When did we move to Canada?

January 8, 2010
Dear Canada,

We've suffered enough. Please come down and take your arctic weather back home where it belongs. There are no polar bears here so we don't need this obscenely cold air. Thanks, anyway.

Sincerely,
Swampflower


January 10,
Dear Canada,
Your generosity has been overwhelming, but there are polar bears who miss your cold air. Really. So, in their best interests, please hurry up and redirect that frigid air mass back north. We'll be fine. Truly. It's not that I don't love hauling pot after pot of boiling water out to my heated bucket and breaking ice in my water trough that's so thick that I must contract with a Russian ice breaker ship to get results because I do, and getting a taste of what life could have been like if John had accepted that job with the Canadian Air Force has been so very enlightening. It's just that your efforts are unappreciated by me. Did you not get the memo that my nickname is Swampflower?

Sincerely,
Swampflower

Canada just laughs in response. Right now it's 23 with a windchill of 15 (-5 and -9, for those of you playing in Celcius). I came down with a nasty cold at 4:00 a.m. Friday morning and decided that playing outside with the horses wouldn't be wise this weekend. It's just too damn cold, even if I didn't have a nasty cold. Tylenol Cold meds for the win! Love that feeling when they kick in and I can feel my nose drying up. It's a really good weekend to hibernate, so I have. Except for the trip to the grocery store yesterday and then to meet Joyce for lunch. I bought two, five gallon heated buckets at Tractor Supply last Tuesday night and am only using one as I don't have enough extension cords to run out to the pasture from the shop. Joyce's boy, Laddie, colicked Wednesday night from not drinking enough water, so he got a visit to the vet clinic at UGA, but only after Joyce stayed up all night walking him. Thankfully, he's going to be fine, but very scary and very expensive.

My three are drinking from the heated bucket, but it's been so cold last night and the night before that it's been frozen, too. Not as badly as their water trough, but frozen nonetheless. Oy.

Really, I'm ready for this to be over. I don't like winter, hate cold. Would much rather be hot any day. Horses do not colic because it's hot. The mental energy expanded worrying about them is exhausting.

So, to keep up my energy I've been eating. I received The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper for Christmas and I love this cookbook. Last night I made a supper tart of roast vegetables and it was delicious. For lunch today I'm making a tomato soup with goat cheese. This is one cookbook that is going to get a lot of use.

Stay warm!