Christmas VIllage

My brother requested I post some pictures of my Christmas Village. Only thing is, it's too big for just one picture so I took this video to show off my village. The village started with seven houses the my mother's younger sister made. Aunt Patty poured, fired, and painted the houses herself. She then made most of the trees, bushes, and animals. The bear, baby bears and the foxes were made by my Aunt. Two of the smaller houses were sent to my mom in a floral arrangement that my mom's older sister sent her for Christmas two years in a row. They are from the Thomas Kincaid collection. The houses my aunt made were Charles Dickinson style. It became a holiday tradition for my mom and I to buy at least one item each year for the village.

I inherited the village when mom died. I added the lighthouse and the ship. I also got one of my brother-in-laws to help build the base. It is a full sheet of plywood that we cut in half and added hinges so I could close it for storage. I painted the board and added the gravel roads, cobblestone roads and we drilled holes and added the lights. The table that it sits on was made by my middle brother. The base is four feet wide by a little over six feet long. I have the base overhang on one side of the table so I can use the table edge for more room. Two years ago I added stars hanging from the ceiling but chose not to put those up this year. I am currently looking for small snowflakes to hang with the stars maybe next year. That is provided my youngest son is living close to me because he is tall and real good at hanging things from high places. (My definition of a high place is anything out of my reach and I am only 5' tall) The mountain is just a folded sheet.

As I write this it is snowing. It has been snowing since 10:00 this morning. We actually closed school 45 minutes early to get the students home safely. We were almost too late because the buses had a lot of trouble making it to school. When I left for work this morning my sidewalk and driveway were clear of snow. When I got home at 3:45 the snow covered my shoes. I have posted some pics. It was too dark to video the blizzard. But it really dumped on us this time. It is supposed to warm up a little tomorrow then drop below 0 again for the next week.

I hope I can get out to go shopping this weekend. I have planned my first progressive party for a week from tomorrow and I need to get supplies and food. Also I am getting a little stir crazy and need a break before winter really takes hold and I have to with stand cabin fever. Here is the video and pics enjoy.

Winter is Here with a vengance

It snowed again today. I drove my car to work because I had too much to carry back to school after grading and planning during the long weekend. I parked it and did not think about it again till I wanted to go home tonight and there was six inches of new snow plus the packed snow that was freezing underneath. I drive a Saturn 3 door coupe with very little ground clearance and you guessed it, when I tried to drive home I got stuck. It took two other people and a shovel to get me unstuck. It took me almost an hour to get home and I live 500 feet from work. When I got to my driveway I discovered that the plow had been by and I had over a foot of snow plowed against my driveway. So I went to the neighbor to ask them to get facilities to use the bobcat to dig out my driveway. My neighbor works for facilities, facilities does maintenance and other things for the people who live on the school campus, which I do.

While I waited for the bobcat, the neighbor's son who is in third grade dug out my driveway, the part that meets the road and I was able to get into the garage. Getting into my garage is very important to me because it is going to drop below zero for the next couple of days and my car does not have a block heater to prevent my car from freezing so the garage insulates it enough to prevent freezing. So I am now warm and cozy in my house, a half hour after I called the bobcat has just shown up and dug out my driveway and my car it tucked in for the winter.

Have I ever told you I hate the cold and snow? Well I do even more now that I have had to survive on winter and am starting on my second in North Dakota. Oh up date on the kittens I found in my garage. I have lost three and am down to two who are fat and happy and currently climbing my leg. Momma kitty is doing well too. I doubt I will keep any because the cat box and mess drive me crazy.

I don't think North Dakota knows about the winter solstice!!

Sorry for the picture quality but the wind was blowing and that is as still as I could keep the camera.

Its only November 24 and we have already had three blizzards and about 11 inches of snow on the ground. It is also very cold. Evenings have been getting about 8 degrees below zero and sometimes it doesn't get much warmer during the day.

Well today was the last day of the week because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the start of a nice long four day weekend. School was suppose to get out 45 minutes early at 3:00 but due to wind and snow we let out at 1:30. So I had lots of time to plan and get all my copies made as well as get organized for next week. I have gotten pretty spoiled. We had been having a lot of four day weeks either due to planning or water pipes breaking. Now I look at the schedule and we have five day weeks until Christmas break. Yes I do have cheese to go with this whining.

But you try 18 loud kids that have trouble following directions and cannot figure out how to stand in line, work 12 hour days and see if you don't whine a little.

Happy Thanksgiving, and for the record I don't have to dream of a white Christmas and if you really want one, I have a spare room. Come on over, I'll keep the light on for you. It doesn't matter you wont find me without a map and a guide.

Nice Day

Yesterday (Thursday) we let school out early. We had a water main break so we had to let school out at 1:00. Funny how we had school during a blizzard but a water pipe breaks and we run for the hills. (Side bar: in Mandaree when the water pipes break, you run home and fill your bathtub before you loose water pressure so you can use the toilet. You should also fill a couple of pitchers so you have drinking water too. We also do this when we loose power because the water pumps are powered by electricity).

So since we had the afternoon off and instead of using the time wisely like for planning, a neighbor and I went to Williston. It is about one and a half hours northwest from Mandaree. It is an old town with lots of brick office buildings not very pretty as far as architecture goes. But it has a couple of real cute shops. Antique shops ran by antique people. Fun to look in and talk with. I found a cute teddy bear. It is a Theodore Roosevelt bear complete with mustache, too cute. I found an old glass Christmas ornament that is a ruby slipper reminding me of my mom. Her high heal shoes and the fact that her name was Dorothy.

