And one more thing...

 

If you follow @cranberrymorning on Instagram, you already know how deliriously excited I was so see this huge load of logs pull up the driveway the other day. What you're looking at is 4 years' worth of heat for our house. Mr. C. calls them his solar collectors. I call them avoiding the 'widow makers' in the woods!  I probably never told you that back in the spring of 2005, when Mr. C was out cutting in the west woods one day, a tree snapped back and rendered him unconscious in an instant. Our youngest son, who had been with him at the time, ran to to the house, burst into the door, and yelled that Dad had been hurt.  When I got to the site, Mr. C. was lying on the ground, a pool of blood forming under his head, and his color turning gray. I knew this was it.

But praise God, this wasn't it! Although it took the ambulance a HALF HOUR to get here while my husband lay there unconscious, a first responder who lives nearby was here soon. He did all the necessary things that first responders do, and when the ambulance finally arrived, I rode with them to the nearest hospital, where they examined Mr. C. and put him in a helicopter for a nice, expensive ride to Eau Claire.

While still at the local hospital emergency room, Mr. C. momentarily regained conscious-ness, told me was that he was sorry, and to call the insurance company. I did, and I was terrified. But I honestly had the assurance that no matter what, God was with us.

After a few days in the hospital in Eau Claire and a watchful eye on my dangerous husband, the doctors released him to go home, with instructions to NOT WORK. It had been a serious concussion, and all the blood was from an extensive scalp wound.  It did take quite some time for him to recover fully, and the odd thing is that the tree gave him 20/20 vision, although the upper right quadrant of his vision is still double after all this time. That won't change.

So you see how grateful I am that God spared my husband and why I've hated it when he has gone out to the woods in subsequent years to fell trees. (Will he listen to me???)  But this year he ordered a load of wood. It truly makes my heart happy.

Probably a couple sons and Mr. C. will soon be busy with chainsaws, cutting and then splitting and stacking all that wood. All in anticipation of the following scene:

 Lucky Mr. C.
He is ONE GOOD MAN!

 General Longstreet enjoying the fire
Actually, when I did a search for 'fire' in my photo archives, this popped up.
I was sure you'd want to see it. LOL
All those crazy reflections from two of our living room walls and the fire!

 Tommy and Smokey enjoying the fire last Christmastime
Do you see Smokey? She's looking at you.

 And of course our 1915 Home Comfort
kitchen range, which we fire up on especially cold days.
I love that old beast.

So, winter is really cozy at our house.

Funny how even 'cozy' can get old after six months. :-)


***


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Hodgepodgeless Winter Wednesday

 Looking south from the front porch

The Wednesday Hodgepodge will be back next week. Joyce is taking a little break to see her grandson (and I suppose his parents too). :-)

So, in the meantime... just a few shots of winter, cats, and grandkids.

Although these photos were taken yesterday, the winter landscape at our house looks much the same from December through March. Fortunately, by April we will start to see a big change. I hope.

The weather outside is frightful, but enjoying a fire and a good book is quite delightful.

I might have shown you this one before, since it was taken in December.

Tommy and Smokey, staying warm
You can see that we keep lots of blankets close at hand.

***

Also delightful was visiting these two last weekend:

Someone enjoyed her chocolate cupcake!
They were delicious.

Tommy & Smokey



 ***

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Hodgepodging the Countdown...

Sunrise, looking SSE from the front porch
with the ever-present lawn ornament


Join Joyce and the Gang
for


She writes the questions;
we write the answers.
Plug them into your own blog post
and join in!

1. What's left to be done on your Christmas to-do list? 

With only 4 more sleeps 'til Christmas, my list consists of cleaning the house and making New Year's Day menu plans. Everything's organized, at least on paper. And for me, once it's on paper, I'm good. I already have the minced clams for Christmas Eve's clam chowder that we'll eat, along with popovers, after the church service.

 Snowmen in the library

2. The Hodgepodge lands on the first day of winter this year. What's your favorite thing about winter? 

My favorite thing about winter is the last day of it, which is sometime in April (when you live in northern Wisconsin). 

The barn on a cold!! winter afternoon

An armful of energy

3. In what area of your life are you immature? Feel free to elaborate or not. 

I'm not immature in any way, and why are you asking this anyway? Did someone tell you that I'm immature???

 Santa on the cookstove

4. What was the most (or one of the most) important lessons you learned in 2016? 

There's no quick way to learn patience.

