Foothills Nor'easter

The beauty of our 16 or so, inches of snow, was blasted in the middle of the night by an East-Northeast wind, roaring out of Canada. Fortunately our power stayed on during the night and all the next day, until 4:50 pm that is, when the power went out. It had been such a wonderful day, sitting near the wood stove, reading a Tony Hillerman novel, Dance Hall of the Dead. The power loss occurred right when I was about to put a baking dish, full of homemade granola, into the oven. Sue was out loading up the firewood boxes and tending to our Hens. The "Girls" were having no part of the wind as they hung out in and around their coop. One of our local wild birds was much braver, a Blackcap Chickadee worked over some Blackeyed Susan seed-heads and then took a break on a grapevine.

The good news came fifteen or twenty minutes after the power outage, the power came back on. Sue and I were not sure  it would stay on, so we shoveled a path from our garage to the pump-house. We did this so I could drag our generator there, to use in case the power went out again. It's so nice to have running water when the power is off. One worries less about the water lines freezing when the water flows and there is power for the pump-house heater. My fingers got so cold I had to take my gloves off a few times, so I could put my hands into my pants pockets to warm them up. We did get the pathway cleared and the generator is now at the pump-house. I also got the granola baked and Sue, moments ago, put the finishing touches on a sweet-potato pie, oh yum! She is now making her famous vegetable soup.

By the way, Sue makes great pies. The crust is often made with some whole wheat pastry flour and butter, gosh is it good. The pictures are  of a Hubbard Squash pie and a mixed Berry pie she made a year or so ago. As you can tell, we do not go hungry at our place, and it's so much fun growing a good portion of the food we're now eating. As the NE Wind blows outside, I'm already thinking about the Spring Planting. ~ John