Taking the Rakes Skating...

We took our two boys, aged 10 and 6 ice skating today. Wouldn't you know, the first thing that my oldest boy did was use his man skills and pick up a girl. They skated around hand in hand for a while, then dissappeared to go build snow forts together. Suffice to say, we left shortly afterwards.

When your ten year old dissappears in the woods with a girl, it is time to go.

Our House is Covered in Snow...

And we have the coolest, most Christmas-like weather vane ever.

More Snow!

We got 6 inches of snow overnight. The roads had not been plowed, and our truck promptly slid in the ditch on a turn. A neighbor pulled it out for us, but what a morning!

The Continuing Soap Opera of the Dog Fence...

As if the new fence wasn't enough, we now have old people teasing our dogs from across the fence when we are not around. This morning, we saw a little old man and woman at the end of the driveway, yelling at the dogs and saying they needed to be run out of town. What??

We also heard an interesting story from a friend. This story concerns the disposition of plums we witnessed being picked from our yard by the very same person who started this whole dog debacle. It seems she is giving away our plums as Christmas Gifts to the locals.

We put up the wrong kind of fence, I am afraid. We need one to protect us from mean and vicious senior citizens who like to steal our fruit and tease our dogs.

By and large, most people in this town are very pleasant. There does, however, remain an element with which no-one can seem to please. No wonder it is so hard to get younger families to move to rural areas such as this. It is mind boggling that a certain element of the town's society would rather see it die than change for the better with new people and ideas.

Well, for what it is worth, the dogs are here to stay, and so is the new fence. I can't wait to see what else develops...

A Very Snowy end to November...

After we got back from our trip to Texas, it began snowing on November 30th. It really didn't stop until yesterday. We got about 8 inches a night, except for one crazy night when we got 2 feet! School has been called off for nearly a week now.

These kids REALLY need to go back to school.

I hear we are due for more starting Monday night. Oh Brother!

Fences Make Good Neighbors

The past few weeks here at Skunky Acre we have been busy installing a fence along the only open area on our property. When we moved in we had no fencing what so ever. As time has passed we have slowly been separating ourselves from the rest of the crazy people in our town. We never wanted it this way, when we moved in I loved the open yard connecting to everyone else. I envisioned everyone just sharing, and boy was I wrong. First our chickens bothered one neighbor, then our dog bothered another, people indiscriminatly stop in and pick our fruit with out even asking, neighbors dogs attack our livestock, etc. We are hoping the fence will help in other ways also. I am silly enough to believe that any fence that would keep in 2 dogs will keep out a pack of hungry coyotes, or that having the dogs fenced in the yard will help chase off some of the predators who are desimating our flock this year. We have lost 3 chickens in 2 weeks and wake every morning and immediately run to the chicken house to do a chicken check. The fence is almost complete, well actually the fence is complete, all that is left is to install a gate across our driveway. This is a major project that will involve hiring someone to dig through very rocky soil so we can install the gate posts. I think in the end it will be nice and we will love it. Fences make good neighbors after all.

R.I.P. Larry 2006-2009

That is right our sweet little Larry is dead. He was fiendishly attacked in the night by a rogue raccoon. We all miss him terribly, and the kids cry about it quite a bit. You see Larry was a bantam rooster so therefore useless as anything but a pet. We had all become very attached to our little rooster. He was the comic relief for the chicken house, and never failed to make us laugh. He truly left his foot prints on our hearts and we will never be the same.