The Deep Freeze

We didn't get the 40 degree weather predicted over night. It pretty much stayed at 33 degrees which meant the ice and snow did not melt. It was a slushy mess while feeding this morning. Even my water proof boots weren't water proof enough.  Mark tried to clean off our patio, drive and mom's drive next to the garage.  By 11:00 am the wind shifted coming down straight from the north causing the temperatures to start falling drastically. By this evening we are at 9 degrees with sustained winds at 22 mph gusting to 33 mph giving us a wind chill of below zero.
Breakfast was colorful this morning.  We had avocados that were ripe and ready to be eaten, fresh strawberries, raisin toast with cream cheese, farm fresh eggs and sausage.

Today was a good day to stay inside so while the laundry was running I decided to try to make gingerbread houses for the kids tomorrow to decorate. Sarah made them out of grand crackers so that is what I tried. No gingerbread was baked.  I found out that I am NOT a craft person. I do not have the fine motor skills needed nor the talent to put these together. The first one I tried was a double decker and big but it fell apart, I scraped off the icing and tried some small designs and got them to hold together.  Below are the finished houses, all 9 of them. They look like shacks that even the very poor wouldn't want to live in. 

We have lots of candy sprinkles, 3 kinds of chocolate chips, and pretzels to make fences around each house. Of course I'll make lots of icing to cover them. Maybe by the time the kids are done they won't look quite so bad. This afternoon a booking came in for the barn apartment. They are coming in tomorrow and staying for 3 days. They want to use the wood burner so Mark and I hauled wood up to the apartment using the golf cart and stacked it by the wood burner. Then on the way back to put the golf cart in my garage I tapped the brake and the golf cart quit. It had to be left outside but now I know it is the brake that is causing the problem. Maybe tomorrow it will run enough to put it back in the garage.