Big Snow!!! Queen's Cake Baking

 

Big Snow!!!-

Well we got the big snow that was predicted! I was watching the weather really closely Friday because we knew it was coming, but wasn't sure exactly about the timing. I follow a local young meteorologist on Facebook (Treasure Valley Weather Headquarters Kody) who is much more on track than the TV weather guys and he really nailed it right down to the hour or so. No snow Friday night on the way home which was really nice, forecast from NWS-

 

 

 

We ran some errands Saturday morning (yesterday) and got home, the snow started in the afternoon. It really picked up after about 4:00 p.m. and then we really got hammered. The high for the day was 17°! I kept the heat lamp on in the coop overnight. I do turn it off during the day even though it's hard wired in. I'm always a little paranoid about a fire. Had about a good five or six inches on the ground when I went to bed, woke up to about 4 or 5 more inches! The top photo of our herb boxes, the solar light are buried completely. There's a video of the snow on my Instagram account, just click on the link! Looks lovely but Dave definitely had a lot to dig out. He shoveled the front sidewalk or driveway and the neighbor sidewalk as well. Lows of 6 degrees tonight, 2 degrees tomorrow night! More snow later in the week.

 

Love our little tree!

 

He created a little walkway for me to get to the coop and he cleared off the sunroom. This is the reason why we always put this up! 

 

 

 

Gives the chickens a lot more dry space when the weather is bad. I've been going out every day and giving them some greens and some wild bird food to give them something to peck at and keep them busy. Deck-

Solar bulbs still showing last night 

 

 

Queen's Cake Baking-

Since I had tomorrow off as a holiday I decided to do some baking this weekend. Since I was still recovering a bit for my surgery I didn't really do any traditional Christmas/holiday baking. I love the recipe for the Williamsburg Queens Cake. I've made it quite a few times before. It has lemon and orange extract with Currants. It takes about an hour and a half to bake but it's worth the wait! You want to let it cool completely before you slice into it and it's even better the next day. Keeps really well! Today or tomorrow I'll be making some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with bittersweet chocolate chips. I did make the cake yesterday with half whole wheat pastry flour to make it a little bit healthier and I'll do the same with the cookies. When it's 17 degrees out it's a good time to bake!

More Snow & The New Year, Recovery, My DNA Results!

 

More Snow & The New Year-

***Update! We got over 5" yesterday, a near record!*** If you followed this blog at all you know I love snow! Living in the high desert we don't always get very much, but it varies year to year. We had a couple of small snowfalls  maybe an inch, but it melted. Then we got into some record high temp weather in December where it was almost 47°! Last week we finally had a good snow of 2 inches. Really beautiful! I had intentionally left a few holiday decor items on the deck so that it might look nice if it snowed and we got lucky, the bulbs are solar lights-

 

We got another 2 inches this last weekend which stayed due to the cold weather. We did get another inch overnight last night, it warmed up and some of it did melt. That mountains are really getting hammered which is good for the snow pack, tourists and the ski season. More on the way if you check the map. This is definitely winter winter winter. I've been putting extra food out for the chickens, some snacks and things since they don't go outside much to keep them occupied. More snow expected the next several days, first "BLIZZARD" warning in years -

 

 

I am loving it! The city's been staying on top of the roads pretty well so not too bad going to work. Loved doing Christmas/winter/Yule decorating my "buffet" I created last year- 

 

My favorite new purchase was this little tree, it lights up. I put in in my big Ikea crock and looks perfect!

My Trader Joe's bulb garden has done amazing (as usual)!

We spent Christmas morning with our family and had a quiet New Year's. Happy New Year to all! PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS BLOG FONT IS TOO BIG? THANKS!

Recovery- 

I didn't know what exactly to do a photo of so I decided to add this since the Acupuncture has been so helpful! I have been back in the office for about a week, all going well. Since most insurances don't cover acupuncture much at all (if any)  I'm very fortunate that Boise has an Acupuncture Co-op! Kind of a sliding fee scale kind of thing once established as a patient. The acupuncturist I work with is really awesome I must say. I've been seeing her every two weeks and I noticed it really helped with the inflammation and healing. I also worked with my long-term Chiropractor as she did some really really minute adjustments (not on the surgical site)  but around it. My low back, separate from where the surgery was done, took a beating with being in bed so much and not moving around. After the first adjustment I walked out and I was actually upright completely with little pain. All in all everything is going super well, only been eight weeks and I'm about 98% recovered! Pain-free and all of the tingling in my legs is pretty much gone except on rare occasions. Very perfect outcome with lots of prayers involved. Great way to start the new year! 

My DNA Results!

Dave did a great job, for my December birthday/combo Christmas present- a DNA test from Ancestry. I had already done our family trees there. It was funny I always had loved Scandinavian culture and it turns out I'm part Scandinavian! And much more so than I ever would have guessed. Turns out my mother was 25% Scandinavian, as well as a large portion of Northern British, much of which apparently was settled by the Vikings. I was sort of aware of this migration, but not much. Anyway it's been really exciting to see. I guess there's a reason I've always gravitated toward Scandinavian culture, etc. Since I was a very young child when I first read about the Laplanders now known as the Sami (I think) I was fascinated by the Far North. I already knew about the Austrian/Czech side but never heard any family member mention any Swedish/Danish/Norwegian!  More DNA details here, interesting and a few potential family members popped up, probably won't contact, time will tell-