Getting ready for winter

 Winter hit here with a vengeance.   The forcast said it would snow Sunday night , then it would warm up again, but we sure have not seen that,  We got the snow alright, but it sure has not warmed up much. the snow still weighs down the branches on the trees, and the cold air continues to roll out of the mountains.  On the way out to the farm, you can see that the snow capped mountains are white right down to the valley .. I have even gotten messages through on my phone warning of avelanches in the mountain passes.   It seemed like a great time to get out the bags of mittens and scarfs that were sent by friends in Norwood and Brantford. Yesterday we went to  one of the orphanages, and were able to let every child choose a hat and a scarf.  

they were very thankful, and especially loved that they were all different, and they all got to choose .. We have been working hard with these kids , and today we saw some marked improvement with math with one of the boys when we changed up his teaching method a bit .. a little bit of success, sure helps their self esteem 

the bunny came for a visit with us as well .. boy the kids love that , not sure I can say it enough. 

We were back to the farm today to bring some beds and a chair out to the guys ,  While there we ended up buying 5 chickens off of a neighbor.. she needd the money and we wanted to help, and we always have room for more chickens so it worked out well.

The guys have been busy,  The front porch was in kind of rough shape, and needed a little work, 

it needed a little foundation work, and the lower boards where all starting to rot. 

Acelbek decided it was best to remove the boards completly, and do the hole think in stone,, this is the same stone work that he is doing on all the foundation of the house and the out buildings. Hopefully it warms up a bit like the weatherman had promised and we can get this done before winter.    You can also see that all the loose cement on the walls has been chipped out, and new cement is there now.  Next week we will try to get it painted .

On the coal front, it looks like we have money on rout for about 10 tons,  we could really use another 20 tons .. prices will be going up now that we have had the first snow, but if we act quick we are looking at about  $1600 to meet this need and know that so many will be warm .