January

We are surely getting weird weather! From what little I see of the national weather, apparently you all are too. NOT that I am complaining when our snow all melts off and I have bare ground to walk on..absolutely not! It is very unusual however, for northern Michigan to not be up to mid thigh now in snow. Or at least knee high. But definitely over those arctic pack boots I rummaged around and found in the closet. That lack of snow, I commented on last time, (very softly as to not bring attention to us from Mother Nature), did indeed, draw attention to it and we ended up with over the boot again. This week we have had snow, freezing rain, sleet, rain, ice pellets, bare ground, 49.7 degrees (we got a new inside/outside thermometer, so I can tell the precise temperature...why that intrigues me, I don't know!!), and dropped 50 degrees to below zero. Today we are back to a couple inches of snow and very cold. I have dusted off the old red wool ski cap again. After wearing it a couple times yesterday when I ventured down to the mailbox twice and had it on to protect me from the cold winds, Ron mentioned last night "Did you comb your hair today?". I tell you, this man lives dangerously. On the mention of hair, I have, so far, managed to avoid my January pitfall of thinking I should cut my hair. You may remember that January and February are my "self destruct " months, when I only get a few days into January and stupidly look in the mirror to apparently think I need a hair cut. Those two months are the only months, by the way, I ever get a haircut. My hair is long. At least it is unless I get a hair cut. Then it takes all year to grow back out again. I do believe I have learned my lesson about letting Ron cut it however. Do not ever let your husband cut your hair. I mean, never.

Actually I have been too busy to look in the mirror. Which probably prompted his question of IF I had combed my hair. I am not a really good winter person, winter being my least favorite season of the year, and I only tolerate it to get me back to my beloved spring. Actually spring hasn't been that great the past few years either, but one can always hope it will. Miss Elspeth (www.pineberrylane.com ) and me wait each winter for red winged black birds, and mud to herald the beginning of spring and our hearts fairly sing, upon the first arrival of both. We did have some serious mud this week when the freezing rain thawed, but I knew it wouldn't last. Felt pretty good swishing down the road in it. And yes, Ruppert (Aunt Sepia's husband), I did have my boots on. I tend to be barefooted unless the snow is there. No matter what month!

I have been making some headway in the cleaning (non) resolution I made to myself for this new year. I have fallen short a couple days, but for the most part have been cleaning that one thing each day that normally would not get cleaned. These are things like closets, drawers, tops of cupboard and such. I seem to have a mental block when it comes to dealing with those things. Thus, they are continually a rat's nest of unorganized clutter. I am mortified when I have to open a cupboard or closet in front of anyone. But I am making good progress. What am I? halfway thru January and haven't quit yet? Just thought you should all celebrate that success with me. It is bound to come to an end! The writing journal Beulah got me, so far has only one entry in it. So I am not doing so great on that deed.

The reason being for that though, is I have been busy creating. Yup! the harvest table is back to bunny and doll bodies parts again. Drats...and I did have it all cleaned up. The bunnies don't resemble road-kill as much as they have in the past. And the dolls take on their personalities, and some I find hard to part with.

AND I do want you to know that Ron and me did the pictures ourselves! With our own digital camera! I know! You just don't believe it! Beulah did run up last weekend, because we sent her some pictures and she just could not stand it, as we didn't do quite so swell on those we sent. Some of the doll pictures are a dark print, and while they don't really show the dolls characteristics too good, I thought the picture itself was quite stunning! And the new pictures for crow soup, we did ourselves. Ha. Who would have thunk it???

We have 5 new items on www.crowsoup.com/Market586.php which will show up there sometime on January 15th.

You can see new dolls at www.highbuttonshoe.net/dolls.htm

and new items at www.highbuttonshoe.net/newitems.htm

and have advance notice of the crow soup items by looking at http://www.highbuttonshoe.net/itemson.htm That shows what will be on crow soup tomorrow.

Hope you have all gotten your Christmas stuff put away and life is getting back to normal. Around here, normal is anything but, most of the time. I have a lot of new things to work on, and hope to show you soon.

Thanks for asking to be a part of the farm.

in fond regard,

Miss Clotilda