We woke up to snow covering our world.  I had started a post from photos I had taken oh so long ago that I have yet to post, I had planned to post them just never did.  So, I will be digging into the archives of my photos and post them all eventually.  It's going to take a while to do that, because the first post I plan to do, the photos are from 2014.  Wowzer, all on hard drive thank goodness, as I have replaced my computer/laptop a few times.

Sugaring is still going on, and we are still making syrup.  Each year our system changes as to how we collect, boil, draw off the syrup, bottle and the clean up.  Who would have thought that after 13 years of cooking syrup there would be room for change, but yet there is always room for improvement.

I'll leave you with some snowy photos from this morning and get to working on the next post from our travels.

In November we got a bit of snow, then by thanksgiving it was pretty much gone.  That is until we got a couple of snowstorms.

This year we cut down a tree from our farm small though it is, we ended up putting only a few ornaments on it.

Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year is upon us in a few days.  We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did as well.  The animals are all doing well and survived the below zero temperatures we had just before Christmas.  I'm quite happy to see those cold temps gone at least for the time being.  I'm sure we'll be getting some cold temps again come January.  Believe it or not I'm actually starting to think about spring planting already...LOL...It's going to be a long winter for me I guess :)

We decided that today we will make a morning of it and leave the homestead.  We had left early enough that the sun was making the sky a pretty color as we were leaving our place

We have been having some negative temps here in Southwest Wisconsin, and it will continue for the next few days.  I believe our lowest one morning was -14°.  I know it's probably colder in other parts of the country, but it's a bit too cold to be working outside on the cow barn.  So we went for a drive to a cute café we have not tried before and had breakfast, we will definitely go back again.  . 

I know that the café looks like it might not have the best food, but I'm here to tell you the breakfast was awesome.

It felt good to get out for a bit, cabin fever was starting to set in.  We ended up at our Amish friends for a cup of coffee and great conversation and good laughs.

It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday morning.

One thing about the winter months we will get some amazing sunsets and sunrises.  These two happen to be a morning sky in December.  One looking out over towards our neighbor's place and the other is 2 days later taken while doing chores.  I have slacked in the blogging department the past couple of years.  This year I plan to start blogging again but definitely not every day, I'm sure.  I still take tons of photos and had every intention to blog about the photo, but I just didn't quite seem to do it.  This year I do, and that's where my word for the year comes in, balance.

I can't believe that this year I have had a blog for 15 years.  I never imagined that I would still be keeping this blog up and running for that long.  I've changed it up here somewhat as I have done over the years. 

So, here's hoping I can balance blogging and life here on our homestead.

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 can say that almost everyday on our property we'll see an eagle sitting high in a tree, flying overhead, or on the ground eating something. In fact the day after we buried our Sadie girl there was an eagle circling just over her grave about 4 times, seeing that gave me goosebumps. These photos were taken from inside the house, I was afraid if I opened the front door the eagle would fly away.

What a very busy summer Mr and I have been having. A couple weeks back our son and his family came for a visit. We ended up heading to the Mississippi river and to Wyalusing State Park. 

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 :)