Enjoying winter at Forest Echo Farm

We've had some nice snow this season and got the use our snow shoes for the first time a few weeks ago.  Days where we get to roam over our property, make me SO happy to be where we are.  Forest Echo is a beautiful, peaceful place in the winter and we have such fun exploring it.





















I love that we can hike to a point where we can see both our job sites -- the barn in the middle ground and a couple of the Okemo ski runs up on the far hill.

A couple of the cabin's outhouses -- not nearly as fancy our ours!

A gorgeous evening ...

And ... a little surprise for us as we drove home last night from work.  A tree had fallen over, blocking the road.  Luckily, it wasn't too large and Jason was able to cut and clear it pretty easily while I sat in the cozy car :)

A chilly morning in the outhouse

First Snow!

We got our first snow for the season last night!  I'm feel like I'm still sort of a kid when it comes to snow - I get so excited by it!  I guess growing up in a place that only gets snow every 15 - 20 years kind of set me up for being thrilled by it.  I love how it makes everything look so pretty and like new!

Days like these ...

... I sure love living at Forest Echo Farm!

I love living here most of the time, but these gorgeous days make it even more worthwhile!

Hello Spring!

This past week it seems that Spring has finally arrived at Forest Echo!  I am thrilled!  Daffodils (& other things) have been popping up everywhere all over the property and it has been a wonderful surprise!

PS -- I don't think I ever mentioned the end of our water situation ... we have running water again! Yay-hoo!  What a relief!  As it started to warm up, the pipes thawed out and it started running on it's own again, literally one day before we were expecting visitors.  That's timing!

 

 

Pioneer-life gym

There are many tasks that we get to perform in our life at Forest Echo that make me realize all over again why people didn't have to set aside time to "exercise" in the past ... one of those things is simply what is involved in keeping our barn warm.

I haul several loads of wood from this pile, up these stairs in a crate -- every other day or so.  Boy, does that work the stomach (I do not have "abs" to speak of, but something in there seems to be getting a workout) and arms.  I'm thinking I should just leave the bucket loaded and carry up and down 15 - 20 times each day just to see what would happen.

 

And, yes ... we're totatlly stacking wood inside our house. We live in a barn, it's allowed I think.

When I think how this small step that gets my heart pounding and arms screaming is only the final step in our heating process, I am amazed.  What had to happen before this is much more labor intensive (or perhaps just a better workout!)

Step one: (thankfully) we have not had to complete. Felling trees and trimming all the small branches off. Lucky for us, we were able to purchase some that are only 1/4 mile from our house.

Step two: cutting the logs into 18" lengths that will fit into our fireplace. This is hard work -- even with the modern convenience of having a chain saw. The first time I used the chainsaw (for only 15 minutes), I couldn't lift my arms for the rest of the day...a workout activity that I should clearly by doing everyday.

Step three: splitting the 18" lengths into pieces that are easy to handle and get into our fireplace.

Step four:  moving and stacking ALL the wood near our barn ....

And that's where I come in with my crate and stacking it inside the house :)  I admit, I kind of like the fact that so much goes into it.  It gives me an appreciation for heat that I don't have when all I have to do is click a button and wah-lah! instant heat. 

Anyone want to come workout with me??

A March mish-mash

I've been pretty quiet ... life has gotten busy all of a sudden (which is a good thing I think ... many of the things making us "busy" are doing things with friends which it is great to have!)

Here are a few photos of what's been happening with us ...

We've got a temporary (rather labor intensive) fix in place with our water ... part of the process involves this tubing being in our house.  Lovely :)

We've had some crazy weather, like everywhere else I suppose. A BIG snow storm, dumping 12 - 14 inches on everything ... making the work-around to our water ever more interesting and requiring Jason to get up on the roof one more time to shovel.

We've had some beautiful sunsets too -- with Spring on it's way, these trees will soon be clothed again which will be wonderful, but I will miss being able to see through them.

These birds made me so happy, they were flying from treetop to treetop catching the last rays of the sunshine before it went down for the day. 

