Traipsin' All Over Tarnation

I've been noticeably absent from the blogosphere for several days, because I've been traipsin' all over tarnation.  Not that I'm griping.  I'd much rather stay busy and productive rather than sitting around waiting to die.

I got my Ellie fix.

After a week at daughter Lindsay's home, planning a baby shower, I drove the two hour trip home late in the day on Wednesday.  My plan had been to come home on Monday or Tuesday, but an 8-10 inch snowstorm put the kibutzes to that.  Better to be safe than sorry, and anyway, that makes more time to spend with granddaughter Ellie.

I no sooner got home, than I unpacked my bag, threw some wash into the washer, and began repacking my bag for another little trip.

Thursday morning I headed up into the mountains with my parents to our little cabin in the woods, and the location of a building project we are having done.  It was a beautiful drive through the Pine Creek valley as we headed north.  Pine Creek has a lot of ice at some locations from the deep freeze we've been having for the last several weeks.

In addition to the ice on the creek, there were quite a few icicles along the side of the road.  It was certainly cold enough that they weren't melting a bit.

The point of this little trip was to meet up with our carpet installer, guide him into our property, and allow him the chance to take measurements of the rooms that will be needing carpet.

A treacherous snowy and icy road was par for the course, the higher up into the mountain we got.

Finally we arrived safely, and after about twenty minutes, the installer had the measurements he needed, and then headed back down the mountain.  We took a good look-see around the project site, and then headed farther back in to spend the night in our little cabin.

I must say that I think the woods are so beautiful in the winter.  There is always something to discover and enjoy.  Everywhere I looked there were animal tracks in the snow, some fresher than others.

We passed by this serene little pond on our way.

After arriving at the cabin and unloading our gear and food, we set about to try and warm up the place. Although we keep the heater on low at all times, providing just enough heat to keep the kitchen and bathroom pipes from freezing, when we opened the doors to the other living areas, those rooms were not much warmer than the outside air.

Even after turning up the heater and building a roaring fire in the fireplace, it took quite a while to warm up the entire living space.  Finally we felt comfortable and enjoyed a few hours together having some delicious chili and reading books in front of the fire until bedtime.

But, my traipsin' wasn't done yet.

The next morning, after checking the outside thermometer (2 degrees at 8:00 AM), we loaded up and headed back down into civilization.  There was some shopping that we needed to do, relative to the kitchen in the new structure.

About one inch of snow had fallen overnight, and because of the low temperatures, it gave off that glittery, sparkly look.  Although my cheap camera doesn't do it justice, perhaps you can see the sparkles on the snow in these photos.  It was truly a winter wonderland.

'Twas a slippery, nail biter of a drive back down the mountain, to be sure.

As this post is plenty long enough, tomorrow I'll post day two of our traipsing about.  

Stay tuned.  This gal gets around.