Snow is coming...

It's around noon here as I sit to write a bit. We're expecting our first snowfall of the year starting around 3pm today. I've got all the window shades open so I can watch it fall. Being that is December and all, we should be quite ready for snow. We've been preparing for 3 months to the date. Country living, I'd say it suits me. The list of projects we've been working on is extensive and the list of projects to start and to finish yet is just as long. Our house is old, no getting around that. When I used to visit my relatives, they always used to talk about the weather and the big event that happened almost every day - getting the mail. I used to think how small their lives were ... I'm the same way now. I've started talking about our weather patterns in letters, emails and now this blog too. It's 15 degrees out now, if you're curious. I'm also sitting by the front windows and have looked at the mailbox 2 or 3 times even though I know the mail won't be here for another 3 hrs as well. I guess life has slowed down from my Greek neighbors and the incessant movement outside our Astoria appt. We might get 20 cars by here in a day. For awhile, it was a bit more than that as it was corn and soybean season and the trucks would come rumbling by quite often. We're likely now to just see local folks and trucks go by with everyone inside wearing orange - it's hunting season. About 2 weeks back was one of 2 weekends here in IL that are shotgun season and the span between them is bow season. I believe it goes through Jan or Feb. and I should really check it out before I think about hiking through the woods around here. It has been crawling with hunters - just yesterday on my way to town (30 min away), there were a couple of trucks parked off the road in the field with 2 deer being dressed. Of other country matters, our neighbor brought over 7 eggs as his hens had laid too many for them to eat, and we're going to a town 15 min away tonight to go on a Christmas walk. Now, this walk through a town maybe a 5 min walk long goes from 3-7pm and is slated to start at the same time as the snow. Do we dare go?

A few things we did manage to finish up are:

Driveway - we had a couple loads of gravel put in just yesterday

Attic Insulation - in the past two weeks, we've added blow in insulation to the attic (formerly there was only about 4 inches, not the R-35 value that is recommended for this area).

Floor Insulation - in our living room area with the fireplace and the thermostat, there were only wood floorboards and the sealant between them either was never there or has come out throughout the years. We added R-13 rolled insulation and stapled it up and that has made a huge difference in the warmth of the room.

Fireplace - Removing old mortar that was loose and then repointing or tuckpointing the joints that had no mortar left between them. In the corners of the fireplace after I cleared out the sandy debris, I found that cold air was seeping right between the joints as if straight from outside.

Caulking - Since the house hasn't been lived in in over 30 years, we had to add some sort of sealant around the outsides of all the windows.

Weatherstripping - in my research on how to seal doors, I found out that if you have an 1/8" opening around your entire door, it is equivalent to having a 6" square hole in your door. This has now been taken care of.

Now, many of our repairs/updates have taken place as we are here during the winter months. *Shiver* Joel's parents are exclusively here during the summer and there has been no need for this sort of work to be done. I can remember 3 years back though when Joel and I came to visit during the winter and vowed to never do so again as the house was soooo cold the whole weekend. I think perhaps we'd consider it again.

Perhaps we are even doing a good and effective job of warming the house as we've noticed others who also want to take shelter inside where it's cozy and warm. The cat that adopted us when we moved here has taken more aggressive steps to convince us that she is indeed an indoor cat and that we should believe her. My thoughts are.... over my dead body, but she doesn't seem to be taking that hint. She (Desi, which is short for Desperado - named for the state we found her in when she first adopted us, yes adopted us) will wait by one of the two doors we use and rush between your legs on to the porch and refuse to leave by setting her claws in the carpet. When you pull 1 paw up, she'll set the other back down into the carpet and so on. After a few rounds of that and you manage to get her up, a swift toss out the door and a quick pull on the screen door that closes all too gently finishes the battle until you realize that you need to go out again...

Another animal or group of animals that believe they belong indoors, are the mice. I've heard it from near a dozen farmers now that Dcon is the only way to get rid of them. Well, I must be the pied piper as it really just feels like I'm gathering them together and feeding them. I'm going through the bait boxes and bait pellets weekly and each one goes quicker than the last. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I certainly hope I won't be smelling dying and decaying mice in the attic in the next couple months.

Well, there is so very much to write, but it's time for lunch. About those pictures... hmm. Still waiting.