Seeing these did not make me happy -- thousands and thousands of tiny black bugs hatching out and covering every surface outside! So sick!

 

And then, we got one more snow storm.  Probably our last one for the season.

Water update

So, we still have not fixed our water situation - in spite of working on it nearly everyday for the past week  Grr.

The timing on these types of things is always interesting/humorous --

1) we first realized the problem at the beginning of our work week when our time at home (& time to work on the problem) was very limited
2) we got a big snow storm several days ago ... great for our work at the ski resort, not so great for working outside with natural springs, wells and pipes.
3) the pumps we have only seem to work sporadically - when they feel like it. A pump will work one day while we test it, then we speed off to work and return the next day thinking we have a possible fix in place...only to have the pump decide it doesn't feel like pumping
4) Jason leaves on Thursday for a 6-day trip to N. Dakota to celebrate his grandmother's 100th birthday

We are trying to find the humor in the situation now and enjoy some laughter in the moment instead of getting overly frustrated, but it IS frustrating :)

Luckily, our employer, Okemo, has generously allowed us to use available showers and we're conserving the dwindling water supply that we have ... our peace corps and Palau experiences are coming in very handy.

Yesterday, we decided not to work on it and instead went for a quick snowshoe before work to enjoy the awesome new snow and amazing landscape where we live.  That was a good choice.  When I find my camera cord, I should have some pretty photos to upload.  We still absolutely love where we live in spite of this little "challenge."

Today I made these apple-cinnamon muffins.  These have become a bit of an easy, go-to recipe for me. They always seem to turn out really good.  I use one apple that I don't peel, just cut into small pieces and today added a butter, brown sugar, oatmeal, cinnamon & a bit of flour crumb topping.  Delicious!

Water --> No Water

We have no water ... well, that's not completely true.

The water that comes from a natural spring on our property has gotten blocked somehow on it's journey from the spring to a large holding tank. This section of pipe is buried 5 feet under the frozen ground and stretches 1/4 mile from our barn-home. Not good. We noticed the problem yesterday. We've been conserving of what's left in the tank in our barn which is about 75 gallons while trying various "fixes" for the problem.  All to no avail. 

Hmmm.  This could get real interesting real quick.

Ice ... on everything

We had a mini ice storm a few days ago and we've been amazed at how beautiful (and also how slippery and how destructive) the ice is.  It has made every tree sparkle in the sunlight with the rainbows of a thousand prisms.  Completely breathtaking - and something my camera cannot do justice to.

 

 

Walking ... err, snowshoeing on water

For the past few weeks, Tiny Pond as has been gradually getting more and more ice on it.  We hadn't yet ventured out for fear that it would not be thick enough yet to hold us, but when we had some ice fisherman show up last week asking to fish on it, we knew it must be safe. So yesterday, after several below zero days and a snow storm, we headed across the lake with our snow shoes.  I don't think I've ever walked across a frozen lake, pond or river before and it was very fun (and very cold)!

After one of our earlier snows ... only a little ice around the edges.

Yesterday ...  



More winter wonderland

Things have been a little quiet on this blog ... we're adjusting back into having a regular work schedule while continuing to do upkeep at Forest Echo.  With that, extra trips to town to use the internet have kinda gotten put on the back burner. 

We are doing really well and had a lovely belated Christmas (since we worked through the holidays).  We decided to do most of our shopping for each other at our local thrift store this year on a $10 budget and I have to say it was quite a success.  I was calculating up how much we spent in total on our Christmas for two and it was under $50 -- including decorations, gifts for each other and a special meal.  It sorta thrilled me to be able to have a special Christmas on that budget. (Am I super weird for being excited by that???!?!)

Anyhow, here are a few pictures of what's been happening with us for the past couple weeks :)

Happy New Year!

 



My first ever attempt at making a wreath!



I had to try making a Christmas tree coffee cake -

my Mom always made one.

Jason on his way to our outhouse --

not exactly properly dressed!

Two for one flying squirrels - no idea how they BOTH ended up caught in the trap!