Check List......

(image credit)

Snow tires installed - check

Insurance company called to get 5% discount for installing snow tires - check

Information input into computer for a rebate on buying snow tires - check

Only going to get around $60 discount on insurance and $60 prepaid Visa card for the rebate.  However it's better that money in our pocket than in the companies pocket, right!!

Snow Day!!

Hubby at home; tried to go to work but Highway 400 very bad, so turned around and came home.  The good thing with dh being at home is that he cleaned out the driveway for me, yeah dh!!!

 He even cleaned out the neighbours driveway.....

 Dh made one purchase in Britain and that was his Union Jack Pom Pom hat at 5 pounds from Asda.

Its also bitter cold in the high Minus 20's oC all day.  Stay warm if you are also experiencing this cold and snow.

P.S. Wiarton Willie did not see his shadow so we are in for an early Spring.......I don't believe him, just saying!

Oops......

Are driveway is a thick layer of ice with snow packed on top of it.  On Friday we had a bit of a thaw which made a HUGE mess of the driveway, as all it did was make is slushy with a big layer of ice underneath it.  Suffice to say I got stuck half way up the driveway when coming back from grocery shopping {SIGH}

So after putting some ashes down and getting out our trusty snow blower I was able to get up the driveway.  Dh had no problem getting up the driveway in his truck.

We went out later and the wind was howling but the sky looked lovely.

The wind has howled overnight and is still blowing a gale this morning.  The temperature has dropped to way below freezing, so now we have a great big ice skating rink out side {{SIGH}}

We're off out to the GTA Home Show today; looking forward to it!!

Have a great Saturday, what are you up too?

No, I'm not going to rob a bank.........

I'm all wrapped up to go outside.

We got a pile of snow over night, so I had to blow out the snow on the driveway.

Looking out of the mud room door.

Looking on the back deck with the BBQ,.  That image in the middle is a reflection on the glass.

My trusty snow blower.  She's not big enough for our driveway, but is a whole lot better than nothing!!

Took me around 1 1/2 hours to clean it all out today.  Will need to do it again as it's still snowing.

The snow fences are doing their jobs.  The drifts are about 2 1/2 feet high.

Looking down the driveway.  I couldn't have got out, as the drifts were so high at the bottom of the driveway.  The snow plow has been past a couple of times, but luckily he didn't dump a pile there.  Plus that bloody mail lady has no excuse not to deliver today, as she can reach the post box no problem!!

I am know knackered and I must have lost some weight???  I was soaked when I got finished.  Will need to do it again this afternoon, though dh said he was finishing at 2pm (started at 5:30am), so he said he would do it.

Off to have a cup of tea and a peanut butter cookie!!

Nasty, nasty, nasty

It's just before 5:30am on Friday morning as I am writing this.  I have been up for a little while, helping dh dig out his truck........

We may not have had any more snow since Wednesday, but it is blowing it around like the dickens.  Which has resulted in blocking us in at the top of the driveway.  Dh attempted to drive his pickup through it and got stuck, so we both had to dig him out and it's bitter cold out there.

Luckily I told work I wasn't coming in today, as there isn't a cat in hell's chance of me getting out of the driveway until I blow it all out again.  It was the same yesterday when dh came home from work the driveway was all blocked in.   Although the main roads weren't bad the side roads were not the greatest.

One way of telling that the roads are bad, is when you see me driving the speed limit or under!!!  It's well known in my family I have a lead foot, but even I know to be cautious when there is snow on the roads.  I saw three cars in the ditches on the way home yesterday.  No idea why, other than they were travelling too fast....

So I will have my bowl of cereal and my hot cup of tea and when it gets light head outside with my trusty side kick "SNOW BLOWER," and see if we can get the driveway blown out again.  Mind you with that wind howling, I may be wasting my time, but even I have to go out today.......

Ever wished you had stayed in bed for the day?

Friday was one of those days.  Woke up with a headache, always a bad sign.  It had snowed over night and was still snowing.  We probably only got around 6 inches, but in places on our driveway it had blown and settled so it was well over knee high.  It was a miracle that dh got his pickup out of the driveway.  When I went outside I couldn't even see his tire marks on the driveway as more snow had laid.

