Mice - small little creatures, very cute, but secretly they are weapons of mass destruction! I have spent my afternoon in the freezing cold wind going through boxes of what I thought were prized possessions (they must be or else why would I still have them, right?) but had been transformed into mouse nests, complete with the little rodents themselves. For about a year now, we have had our excess stuff, what wouldn't fit into the shanty, in a weatherproofed old cattle feed shed. Weather proof, yes, but not closed off to various living creatures searching for meals and cozy places to make a home. All summer long I couldn't go in there because of the many wasp nests. This fall, when I decided surely the wasps were gone or too cold to put up a fight, I discovered that all of our cardboard boxes had been chewed into and many of the contents shredded and fluffed by mice. I think this is just God's way of teaching me to let go of even more stuff. After throwing out what was destroyed, and sorting out what I don't really need anyway and can go to the thrift store, the remaining half is being put into plastic storage totes to further prolong its life. It is becoming easier and easier to get rid of stuff. I am now down to a few sentimental childhood items I want to share with my kids someday and miscellaneous supplies for my various hobbies. Virtually all electronic devices have been given away as they have been proven to be unnecessary to a fulfilling life. However....that's just MY stuff. The saga continues this winter when we go through all of Joe's stuff that is stored at his mom's house. At least we have learned our lesson and will be buying stock in Rubbermaid. :)

The first snow of the season! What a delight to wake up this morning and find the ground white with a fine dusting of snow. It continued coming down this morning and made for a delightful time with a cup of tea in front of the window. Unfortunately, I had to drag myself away and brave the roads into town for work. It is still coming down a little, and I'm hoping for at least a foot. :)

It has been a busy but fun weekend. We had many friends and family members come to visit. Our little house has been bustling with activity. We cooked pizza three times in as many days. I almost didn't think I could eat another piece of pizza, but it turned out you can never have too much pizza. :) We also managed to finally fit in some time to work on Lisa's place. I did a lot of trim work on the inside, and Joe finished the porch roof. It is getting close to being finished! I have decided that I really do have a passion for little bity houses, and for building them. Someday I might be a world-renowned tiny house builder, or at least locally renowned. :) In closing I leave you with a picture of Joe entertaining my nieces and nephew with some goat "riding".

Rain, rain and more rain. We need it though, so I am very happy. It looks like we might be in for several days of rain and clouds, so that means watching the electricity usage until the sun comes out again. Luckily, our system is sized to handle several cloudy days, and we don't really NEED electricity anyway. The rain may also keep me from some of the pre-Va Beach projects I was hoping to accomplish, but it will provide a nice down-time as well. It seems like I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off and STILL can't seem to get anything done. I don't know how most of the world does it! I only work 3 days a week, 18-20 hours at most, but I never seem to have enough time. Luckily Joe has a lot of time at home and it far more motivated and efficient than I am. I come home from work to find major advances have been made since I was gone. The truck rebuild project has been taking up at least one of my off days a week, but we are making good progress on it. After another full day of tweaking and fiddling, it does officially start and run. Plus, the brakes work and all fluids are installed (although some are leaking, which is the next priority). I don't know that it will be finished and road worthy before Va Beach, but it's come a long way. The dream of a small diesel truck is becoming a reality. Well, off to take my boss' cat to the vet..

Happy birthday Mama!!! I can't remember how old you are, so you don't have to worry about me posting it on the internet for the whole world to see. :) Not that it would matter, because you look WAY younger anyway.
I'm very excited because I have just found, finally, a program that will allow me to easily edit photos. Now I can post pictures more often, including these I just took today.


Joe loves getting Banjo all riled up so he'll "fight" with him. Banjo secretly loves it, although he likes to act all offended.Yoda was feeling fiesty and wanted some action also, but she couldn't convince Wilson to wrestle with her. Wilson has no interest in wrestling anything with horns and a propensity for head butting.

This photo is for Lauralee, who wanted a picture of us cooking for a family cookbook she's making. Fresh baked bread and ginger cookies!

The truck lives again!!For those of you who don't know, Joe has been rebuilding a small, diesel pickup (a 1985 Isuzu P'up) for over a year now. This truck is supposed to be Joe's dream truck as well as providing us with a second vehicle, one that can even run on biodiesel or veggie oil. The project has been a huge one, and Joe had gotten bogged down and unenthusiastic about it a while ago. In order to inject some new life into the project, I have been participating in the rebuilding for the past couple of months. (The truck is currently at a friend's place, a scattered genius affectionately known as CarMan, who surprisingly enough has a wireless internet signal somewhere close.) The engine has been reassembled and painted so it is looking almost brand new. However....there were all these wires running around loose and unattached. I know absolutely nothing about cars, but we just started matching things up based on wire color and proximity. There are still a few random wires without a home, but we were pretty sure the main ones were all hooked up, except that we still weren't getting anything when we turned the ignition key. So, with CarMan's help, we traced every wire from the battery to the starter, disconnected and cleaned every connection, resoldered some broken connections, and finally....it worked!!!! Well, we still have to get some fuel and engine oil and try it for real, but at least it is looking like we haven't been wasting our time and money over the last year or so. The guys are on a mission right now to get fuel. This may be a premature posting of jubilance, but I just couldn't help it. :)