The next morning we woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow. The animals' water was frozen over but they were all warm, safe and sound in the barn. I brought a bucket of walnuts into the house that had been sitting outside. As I was stomping the snow off my boots, I had such a feeling of excitement and relief. The season of outdoors work was over. The raised beds were made and filled, the strawberries were transplanted, the garlic for next year planted, cannas dug up, tulips put in, raspberries pruned. Of course there were some things I didn't get done- some of the strawberries weren't covered, mint wasn't transplanted and some herbs were left out in the wild unharvested. And yes, there were still plenty of apples out in the orchard that didn't get picked up. But that's okay- it was resting season now, and I had no choice but to put it all off until Spring. What a relief
Learning to Enjoy Winter
As a kid, I enjoyed winter. It was the time for hot cocoa, building snowmen, riding behind the snowmobile and going skiing. And Christmas! But somewhere as the years went by, between cold, icy farm chores, praying that I wouldn't drive into the ditch, and not being able to EVER get warm, I lost any fondness of winter. Even downhill skiing, which I had loved as a teenager, was not fun anymore. I would do anything to stay out of the cold. I wore a coat and hat everywhere, even at home and at work. I just couldn't shake the feeling of being cold.
Now that I'm married, most of the bad parts of winter have seemed to disappear. I no longer spend hours in the cold milking cows. I no longer have to drive to work every day, and our apartment stays cozy warm all winter long. Christmas is fun again because I have someone to spend it with, and I have my own home to decorate and bake cookies in. Who doesn't love baking cookies?
A Season of Rest
The best part of winter now, though, is my season of rest. Finally I have time to do things like sewing, needlework, home decorating, reading, and learning new cooking skills. While most people take their vacation in the summer, because of Hubs' work we take ours in the winter, so there is that to look forward to as well. Christmas is a lot of fun because now I have the time to make floral arrangements from greens in our very own backyard. Hubs has more time off because work slows down during the cold weather.
Cooking, even, is significantly easier. A jar of this, a frozen bag of that... soup is incredibly easy to make, and we have it all the time during winter.
-Knitting and embroidery for gifts
-Spinning on my new drop spindle
-Trying new recipes
-Reading books
-Cleaning out the pantry
-Propagating and growing some new exotic plants
-Restyling some outfits for vacation
-Working on new ebooks
-Making a marketing and branding plan for our hobby farm
-Seeing friends and family
What do you enjoy doing in the colder months?