Too Much HGTV

Over the past couple of weekends I've dragged Chris into my grand plans for updating our back deck area. We've always enjoyed our backyard but I've been wanting to upgrade our look, so I've been scheming and dreaming, plotting and planning what I could do to give the deck a fresh start this spring. We started by removing all the stuff off the deck - and we do have a lot of stuff! - furniture, grills, gardening items, lawn chairs. It all went out in the grass while we scrubbed off the deck. We moved only the necessary items back when it dried, and came up with a new arrangement. We also headed over to SWM and bought a storage bench that looks much better than our old mismatched Rubbermaid tubs - very nice! - and splurged on a new glass-top table and 4 chairs at Lowe's.

I've re-painted a new "rug" on the floor, a medium blue with a dark brown border - easy to take care of, no vacuuming required. And I bought some inexpensive sheer curtains which we hung at the corners of the deck. The only projects left to do - repaint a couple of our garage-sale side tables a dark glossy brown to give them a new look, and sew a fabric skirt to cover the lower portion of my potting table (lots of gardening clutter under there).

It's amazing how different it feels in our outdoor room - our own little oasis! (Well, maybe that's a stretch ... but it's so fun to go out there now.)

Perfectly Normal Women ...

.. Do the strangest things at bridal showers. This is a game we played at Emily's bridal luncheon a few weeks back. We had to scoop cotton balls onto our heads, the goal being to keep as many as possible on board after we let go with the spoons. I believe the winner had 17?

Another game was a team competition, whereby a wedding gown was to be created using numerous rolls of toilet paper. While this was fun, I found myself on the losing end of the deal because I was the model, and my teammates were not destined to be the winning designers. The other 2 girls looked a whole heck of a lot better than I did when time was up. Kelly kind of looks like the Blessed Virgin Mary, don't you think? And I ended up looking like a geeky flapper of some sort.

Then and Now

Tyson got his summer haircut at the groomer last week! He looks so much better and must feel so much cooler. We've already had a couple of days in the upper 80's here, so we had this done just in time. Tandie's at the groomer right now - she's just getting a bath, a "comb out" and her nails trimmed - no shave for her.

Lost But Not Forgotten

My heart is very sad ... Baby Kitty has been missing now for 10 days, with no sign of her anywhere in the neighborhood. She's simply vanished. We made the mistake of leaving our back door wide open several different times during the weekend of March 31 - April 1st, because the weather was so very nice. The dogs were free to roam in and out, enjoying the terrific weekend. At some point, Baby Kitty (aka BK, or Pica) must have wandered outside onto the back deck. She's usually terrified of the great outdoors, rarely setting paw outside. Any loud noise scares her, and she usually is quick to bolt back inside into the safety of the house. Well, for some reason she ventured outside without being noticed, and must have become locked out when we closed the back door. And so she's gone. We've posted signs and talked to our neighbors, and I call out to her every day and every night, hoping she'll hear me and find her way home. I am sooo sad. I start crying every time I dwell on the situation, so I try to push it to the far back of my mind. I hope and pray she's safe and healthy, wherever she might be. Her big buddie Beanie misses her a lot, and so do we. Pray for a miracle to happen!

Hocking HIlls Weekend, Part 2

I must finish my tale of the Hocking Hills adventure before my tired mind starts to forget the details.

We finished our driving tour on Saturday afternoon and made our way back to the Inn, somehow navigating the hilly backroads and ending up in the right place. (Thanks, NavLady!) We checked into our room - simple but nice - and got dressed in our hiking gear. Layers of clothes, thick socks, hiking boots, hats, scarves, the works. And of course we grabbed the cameras before we hit the road. By this time the sun was dropping low in the sky, and we knew we had to be back in time for our 5:30 dinner reservation. We chose a short trail that was close to the Inn, the Cedar Falls trail. We were surprised to see quite a few other cars in the parking lot, and once we got into the woods and down into the gorge we realized why .... everywhere we looked, there were icicles - and I do mean everywhere. The cliffs are constantly dripping with ground water during the warm months, and because of the extended deep freeze that we've had, all the "drips" have now become enormous icicles and other incredible ice formations. Everywhere you looked, off into the woods, the cliffs and rocks and ledges were covered with huge icicles - some 3 or 4 feet long. I never imagined that you could see something like this in Ohio!

