As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been ready for Spring for over a month now.  We started some seeds, which are doing remakably well compared to previous attempts at seed-starting (don't get too excited, mostly just herbs, some hot peppers, and some tomatos to grow in the house).  The little snow we had was melting fast and I would say that half of our land was grass or spotty snow.  Just last week I saw the first of the spring flowers popping up through the ground.  I was getting excited for the girls who must be really looking forward to some nice fresh grass after all these months of hay and grain.

But, alas, we suffered a major set-back in this department yesterday when I awoke to a foot of wet snow on the ground and plenty more falling.  We donned our winter gear and headed out to see if we could get the snowblower going.  After ten minutes of frustration in the realization that the auger wouldn't be able to handle the heavy, wet snow, we gave in and I called in to work.

Though I wasn't exactly psyched to get such a significant snowfall, I have to admit, it was truly beautiful.  After giving up on the snowblower and its deafening noise as it choked through the snow back to its parking spot, we headed to the barn to feed everyone an early breakfast.  The sun hadn't yet come up and we enjoyed some quiet time before the world awoke. 

The girls happily munched away at their breakfast of grain and some nice second-cut hay that we found at Guys Farm and Yard over in Morrisville a few days ago.  The chickens scratched away at the ground, finding grain and bits of stuff we unearthed after cleaning out half of the old straw this past weekend.  The pigs, in their own shed, grunted and squeeked through their mix of grain and food scraps.

There is something just so pleasant about the sound of contently eating farm animals.  I think it is partially due to the frantic moments before everyone is fed, while everyone is demanding their breakfast, that we come to really appreciate the quiet afterwards.  We rush to feed the pigs before their squealing could bother the neighbors, and we quickly feed the goats before we're covered in hoof prints, then finally cast out grain for the chickens before they start trying to steal from the pigs and the goats.  Once its all said and done, and everyone has fresh, clean water, we can sit back and enjoy the peace.

Our life doesn't seem to lend itself to too many moments of peace.  There is always laundry to do, dishes to wash, dogs to exercise, animals to feed, pigs to move from the barn to their shed, water buckets to fill, eggs to collect, reading/studying to do, goats to check on, home renovations to tackle, not to mention our full-time jobs.  So, during these quiet moments before the sun comes up and the sense of urgency to get to work (in one sense or another)arises, we find a second to stand still, hold hands, and breathe deep.

New years eve, Kyle and I had a lovely evening of bonfires, margeritas, hors d'oeuvres and Alfred Hitchcock movies.  Standing around the fire, being dusted by snowflakes, we played fetch with Ollie until he could no longer find the frisbee in the dark and the snow.  The girls were warm in their barn, watching the festivities from the comfort of their window seat.  The new year was rung in without bells or whistles.  No ball drop, party hats, crowds, or bar bills.  Just us kids down here on the farm, standing around a fire in our muck boots, drinking frozen drinks out of authentic German steins in the crisp winter air.  In hindsight it probably would have been a little more pleasant if we were drinking hot drinks- like mulled cider...oh well!  We've got plenty of winter left for that.

We were gifted a beautiful, homemade, cedar storage bench that Mom made herself.  It is taking up residence at the foot of our bed and it is just absolutely beautiful.

The rest of the weekend was spent snowblowing (both with the john deere and the wind), shoveling, and staying cozy in the house when we could.  We brought our tree out to May and Chutney on Sunday but that was about as ambitious as we got.  The wind and the snow made spending time outside a little less than lovely.  I had grand plans of working on the guest bedroom but settled for making some awesome breakfast burritos, spicy homefries, and mamosas before spending the rest of the day in sweats with Kyle, watching Psycho and back episodes of Lost online at Netflix.

I did start shopping for our seeds for this year's garden.  We're going to be buying them from High Mowing Organic Seeds just a few towns over from us in Wolcott.  They're a great local company that sells organic seeds at fair prices- we like them.  Now my only challenge is going to be to wait to start the seeds once they arrive...I'm ready but if we start them now we might have a full-fledged garden in our house before Spring even shows its lovely face- not a good idea when you've got cats and dogs just dying to find something new to dig in.  Although, maybe I'll start some herbs and hot peppers just to get my gardening fix...good idea, I think I'll spend my break shopping.

Shortly before our wedding we installed a new wire dog-fence because our dogs loved to visit the neighbors.  Our neighbor across the street always has a buffet of two week old garbage hanging around their back door so, since Shyla is such a garbage hound (and part beagle so, therefore, a wanderer), we figured we'd be better off by setting up some sort of fencing.  We didn't really like the idea of the shock collar but had few options as we couldn't afford to fence in our entire yard and both of our dogs need lots of exercise so we couldn't just make a small yard for them.  So, we gritted our teeth and gave it a try. 

