Argo's and wreath making

Once again I have neglected to update the blog. This is such a busy time of year on the farm - but it's starting to slow down. Most of our major projects are finished and now we can just work on getting our wood stacked up. We do most of our wood harvesting in the winter - we enjoy the work and being outside, but we do need an emergency stash and to pile in as much as possible. If this winter is anything like last year - we'll have a hard time getting out in the bush when we usually have no trouble. We couldn't go anywhere for months last year because it was an impossible task to open the trails. But we may have a solution this year... with the Argo. It can handle the snow and it also gives us access to parts of our property we cannot access because of the marshes and floods, and ponds. I must admit - it was fun to drive and goes almost anywhere.

We had snow a week ago - and a bad storm. We were in the city running errands and getting our plow for the tractor fixed. We came home to find out that one of the local beavers had dropped a tree across our lane. Luckily we had a chainsaw with us! Except... that it wouldn't start. So Kevin had to walk the mile into the house anyway to get the other chainsaw and the tractor. The winds were awful and blowing snow and ice. As soon as I got in from chores that evening - the power went out, and stayed out until 7 the next morning. For the past few days it's been fairly warm, about 50 F and sunny. It's cold in the evenings and the frost stayed almost all day today and we had ice in the water buckets until afternoon.

I spent the afternoon today working on wreaths. I finished up my first one - a Juniper wreath and I love it. This picture was taken before it was finished - I filled it out some more and added pine cones. I'm working on a Cedar one right now. I enjoyed gathering materials this afternoon and working outside in the cool fresh air. They are pretty simple to make - but there is definately an art to it. I'm making a list of other craft projects I want to do now and this winter, so I can get supplies next time I'm in the city. I'm really, really hoping to try my hand at quiliting this winter, even if it is just a dog quilt! I just love quilts and would love to be able to make them myself. I need to work on my knitting as well, and have a whole list of projects I want to do. Those are things I enjoy about winter, having more times for crafts. And I'm always able to catch up on writing and reading. I've been stacking up winter reading all summer and have on more trip to my favorite used bookstore which is in Syracuse New York, next week for another load.