Peace and calm around here

It was a nice relaxing Sunday.

I love that kind of day.

This morning I did a little picking up around here, got my usual Sunday School lesson done and headed outside with the camera to grab a picture I'd been wanting to get.

Along the way I found this. I've probably showed you this contraption before, but here you go again. It is the ice breaker upper tool. Pull behind the 4-wheeler and it works pretty good! Jari did some dragging on Friday to bust up some of our ice field.

A walk behind the greenhouse yielded an "oh, my" moment and a shifting of the foot path! Guess who has been visiting around here?!

Finally! The object of my mission. Spring must be around the corner. I am keeping an eye on the pussy willows down the road as they look like the ones I remember. This tree is rather large and the branches don't really look that good in a container. They are fun tho'!

Next I found this one ...  (note the buds on the right side of the picture!)

And then some more evidence of moose. They sure do like the little stuff.

Had a little moment of "wouldn't it be nice to have the volleyball net up?" and then realized that along with that comes the constant "... your turn to mow the lawn today!" stuff. It'll be here soon enough.

As I was meandering around the yard the snowflakes were gently dropping. Um. Hello? It is the end of March. Okay. It isn't unexpected to have snow at this time of year. I just think we're ready for summer. I came in and one kiddo said "hmph" to the snow falling.

And just to show us what the snow thought of that "hmph", it began in earnest. Huge flakes. Beautiful flakes. 38 degrees outside and snowing. Go figure.

It was fun to watch for a bit ... knowing that it wasn't going to last long. At least hoping it wouldn't last long. It didn't.

Then I had about the brightest idea I've had in a while. We have this huge hill behind our house. Some landowners dumped massive amounts of gravel and made a very steep hill of dirt. It is steep enough that the boys really don't like to snowboard that thing anymore. For the last couple of days I've been thinking that it would be great exercise to go up and down that hill.

I borrowed Jari's boots. I did ask him if he minded if they got muddy.

I just didn't quite anticipate what the adventure was going to entail. Mind you it had quit snowing. The snow was wet. The hill is covered with long dead grasses. My first "hmmm" moment was when I hit the grass. Quickly figured out that I was going to be soaking wet. Oh well. I made it to the top by grabbing those nice wet, loose weeds. Down was a different story.

Anita wasn't thinking.

At.

All.

Just melted snow on top of dirt = mud.

Wet grass on top of mud = slide.

And I did.

Good thing I was coming down where the trees are as they made nice little stopping points. Pretty soon I just started aiming for them! Think I'll hold off on repeating that adventure 'til things dry out a bit.

Off to safer things. Gave the guys a wish list. Get me one of these pallets. :) Let's see if I can get it to look anything like this one. Dark stain or black paint. White plates or a mix of other stuff. White plates and maybe some mirrors? Maybe some sea shells in some of the "boxes"? Maybe I can haul out the Hummel plates that have never been out of their styrofoam except to look at them once in a while? Maybe some copper pieces in a spot or two?

My living room is put back together. I went looking for a large mirror for the living room wall on Saturday. I was On Call all day and didn't get called in. Finally ran a few places in the late afternoon (after spending hours "scrapbooking" Christmas cards) and looked around. Too expensive. The things I had went back up on the wall ... and if I should come up with something different ... we'll just move the nails! I know I'm good at moving nails.

This week? No call. Nothing earth shattering other than the procrastinated PFD deadline for 2 kids. Tomorrow. (I've been saying that for far too long already.) Now I really mean it.

Oh yeah. The washing machine. It quit. It'll wash, it just won't spin. Makes for some mighty wet clothing hitting the dryer. Had a pining for one of those old ringer washer things. Thought a mop bucket would probably work too ... just don't have one of those either. Darling hubby gets to attack that project tomorrow. :)