Then we went to Salvation Army and I found a bread machine. I have been wanting one since they first came out but never got one. I have been looking around for a new one since Mother's Day. I have been making a lot of Indian fry bread. Not many do this well apparently. Ever since my native friends taught me and tasted my practice batches, they call on me to help make fry bread when there is a fund raiser or a funeral. Either they want the fry bread or me to make my sister's famous buttermilk rolls. I think a bread machine is going to come in handy since my fingers do not knead bread as well as they use to. Especially when I have to do five loaves at once. Ouch!! Anyway, I could not find a new bread machine and I spotted this one at Salvation Army for $6.99. Yes the decimal point is in the correct position. It had the manual with it and all the pieces. I figured that seven bucks was not much to risk so I bought it. I am presently testing it out. So far so good, it kneads well and all the buttons work.

I wanted to take a personal day on Monday so I could run errands. Things like get my North Dakota drivers license and plates and tags. Fun stuff like that. In North Dakota they do not know what the DMV is. Every time I say DMV they say "What?" Here it is called the License center. There is a division set aside just for driver's license. North Dakota License Center is closed on Thursdays by the way. Why Thursday? Beats me. Well, the substitute teacher (Mandaree has two) that I called and prefer was subbing at another school on Monday. The other sub is a teacher/councilor that no one wants but has a contract so he is a in house sub. He is kept very busy because teachers get sick or need a day. He is sick so I have no sub for Monday. The solution was for me to take off a half hour early today (because my students have computers and leave for the bus during this time so I don't need a sub) and beat feet to the DLC. Luckily there is an hour time difference between Dickinson and Mandaree. Dickinson is an hour south of Mandaree but it is in Mountain time and Mandaree is in Central time. Go figure. Why? Beats me. Like one of my friends who is the new 6th grade teacher this year says "That's North Dakota for ya"' SO I made it to the DLC and it only took me a half hour. Can you believe it? It only took a half hour for me to take the eye test and show them my birth certificate and marriage license. Yes even though I have been divorce since 1992 I had to prove my legal name is Fry instead of my maiden name. Once I proved who I was and paid $10.00 yes only ten dollars. I got my licence handed to me.

All of you who live in Oregon know how amazing this is. When you go to DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) you take a number and sit with 60 plus people to wait your turn. If you are lucky there are three people working the counter. (Not an exaggeration). Think of the movie Beetle Juice when they were waiting to see their case worker and you are close to the DMV waiting line. Please plan on being there at least two hours. Then after you prove who you are and where you live and that you deserve your license, you get a piece of paper which is a temporary license. Your real one comes to you in the mail after they check that you are not Alkyda or some other terrorist with forged documents that are always better than the real ones. Not only does it cost you a day of work but last time it cost me $84.00 to be renewed in 8 years.

Next up, I get my tags and North Dakota plates for my car. Not as cheap. I don't know how much the plates and tags will cost but since I am from Oregon and did not have to pay a certain licence tax it is going to cost me 4 percent of the blue book worth of my car. I also have to have my title with me in order to have it changed to a North Dakota title. That sounds like fun.

Oh, after the blizzard, when I got my shovel and dug out my front door, I found a momma cat and five kittens in my garage. I have adopted them and have found a farm for them when they are old enough to go. Momma and babies are doing well. I have made semi-friends with the mom but she is not ready for me to meet the kids yet. They are only about a week old, eyes are still closed. There are two orange stripped, two black and on gray. Mom is in the middle. She has a couple of extra toes and so do some of the kitties.

Update on Blizzard status

This is what I woke up to today. No it was not a snow day. It was a two hour late start but not a full out snow day. Crazy about keeping schools running thats us in North Dakota. The first picture is my garage door the other two are outside my front door.

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Possibly My First Blizzard

This afternoon I was handed a new phone tree (list of phone numbers of teachers and staff that work at our school). We usually do not receive the new tree until later in the year. It is used for calling around and telling everyone that there is a late start or school closure. Then I walked out of school this afternoon to find the wind whipping around small snowflakes. There is a rumor of a blizzard. This is so weird. Friday I was driving around with my windows down in above 70 degrees, sunny and warm weather. Now it's Tuesday and I may be watching my first real blizzard.

Where my house is we are in a small valley. A hole most people say. This hole protects me and my neighbors from most of the wind so I might not actually see a blizzard unless I go over the hill on the ridge. But I am not likely to do that.

The native man that is one of our custodians told me there was a weather advisory. It says if you do not need to go anywhere you should stay home. I said that I had things to do and he says ( and this was without skipping a beat) "Well you're from Oregon so go ahead and drive around all you want." I think he gave me bad advise. LOL

This is what the weather looks like from my front door.

OH The Times They are a Changing

I received an invitation to go out to dinner and a movie in Watford City which is about 30 minutes from my house. (The movie was The Switch). I was on my way and it dawned on me. There are at least five new oil drills within the sight of the road. These are only a month old at the most. Then I realized that there was a lot of traffic. Usually the locals call seven cars on the same road as you, traffic. But this was real traffic. Oh not as bad as rush hour in Portland but a lot of cars and trucks on the road going in both directions. Apparently the word is out that there is oil in North Dakota. All the restaurants are super busy. There is more traffic and people in every town I have been in lately. I can't believe how fast changes are taking place. I am out once a week and I see new wells being dug or pumps in or endless flames burning the natural gas off the wells so they don't explode. There are more job openings and help wanted signs then ever. Anyone in Oregon ready for a change could move to North Dakota and get a nice job. You may not have a place to live because the construction is slow but you will have a job. Just bring a trailer or RV and you will be set.

School is going well but I am super busy so this is going to be short and sweet. Hope all is well in the world. I wouldn't know I have not had time to breath let alone check to see what is going on anywhere that is not school.