Yeppers, we've gotten even more snow since my last post.  Quite unusual Virginia weather! We lost our electricity this morning sometime around 4 AM, and got it back (praise God!) around 8:30 AM. I had expected the power to go out (as had everyone else) so yesterday we had been preparing for it… getting the house all cleaned, storing plenty of water in case it was out for a while.. things like that.

Front yard view from my window.. It's even whiter now and much more snow has fallen since I've taken this picture. This snow is a wet one, mostly, so it is really sticking to the tree limbs. Of course, all the sleet we got didn't help that any.

View of the barnyard and the tops of the trees..

Well, I just wanted to post a short little update lettin' ya'll know what's going on, in case the power (or the internet, for that matter) goes back out and I wouldn't be able to post anything for a while. As I'm siting here typing this, it is still snowing steadily outside. I wonder how many new inches of snow we've got so far?

- Lacy

Update @ 3:40 PM: The milking's done, and it's still snowing, and we still have electricity (right now ).. Dad says it looks like we have between 10-12 inches of new snow right now.

Oh my, yesterday was a busy (and tiring!) day for us. It's a good thing the snow was light, and not heavy, because of all the shoveling and clearing we had to do! Shoveling out the paths (again), shoveling off the porches and decks, shoveling paths to the vehicles and clearing them off, shoveling a path down the front yard over headed towards Gracie's pen for the water hose, and Levi also pushed snow out of the driveway with the tractor! I'm sure glad we didn't lose our electricity or anything like that!

So, here's some of the promised photos that I took today, between shovels. I had to shovel a while so that I could get my fingers nice and toasty warm (instead of being white, numb, and frozen!) so I could snap some photos, seeing as I have a real hard time doing it with my big, bulky gloves on.

I stayed on the paths most of the time while taking photos, because I didn't want to risk getting snow and ice down my boots! Brrr! And in some of the spots where the snow had blown more than 13 inches, it was well over the top of my boots! The first photo up on the left was taken from my bedroom window yesterday morning. After I saw how the light was "hitting" (can't think of a better expression!) the trees, I just couldn't resist snapping a shot of it!

Then a picture of snow on the tree limbs…icicles hanging off the barn roof, a closer shot of them, and Hannah with the guineas!

There's Hannah and Shadow on the path to the turkey building. They're usually behind me, instead of in front of me (especially if I have the scratch bucket!), but this time they decided to take the lead. I love this next picture of Shadow… his tongue is out! haha!

The last photo is my favorite, I think. With the snow, icicles hanging on the barn, and the wood smoke coming out the chiminy, just gives it that nice "look", if you know what I mean!

Yep, sure enough, we got snow again. Dad figures there's about 12-14 inches out there right now. It's pretty much stopped snowing now, but it was really coming down thick earlier!

Most of the day was spent shoveling / sweeping snow paths to the animal pens and barns… then coming out later to find they were completely filled back in with snow (didn't even look like paths had been cleared to the animal pens), so we had to re-shovel them a lot!

All these pictures were taken while it was still snowing (I wrapped my camera up in a handkerchief to get it down to the barn, so it wouldn't get snowed on ), so hopefully tomorrow if it's not snowing I'll be able to get some better ones!

Seeing all of this snow reminds me of Psalm 51:7: "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." and of course that reminds me of the hymn that goes with that verse (Whiter than Snow)……..

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole; I want Thee forever to live in my soul; Break down every idol, cast out every foe!

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow; Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow!

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After supper, we all went outside to check on Gracie and the goats, and the wood-stove in the barn (and for me to collect the eggs, which I had forgotten earlier), I went around to the rooster (guinea) pen to check on the guineas, since it was supposed to be pretty cold tonight.. Well, about 5 of them were in the guinea box (and a few sitting outside of the box), and 6 of them were outside on the roost.

So, the ones that were sitting outside the guinea box, I picked up and moved to the inside, then walked down to get the 6 off the roost and put them in as well. One of the girls, Sydney, wasn't even on the roost. She was sitting on the ground, in the snow, sleeping! Considering that the big light was on, I didn't think I was going to be able to catch them and move them to the guinea box, but my little pearls are generally pretty easy going, the only ones I had to worry about catching were the two older guineas. I managed to catch the pearls, one by one, then moved on to catching the older ones.

Big Guin (the old male guinea) didn't give me any trouble. I slowly walked up and grabbed him real fast, so he wouldn't have a chance to fly. Well, once I did that, Miss Guin (the old female) was on the alert, and she wasn't about to let me catch her easy. Going back for her, when I tried to grab her she flew, so I had to herd her back to the roost and make her fly up again, and actually caught her that time. But when I did, the way she was screaming you'd of thought I was killing her! Even the cow came out of her stall to see what was going on.. LOL!

I was getting "camera happy" . The doll is an Indian doll that Gran got me for my birthday years ago.

Gabriel and Sunny ~ pals

Howdy there folks! Sorry for the abrupt disappearance, I had a sudden lack of inspiration and couldn't think, I mean absolutely couldn't think of anything to post! Quite strange, seeing as I usually would post what's been going on and things like that, thought of course there really hasn't been that much going on around here to post about.

