It's officially winter

I know the calendar will tell you that there are a few more days before winter begins. We had to shovel the drive way this morning. They had to plow the streets. To me that is the official start of winter. And from the looks of the forecast for the next few days around here, I think it is safe to say, winter is here a few days early!

The Goodness has arrived!

It came today in the mail.  It was sitting on the front steps when I came home after doing some errands on the single speed.   We had been eagerly waiting for it.  We had been told to look out for it.  We will devour it.  The Christmas gift from my Dad.

Tickets

We just purchased our tickets for our European trip. Belgium/Holland here we come. We are still working out the rest of the itinerary but we know we will be in Hoogerheide Holland Saturday Jan 30 & Sun Feb 1.  We are flying into Brussels on that Wenesday and flying out of Amstedam the following Wednesday.  We may end up renting a car as it does not seem as though it will be as easy to get to the race (World Cyclocross Championships) as it was two years when we went to Belgium.

We are staying longer this trip so that we can actually get to experience something other than just the the racing.   Like more beer (Dan anyways).

Field = Pond

This is typically what the field behind the house looks like after we get a lot of rain.This isn't too bad compared to how it gets in the spring time during all the snow melt and April showers.  Here are some photos from other periods of heavy rains

This is why we procrastinate...

... with certain projects around the house. We all have one. That project that we have been avoiding for a long time because we know that when we get started on it, for every once step forward, there will be at least two steps backward. This is my project.

We have lived in the house for over 5 years now and this has been on the list for almost that long. I finally bit the bullet and this is what I got. True, if I had stared it 4 years ago it probably wouldn't have been nearly as bad. Now I get to build a temporary wall in the garage to hold up the kitchen while I rip out the whole exterior wall and rebuild it. This is below the deck at the back of the house. Who ever built the deck messed up the flashing behind the ledger and caused water to run between the siding and the sheathing and caused a whole lot of rot. If you want to see more photos you can go here! Oh yes, I also have to deal with these guys!

Check back on my progress if you want feel like it. I imagine this will not be a quick one.

Dishwasher

Our dishwasher has several settings on it. One is "Quickwash" which is about a 30 min long cycle. All the others seem to be at least 100 min per cycle. We are both wishing that it had a wash cycle that is around 60 min because sometimes 30 min does not quite get some stuff clean and 100+ min seems way overkill. So I thought, why not run the "quickwash" cycle twice. That is about 60 min. What do you think?

Recent Sitings

On Wednesday morning we saw a red tail hawk ripping apart a gray squirrel for breakfast. He was siting on a branch overhanging the field behind the house. It is great to be able to see so much going on back there now that the leaves are all gone from the trees. Also saw a group of 3 white tail deer back there several times over the past few days. Dan saw a great blue heron Thursday up in Whately.

Webcam page