It's Still Cold, A Week Later....

It is still cold as the dickens out there in my neck of the woods!
Water pipes are froze again this morning. Twice in the last eight days! I will be so happy when the work gets done on the house to eliminate all those troubles that cold weather presents!
Internet was down for two days because of the ice on the antennea and on the tower that services my area. I wasn't the only one without internet service.
I never did hear the totals on the snow fall but it has snowed twice in the last eight days. We still have a boatload of snow on the ground, though there are bare spots where no snow lays. We had a lot of wind a few nights ago that scattered the snow into drifts as deep as your knees and left other areas on the ground with the brown grass showing through.
The starlings (birds) were quite happy to find those bare patches of ground. There was a whole flock of the noisy little critters out in the back yard yesterday. Must of been 30 of them! How do birds stay warm anyway? They are tiny little critters and I'd think as cold as it is out there, their little feet would freeze! I threw a package of old cookies out in the yard for the starlings. They snarfed up the crumbs quickly!
I need a new computer! I'm in hopes Santa will bring me one,but I'm not going to hold my breath either! This one needs an overhaul. It would probably be cheaper to just give this one an overhaul than to buy a new one. Maybe I should talk to 'Santa' about that?
I dragged the tree in the house yesterday. RJ helped. I've yet to get it decorated and set where it will set for the duration. (That sucker is coming down the 2nd of Jan!) Lola has already discovered it and climbed to the top. Once I add the ornaments, that little cat is going to have a gay ol' time taking the ornaments off!
Doobie sat herself on fire the other day. Cat is almost 15 yrs old and she's never set herself on fire before! I had a candle burning on the desk and she sat way too close to it. POOF!--Up in flames she went! The whole right side of her! She's none the worse for the wear except she's minus some fur and her whiskers are a mess! Luckily I was sitting right here when it happened and I got her put out very quickly! (Quick thinking always pays off!) She wouldn't talk to me for the rest of day but we're back on good terms and she's forgotten all about it. She's not looking quite as lovely as she did pre-fire but she's absolutely unscathed. Her poor tail is a mess. Where she once had a nice flowing tail, she now has a not so flowing tail! She's a knob of singed hair on the end of her tail! The whiskers on the right side of her head are only about an inch and a half long now. The other side's whiskers are almost 4 inches long! She'll grow that fur back and those whiskers eventually.
Lesson learned: No lit candles on the desk! Set them on the shelf where that fool cat can't sit beside them and light herself ablaze again!
I've been doing artwork but have none scanned to show you all. I am almost to the goal of 1000 inchies. Still have about 3 dozen to complete to hit the goal. I just haven't had time to sit down and make inchies to get to the goal. Not sure just how many are in the little basket, ready for scanning....that is on my agenda for the day. To figure out just how many inchies I do need to hit that goal!
I've made 7 books this week. Five activity books for the grandboys, a hard cover blank book for my brother and another activity book/coloring book for Evelyn. The book I made for my brother turned out really good! It has a fish made out of postage stamps and chocolate wrappers on the front of it. I'll scan it before I wrap it. The activitiy books for the boys are coloring pages, blank sheets of various papers and envelopes all bound into books. Evelyn's book is mostly coloring pages. I snagged all the coloring pages, save for three of them which I drew, from the WWW. The kids and Evelyn will be getting crayons to go with their books.
I've crocheted 7 cat toys in the last 2 days also. I haven't picked up a crochet hook to crochet with for ages! I wasn't sure my hands would hold out to be doing that but they are doing pretty good. They hurt, but then they always hurt regardless what I do with them! Stuffing those little balls is the hardest part of the process. That kills my hands! I still need a few more of those cat toys for gifts.
I am not ready for Christmas to be here. There wasn't enough time to prepare! LOL...yeah right! I only had a whole year! I always say I am going to start early in the year to get everything done but somehow that just never happens!
I haven't even started wrapping gifts yet.
I'll be doing my baking next week. Three kinds of cookies, brownie bites and rum balls! Need to go shopping for the rest of the ingredients I'll need to make those goodies.
A deer came through the yard the morning before last. I had gone to town quite early...around 6a.m. and when I got back from town, there between the burned house and the house I live in were huge deer tracks. Only one set, but there nonetheless. Right down the driveway, across the front yard and over the highway to the other side. The highway is clear but the deer wasn't dead on the road so I'm assuming it made it across the highway. Deer don't generally come quite that close to the house! Wish I could have seen the critter that made those tracks! Must of been a buck from the size of them!
All my critters are fine. Fred is a crazy dog, just like he's always been and Billy is a lazy cat, just like he's always been. Doob beat the stuffing out of Lola twice yesterday. Doob's PMSing I do believe, she is a cranky old girl these days! Lola is into everything, just like she always is!
The Etsy store is getting closer and closer to being a reality. More on that in the coming months.
The trailerhouse shed is closer and closer to being history! I'll be glad to see that eyesore gone! It is almost emptied of its contents. Still a lot of stuff out there to be moved to the burned house but that project has been put on hold for the time being. It's way too cold out there right now. Only two rooms still to really clean out. Most of the stuff in the west room has already been gone through so it won't take long to move it out of the shed and into the burned house once it warms up a bit!
We'll be having a bonfire on the patio soon. The wood pile is huge and it has to be burned off to get rid of it. With snow on the ground, now would be a perfect time to burn but I haven't the time, not the want-to to stand out there and keep an eye on it while it does burn. So, that will have to wait till a later date.
I've added a couple books to the list of books read this year.
I'm out of here for the time being. I shall yak at you all later.
Get your hugs! I'm sorely lacking in the hug department.....
Peace
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