A snow day...

At least 10" of snow. No school. We went sliding - and lasted for about 45 minutes, which is pretty good considering how deep the snow was... the wind was howling and blew the sled away 2X. But we did have fun! I love the sled where the 2 of us can ride together. The good news is that we only lost power for about 4 hours last night, phew!

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This is a photo of my stray cats insulated cat house. We keep it on the front porch and angle barriers in front of the door if the wind is blowing from a different direction. It is about the size of a lobster pot and is insulated all around with about 4" of stryrofoam inside. The door is pretty small - the have to scrunch down to get in, which is the point - keep the warm air inside! We have 2 stray cats - they never come in the house so are very used to cold outdoor weather. It might seem cruel, but the worse thing you can do is let them inside on cold nights - then they get used to a warm climate. Beside the fact that SB is allergic to cats. It has been -25C (that would be -13F) here some nights this winter and the cats have been just fine. One of them cut his foot on the ice the other day, but won't let me near him to check, but he doesn't seem to be limping so I guess he is fine. In anycase, they are well fed and we make sure their drink doesn't freeze.

Hard to believe that this week when I was at the stores - one thing on the list was rubber boots for SB for mud-puddle weather. Got to buy these things early if you want the right size and we only go to the stores about 1X every six weeks. We always have odds & ends on our list like - basmati rice, certain pasta noodles we like, baby bella cheese, etc. This time around it was boots and socks for SB - and getting ready to go he was complaining about his sneakers - yup, needed bigger sneakers too. Did the Easter bunny shopping this trip - so now I am all set until about mid-April, hopefully!

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I was going to try to get new boots for myself (didn't happen), but I guess DH and I can keep sharing the same pair of boots for the rest of the winter! His feet are just 1/2 size bigger than mine. Last snow storm I went to visit the neighbors and then told them I had to get home, DH was waiting on the boots. They howled with laughter and offered to take up a collection for me. For awhile there we were also sharing gloves , which was annoying me - DH lost 1 of his and so then proceeded to wear my nice pink ski gloves on the tractor, but got tractor grease on them, grr. One day I went to run errands with MY gloves on and got home pretty late, in a snow storm. DH was out there on the tractor, wearing POTHOLDERS, plowing the driveway so I could get up the drive - sweet man that he is. So, I felt badly and ordered him new gloves from Sears (we still have catalog delivery in Canada), but when they arrived I thought they wouldn't do and returned them. Good thing too because 2 days later I found the missing glove of DH's. Yeah!

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Here is a photo of SB's new rubber boots! SB is thrilled beyond belief with them - Fireman boots and all, you know? He has been wearing them around the house with his fireman hat and was a bit put out that I wouldn't let him go sledding with that get-up. Ha! Even so, I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have him hug and kiss me for 2 days straight over rubber boots!!! Which is why I shop early - I knew he wanted this style of boots and when you are 5 1/2 - the small things are so important. Whenever spring does decide to make an appearance, at least he will have dry feet, Fireman style.