Yesterday the strom that has been shutting down the rest of the East Coast finally swept past us, dumping five ro so inches at our house between the time I dropped the kids off at school and pick up time. Light, fluffy snow. The skiers are in heaven. So far we've had mostly wet soggy snow which is, I understand, as nasty to ski in as it is to drive in. But this was nice snow. It's too fluffy for snowmen but there was a lot of dragging feet through to make drifts and kicking or throwing it up in the air. All around the house it's wintery and white. Much better than the starkness before the snow. It's so quiet outside. The snow dampens what little sound there is in the woods right now.
The chickens don't seem to mind the snow much. We've started feeding them cracked corn in addition to their normal food, in theory it helps them keep warm. And we've also put a lamp in one corner of the coop to help make a warm spot (and to help keep the eggs from freezing). The bees are hibernating. I don't hold out much hope that they will survive the winter. When last I checked they were low on food. I'll give them a cake of fondant to try to keep them fed but the wet, cold summer did not give them a very good start. I suspect we will be starting over with a new colony come spring. Ah well.
Will has been taking down trees and here and there we have small stacks of logs drying for spring, or maybe next winter. Our trees have been neglected for so long we could probably heat the house for several winters just on what needs to be taken out to keep the land healthy. But felling and cutting up wood turns out to be pretty time consuming work, so we've barely made a dent in it. The area we have thinned looks so much better though, the house looks tucked into the woods now instead of overwhelmed by them.
Inside we are nice and warm. I love the woodstove but oh, it's nice to have a heater this winter as well that can be turned on first thing until the woodstove heats up the house. My Christmas knitting list does not seem to be getting much shorter, although I seem to be knitting all the time. There are just too many things I want to knit, all at once.