It worked gloriously for the first few months.  It only took one or two corrections before they got the idea and they stayed in our yard without incedent.  But, much to our dismay, the town came mowing along the roads a few months ago.  This wouldn't ordinarily be a problem as this wire is typically buried.  Well, notice I say "ordinarily" and "typically".  Yeah, we hadn't buried the wire yet, just tucked it deep into the long grasses until we could rent a ditch-witch to make the task a little quicker.  So, as you can imagine, the mower did a nice job of tearing up a section of our wire and at some point the dogs realized that they were free to go where they pleased.

A few weeks ago I walked into our family room and asked Kyle where Shyla was.  He was busily scanning Craigslist for anything and everything as he muttered something along of the lines of- oh she's still outside.  It was a cold and drizzly morning and this dog doesn't normally like to be outside on a good day.  Ollie was happily chewing on his new stuffed animal- a bunny whose eyes and nose had recently been removed- so I knew they weren't out playing in the back yard.  I went to the front yard and there she was, nawing away at something undoubtedly stolen from the neighbor's trash.  Great.  Later that day Kyle got a reminder for why we don't like letting the dogs get into trash...all over the living room floor.  That spurred the current project that has been occupying our time for the past few weeks.

We immediately went out to patch the line where the town's mower had taken its toll and walked back up to the house to turn the receiver on, not even thinking that it might still not work.  Well, much to our disappointment, it just wasn't going to be that easy.  We walked the line, looking for more breaks but found nothing.  Last week Kyle decided he was going to pull it all up and re-do it all.  Great idea, that is what I was thinking.  But still, not that easy.  Apparently some of the wire was so hopelessly tangled (I didn't ask HOW) that he had to cut the wire, which just created more possibilities for bad connections.  Sure enough, when he re-ran the wire the loop indicator on the receiver was still screaming at us that it wasn't happy.

Now, we could spend $60 on a boundary wire break-locator, but that didn't really make me all that excited.  Confucius said "When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."  So today I have decided to abandon our crappy wire and re-ordered another 1,000 feet of wire (for less than the cost of the break-locator) so we can just re-do it.  And I can tell you, THIS time we are going to do it correctly.

Holding it just out of reach he stares intensely, with his mouth slightly ajar and his little pink tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. The little orange bear is the center of his universe at this moment and nothing I can do can break his concentration. I throw it and he goes careening across the slippery wood floor with no heed for furniture or his own personal safety. There has been plenty of laughter over watching Ollie crash into the wall or bowl over Shyla in his attempts to get the little rubber toy as quickly as physically possible.

As he joyously trots back with his prize he chews on it as if loving the feel of the cheap rubber between his teeth. Laying on the floor with the little bear between his feet he proceeds to chew and chew and chew until one-by-one the little feet, then the hands, then the head are consumed until the little bear is no more. Even the squeeker is gone, thank you. Although, have you ever see the movie Snatch? Yeah, the dog swallows the squeeker and ends up with a squeek for a bark. Please, god, no.

I hate these toys; the constant high-pitched squeek they make anytime they are bounced, chewed, stepped or pounced on. I know; do dogs pounce? Well, my dog does, just like a cat...but without that whole butt-wiggle thing before hand.

Even when I make an attempt to hide one of these beloved squeeky toys he will search, non-stop, until he finds it and he never forgets where I put it. So even when I TRY to distract him with another toy, he always goes back to my hiding place (between the couch cushions) to look for the missing one. He's pretty fixated, maybe I should take him to see a shrink.

Hey folks! We decided to jump on the blogging-bandwagon to help keep in touch with family and friends. Seems like a fun thing to keep busy during slow days up here in Northern Vermont.

The day has been pretty sweet here. Right around 68 degrees and mostly sunny. Of course I've been helping Mom unpack, fun fun. Got the bar set up, so thats good. But haven't spent too much time out of doors today, but I'm lighting up the grill and testing out my BBQ skills later for dinner.

I think we almost ended up with another dog today, though. Can you believe it!? Me neither. This cute little chihuahua showed up at our back door who was sooooo scared but sooooo happy to see me. I thought someone just dropped him off on our road and drove away! :( But after walking all over Montgomery and finding NO ONE who knew the dog the town clerk said he belonged to these people on the next road over from us. And then of COURSE she worked it out of me that OUR dogs weren't registered yet!! Grrrr. Guess we'd better fork over the $14 for our two kids.