Snowshoe Weekend

 We did have such a nice time at the cabin last weekend. We hadn't been since October so Elv and I had lost track of how we had left it then. Getting in late Friday evening to an empty wood box, pantry and unmade beds is not fun. So pulling up to welcome light spilling out onto the snow from all the windows, the generator running, and warm fires in both stoves was amazing. Our friends had even hauled in water.We are so blessed. It's purely a gift from the Lord.
    Brad, Amy and Tim were due to follow us in two hours later, so Elv and I unloaded and worked on settling in. He filled the wood box and kept both fires roaring to heat the very corners. And I fixed beds in all three bedrooms with clean sheets and piles of blankets.
    Even later, Elv fried up hamburgers on the cookstove and I made popcorn. Everyone was hungry. Eating that late made us  feel content and drowsy especially after the haul in through the snow and cold.  Cabin bedtime by midnight or so.

 Morning coffee and quiet time by the fire is especially nice. Elv really spoils us. He prowls around building fires and making coffee an hour before any of the rest of us even wake up.

 Then he cooks delightful breakfasts. This time we enjoyed his version of eggs and bacon. Besides we have cookstove toast which is bread  buttered on both sides and toasted on foil on the cook stove. It tastes wonderful with our own plum jam to spread on. You can't eat just one slice of it even with the eggs and bacon.
   I love our arrangement. He cooks and I clean up. Besides, he installed a cabinet with a ceramic sink in the kitchen right after breakfast Saturday morning and hooked up the drain. So even though we still have to dip hot water from the reservoir in the cookstove to wash dishes, we don't have to haul it outside to dump anymore. 

What we really wanted to do this time was snowshoe. By refurbishing Elv's old bear paws from logging days, and Brad buying a new pair we each had a pair of snowshoes. Elv fitted Amy's boots into the old bear paw shoes.
   Off we went, feeling triumphant because we could walk out across swampland, where we could never go in summer, and oh, just anywhere we wished. Such fun it is.
   Then back to the cabin to dry out and warm up, drink hot chocolate, and dig out games and books. Pit and Scrabble.
And we read and napped by the fire when we weren't cooking or snowshoeing.

   

Snow Storm

To top it off perfectly, there was a snowstorm on our last day that threatened to snow us in completely. At first Elv wasn't too concerned because we had the Jeep and snowshoes, but eventually as the snow deepened and the the forecast kept changing the amounts to more and more, we decided to get out while we could still drive out.
It also meant though that the expected visit with Herb and Susan did not happen which is disappointing.
Afterward, we thought maybe we should have parked the pickup and jeep out at the end of Joshua Rd and waited till morning snowshoeing out just for fun one last time. We could have, easily enough, but then, it was really nice to be home and off to our various duties Monday morning.