Another wheelbarrow full of wood for the stove

In case some are wondering, Mr. C. pulls the wheelbarrow backwards into the house because it's just easier that way. It might seem odd to those who don't live in the frozen North and who don't burn wood. But believe me, when staying warm takes top priority, we get the wood into the house as quickly and efficiently as possible.

5. It's Fried Shrimp Day...are you a fan? What's your favorite way to eat shrimp? Will there be shrimp somewhere in your holiday feastings? 

I think that shrimp was (were) meant to be part of the food chain, to be consumed by something else that lives in the sea, not by humans.

Sunset and the old farm fuel tank

6. What sound lulls you to sleep?

The car engine (whether or not I'm driving.)

 Evening, View SE from the front porch

7. What one word best describes your 2016? 

Recovery.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

 Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father,
Now in flesh appearing.

I'm including the last paragraph of a Christmas letter we received from a friend. I thought it nicely summed up what Christmas is all about. Thank you, Laurel:

'A simple birth - not the end of the story nor the beginning, but the pivotal moment in history when God's promise to send a Saviour was put into motion on earth. God loved us enough to send His Son to redeem us from the consequence of sin, so we can have peace with God, the joy of knowing we are His, and hope for the future. His perfect justice is tempered with the gift of mercy for anyone who will believe the truth and tear open the ribbons! Merry Christmas!' 

Have a blessed and very merry Christmas, friends, as we celebrate the birth of our Rescuer, Jesus. He gives us every reason for Joy.

Surviving Winter

This is a post I meant to put up last week during gun deer hunting season in Wisconsin. It's definitely not my thing to kill a deer. I don't presume to tell people who need meat for their families not to shoot a deer, but for me personally, I'd rather have peanut butter on toast and let the deer run free in our woods. Yes, I do know that the herd needs to be thinned, as they say, but I'd let someone else do the thinning. And I definitely can't think of hunting as sport.

***

The above photos were taken November 23, 2013, but it's that time of year again when the hunters, including our son, are out trying to get that elusive venison. Fortunately, this year the temps aren't quite so cruel as they were that day. We're in the thirties, so that makes everyone a little happier. Still, we're sliding into that cold, dark time of year. Mr. C. always reminds me that in another month the days will be getting longer and that the coldest day is usually mid January. I'm not sure why he always tells me that. It's not like I don't know, and it's not like I'm suddenly going to become fond of winter.

Instead, it's the time of year that I have beautiful music playing on Pandora or Spotify, and start thinking about travel.

I realize that England isn't exactly a tropical paradise, but these photos of the ephemera I gathered and later used in journals take me out of the snow and cold, at least for a while.

I talked with a friend today and we agreed that the worst of winter in Wisconsin is from mid January through the end of March. At least in April we can hope that spring weather is just around the corner. So we wait, read, sit by the fire, and check airfare. Or maybe just stay in Wisconsin and watch kittens.

Do you have winter travel plans?

 Tom Kitten & Smokey

No, Tom's not supposed to be on the table.

He managed to throw aside the table runner 

and is playing hide'n'seek with Smokey.

Did you find Smokey?

***

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February and Three Dog Nights

Can't wait to be looking at Dragon Wing Begonias!

(But that would be June, not February)

 

  Scenes from our home and neighborhood

Here in NW Wisconsin, we pretty much go with a monochromatic color scheme from November through March! You can see that our bright red picnic table was trying to give us a bit of color, but...

I don't understand why the dog likes to be out when it's MINUS 17 degrees F. as it was Saturday.  I make sure to call her in after a few minutes, but she seems to think it's her responsibility to bark at the birds, squirrels, bunnies, and any passing vehicles before settling in for her morning nap on her bed in the library.

Then there are the ice fisherpeople.

They drill a hole in the ice and stand in the cold for hours.
Do they not know that fish is available at the grocery store?

 See the open water not far from where they're standing?

Accidents do happen:

 At least they hadn't driven their vehicles out onto the ice,
as some folks at Lake Geneva did.

Photo from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 6

It seems this wasn't such a great place to park after all.

Februaries Past

I'm missing Bridger and Misty (above), both now gone. Really, we've been having three dog nights here lately, and we're down to ONE DOG.  :-(   Carla from The River Flowing blog had a great idea, but I'm afraid Mr. C. has steeled himself against any suggestion of a GSD puppy. Thanks anyway for trying, Carla. xo

One sweet and happy dog.

She doesn't mind getting all the attention.

P.S. The Good News Is:  It's supposed to be in the 30s this week, so I think our cold spell is over. I'm looking forward to an upward trend in the temps.

Linking to: Judith's MOSAIC MONDAY

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From Frostbite Falls, Wisconsin -