Lets just say my poor old snow blower struggled and I had to have it as high as possible.  It was the worst I had seen it this winter.  So by the time I had cleared out the driveway and brought all the logs in and cleaned off the decks I was just plain pooped. 

I had to hoover up in our bedroom and hoover up the flies and lady bugs {{SIGH}}  Where they come from I do not know.

Dh came home a little earlier than normal, as the roads were bad.  He went into the bedroom to do some more work in there and has ran into another problem, the ceiling is sloping and the closet we have moved will not fit properly now, so there is going to be more work to be done there, now.

I swear this was supposed to be an easy project, but its proving to be one issue after another, again a big {{{SIGH}}}

I am on varnishing the closet doors and have them in the attic, so hopefully they won't stink up the whole house, no such luck!!!

On a more positive note, we got mail on Friday and she took my other mail!!

Supper was good and easy, as I put a big pot of stew on in the crockpot.  Made enough to feed an army so I guess I know what we will be having for supper for a couple of days.

We got the oil tank filled for the heating and we had only used half a tank this month and it wasn't as expensive as prior months, at around $370.  The forecast is looking as though its only going to get warmer, so that's also good. 

So I guess in the scheme of things, things could be worse........

We are nearly at the end of our second month in the Daily Savings Club, did you remember to put your money in your pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

How many no spend days do you have each week?  Try and add another no spend day per week, and gradually add more and more days until you are only having one or two no spend days per week......

A bits and bobs sort of a day....................

I bought a new ironing board cover on the weekend, so while I was changing that, I figured I would do some sewing while I had the ironing board out.  I sewed the borders on the pink and cream quilt blocks.  This one has brown borders.  I am not going to do quilt as you go I don't think with this one, as I want to put some borders on it.  In fact looking at this photo a cream border will make it pop don't you think?

While I was sewing I had the radio on through the computer, never done that before, it helps if you have good speakers and we seem to have pretty good ones.  Anyhow this song came on, "Lay It On The Line," by Divine Brown, it's another one to ask dd to put on my i-pod before gardening season.  Do you listen to the radio through the day?

My mother rang me on Wednesday and we were talking in general and I was saying that I had been busy washing the kitchen floor by hand.  Its not something I do very often, I generally use a mop and bucket.  However what we were both saying is that no one would notice if I wash it by mop and bucket or by hand, and sure enough dh never noticed I had washed the floor!!!  Still it felt good to give it a good clean.  I moved the fridge and stove out and gave that a good clean behind there.

It was super windy on Wednesday as well.  It calmed down a bit by mid-afternoon so I went outside to snow plow.  First I had to shovel in front of the garage door as there was a huge snow bank in front of it.  I was pooped by the time I had shoveled that.  It was higher than my knee.  I had to shovel it out of the way before I could get the snow blower out of the garage.  One good thing though, I didn't have to kick the door to open it today.

Our driveway is a P shape, and due to the high snow drifts that blew in on Wednesday the curve of the P is no longer usable.  The snow drifts are too high for our snow blower to go through.  Luckily the straight side of the P is clear so that's good.

Did you remember to put your money into your pot today?

Today's Money saving tip:

Clean out your closet. Go through your closets and try to get rid of some of the stuff in there. You can have a yard sale with it, take it to a consignment shop, or even donate it for the tax deduction – all of which turn old stuff you don’t want to use any more into money in your pocket. Not only that, it’s often a psychological load off your mind to clean out your closets.

The first time it was hard work.....

as I didn't know what I was doing.

After further instructions, the second time was easier.

The third time was hard work, and now the fourth time its just getting plain annoying.

What am I talking about, snow blowing the driveway; and it wouldn't be so bad, but we still have at least another three months of bad weather in front of us, if not more.  This snow blowing seems to be turning into the grass cutting.......a never ending flipping job.  Now granted unlike the grass cutting which takes hours and hours, there is nearly 5 acres to cut after all, I can get the driveway done in about an hour.

