River Sentinels hint

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River Sentinels

This afternoon we had the rare treat of seeing not just one, but two bald eagles perched in a tree beside the river. We had the extra blessing of getting some pics of them, which we had to share.

White days of winter

Often in the rush of getting into the day, I forget to stop and enjoy the beauty surrounding us. The sunrise this a.m. made me take a second look. It was so frosty and quiet as the sun came up over the hills. It was also pretty cold...-10 degrees.

This is "Jackson Mountain" (compliments of our friend John and his John Deere tractor!) The kids have been going to the Town Hall and sliding down the snowbanks at the back of the parking lot. They trudge across our property to the Town Hall with the little boys--typically losing a boot at least once and having to come back for dry socks--but at least it was a place to slide. John has blessed us repeatedly this winter by keeping our driveway cleared after each snowstorm. He provided a snowbank for them to play on and when he realized how much they enjoyed it, he kept adding to it. They are certainly enjoying their own 'mountain', and it sure makes for a shorter trip back to the house for dry socks! (And it's great having such a nice clear driveway and parking area!)

Dog Days of Winter

The last post had Captain keeping me warm on a cold winter night so I had to include a post of him continuing the practice during the day. Wayne is feeling the side effects of his BAHA surgery which was performed last week. When he curled up on the couch this morning to take a break, Captain quickly climbed up and tried to help him feel better.

The BAHA device is a transmitter that 'snaps' onto a titanium post which is inserted into the skull behind the 'bad' ear. The transmitter will pick up sound waves on the side of the hearing loss, transmit them through the skull bone to the 'good' ear so Wayne will be able to regain some of his hearing on the "bad" side. Wayne had the post inserted last week and now he has to wait 3 months for the post to fuse with the bone. He's encouraged because when he held up the headphone of a portable CD player to the post, he was able to hear the music in his good ear.

For now, it's a matter of waiting, healing, and hopefully, in 3 month's time, hearing!

Dog Nights of Winter

In the great white north country there is the term of a '3-dog night' which means it's so cold you need 3 dogs to sleep with you to keep warm. It has been cold, but not that cold. I'd say we've been having 1-dog night temps... Well, I guess I'm not really sleeping, but Captain was doing a good job of keeping my feet warm while I was knitting the other night. He does like to come up on our bed at night until Katelyn comes and reminds him that he's her dog and is supposed to be on her bed.

And this picture is of Rachael's and Ian's snow creation...a snow hound sniffing out a good mystery!

Finished!!!

I accomplished something in 2009....
Wayne's "Christmas" sweater...only a week late!

Decorating Cookies

Last year Gramma J. came to visit right after Christmas. She had brought cookies and toppings to decorate the cookies. Somehow the cookies disappeared before they got decorated. This year Matt had some gingerbread cookie dough left from his cookie baking day. I told him to put it in the fridge and I'd bake it off later. I never got around to it before Christmas so while Gramma was here, she and the kids baked and decorated cookies.


The cookies didn't last long, but that's not surprising in this house!