January | 2025 | my90acres

Monday, Jan 20, 2023 The beginning of thawout.

My west coast son asked me this week, Hey, Mom, have you been doing any work in your studio lately? Ha!

My studio is a summer kitchen about 30 feet from the house. In case you don’t know, summer kitchens were standard buildings for most farms in the south and Midwest a century ago. They were designed to keep the heat from the wood cookstoves out of the house during the summer, cooking and canning. Although very handy as a studio, it’s not really comfortable during the depth of winter. I’ve been known to wear a couple of pairs of socks, several layers of other clothes, a hat and fingerless gloves while working there in the winter. Turning up the heater is not really economical.

Tuesday, Jan 21, 2025. Muted sunrise on an overcast day.

Normally, winters around here are like long autumns. We lived in Michigan for ten years so I’m pretty used to some pretty chilly weather. But this past couple of weeks, we’ve had nine or ten inches of snow with a few inches of ice on top. Temps have dropped to zero, and the sun has only weakly thawed and refrozen the ice. We were housebound for a few days. Our drive is still a mess and not for the faint of heart, or those without four wheel drive.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2025 Another rosy sunrise.

But…the scenery has been beautiful. Especially the sunrises. As you can see in the photos, the morning colors are reflected off the icy snow crusts. Probably subject for future paintings but I’m pretty tired of it by now.

Wherever you live, I hope you are having a more pleasant winter than we’ve been having. Keep warm. Keep safe.

Another golden sunrise, more melted and refrozen snow.

House on the Hill. Pretty photo. Another subject for a card in the future.

Like many millions of people in the mid-section of the nation, we have been dealing with a huge snow event the past few days. Schools and businesses shut down. Pretty much anything you can think of.

We have survived many winters in this old house, dealing with power outages. One year, I did my taxes with two kids home from school, a kerosene heater and oil lamps. This was in the days before computers, of course.

First snow, after only an hour. It was coming down quickly.

This week we’ve been dealing with nine or ten inches of snow, with crusty ice on top, three or four inches. I finally made a foray outside to chip away at the sidewalks. We haven’t been out in days with a drive a third of a mile long. But we’re usually prepared. And the power is still working which is pretty important.