportunity to shovel the road. Apparently we really like shoveling. The plow came by to help, but did more damage than not...

Apparently it does snow in Virginia!

See? That driveway is at least five miles long. Really.

The driveway in progress... yes, I'm proud of it.

Our friendly neighbor who helped us shovel the top of the hill on the road. Apparently he likes shoveling, too.

Oh the happy shovelers. Can't say I'm too unhappy it's all melting though!

Life recently

We definitely have become lazy about updating this blog. We'll get better about it, we promise. Really.

Things we've been up to lately:

I graduated! Yay!
Christmas in South Salem- it was lovely! And Gemmy does love her Christmas trees.

Christmas in Cobleskill, where we had the rare opportunity to carve a green Christmas pumpkin.
New Year's Eve in Ithaca, where we got to see the Sim Redmond Band! Which was great, as always.We built a little shed, which involved screwing about 5 million screws and bolts and nuts in arctic temperatures, and is just big enough to fit Jim's chair, and our camping equipment (and Jim, when he misses his chair).
Enjoyed some wonderful sparkling wine mailed from upstate New York :-)

And we're now eagerly awaiting spring. Apparently it comes earlier here. And it's been in the 40's all week, so I guess I believe it?
What has everyone else been up to?

No snow for us...

The Northeast has had two major snowstorms since Christmas, and another is supposed to hit tomorrow/Wednesday. We've managed to avoid both of them with our sheer bad luck. Jim and I have developed our anti-snow forcefield till it's approximately 40 miles in radius on any side.


See that little white spot in the middle of northern Virginia? Yeah. We're right in the center.

Pretty snow!

We had a gorgeous snowfall the other morning; I love living in the woods!

Icicle!

One of the icicles on our house became a sword in our dining room.

Hopefully, spring will come soon.

Snow!

We got socked with snow last night- the official count is 14 inches, but we have at least 20 in our backyard. It goes higher than my knees and past Shasta's chest.
We had a movie night last night and our friends ended up staying the night to avoid driving in the blizzard.


It was beautiful, though!And Shasta LOVES swimming in snow! Click on the video below to watch.

Snow in PA

We've had snow for most of the month here in State College- definitely not normal. But beautiful! These are some pictures of our neighborhood (and why you should visit us).

Escapee critters and the Big Tractor!

Busy day today. When we woke up this morning, we realized that the horses had decided that the world outside their paddock was much more interesting, and were grazing in the front yard. We went out to put them back in the barn, and found one of the kittens (Miss Adventure) following us to the barn- a kitten that had most definitely been locked into the woodshop the night before. Apparently last night the critters staged a mass escape. The horses got out because of the high winds we've been experiencing recently- the electric fence was working fine, but had blown down. Not so useful, really. We fixed it, and then took the kitten back to the woodshop, where she was more than happy to be put back inside.

Then we tried to figure out out how she'd gotten out in the first place. It was confusing, because Racu was still inside, but she's definitely the more agile cat. We checked for footprints in the snow, and found some tracks near one of the windows. We looked up, and realized that the gutter's hanging low on that part of the house. It looks as though she jumped from the gutter. We went back inside, and sure enough, there's a gap in the wall that'll let her get between the inside and outside walls. We're still not exactly sure how she managed it, but we think she climbed between the walls and got out that way. It's got to be something somewhat complicated, or she would have been able to get back in, right? Plus, the other kitten didn't (couldn't?) follow her.

In other news...

Today it finally snowed! We got at least 8 inches and more is still falling, although now it's more in the way of freezing rain/sleet. Jim's been hoping that he'd have a chance to use the big tractor to plow the driveway since we got here, and he finally got the chance today. Plus, I got to try driving the bigger tractor! The little tractor's been great to help us clean out the horses' stalls, but the big one was a lot more intimidating.

Here's a short video of me plowing a very short section of the driveway! I didn't really realize how fun tractors can be.




Another pic that shows that I actually did plow...A video of Jim on the tractor. He looks so happy.

Winter pics

Spring teased us a little a few days ago- a reminder of how nice warm weather is. I think I'd have a hard time living where there aren't any seasons though.... I'd miss scenes like these below. We had an ice storm this week, too, with a solid day and night of freezing rain. The path to the barn was at least an inch thick, and very slippery... a bit scary to walk on. Fortunately it melted quickly!