Christmas Village

Our Christmas village has grown so large over the years and it is our tradition to set it up every Christmas season. This year much of our village is still in boxes and we debated about setting it up because we still have so much to do and so many unpacked boxes sitting around our home.

Tradition won out and we set up a small portion of the village on a coffee table we placed under living room windows. When I plugged in the lights of the village and the little lighted Christmas tree glowed as the village townspeople twirled around the tree I knew we'd made the right decision.

Yes, when our youngest grandson walked into the living room, spied the village and marveled at the miniature goings on , we knew we'd made the right decision !

May you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and take joy in the message of this season and for all time ~ " And she will bring forth a son , and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

Snow, Beautiful Snow !

It's been snowing off and on for the last few weeks. This is a picture of our first snow back in November. The little shed is my new wool shop . My husband is almost finished with it and I'll give you a tour in another post. This is where my looms are and all my wool is now stored , along with all the equipment I need in my wool working.

Snow along the fences and on the trees really do make this a winter wonderland.

Our new front yard . The fence you see in the picture separates our yard from one of our pastures. The wires in the background run parallel to the gravel road in front of our home where hills, forest, and low mountains are just a walk across the road away.

My view from my back porch, and I love it !

" Have you entered the warehouses of the snow , or have you seen the storehouses of the hail ?"

Job 38:22

Oh Christmas Tree

 We're still getting settled in our new home and have many boxes stored in the barn we've yet to unpack. Many of the boxes are full of Christmas decorations . We knew we had a lot of Christmas decorations but boy oh boy, is it possible to have too many ? Especially since our new home is less than half the size of our home at Cedar Pond. ( Picture is of our youngest grandson helping my husband place the first few decorations on our tree.)

 We bought a new artificial tree for our first Christmas here. Yes, we have many beautiful trees growing in our forest that'd be perfect for us, but the woodstove in our new home keeps the whole house roasty-toasty and we did not want to worry about keeping the tree stand filled with water when we knew it would dry out every day with the heat and our cats and dogs drinking out of it. We chose this tree because it is narrow and nine feet tall, filling the window but not crowding us out of our new little living room.

Blizzard, our 20 pound cat, stretched out under the tree .

 We have a new puppy . She was born to a Labrador Retriever one of our granddaughters owns. We got her when she was 8 weeks old and now she is 8 months old. Her name is Luna and we love her. She discovered a long time ago she can peek into the house from the windows overlooking the deck. Our two cats seem to enjoy mocking the dogs from indoors. Here is Miss Marple almost taunting Luna. If Luna were indoors Miss Marple would be hiding under the bed or in the closet.

 The view of the tree from outside on a cold snowy winter's evening. You can see our other cat Blizzard looking out the window.

"The shining sparkling ornaments strung on our Christmas tree , Reach out and take me by the hand to years that used to be."  *  'To The Years That Used To Be '  from poem by Annette Victorin

From Cedar Pond to Laughing Dove Farm

 Cedar Pond was sold last May and we moved out in June. This is a picture of the back of our new home from our hay field. Anyone keeping livestock can appreciate having their own hay field, and with 24 sheep we really do appreciate our hay field !

 A closer look at the back of our new home. We moved to a home half the size of our home at Cedar Pond but with 21 more acres of land. Plus, this cozy home is tucked into a valley below beautiful hills and mountains .

 My Jacob Sheep have pasture. Acres of pasture !

The weather is more extreme here. The winters are colder, the summers are hotter.

We have a few acres of forest too , forest with wild turkeys, deer, pheasant, cougars, coyotes, and bears. Most of them are seen frequently from our living room windows. ( pic of husband and 2 of our dogs walking through our forest.)

The move was a lot of hard work but the most frustrating part of moving has been getting our e-mail changed and receiving e-mails. As soon as we disconnected our phone line at Cedar Pond we lost every single e-mail contact and any e-mails sent to me since June 15th are lost to us. ( Don't ever make your main e-mail through your local land line phone provider if it is important to keep your e-mail contacts ! ) I am still in the process of updating so many important contacts and very often after a day of hard physical work outdoors I am simply too tired to fight with the internet. That's my excuse for not blogging for so long. That and the fact I did not have dependable internet until September.

Thank-you to those who e-mailed me and missed me, you touched my heart. I think I've successfully updated my blogs and am excited to get back to blogging. I know I've missed a lot and can't wait to see what's been going on in blog land with my friends the last few months !