Wind Gusts of 37 MPH

On this Sunday night we are tucked in our warm house as the wind is howling outside. And let me tell you, that wind sure can howl! We are having wind gusts of 37 mph. Now, I know that's no where near what Sandy dished out on the East Coast, but Caesar is making a valid effort. Who is Caesar, you ask? I guess someone somewhere decided that snowstorms needed to be named this year. Maybe someone in the middle of the country has been feeling left out that all those hurricanes and tropical storms get names. Me? I think it's a bit silly. Pretty sure people around here will still call it the Storm of December '12 or whatever... at any rate, the wind sounds wicked. The screens on this house really rattle when the wind gets going.

It's making me relieved that we had a huge tree on the west side of our house taken out this fall. It was this tree:

 These photos are from a couple of summers ago. It had grown even more and was leaning more towards the house.

 Part of it was looking sick. We had an Arborist look at it and he said there were actually two different trees growing together and pushing on each other.

The part on the left was an Elm tree and it had Dutch Elm Disease.

While I'm off on this rabbit trail I'll show you some photos of the guy cutting the tree down. (It's better to think about when it was warmer outside and to get my mind off of Caesar's howling.)

This one guy worked by himself for six or seven hours. He was very methodical in what he did and it was interesting to watch him.

He used a rope to pull the trunks down into the field. He wanted to wait until after the corn was harvested so he had ample room to take the tree down.

 The stump was cut down to ground level. We decided to not pay the extra $400 to have him totally remove it. I bought a crab apple tree to plant in that area. It was super cheap to buy one in mid-October.

Well, that was a nice rabbit trail. Nice to look at those photos and see blue sky. I forget what blue sky looks like here in Minnesota in the winter time.

Since the weather is so yucky today, we didn't go to church this morning. A 45 mile drive in the country just didn't seem like a smart idea. Hubby got out the Christmas decorations and even put up some lights outside. (That was before the wind picked up, of course.) So, the front porch looks a little festive and the Christmas tree is up with lights on it. (The old tree, since the hunt for the perfect replacement goes on...) I'll work on the rest of the decorating as the week goes on.

After 29 Christmases together, we've accumulated quite a few decorations and I'm feeling the need to sort through and pare down. Any one else who has been married a long time go through that?

Wednesday of last week I spent the day in a little bit bigger town that's an hour away finishing up my Christmas shopping. I scored some pretty good finds and ended the day at Olive Garden with my book (The Hobbit), so it was a good day.

Thursday of last week I was furiously working on a project in my sewing room (details later this week) and looked up to see the spool of thread almost empty. That's was not good and the scream that came out of me was evident of my frustration. I was super worried about what to do. I was using a specific color of thread and there is NO place in this town to buy thread. When Hubby got home from work we decided to make a road trip to that little bit bigger town that's an hour away so I could look at a quilt shop or a couple of fabric stores. So off we went...second day in a row for me. I was able to find the thread I needed and enjoyed a dinner out with my hubby. That guy is seriously my hero. He was awesome to drive me 120 miles for a couple of spools of thread.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a very cold day. I think I'll just stay in and work on those decorations and wrapping some presents. Probably will have to dig out the wool socks, too.