life up north

 

 

 Ree Drummond calls herself Pioneer Woman.

 

Well feel free to call me Antarctica Woman.

 

So this Ree lives on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma.

I'll bet the thermometer never says

31 degrees below zero on their ranch.

And I'll bet she'd probably stay inside and cook instead of helping 

 cut wood and then go snow shoeing- just for fun-

if and when that thermometer ever said 31 degrees below zero.

She may have to deal with tornadoes, but frostbite and

hypothermia are probably never really an issue for said Pioneer

Woman?

 

lars and I just spent the week between Christmas and New Years at our

cabin in the North woods. It was cold and cozy and relaxing and fun.

We like to say we're off the grid when we're up there because

we don't have internet...and we can't see the smoke from another man's

chimney. We read a lot and played cards, we took turns

cooking. I spent time deleting about 3000 photos from my computer.

(can this count as my Spring cleaning, early?)

 We snow shooed every day and we cut, split, hauled and

stacked wood. (I say "we" loosely- it was mostly the hubs doing

all that work -with me making cameo appearances to help out).     : )

 

I spent my mornings glued to the windows watching and taking

pictures of the many birds that entertain us most of the day.

We feed the deer too and we were delighted to

have some of them visit us during the day a few times.

 

here are some of my favorite bird shots~

 

*chickadees are my favorite birds, and I loved seeing

them so close. The colder it got, the fluffier the birds and

deer became. Isn't nature fascinating? The critters

can survive in this brutal cold by puffing up!

 

 

check out the chickadee flying away- I got several action shots

that I thought were fun.

 

 

red bellied woodpecker

 

 

 



this adorable little guy came to visit the feeder and then he seemed

to be watching me though the window and he walked right up

to the cabin while I took his picture. Isn't the patch of snow

and ice on his forehead cute?

there are lots and lots of blue jays everyday~

mid jump!

So, like I said, the cold didn't detour us too much- we really love to

head out on our trails with the snow shoes. There's about

10-14 inches of snow up there, so walking around would be impossible without them.

28 degrees above zero one day   ----

 

31 below the next.

Usually when we're at the lodge our son's yellow lab is with us.

This time it was just Lars and I. Well, most of the time that is. Our neighbor's

Labrador Abe knows when we're there and he likes to make a run for it

and come for a visit. (rumor has it he gets a lot more food in his dish

and more belly rubs at the Larson's).

this is New Year's Eve. Candle light dinner for 2.

Lars made us this chicken pot pie one night, but it was lobster for New Years.

We put together this puzzle from friends.

 

 

 This was one of the days of cutting wood for our 2 stoves.

we thought we had enough for the whole winter- wrong!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a sight I didn't expect to see come down our mile long driveway while up there.

a UPS truck.

(Lars is a retired 26 year UPS er) 

turns out the driver was lost. the package was for our neighbor.

    and now,

 

 

I'd like to leave you with this.

Remember me, Antartica woman?

Well we do have electricity at the lodge- but

I had to line dry the clothes when I was up there.

Our wash machine works- but all of a sudden it won't spin out the clothes.

 

I did not however, wash them on a wash board.

I have to draw the line somewhere. 

 

So I roughed it a bit more than usual but

I also relaxed more than usual as well and just had the best

long stretch of time up North that I've had since we bought

the cabin, almost 2 years ago.

 

It felt like a vacation and I wasn't even

ready to come home yet- after 8 days

"off the grid".

 

*There is something funky about our water up there though

and after that many days

Antarctica Woman's hair looked really nasty.

I'm back to civilization now and the old hair's got a bit of

bounce back in it.  Yes, I guess it is good to be home!

 

:  )

 

xo, beth

 

 

oh, p.s.   I just want to add that there is something really swell

about these cold temperatures.

*hot flash relief*

as soon as I start to overheat, I just whip back my

blankets (we keep the vents shut in the bedroom and

you can see your breath in there)

and think to myself

'TAKE THAT, YOU STUPID HOTFLASH!"

Riding in the car all bundled up when one

starts? You just roll down your window and

stick your head out like a dog.

~please don't do this while driving.

at work I just run outside and pretend like I'm

checking the weather or something.

Thank you subzero temps. 

 

:  D