Hiking into Cedar Falls, late afteroon:

And so we went down, down into the gorge area, hiking along a snow covered trail, across a couple of small bridges (over a very frozen creek) and suddenly, around a bend, we came to the real treat: Cedar Falls, frozen solid, in all their glory. Wow. One of the other hikers said that the falls only freeze up like this about every 10 years, so we were lucky to have picked this weekend to be in Hocking HIlls. Just amazing. It was bitter cold (in the lower teens), and the sun was setting, but there were a number of other crazy hikers out there besides us. I was thoroughly chilled by the time we returned to the car about an hour later. Brrrr. Brrrrr.

On Sunday we walked down to the Inn for some breakfast then packed up, checked out and went to find the famous Old Mans Cave trail. There weren’t as many cars in the parking lot this time – it was mid-Sunday morning, and still freezing cold – all the smart people were warm at home. We crept down ice-covered stone steps (my favorite kind) into the gorge, hanging on for dear life, and made our way down the trail to the falls. Even though we were in awe of the icicles all around us, we knew better than to stop and take pictures of them this time – we knew that the real thrill would be the actual cave and the frozen falls. And we weren’t disappointed! There was quite a contrast between the brown dirt and rock of the caves, and the snow and ice. If you looked one direction (into the main cave) it probably looked much as it does every other season of the year. But if you turned to look into the falls or into the forest, the snow and ice were obviously the main attraction. Incredible. Just incredible! And we were even able to walk in behind some of the smaller falls that were frozen solid - crazy!

Hiking into Old Mans Cave:

While I was not originally real excited about this trip being in mid-February, I am so thankful that it worked out this way. It was an experience that we'll probably never have again, and I am thrilled that we had such a memorable weekend getaway. Thanks, Kim, for the gift certificate! And thanks be to God who created all the incredible beauty that we got to see - absolutely unforgettable!

A Wintery Mix

That's what the weathermen are calling today's precipitation. We've got a couple of inches of new snow, some rain, some sleet and a lot of ice forming. Reports on the radio indicate that traveling is becoming hazardous as the roads begin freeze over. The temperatue will drop during the afternoon so I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of ice as this mess chills even further. I'm glad I decided to work from home this morning! Here's what I see out my back door this morning as the world becomes covered in ice...

And this is how three very spoiled dogs spend their time on a winters day, proving that it is indeed a dog's life in our household.

I counted this morning: 35 days til the first day of Spring!

Hocking Hills Weekend

A little over a year ago, we received a very nice thank-you from a next door neighbor, in the form of a gift certificate to The Inn at Cedar Falls in Logan, Ohio. She'd visited the Hocking Hills area and had stayed at one of their cabins, and because it's such a beautiful place, she decided to gift us with an overnight at the Inn. So, over a year later I finally got around to looking up the information and making a reservation. They normally require a 2-night stay - which wouldn't work for us - but because this is the off-season they allowed us to reserve just one night at the Inn. Perfect! I was a little concerned because this is, after all, February, for Pete's sake, and the big deal about the Hocking Hills area is the outdoors - caves, trails, waterfalls, gorges, hills and valleys and so on. But a mini-vacation is good any time, and we don't mind bundling up and trekking around outdoors in the cold. So we visited our local Outdoor World a couple of weeks ago and stocked up on hand warmers, foot warmers and thick wooly socks, and I bought some new thermal underwear. I dragged my flannel-lined Bean jeans out of the attic, pulled out plenty of scarves, hats and gloves and we were all set! We were on our way Saturday morning about 10:00.

