I'm fully convinved that Toby, my nephew, is the only person left in the Midwest who is actually enjoying this cold and icy winter. Every day the bus drops him off at PLH after school, and he spends a happy hour or so, bundled up in snowpants, jacket, mittens, hat and boots, running around the farm, sliding on the ice, playing in the snowdrifts, and generally having a good time. Ah, to be in first grade again!

We adults however are THOROUGLY sick of it. It's pretty much the ice and the cold that are most annoying. We have had a solid sheet of ice covering the farm since early December. Donna has fallen on the ice a couple of times through the winter, and Maggie did twice just this week. (thankfully we are both well padded on the rear end). It's just awful, and there's nothing we can do about it. Even the dogs lose traction and go sliding sometimes!



Even Violet is tired of winter! Here she is hiding from the horror of it all. "Wake me when spring arrives", she says.




Beaker doesn't seem to care too much one way or the other. He's a bit bored, because his "flock" is spending all their time indoors. He much prefers warmer weather, and he loves to help garden, distill, or just generally hang out outdoors with his "peeps". heh heh.

The Great Beeswax Project of 2008 is nearly done! John has spent HOURS melting, straining, and pouring beeswax into a variety of sizes - 1 lb blocks, 2 lb. blocks, .75 oz. cubes, and 2.5 oz containers. I believe he has cleaned over 150 lbs of beeswax in the last week or so. We'll get a picture of ALL of it together when he's done.....but isn't it pretty here, cooling on the table? and it smells amazing!