I changed my braces [aligners] this morning for my upper teeth.. Now on set 14 (I think it's 14) of 21! Yippee! Getting close to the end!

While I was thumbing through some of my books today, I was going through 'Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories' and started reading Doreen's Jewel Box, and realized I had never posted chapter 3 up here for ya'll to find out what Doreen actually did get on her birthday! (I've posted Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 so far.) So I've started typing up Chapter 3, and hopefully I'll be able to get it finished and posted here before too awful long. Perhaps many of you have already guessed what Doreen got on her birthday… lol.

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We went and picked up some hay today for the goats and cow. It's always quite a job to get all of that unloaded, carried over to the barn, piled in the middle, and pulled up into the loft one-by-one (Levi stacks them up there. Mom hooks them up to the rope, and both Levi & I pull them up).

It's nice to be able to go up in the loft and sit (provided you don't mind getting hay all over you ( ). Especially now that the air is blocked off (mostly, at least) by the plexiglass "windows". Sunny loves it up there too since we made him a little hay bed in the corner to lay in when it's cold!

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Just in case I have another episode of lack-of-inspiration, would there be anything that the readers of my blog would like to hear about, want me to blog about, want to know, any questions that you have about me, our beliefs, or anything that I could answer possibly in a future post… anything to give me extra inspiration for the future!

There are many ideas, assumptions, explanations, and "beliefs" out there today about what a "Christian" truly is. Some say one is a "Christian" when one simply believes on Christ, or says a prayer, or when one just decides they want to be called a "Christian".

According to the Scriptures, to be a Christian means to be a follower of Christ, a disciple of Christ…. Christ-like. The world and modern Christianity of today have a very shallow, unBiblical view of a "Christian". To them, a Christian is simply someone who has "said the prayer" and are still living in a continual life of sin. This is not God's view of a Christian.

The world says a Christian does not have to live holy (but rather they say a Christian sins daily), but the Bible teaches us that Christians must crucify self, die to sin, and strive to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). The world says that a Christian can sin and still be a Christian, yet the Bible says "he that committeth sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8)

So, according to the Scriptures, what is a Christian? We must definitely throw out the view of a Christian that the world has, and adopt the view that our Lord has of a Christian.

Beginning at square one… a Christian is:

• one who has been born again (John 3:3, John 3:7, 1 Peter 1:23)
• commanded to depart from iniquity [sin] (2 Timothy 2:19)
• to be holy, as He is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16)
• to be perfect (Matthew 5:48)
• to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts (Titus 2:11-12)
• to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Titus 2:11-12)
• to be a peculiar person (1 Peter 2:9)
• to take up his cross and follow Christ (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23, Matthew 10:38, )
• to deny himself (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23)
• to die to sin (Romans 6:2, Romans 6:11, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:13, Romans 6:7… Romans 6!)
• to crucify the flesh and the old man (Galatians 5:24, Romans 6:6)
• to obey Him and His Word (Hebrews 5:9, 2 Thess 1:8, Matthew 7:21, and many, many others)
• one who has repented of his sins (Matthew 4:17) and forsaken them (Isaiah 55:7)
• one who obtains righteousness by faith through Jesus Christ (Romans 4:5, Romans 4:9, Galatians 5:5, Philippians 3:9)
• not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2)
• to present himself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1)
• to abhor that which is evil (Romans 12:9)
• to think on things that are honest, pure, just, lovely, of good report, virtue, praise, and true (Philippians 4:8)

You can't just say a prayer, and then poof! All of a sudden you're a Christian. No, my friends. A Christian is a follower of Christ and one who obeys His Word, repents and forsakes his sin and strives to live holy and godly, soberly and righteously, in this present world, by the grace and power of God!

Grab the code for this graphic and put it on your site!

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Sunny is doing really well, and is turning into a great barn cat! I can't wait till Spring and Summer when he has a lot of mice to catch, which I think he'll really enjoy.. lol. Although I think it'll be more like competition between him and Gabriel, since Gabe has been the mouse catcher before Sunny ever arrived here! Sunny tries to catch birds right now, stalking through the front yard trying to sneak up on them. So far, I don't think he's caught any of them yet, but he keeps trying!

Well, he did catch a spider in the barn last night. It was just a little one, but he thought it was great fun! As a matter a fact, he…. umm.. ate it. He kind of squashed it first, though.

He's getting along very well with the rest of the animals, which I'm glad about. He does occasionally chase a chicken or guinea, but not that often. Hannah doesn't really mind him unless he runs underneath of her and drags his tail across her stomach, but Shadow doesn't care for him at all, therefore Sunny has learned to be on guard when Shadow's around so he doesn't get bashed into the ground with Shadow's rather hard head.

I thought this picture of Sunny and Hannah was funny! Hannah put her head down to sniff him, and he was in a playful mood and grabbed the sides of her head with his paws. LOL!

Sunny was such a scrawny little fellow when we got him, but now he's filled out a lot and has certainly gotten bigger! Though in comparison to Kimba, the stray cat, he looks like a runt. And unfortunately for Sunny, Kimba is a frequent visitor here… so I hope Sunny is able to defend himself, or else run to Gabriel for protection!