Chili con Carnage!

Keith, Tanya and Grayson endured the long drive from Orillia to pay us a weekend visit....and on a blustery winter weekend, what better than a few dark beers and a bubbling slow-cooker full of spicy chili goodness?

We made two batches, one mild and one wild...the MILD for Tanya and Grayson with ground chicken and no spice...and the WILD for the rest of us with ground beef, jalapenos, some Brick Bock and ample spice fixin's. Throw in some nacho chips and you have yourself one fiesty little meal, mis amigos.

Of course, before any of this could happen....they had to get INTO the driveway in the first place. Our drifty driveway and their bald tires made for some highly entertaining moments, including the action shot captured below of Mike and Tanya pushing the car while Jane stands in the warm house taking photographs out the window... .

Then of course we had to shovel them out again, so that they could leave....it doesn't need to actually snow in Wheatley to have to shovel your driveway again. The wind takes care of all that for you, and just moves some more around the yard. In the midst of winter, we usually park at the road and walk in, so as to avoid shovelling the lengthy driveway....but we thought we'd pull out all the stops to impress the company.

Dicing the garlic...or Dicing with Death?!?

The start of Chili con Carnage!

You can't leave until you shovel your way out....

All visitors get the Royal Welcome, i.e. a push

Wonders of Winter

So we wandered into Windsor on the weekend, to wax wistfully at the white wonders of winter. Yes, there was a sale on W's this week at the Superstore....maybe something to do with "W." leaving office for good? Of course, my government contract also obligates me to a certain amount of alliteration throughout the year. Just trying to get it out of the way early.

On good days, Detroit can look quite lovely across the Detroit River...usually when the sun is glinting off the shiny towers of the automotive empires. On a bad day...well....let's not talk about those. After all, this is where they filmed Robocop....and I'm not so sure they actually changed anything for cinematic purposes....this was kind of an in-between day.

Thought I'd better get a few shots before that tallest building doesn't say 'GM' anymore...who knows, could be any day now. Maybe Homeland Security will take over the building, all the better to keep an eye on those freaks across the river, eh?

Detroit Rock City - as glimped from downtown Windsor

Speaking of winter wonders, there's always our driveway. Oh sure, when it gets really bad, we park out at the road and walk in. Otherwise, I try to use the Jeep on occasion to pack down the snow for our small cars to get in and out. The only problem with that theory is that I assumed Jane would stay ON the driveway....

So the story goes, she was leaving for Chatham, and forgot some stuff she had to mail. Already out at the road, she decided to back up....and in her own words, she "thought" she was backing up "straight". Yeah, I'm an Investigator for a living and all....but I think the evidence speaks for itself.

No no.....the driveway is over HERE....

She did a very good job of getting stuck

It's actually worse than it looks - our driveway slopes off pretty drastically on the sides.

So Mike came home from work in time to shovel out the car and push her out. The best part was that after everything was said and done.....Jane realized that they very postage items she had turned back for in the first place had been in her purse, on the passenger seat, the entire time.

The adventure never ends.

The "after" shot does not do it justice

The Collection

Sure, I stole the idea from Keith...but the man-garage presented the perfect opportunity to begin a collection. The previous owner had, in fact, left their own collection behind in the garage....except that it was bowling trophies. Before the man-garage could truly be "mine", the bowling trophies had to go.

I like mine better.

It started over the window and has since progressed from left to right....and at $0.10 per bottle or can, I have let Jane know that in the event that anything happens to me, she has a nice little nest egg there.

:)

Shelves and Bottles and Cans, Oh My!

South Wall of the Man-Garage

It was bound to happen...

Despite having practically no snow just a week ago....we have since been hammered non-stop with the white fluffy stuff. On the weekend, the Windsor area actually got the most snow in the entire country. Of course, we were in Toronto, and returned home to find the other car buried under drifts...

So now we have lots. At least it's light and easily moved. The extreme cold has found us here even in the south, with lows threatening -20 C and wind chills much colder on the open plains of Essex and Kent. Luckily with the work Jeep I can knock down a path through it for our small cars to come and go without having to shovel the entire long driveway.

And look...it's snowing again. Despite the frigid temperatures, somehow it continues to fall....

The Little Dish That Could - making rural high-speed possible

Wendel, the Guardian of the Willow Tree

Well I did shovel SOME....

...but I'm not shovelling all THAT!

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. After some mad holiday travel, Wheatley to Kingston and back with many stops in between, we spent a quiet New Years Eve at home with a "Lost!" Season 4 marathon, lots of M&M finger foods, and a nice bottle of Italian Amarone.

The early days of 2009 indeed bring glad tidings, for us and hopefully you....we finally managed to justify the installation of rural high speed internet!

No more dial up! No more having to talk on the cell phone while on the computer!

The fine gentlemen from Wave Direct certainly earned their install fee today - one had to scale our icy TV antenna tower in the freezing rain, while the other shimmied through our dark and dismal crawl space to snake the cable to the other side of the house. Job well done.

So now we have wireless internet throughout the house....and hopefully the barn too. I can work from home more easily now, as I can access everything work related that I need to using my laptop. Jane will also have a new laptop, hopefully as of this weekend, so we can both be on the 'net from the comfort of the couch.

Please join us in welcoming this new era of domestic prosperity.

:)

'Tis the Season

Some random festive pics around the house....we moved the bedroom to the living room and sealed off the upstairs for the winter, to save on oil heating. The queen-sized bed fits just nicely beside the new reclining couch, front of the TV!  We also sealed the downstairs windows with plastic, and sealed up the front door....all the better to keep out the prying gusts of winter....


The new living room /bedroom
Festive Miss
The Festive Stockings - note the relative size of Jane's feet...Charlie Brown's Christmas tree

Miscellaneous Cat pics...

On the rare occasions that we see the cats anymore...when they are not hiding out in warmer locales like the insides of sleeping bags, in the laundry hamper or on the heat registers....at any rate, we got some good shots of our babies:


Bicky Crashed Hard in the Window
Miss Talking Back
PootsDandelions growing on the lawn