Saturday with Poppy

Treed barn cat

Our barn cat, Annie, spent the night in a cozy heated pet house on our deck all night during the snowstorm. This morning she was rudely awakened by a hungry Osa, our shepherd. Annie ran away off the porch and into a tree. She has been there all day. I have called her and try to coax her back down to no avail. She knows at night the dogs are in the house. So she is biding her time in the tree until then.

Snowening

It snowed again in the Ozarks. We expected this on Thursday but it came all day and night on Friday. Our porch was snow filled and the car was snowed in with 5+ inches. We can't see our driveway anymore. My husband and I shoveled our way out the porch and deck. We walked up our snowy hill to our mailbox. The mailman made it through! We then walked down the road to see how far we could get on foot. No way our car is getting through all this snow. A huge tractor came by to pick up hay for the neighbors cows and horses. Tractors have no problems in the snow. We will wait it out like our neighbors are doing. Just take care of the animals and stay warm at home with the fire going.

Rorschach Dog

Hickory on patrol.

To make a fire

Here is our nice burning fire. It has taken us about a month to figure out how to make a good fire in a wood stove. We asked a lot of people and read many websites about fire making. The key was having good dry logs. Next, is to split those logs into quarters to make smaller logs easier to burn.

Here is A. splitting logs with a 12 pound maul. It is like and ax only heavy. We have both taken turns chopping logs.

Poppy chose to hang around to catch the flying bark off the split logs. Poppy has no common sense. It is a lot of hard work but is great exercise.

Warm and toasty

It is snowing in the Ozarks again. Daisy and Poppy are taking it easy staying warm in my sewing studio.

Turkeys in the woods

I got to see a large flock of wild turkeys near our property. There were at least 20+ birds walking and eating around a pond. This is one of the reasons we moved here to the Ozarks.

Just a little auction

One thing about the people of the Ozarks; they work hard to take care of their own in times of need. A woman named Lori needs medical test to biopsy a growth. She has no health insurance like most people around here in rural America. So her church and our town come together for a little auction to help gather funds for her. Cakes, pies and sweets were made and donated for the auction. Handmade quilts and other goods were also donated. I got to meet Lori, the woman in the black and white dress. She was surprised outsiders would want to participate. We don't know her and don't attend her church, we just wanted to help. So we bid on lemon meringues, angel food cakes and breads. We spent about $30 for a lemon pie that cold and rainy Saturday night. And that pie was the best we have ever had. Our town knows how to make the best pies!

I know we raised some small amount for Lori, but pies are not a long term solution. Our government needs to step it up and take care of her people and not big business. People make America great; not greedy companies working far away from American soil.

I will get off my soapbox now and eat some more pie.

The Moss-ening

I can't get over how things continue to grow even in the cold. We have moss and lichen growing all over the place. We can see a hint of green under the leaves. I see the green and think, SPRING! But spring is 2 months away and we have more winter left to go.

Poppy in Air

Poppy is our indoor/outdoor barn kitten in training. He loves to roam about our woods during the day. But when I call, he comes a running into the house at warp speed. I finally got a photo of him without a single paw on the ground. Poppy in the air.

Donated Baby Quilt

A young mom in our small town of Summersville has been diagnosed with cancer. So our town is putting on a chili supper and auction to raise money for her medical expenses this weekend. Most people in our small rural town cannot afford the overpriced and bloated cost of health insurance, thanks to our government and the insurance industry.

Many have no health insurance and simply go without.

So our town comes together and contributes what they can to help pay for these impending bills.

My neighbor, Nancy and I got together and donated a baby quilt for the auction. I pieced the quilt and Nancy Clayburn http://www.quiltingbydesign.com machine quilted it. She did a fantastic job! It is great to have such talented friends and neighbors.

Property Lines

This weekend my husband, Poppy the cat and I hiked through our woods looking for our property line markers. We brought along our brand new garden cart to haul out some downed trees as well. Poppy came along and kept us company through the cool moist woods. We found a pile of dumped roofing shingles left by previous owners. Poppy was king of that pile. A. marked the property lines with his GPS.

We then took the largest tree trunk and pulled it up hill out of our woods. We misjudged the incline and the sheer weight and ended up having to tromp about on our neighbors back lot in the mud. Our cart almost got stuck several times. We took turns pulling that cart uphill and home. We both lost some weight on this adventure. But we got the tree trunk to our garage and Poppy was still running beside us on the way back home.

Haiti needs Prayers

I usually avoid news and world events, but Haiti needs serious help with the aftermath of the earthquake. I have lived through several hurricanes; I know what is like to live without after a serious disaster. And I have seen the good and the evil that comes out of people & governments in times like these.

So many lives lost and what little they have is destroyed. I found a blog of an American family in Haiti keeping the world updated about events there:

http://www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/

Lets keep the people of Haiti in our prayers and give what we can.