What's outside of your picture window today?

Yes, Jake! I’ll always love winter. Maybe because I’m a winter baby?
I still go outside when it’s -20 and the windchill is -50, though I admit since my bone marrow transplant I don’t seem to tolerate the cold as well. Maybe my donor was from the south! 😂 I really bundle up with a parka, mukluks and woolen everything if I do go out.

Now that we no longer have a dog, the motivation to go out isn’t as strong. I try to get outside daily to walk, but often end up on the elliptical bike in front of the TV. 😅

My husband loathes winter, however. So out of my love for the guy, I sacrifice most of my beloved winter for toes in the sand in Florida. We’re home now in the frigid north for a month of reinforcing why he wants to be on the beach. I do admit he’s made a convert out of me. I miss the snow but I don’t miss the treacherous walks on ice. Enjoy your 30s, 40s and 50s. Our high today is 2.

@loribmt Today looking out the window the snow is almost gone and now back to dead weeds in the fence lines. The wind is >20mph and we have a winter warning out. Now we are going to have rain and ice. No sign of the guard dog or barn cats. They are probably all snug in their hay beds. It is gray and overcast. Our weather in the Ozarks is ever-changing and so is looking out my window ever-changing. So this time of year I am looking out my window instead of out looking at the green pastures, flowering trees, and my garden.
@kasmpeterman The photo was beautiful and I do miss seeing a lake. Thanks. Stay safe and healthy, and warm.

You’re very good at painting mental pictures so thank you for sharing your vision. We’ve driven through the Ozarks and it’s a beautiful area of our country. I can imagine it’s really special where you live when the spring and summer roll around. You mentioned your garden. Do you grow veggies and flowers?

I think I’d rather have the snow than the rain/ice! Do you have a back up generator for times when your power goes out?

Right now I’m back in the city so my view is that of a fenced in back yard but rabbits nipping at our newly planted bushes! The shrubs are wrapped with wire but the unfortunate little springs poking through the holes are getting pruned by sharp bunny teeth! Glad we wrapped them.

But here are a couple of photos of last week in far northern Wisconsin. No rain, just snow and below zero weather.

Thanks for your reply and pictures. I grew up in Evanston north of Chicago. So I miss Lake Michigan but not all the snow. After college at Iowa State and married the farmer's son (the city girl), what a culture shock but I learned. My mother-in-law taught me everything about the garden, canning, freezing, making pickles, and jellies. I did not get done all I wanted due to the weather. But I did put up 50 Qts of tomato juice and 42 Qts of applesauce. I had 142 onion sets planted but the cattle got out and enjoyed all the green tops (very sad).

Yes, we have a generator but I have no heat for the house on it. I had to make a decision on electricity and lights to the barns or heat to the house. And since I have a flock of ewes ready to lamb every February, I needed lights, etc to the lambing barn. We have a gas fireplace for some heat. But we have been lucky only had to use the generator maybe 4 times and never overnight.

When we moved from Iowa(35 years ago) and brought the sheep with us, we thought we were moving south where it would be warmer in the winter than lambing @ -22 degrees in Iowa. Wrong, we get so much ice and trees breaking and times the ewes could not even stand up to walk. Then there is trying to keep water tanks unfrozen for drinking. We have had sheep since 1979 and a year ago we sold the whole flock (ewes, lambs, and ram). A sad day but we still have lots of mother cows and fall calves. Selling the flock was the end of my daughter's 4H and FFA project ( that mother has been keeping the flock going.)

But it is nice to look out the window and see what the weather is like then to be out trying to do my chores twice a day fighting with what Mother Nature has dealt us.

The pictures are great. I enjoy looking at them. KLH

You always have the most amazing photos, thank you for sharing.

@kilh As I was driving home a few days ago from doctor appointments, I saw several newborn lambs in the one field I passed. I thought it seemed early for them, as they looked only a couple days old. But oh! so precious.
Ginger

I do miss my lambs as they get a little older, they play, run and jump in the air. Like kids on a playground running from one end to another. When one goes then all follow to the other end and back again. As I stand watching and giggling to myself, I find I have been watching for almost an hour. And when they were on the west side of the barn I could watch from my kitchen window. And mother ewes calling their kids to come, nurse. It was such a peaceful sight.

My favorite time was when I would go out around 2300 and the stars are out and the sky is clear and all is calm, all are bedded down with kids snuggled up and I can walk around them and make sure no one is going to lamb soon. And then light snow may start falling, no sounds, and peaceful walking back to the house. Sometimes see the Christmas star. Thanks for all your input. I still am looking at the pictures. Reminds me of the Canadian Border Lakes, where we would go for vacation. Thanks so much for sharing your life. Hope you are safe and well. KLH

@migizii….I also live in Northern Minnesota (Bemidji). It is a beautifully, wooded area even in the winter. However, winter is definitely NOT my favorite season so I spend the bitterly cold days in the 73 degree and sunny indoor setting of my house walking thousands of steps like a gerbil😂😂😂😂

Brr I bet it’s a bit nippy in Bimidji this morning! I’ve been there and you certainly are in Northern Minnesota! That might even be too much winter for me. 😉
I freely admit, even though I love winter, there are days I don’t feel safe walking outside. I have big cleats for my boots that really grip the ice but it’s not worth the fall at this age. So I do the same thing you do, walk
through the house like a gerbil or in my case a hamster! 😂
Our floor plan works pretty well with a loop through all the rooms and for added effort I’ll toss in a flight of stairs every few laps. I set the timer on my fit-bitch, grab a book or my ipad and away I go.
I think anything that keeps us moving is important.
Stay warm! Post pics anytime!

What a great story! I love the “city girl marries the farmer’s son”! And what a wonderful life you’ve had with him. I’m a city girl but spent every summer living on my grandma’s farm. It taught me to value the land and the world around me…made me more connected. It’s obviously worked the same charm on you.

You’ve also worked ‘your dang fool head off’ (haha, my grandmother)! All those years of raising sheep, the cattle and your impressive shelves of preserves! That’s a lost art, isn’t it? My mom used to feed us all winter on her jars of goodies from the basement, along with crocks of kraut, carrots, etc. Oh your poor garden with the cattle eating 142 sets of onion tops! Glad they weren’t milk cows, or were they? 😂

It had to be a very melancholy time for you when you sold your flock of sheep. That was a long time to dedicate so much time, energy, worry and love. You’re a really great mom to have kept that 4H & FFA project going for so many years. I’m guessing many, many years after your daughter or daughters were out of the house! LOL. (I know the feeling on a smaller scale with pets that couldn’t trail after her to college.)

One of my close friends for the past 40+ years had to sell his milk herd a couple of years ago because of a health issue. He was crushed, and didn’t really want to do it, but they went to a good friend of his. In retrospect he feels it was the best thing that happened and he should have done it a long time ago. Now he grows thousand of pumpkins, squash and ornamental corn besides the best sweet corn I’ve ever had and he’s having a blast. So I can imagine it’s with a sense of relief you don’t have the worry of winter lambing and keeping them warm and healthy.
You still have a healthy dose of country living with your daily chores, gardening and cows. Thank you for the dedication, I know farming isn’t an easy job but a labor of love.

Here’s a couple of pictures of my friend, Farmer Joe’s pumpkins.