To me there is so much going on in this photo and I had to make it a black & white photo.  The M peeking out from behind the shed, Sadie's grave, the bench were we sit on the ridge to watch a moonrise or sunset.  And the brush and trees along the lane.  We put Sadie's grave in a spot where when I'm washing dishes I can look at the flowers growing.

Coming home from the grocery store I went a different way home.  Going to the grocery store is a 3 hour event or more if I have to stop at another place before coming home, so changing up my route to and from is a nice change of pace for me.  I took the ridge way home and stopped to take a photo of our farm.  This photo is actually zoomed in.

We had some really high winds a few days ago and most of the leaves had been blown off the trees, not all but most.  It was so windy even the chickens didn't want to stay outside too long.  Some folks around here don't like living on the ridge because it's so windy, I actually don't mind the wind.

To me living life on the ridge is just fine.

Our colors are really fading fast here in Southwest Wisconsin and after the all day rain we had the other day a lot of the leaves have fallen off the trees.  Our baby chicks are actually doing very good despite getting them in the fall, we changed the white light bulb to a red light bulb and it turns off on a timer before it starts getting dark so that they can see their way under the Brinsea brooder.  Their feathers are really starting to come in and it's so fun watching them run around, they are really adapting to the cooler weather very well despite being so small yet. 

We've been cooped up in the house for so long that I can't wait to get out and go for drives again.  The second photo is from one of the routes I take to go home from town or go to town.  The top photo is what we call Lauren's meadow.  Our daughter Lauren when she lived with us when we moved here loved this meadow and so we have named it Lauren's meadow, she also has a curve named after her but that's for another blog post ;) (LOL)

It's been over a week since we've gotten home from Texas, and we're adjusting to the colder weather. Luckily the temps haven't been that bad and with them being in the 20's and 30's I can handle that.

Our walks these days are very different. So very different with our beloved Sadie not here. Winter I believe was her favorite season, she loved snow and playing in it. We miss her terribly, but life goes on and though we continue our walks without her she is on our mind, especially when we come upon multiple coyote tracks on the lane. 

We have ventured out snowshoeing a few times, which always makes for some really pretty photos.

January is coming to a close and sugaring will be starting up again soon and that's when our life will get even busier.  

We’ve lived here in Wisconsin for almost 8 years and I still love driving through Amish country.  We had snow earlier in the week and I’m wondering if spring plans to even show it’s face. I’m itching to open my windows and doors, I  can’t wait to get outside and get the yard looking nice and colorful again.

It’s been a long winter and I’m so ready to say goodbye to it. 

With sugaring over for us we decided to take a Sunday drive on our way to a new restaurant we wanted to try.  Our snow is mostly gone, and I am anxiously waiting for the flowers to start popping out of the ground.  It’s pretty brown around here right now but hey spring is here or so it says on the calendar.  

I went to town to do a few errands and took a different route.  There are about three ways to go to town when I head out my driveway and I went along the ridge towards what we call tickle belly hill.  If you were to start at the top of the hill at a very fast rate of speed you will feel like you're on a roller coaster.  I stopped to take this photo as you can see not a car in sight in front of me or behind me.

I've also been meaning to take a photo of the barn quilts that are always leaning up against this barn.  I believe they are for sale, and I think the owner needs to put one up on this barn as well.

One item on the list of errands was to get a new dog bed for Sadie, and after a few sniffs of the new bed she settled herself down.  I think it's a hit.  Sadie is getting old, some days she can't keep up with us on walks and other times she's way ahead of us where we have to catch up to her.  She definitely has a good life.

The garden has been producing quite well, we have had food from our garden everyday.  Walking out to the garden to gather a few things for lunch or supper is nothing short of awesome!

Life sure is grand :)

Now that the weather is getting nicer I've been trying to get out and walk.  I walked everyday while we were in Texas and I've missed it a lot.  Mr. has been cutting up a tree for one of our neighbors that had fallen during a storm on to the field where his crops will be planted, it's about a mile walk to where the tree had fallen.  So I took a walk with Sadie to where Mr. was and before heading back home Mr. told me about an old road that used to go back to where we were.  You can see the old road bed and how it has grown in.

These shots were taken with my cell phone and the first shot is looking one way down the old road.

I turned around and took this shot and they look totally different.  You'd think they were taken at different times.

This old road bed was really neat despite it being so grown in.  I can only imagine what it was like back in the day when it was used.  Not far from where we were there used to be a school, only there is nothing left of it, not even a foundation stone.  There aren't too many homes around us now and I can only imagine what life was like here when the old road was in use and the school was open.

After getting back from Texas we went looking for some more sap buckets and found some that an Amish man was selling for a cheap price.  Seems like most people and now the Amish are doing away with sap buckets and going to tubing.  Anyway, after getting the buckets we drove through the hills on our way home and found this old place.  We couldn't quite tell if was actually lived in, it almost looked abandoned but then you can see the decorations on the fence.  This old log home was awesome, the corners of the logs were dovetailed and just simply beautiful.  This was back in February and there was snow on the ground in the valleys and on the ridges.

Then it started to warm up.  It seems like the sugaring season is backwards, usually we get the darker syrup at the end of the season when the weather starts to get warmer, but we had the warmer temps in the middle of the season so when we gathered the sap from the buckets the sap was warm.  Now, the temps are more like when it's the beginning of the season with the temps being absolutely perfect.  And, we gathered over 150 gallons of sap on Sunday so there will be more boiling this week.  We made this past weekend 3.625 gallons of what we call golden amber delicious syrup.  The two boils before this we got darker syrup which is fine I use it for cooking/baking and now to make maple sugar.

We got what we call a sugar snow that froze and reset the sap run again.  We are definitely not done with sugaring and it all started with a snowstorm.

I had hoped that we would be drying out sometime soon, but it appears that we'll be getting more rain in the next day or so, hopefully it won't amount to much.  We have dealt with 3 separate bouts of flooding in our area.

There's one good thing if you want too look on the bright side of all the rain we've been having is that everything is green, and the fire danger is very low...just saying :)

Kar over at simply-kar has opened an on-line shoppe called The Wiggles & Squeaks Shoppe.  I bought her dishcloth pattern and made them.  They turned out great and so easy to make, her directions are perfect.  Head on over and check out what else she has for sale.

Yay, I finally finished my Baktus Scarf that I made.  I had run out of yarn and only needed just a bit more to finish...grrr...But it's done and I can't wait for cooler weather so I can wear it.

We had our dog at the kennels over the weekend as we went to an APPPA class on raising poultry and driving in and out from picking her up we passed a few cows laying in the driveway and had to drive around them.

I just love living in the country.

We are still experiencing flooding here in Southwest Wisconsin, with even the school closing and even started late today.  I had to run to town today and wished I didn't and could have stayed in where it is warm and dry. Running into each store I got pretty wet.  On the way home I passed this building which I thought was an old barn, but have come to learn it was actually someones home.  But I had to laugh at what I saw and stopped to take a photo.

Even the goats were smarter than me and knew how to stay out of the rain.