Snow Days

We have been in the deep freeze for about two weeks now with knee deep snow lots of ice and at least one school snow day (yea!) Remember snow days? A gift from heaven! The phone rings or you get the word from the local radio station, you peek out the window to verify and yes! there it is a snowy quilt, blanketing everything familiar and still the snow comes down so soft, so quiet, the hush is deafening and the smallest light is reflected and magnified a million times like diamonds on the snowy quilt. It's a feeling so complete and so sweet it's hard to drink in, so you tip toe back to your bed and slip your cold feet between the flannel sheets and thank the Creator for the gift of snow! Later the hunt begins for the boots, the mittens, the snow saucers, snow pants, scarves, shovels, brooms, scrapers, hot chocolate, toll house cookie recipe, crock pot for soup, is that all the bird seed we have left? and don't let that dog in after she's rolled in the snow for an hour! Ahh, light a fire and snuggle. God Bless January! The other side of the picture is we haven't been able to get to the cabin, don't know how much snow is on the roof or if we still have a roof but trust that all is well and imagine the beautiful scene it must be among the hemlocks and I'm sure the squirrels are enjoying the fact that we can't invade "their" space until the thaw! grrr, hurry March!

The beautiful sign that now heads the top of this page will soon adorn our front door at the lodge and was designed and carved by our two wonderful children for a delightful Christmas gift. My hubby also painted a wonderful sign which we will post a pic of soon. The kids were out at my brother-in-laws Christmas Tree Farm working away while their Dad was in the basement painting, each intent on surprising the other with their gift of art for the cabin! Great minds truly do think alike!

The work has begun...

Our lovely outhouse whom we will refer to as "Aunt Mary."

Our Golden Retriever, Maggie, was in her glory romping and exploring the Allegheny National Forest. She seemed a bit dismayed at what was going on inside the cabin though. We began tearing out all of the old paneling to make way for the new wiring and tongue and groove.

This is what we refer to as the squirrel's dining table. The remnants of their feasts are found on this stump which protrudes from our deck.
And here we have their stash...nuts of every variety and pine cones. They won't be very happy with us after this last weekend. We tore out the attic and burned their squirrel condo full of food. Our fear after this battle is where will they turn their focus next? Our mattresses? Well...it's a little too late for that. When we began the process of cleaning and rotating mattresses we were assaulted by the sound of walnuts falling through bedsprings. Perhaps they'll set their sites on our couch and armchairs? I guess we must wait until our next venture north to find out what havoc awaits us...

Obviously, the squirrels have had their hayday in our attic. Today was the first battle of the squirrel wars.

For Christmas this year we did something rather unusual. We bought a half tractor trailor load of knotty pine tongue and groove for paneling the interior of our cabin.