Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Raking The Roof And Other Things I Hate About This Winter

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driedhydrangea

It’s 10 below as I write this. I keep hearing weird house sounds that I now realize are the groans and thuds of a house dealing with sub zero temps. It’s unnerving.

A major storm is headed our way. I’ve poured over the various forecasts; some say as little as 8 inches of snow – some go for 18 inches. I don’t know where we’re going to put more snow.  There’s already more than a foot on the ground. Yesterday, I decided to check the level of heating oil and I was shocked to discover we had much, much less than I had thought. I suppose this is due to all the very cold weather we have been having. I ordered some more, but it won’t get  here until Thursday or Friday, so I’m trying to keep the thermostat at a lower temperature. Thursday is the snow storm. Friday, I’ll be digging out. Not sure how the oil truck will even get in the driveway.

My ‘adventure’ yesterday: Our gutters are filled with ice. The snow and ice create a dam that can bring water into the house. We’ve had this happen once before. I saw a hint of it the other day, so I started reading about the problem and everyone said you should get a roof rake to rake a couple of feet of snow from the edges of the roof near the gutters, which allows the ice to eventually melt in the gutters and away from the house.

I called Lowes. No roof rakes left. I went to Agway. They had roof rakes but they were really expensive. So I went to our local True Value where they informed me they had just sold the last two in stock. He said he’d had them in stock, untouched, for 3 years, and suddenly they were selling like hotcakes. But, I could rent one for $10/day. I just had to get it back the same day as someone had reserved it for this morning. Okay. I rented one.

I don’t know if you are familiar with roof rakes, but the end of it looks like a shovel pointed downwards, which enables you to rake the snow off the roof. There are a couple of extensions that you add to the main pole, making it very, very long – probably about 18 feet long. And awkward. And heavy. So I put it all together and started raking the edges of the porch roof. Every time I hit the wall of ice in the gutter, I would have to lift the rake and reposition it. Trying to maneuver the rake was tricky. Because it was so long and it had to reach so high, I could barely control it at times. I made my way around the house, though I couldn’t get to the highest parts of the roof. At one point, my struggles led me to fall backwards into a snow bank. So not only were my shoulders and arms sore, but I was wet in the bargain.

After I finished, I went inside to change and eat some lunch. Then I got ready to take it apart and return it to True Value. Two of the pieces wouldn’t come apart. I tried putting that section in the car to see if it would fit and it was too long. So I tried again. Finally, while calling True Value in a panic, I hit on burying it in the snow for a while and when I pulled it out, I managed to separate the two pieces.

Yikes.

I’m sore today. But I’ll probably have to rent it one more time after this storm.

I wish Don was here. And right now, I wish I still lived in San Diego. This has been a winter for the record books and I am beginning to hate it with a passion.

I’m thinking of everyone in the South and am praying your power stays on and that you stay safely at home. Send some prayers to the Northeast as well. We could use them.

Happy Wednesday.

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Miscellany on Tuesday

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lightonquilt

Oh, this bed. I love it. Although I have to say it’s strange having all that square footage to myself. Poor Don. The bed in his apartment sort of dips in the center. He finds the sofa more comfortable and he’s been sleeping there a lot.

And much to my surprise, I absolutely love this golden coverlet. I felt more than a little trepidation when I ordered it online. It was half off for one day (I think Garnet Hill was discontinuing this color) so I grabbed it. The whole time I was waiting for the bed – and we know that was a long time – I worried whether it would work in that room. I made back-up plans to order some other coverlet in aqua when I had some spare cash. But I love this color. I love the way it looks any time of day but especially when sunlight is pouring in the room. It just goes to show you that moving out of your usual color preference comfort zone is sometimes a very good thing.

In other news,

scoutdoinglaundry

I’m training Scout to do the laundry.

She’s a Border Collie, after all. She’s very intelligent.

Actually, Scout has developed this habit in the last year. She has to go into the bathroom several times a day to check things out. I call it ‘going on her rounds.’ She checks out the bathtub. She checks out the trash. She checks out the toilet. And when there’s laundry? She must check that out.

She’s missing her dad. She’s right by my side most of the day and I know it’s because she can’t understand where he is. Poor girl.

woodpeckerontree

I was standing at the sink the other day and saw about 10 birds flitting from branch to branch in this tree. There were two woodpeckers: one had black markings and the other was this one – a red bellied woodpecker. I ran for my camera but only managed to catch a glimpse of this guy. I wonder if it’s our friend Guthrie? I wrote a post about him that you can find here. Hello Guthrie, old pal.

I’ve been watching the Olympics like everyone else. I seem to be a bit more detached about them this time and I’m thinking it’s because I often see the results before I can watch the event. This time difference is tricky. Being on the internet is also tricky. It’s hard to avoid the results, as they seem to be everywhere.

I’m holding my breath about this approaching storm. As it moves up the East Coast, it could really wallop us. It all depends on the track. I’m praying it tracks further out to sea. I don’t have Don here to help me and I’m worried and already overwhelmed by all the snow and ice around here. I’m trying to stay in the moment and appreciate the beauty of this winter, and it is beautiful out there, but it seems to be harder to do when there’s already 15 inches of snow on the ground and there might be a lot more coming.

Winter, I love you for many reasons. But I am so looking forward to Spring.

I have two giveaways going on at the moment. Stop by my post about the Target Cartwheel app to be entered in a $1000 Target Gift Card Giveaway. And stop by my post about Suave Professionals® Moroccan Infusion Body Care to be entered in a $1000 Gift Card Giveaway.

Happy Tuesday.

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Snowathon

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windowreflection

I’m going to name this week The Snowathon.

The predictions were for about an inch of snow yesterday. Ummm…..not quite. It snowed all day long and I think we got at least 4 inches, if not 5. Roads were messy, traveling was unwise. So we were stuck here. We are expecting anywhere from 6 – 12 inches of snow on Wednesday. Don leaves for Boston on Friday. That leaves just about a day, if that, to take care of any business he needs to attend to before he leaves. And, to top it off, they are predicting a Nor’Easter with more snow Sunday into Monday. At that point, I will be the only snow shoveler around here and it’s hard to imagine where I’m going to put all that snow.

Not a big fan of February so far.

The bed is supposed to be delivered today sometime between 1 and 5. Don asked them to make sure it says California King on the packaging. (I did the same thing last week.) It does. I actually felt a twinge of sadness at leaving our little full-sized bed in the spare bedroom. That room, like the den, is sunken. You walk down two steps to get there. So it has a sort of attic retreat feel to it. I think we’ve done fairly well, we two tall people, adapting to the bed. Now we’ll have to adapt to a new one. Don will have three nights to sleep on it before he has to adapt to another bed in Boston.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments on our new addition to the living room. We love it and are absolutely sure that buying it was the right thing to do. Oh gosh, I’m itching to do some rearranging, rethinking, re-everything and once the mattress has been delivered and the old mattress taken away, I’ll be able to look at things more clearly. Not that I haven’t already been thinking about it. These aren’t big changes, more like little tweaks I want and need to make.

I’m also dreading the fact that Don is going away. We’ve done this many times and we know how to handle it, but it doesn’t make it any easier. He’s my best friend as well as my husband and I love being with him. We work well together. We like hanging out together. We sort of adore each other.

And he is my fellow snow shoveler!

Happy Tuesday.

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