The drive was exactly 2.5 hours, driving north, then east - and more east - into the hills of eastern Ohio. The scenery was wintery but good - snow-covered fields, small towns, with the landscape becoming more and more hilly the further we went. We arrived well before check-in time (3 p.m.) so we decided to explore the back roads in hope of finding some lunch. Turns out there's no fast food, no restaurants of any sort for miles around, but we lucked out when we stopped at a small gift shop and discovered that Kathy, the proprietor, makes homemade soup, muffins, cookies and more. We had mugs of soup while we chatted with her, and she gave us some inside scoop on a couple of local places to visit. First stop - an old covered bridge in Vinton County, the Cox Bridge, built in the late 1880's. No longer used, but nice to see. A local person who was driving past slowed down long enough to tell Chris that the bridge has a reputation of being haunted (something like that) ... we didn't notice anything creepy or ghostly! Too cold for that, I guess.

We drove on, turning left, then right, then left as directed by Kathy, hoping we were on the right track to find Lois' Antiques, where there was a small antique shop as well as a new baby lamb to be seen. On they way we passed a farm with none other than my favorite farm animals - cows! Great big furry beasts, I'm not sure what breed, but they certainly didn't mind the cold weather as they lay there munching their feed, staring (glaring?) at us city folk with the cameras.

Almost immediately after passing that farm, we noticed a snowy field with a flock of large dark birds - very large birds - moving around. We backed up to get another look and figured they must be pheasant - or maybe wild turkeys? Chris managed to get a few pictures from his side of the car. I need to remember to look through our bird book to see what they were ....

Anyway, we finally came upon Lois' Antiques and the Weaver Tree Farm. These folks have a piece of heaven on earth, with a beautiful old home sitting atop a hill, overlooking a valley dotted with their growing crop of Christmas trees. Wow! I'd love to wake up every morning with a view like theirs:

The antique shop was tiny, cold and a little disappointing - oh, well! Lois was no where to be seen, but her husband Frank was on hand to chat and tell us about their old dogs, the shop, and their bird feeder activity. Nice old guy! We asked about the baby lamb and he obliged by taking us across the road to the barn to visit the sheep (all with bells around their necks) and the baby. The barn was dark except for the open door into the field beyond, so it was tricky lighting for taking pictures. And the baby moved quickly between all the adult sheep - camera shy. They had several sheep with crazy multiple horns - can't remember what breed he said they were. A smelly but interesting side trip!

And all this was just the beginning of the weekend. More later - I need to eat some dinner! And I need to check out the window to see if our second winter storm has started yet - we're due for some combination of rain, freezing rain, sleet, ice or snow during the night, continuing into tomorrow.

How many days until Spring? ....

Winter Storm Warning

When you hear those 3 words on the radio here, it means trouble. Real trouble. It means the Cincinnati area is about to be blanketed with more than 3 inches of snow - enough snow to have schools dismissed early, businesses close, and activities of all sorts cancelled. In other parts of the country they would scoff at this craziness, and life would go on as usual. To the credit of our local weather forecasters, however, it looks like they got it right this time. So often these warnings miss the mark; but by the looks of my street and the neighborhood, it's really going to happen this time - we might actually get that 3 - 5 inches of snow they're predicting. It just started snowing about an hour ago and it's picking up pace quickly.

While the people in this household dread the snow, the canines love the brisk cold weather and the white stuff. Tango runs, plays, sits watching the birds and even curls up in the snow, her thick coat insulating her against the chill. She'll just sit there while the snows piles up on her back. Brrrrrr. That's the Husky in her! Tyson is the same way - he stays close to Tango as they run around the yard and seems not to mind the freezing temperatures either. His blonde coat is many layers thick (as we found out when we tried to give him a haircut ourselves - silly us!) and he's got the added advantage of some extra weight (I didn't say fat, just a few extra pounds!).

I'm hoping to go on a photo walk in the neighborhood in the next few days and find some snowmen to photograph. I saw quite a few creative efforts last time it snowed but didn't think to take pictures. This time I will!

Update: I just took another look outside, and in only about 1/2 hour there's been a noticeable change in the landscape. Compare this to the first picture I posted - we're getting good coverage already as I look across the front yards up the street. Same view - more white! Yipee.