Really.... I am still alive.... honest!

Hey everyone.... I just wanted to let you all know that I am still here and well.... sort of.
During the last few weeks, I've kind of been taking a break from my life. My house has even had a bit of a vacation... *T* has started helping with the cleaning, AND the laundry. [can you believe it]. Either I really have become the horrible nagging &!*@# that I have always thought I would become... or he has finally realized that I really do need and appreciate his help. One sunday afternoon he cleaned the whole kitchen and dining room. I think it took me a week to get over the shock, but let me tell ya it really has motivated me to keep them clean. We got new (used) furniture for the living room, so I cleaned and rearranged that room on Wednesday. My house is finally looking like a home again.
I know I have to snap out of this slump that I've had. And as long as I stay busy I seem to be okay, but as soon as I have idle time, I get down and out again. I can't wait til spring, maybe just maybe that will help. I am so tired of these dark dreary days.

Now I'm upset!!!

My camera decided it is not going to work today....



I haven't taken pictures in a week or so and now that I am finally in the mood and actually had a cute subject .... "it" says "NO... not today sweetie, I'm tired, not doing it!"



It acts like the on/off switch isn't contecting or something ... I don't know, but I'm not happy! I really wanted to post some new pictures too.



Here are a few that I took in December but for some reason or another I never posted.




On one of the coldest days of the year Dawson went out the front door and started checking to see if there is anything interesting going on over at the neighbors house.

He didn't see anything that interested him over there so he started looking to see if the mailman is coming yet... He always has cookies for the dogs.

Ace says "To H$LL with the mailman ... he'll be back on a warmer day and I'll get my cookies then."

The goose on the other hand seemed to be enjoying the frigid water hole behind the barn.















I have to figure out how to get my camera fixed so I can get a real update posted.

Gone but not forgotten

Just Those Few Weeks

For those few weeks--
I had you to myself
And that seems too short a time
to be changed so profoundly.

In those few weeks--
I came to know you
and to love you.
You came to trust me with your life.
Oh, what a life I had planned for you!

Just those few weeks--
When I lost you.
I lost a lifetime of hopes,
plans, dreams, and aspirations...
A slice of my future simply vanished overnight.

Just those few weeks--
It wasn't enough time to convince others
how special and important you were.
How odd, a truly unique person has recently died
and no one is mourning the passing.

Just a mere few weeks--
And no "normal" person would cry all night
over a tiny, unfinshed baby,
or get depressed and withdrawn day after endless day.
No one would, so why am I?

You were just those few weeks my little one
you darted in and out of my life too quickly.
But it seems that's all the time you needed
to make my life so much richer
and give me a small glimpse of eternity.

Poem Copyright 1984 by Susan Erling Martinez

Sorry I haven't had any real update from the farm in the last few weeks, but I've been a bit under the weather lately. As soon as I figure out what is going on I'll let you all know.

First Seed Catalog

I got my first catalog of the year last week..... http://www.jungseed.com/default.asp

Even though it is only 30 degrees outside, with two inches of snow on the ground, it looks like I better start thinking about the garden again... it will be time to plant before we know it.

My Grandfather Bell always said you should try something new in your garden each year. So what is it going to be this year?? hmmm... there are so many things I'd like to try I usually can't pick just one.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas

As you can see all the festivities around here have tired our little boy out to the point he can't even finish looking through his favorite magazine.

I couldn't resist this picture. The magazine had fallen off the coffee table and I hadn't gotten around to picking it up, then shortly after Ace laid down on his blanket and fell asleep ... I thought it was just too cute not to take a picture.

More Snow and Ice

This is what I found when I opened the back door this morning to let the puppy out. During the night about an inch of sleet and snow came down and covered the 4 to 5 inches of show that we had gotten the other day. The ice and snow are slowly sliding off the tin roof. I knew that it had been sleeting all night, but I was not expecting to open the door and see icicles pointed straight at me.... eek! I'm just glad that I was the one who discovered it. And I'm glad it wasn't like that around 12:30 a.m. when *T* had to leave for an emergency call. He would have ran right into those icicles in his haste to get out the door and to the scene of the car accident that the Department got out to. In the picture below you may be able to see the layer of ice that has built us on the vehicles during the night. The Blazer was completely clean at 10:45 last night when we got home from my store's Christmas party and the pickup truck was clean when he got home at a little after 3:00 a.m.

This snow is still falling and it is predicted that we will get 2 to 4 more inches of snow and ice today. So it's hard to tell what we will end up with by the end of the day. I'm just glad we don't have to go anywhere today, unless of course there is another accident or fire... we just never know.