First Snows Of Winter

The first half of these pictures were taken way back in early November during our first snowfall of the winter.

It was cold and windy and the snow was only light and steady, and we knew that it wouldn't amount to much but we were both excited anyway.

As excited as small children as we always are every winter...........

The above and below pictures are two of a large number of whimsical, cheap and colorful, metal decorations that we hung from our fence last spring in an effort to decorate.

Something to add life and color to our yard until flowers and bushes began to grow (which is hard to do with rabbits and deer chewing up everything I plant).

I joked with LC one day that we should buy stock in the Dollar Store because that is where I bought everything, over the course of a few months.

But the metal and smiling suns, the orange and yellow sunflowers, the bright green frogs, the bright red lady bugs look good strung along the wide expanse of our front fence....................

 Yesterday we had snow blowing in sideways and 35mph sustained winds.

This time last year we had just finished painting the outside of the house after unexpectedly warm temperatures and sunshine that lasted through the entire month of March.

Such a change from one year to the next...........

Neither LC nor I had thought about where to go next, once we had finished the huge task of painting the outside of the house.

Once it was done we looked at our new, light brown home, smiled at each other in satisfaction at a job well done, and then thought "what now?"

Good question.  We hadn't thought that far..........

We toyed around with new white boards around every window (since the existing wood was all rotten and needed to be replaced) and then finally settled on natural wood.

It looked great but there are still a couple of high places that need to be finished off.

Finally by the end of March the house was all painted, the windows were all framed out with new wood and so was the front door.

We had a great looking blank slate.

So what next?

Again we had no idea.  What to do to dress up a boring looking, blank slate?

We had two things that ended up being a jumping off point for decorating the outside of the house -  a black metal cowboy riding a horse and a bear welcome sign.

From there we painted old metal stars black, and did the same thing with horse shoes and a couple of other metal objects that we had.

And then did the same thing with a metal storm door.

Finally I got the bright idea to have someone draw and cut out a horse on plywood.

After bringing this 8 foot behemoth home we painted him black and he now stands on one wall of the house.

I like him.

A theme of black, metal, horses and cowboys and bears developed without a whole lot of planning.................

A couple of pictures taken during a walk in town with Kory after that first light snowfall of our winter.................

A week later winter arrived in earnest and from that point on we were wonderfully buried in snow in Atomic City.

Overnight our town transformed from an isolated desert town into a silent winter wonderland, and it stayed that way for months....................

Our snowboard bench covered in snow.

Across the yard sat our ski picnic table....................

Our upside kayaks silently waiting behind the shed for spring to arrive....................

In the summer the trees between our yards are so thick that we can barely see our neighbors and their home across the fence.

In winter, their home looks beautiful in the snow....................

The 16x12 shed that we made almost entirely from salvaged wood.

Upright posts discarded by one of our neighbors.

Framing lumber scrounged from a dump site owned by another of our neighbors.

Plywood that was discarded by a bar in Blackfoot during a renovation project.

The roofing panels taken off our old greenhouse in the morning and installed on top of our shed by afternoon.

It's not perfect but its solid, paint hides a multitude of sins and it holds what we need it to hold.

The man who cut out our 8 foot horse had enough plywood left over to cut out two small horses as well.

Using the small horses as templates we cut out a few more, painted them black, and our herd of horses now graze on the side of our shed.......................

One of my most prized possessions.

The treasure chest my son Chris salvaged from the bottom of a creek for me.

I can still remember my 6 foot, 13 year old son, struggling to pick it up off the floor of the creek, and then struggling to wade his way back to me while carrying this heavy object.

He really wanted to give it to me.

I really wanted to have it.

I love this thing very much..........................

I painted this..............thing..........red, white and blue and stuck it in the ground in the back yard last summer....................

More salvaged posts used for a fence in our side yard.

We did have to buy the metal fencing though........................

Puppy running in the back yard.

She loves the snow....................

One more look at our horse...................

And one last look at our bear..................