Windmill Shadow

During the winter the sun is low enough to cast a really cool shadow from the windmill, on the barn.  A few things have to be in place to make this happen:  1. The sun has to be shining. 2. It has to be morning.  3. The windmill has to be facing directly north.  So, when all these things align, and if I happen to be around when they do align, I stop what I am doing and spend a few moments gazing at the result.  I just love it!

Oh Dear....

The beginning of last week, I got in my head that I wanted to make a wool lap quilt for Alicia.  When she was home for Christmas, she mentioned that her favorite quilt in this house was the wool "man quilt".  It got me to thinking!  I have been saving wool for a few years for a "woman quilt".  This seemed like the right time to dig out that saved wool and set to work.

This is a fairly quick quilt top to piece.  The time consuming work will be the hand work involved in the quilting part.  I happen to love hand work, so I'm looking forward to doing this.

"woman quilt"

It always looks so much different when the pieces are sewn together.

Also on the floor in my room are the spring quilt for our bedroom, which I started last winter!  I should be able to finish it up before I get back on the tractor in a few months,

This pile is going to turn in to.....

this, which will turn in to.....

this, which will turn in to a king size quilt.

And.....I really want to finish up this signature quilt.  A few retreats ago, everyone in our group brought a 5" square for each person.  We each made something wonderful and unique.  I chose to make a signature quilt, having the gals sign the block that represented the fabric that they gave.

I still have to sew buttons on the basket handles and sew down the binding.  Beth did the quilting for me and she did such a great job.  I'm so pleased with this.

Baxter is such a big help with my projects!

I really love how this turned out.

Close up of Beth's fabric and signature.

And Betty Jean contributed this bee fabric!  How appropriate for me!  The buttons are to be sewn on each end of the basket handle.  

A bowl full of buttons to be sewn on.  I'll take a photo of the completely finished project, hopefully before the snow melts.

Master of the Sun Beam

Baxter loves to sleep in sun beams this time of the year.  Because of the angle of the sun, mornings are prime sun beam sleeping time!  He knows just where they are in the house!  A few days ago he headed for one of his favorite spots in the laundry room.  He cracks me up!

Baxter settling in for a morning nap in a sun beam.

He couldn't decide if he wanted to stay behind the apron or come in front of it.

He ended up in front of course, for maximum sun exposure!

He stayed here for a couple hours, then got up and moved to the next sun beam spot!

Thinking about the sun.

I see these beautiful images around the farm and make an attempt to capture them with the camera.  Last night we had a half inch of freezing rain.  Today is a good day to stay home and work on indoor projects.  The day I took these images is was sunny and cold.  Quite a contrast to today.  

January Frost

It is not unusual to have a build up of hoarfrost during the winter months. A prolonged event can cause power lines and tree limbs to get heavy and break.  The past three days have produced beautiful hoarfrost, but not enough for trouble.

Yesterday Reynald, Baxter and I went for a walk.  It was so white outside.  White and cold!  I took some photos to attempt to show that there was no distinction between the ground and the horizon.  It was all one in the same yesterday.

I think it is so pretty when the trees are covered with frost.  The house color provides nice contrast.

Everything was white except for the pasture fence.

It was snowing lightly, a flake landed on the camera lens, but here you can see that it was just white, white, white!

I thought the white trees and the white snow and the white birch arbor were so pretty yesterday..

Again, the red barn, added contrast to a white world, and the few snowflakes that were falling.

Baxter loves climbing up the snow banks to investigate.  

And this is how the day ended!  Tomorrow there is a prediction for rain.  All these days of single digit temperatures and tomorrow it is going to get warm enough to rain!  We will say goodbye to all the beautiful white, at least until it gets cold enough to snow again.

Snow Drifts: Part 2

Thursday afternoon the sun was shining brightly so we decided to take a break from book work, and house work and get some fresh air.  Though the sun was shining, the temperature was only around 10 degrees!  Still it was a lovely walk, quite brisk.  The sun shining on the ice covered snow made it look even colder!

Our patio is solid ice!

Drift at the end of our lane, at the corner of Mielke and Funk

Plowed snow banks on Rolinco Road

Baxter on full alert!

These snow balls were thrown in to the field by the snow plow.  The ice crust on the snow kept them on top of the snow.

There are huge chunks of snow after the drifts were plowed.

Rolinco Road, looking east.

Again, Rolinco Road looking east with a shadow of a cute dog in for the foreground.

A closer look at some big chunks.

If you could move these, they would make a really cool snow fort!

This drift around the fuel tank is pretty neat.

Drifts are as high as the pasture fence.

The lane to our house was drifted very deep.

And this is how the day ended on Thursday, clear and very cold, but so pretty.