However we made a mistake and didn't put up snow fences so the snow has a habit of drifting on certain parts of the driveway, especially at the entrance to our driveway.  On Monday the snow must have been at least 3 feet deep on the end of our driveway.  Luckily dh has a 4 wheel drive and was able to get through it, but no one was getting either in or out of our driveway until I plowed it out.  Our snow blower is similar to this one

This is a photo of dh using the snow blower on Sunday:

This is the closest you will come to ever seeing him, he's camera shy!!  My brother Nick has written about snow and driving as well here

Now I'm not going to be about a lot for the remainder of the week, as I am working these next three days....depending on the weather!!  My old work called me in to cover for a vacation leave.   So that will be a change of pace for me, plus some extra pocket money.  I have just typed out a list of jobs that we need to get too this year and although there are only technically 24 jobs on the list, its long!!  This is what we'd like to do by next Fall:

1. finish attic

2. re-grade by basement patio door

3. basement insulation /drywall

4. laundry room

5. closets

6. garage door

7. repair garage sill

8. shed

9. garage rood

10. garage eaves troughs

11. replace electrical panel

12. replace all receptacles

13. receptacles in family room (power?)

14. old basement windows (drainage?)

15. new basement windows (drainage?)

16. new basement floor (hardwood?)/laundry room (tiles?)

17. fireplace boxes to replace

18. mud room, old door to replace

19. grout outside walls

20. mud room new door to repair

21. remove light fixture above front door (need soffit material)

22. family room (remove hardwood and drywall), replace insulation, plastic and drywall

23. family room (remove metal rail) make new half wall

24. insulate mudroom under floor

Now what this list doesn't tell you is exactly what these jobs involve; most are an awful lot of work, but I am going to stick it on the fridge on we can cross them off as we get them done.

Did you remember to put your money in your pot for the Daily Savings Club?

Today's money saving tip is:

Before you buy something, ask if the item will be put on sale in the near future.  I know Sears is good for this, especially in the furniture and appliance departments.

A few photos, and a quilt block that will be the death of me, and a funny story!!

Last month's block of the month was "Fly Foot." What a nightmare it has been as it incorporated Flying Geese in amongst it.  I have never done Flying Geese before, and it has caused me more aggravation than enough.  I gave up in the end, and did it using this pattern  It's slightly different to the one they gave me, but similar enough not to make much of a difference.

I have run into another problem though, I think I have scorched the white fabric with the iron :0(  Not sure what I will do.  I need a 12 1/2 inch square to square up this block and the other one I made before I add the sashings.  Oh and yes, my points don't match up either :0(  However doing it this way was a whole lot better than the original pattern as they were so far out it was crazy!!

Now over the past couple of days we had our first winter storm.  We got a bit of snow and it was so windy.  However on Wednesday afternoon it got out nice and I took some photos.

This is the "forest" on the south side of the property.

Molly can't keep her nose out of the snow!!

Now for the funny story.  So as I said before we got a snow storm on Wednesday.  By the afternoon it had stopped snowing, so I knew we had too much snow on the driveway, so I figured I would use the snow blower and blow out the driveway.  I have NEVER EVER used a snow blower before.  I had to admit though I was pretty proud of myself although it was hard work and it took me over an hour and a half to get it sort of done.

So I ring my dad to tell him how he should be proud of me for doing that, but I said I fell on my behind while trying to pull the snow blower back.   So my dad says well why didn't you put it in reverse???  What reverse, I didn't realize it had a reverse {{{SIGH}}}  I tell him I was surprised at how easy it was to start with the "pully thing."  He says, well why didn't you plug it in and press the switch?  What are you talking about {{SIGH}}  Then the chute thingy wouldn't turn from side by side, I had to manually do it and it didn't work properly {SIGH}  So I say to my dad, I must get dh to give me some lessons on how to use it, which he did when he got home that night.  So I am expecting the next time I use the snow blower, it will be easier now I know how to use it.

That story reminds me of the first time I used the lawn tractor, see this post.  What a doofus I am!!!

Oh we have a strange, nasty smell coming from the top of the basement stairs where I "lost" another mouse trap a couple of weeks ago {{{{SIGH}}}} and although I stuck my hoover pipe in the area, I couldn't find anything, so another job for dh this weekend!

An oldie but a goodie, "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree," by Brenda Lee  Great video to go with it.