It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's officially Christmas time in the TT. The " Blomberg Christmas bowl" is on the table and it's filled with nuts and tangerines. It's missing the little candles that go around it but I'm still looking in the stores for those. It's also missing all the little German Chocolate goodies that Omi used to send when we were kids but I can't find those in the stores. Our little "living" Christmas tree is all decorated with our " Alabama ornaments" and the kitties stockings have been hung with care. There is also a little tree in the kitchen with nothing but chickens on it since the name of the TT is " The chicken coop". I have a little more decorating to the outside before I can post the pictures of it. Hope it's looking a lot like Christmas where you are too.

Clearing trees in the Garden

We took a walk down to the garden area this morning, after breakfast just to decided where we wanted to put our compost bin and ended up going back to the barn to get the chain saw, the weed eater and the heavy duty clippers. Then we started to work. Chuck cut several trees down that were in the way of other pretty trees that we want to keep. I used the weed eater under the lean to and around the trees. Then, we hauled all the cut trees and piled them back in the woods. I can't wait for Spring to till and plant the gardens. It's even a pretty area now, to just go sit and watch the birds come to the feeder.

You know it's cold in the TT when......

Last night was our coldest night so far. It froze. There was frost on all the fields this morning....so pretty all white. Not so pretty trying to stay warm in the TT though. I put hand warmers in each of the kitties beds last night. Marmie loved his....Annie not so much. Marmie laid down on his and purred and purred. When I tried to put my hand under him to see where they were, he bit me...lol. I guess he was afraid I was going to take his nice little heater out of his kitty bed. He slept on his all night. Now, Annie doesn't like anything "lumpy" in her bed so she didn't want to lay on them. I took and put them between the two layers of her kitty blanket and that was better. She did end up laying on hers then. When we got up this morning, it was colder than 44 degrees in the TT. That is when the thermostat stops registering. You know it's cold in the TT when you go to bed with a turtle neck, a sweat shirt, fleece pants and your furry lined jacket with a hood, on. Then, you cover up with a flannel sheet and two down comforters. You know when it's cold in the TT when, you set the butter out to be room temperature ....nice and soft...and it's still like it has just come out of the refrigerator......hard. You know when it's cold in the TT when your water you took out of the cooler, stays just as cold after it sits out for a day. Plus all the food in the pantry tastes like it came out of the refrigerator including the kitty food. ...which the kitties don't like that cold. We have one more night of freezing and then it's going to warm back up to the 40's at night and get to 60 during the day....yea!!!!!! Not ready for " true winter" just yet.....let us please have power and heat first.

Our little Living Christmas tree

We decided to buy a " living Christmas tree" this year. We found this little one that fits perfect on the table in the corner of the TT. After Christmas we are going to plant it in the yard of our new house and then decorate it for the birds every year and watch it grow. We have lots of pines on the land but not like this one. I'm going to put Christmas lights on it and all of our decorations for it, has something to do with our lives in Alabama. It's going to be a funny little tree and we are sure hoping that we will be able to plug the lights into the wall and have them work, soon.

The plans for the house...

We met Jason in town to finalize our plans to the house on Tues. While we were waiting for Collen, Jason took us to this cute little cafe that had the best cookies and only $1 for coffee. They also served lunch. We walked back down to Collen's office and after two hours of deciding what should be where and how, the plans are finally done! A lot of time was spent on getting the stairs to fit going down to the basement and the safe room but it all finally got figured out. It's really hard for me to believe that there is going to be this big, pretty house in the middle of our woods some day soon.

The Barn

We've been working in the barn almost every day. ...with me going through boxes and Chuck building his work bench and clearing a space to work. We kinda know what areas things are in but when we are looking for a certain thing, it's been kinda hard because there are so many boxes in there. There's the ones that we brought up a year ago and then there are the ones that we brought up this truck load. I have found things that I had totally forgotten about or thought that I had lost. Sure puts a smile on your face when you say...." hey! look what I found!! lol

Annie and the birds.

This was taken this morning of Annie enjoying the pretty birds that come to the feeders every day. The squirrels have found them also and that really excites her. This feeder is about 8 feet from the window. .....it's just like being outside for her.