There was no snow on the ground this morning, but it was snowing sideways when I got up to work at 6, and would continue to snow off and on all day today and tonight.

We did the cow chores this morning with nothing too exciting to report, and then headed back up to the house for oatmeal. After we'd cleared the table, Cecilia hesitantly asked what the plan was for this morning and we both nearly fell over with shock when T told us we could do whatever we wanted to until it was time to pick up the youngest two from kindergarten at 1.

We watched two episodes of Friends and then both managed to shower AND wash our hair for the first time in a scarily long time, before heading off to the local pool we've been wanting to try for days. My back is such a mess that breathing was painful yesterday and I'm desperate to loosen it up, so we figured the hot tub would be a good idea. That was cut short, though, when we realised that A) the pool is only for the school until 5pm and B) outside. We didn't feel like hot tubbing in the snow, so we went into town and looked into bus tickets to get east for our ferry on Wednesday, and then went for lunch at the same cafe we went to last time we ate in Akueryi. This time we were there early enough for the lunch buffet special, which was so good! For about 9.50 Cdn we got salad (greens!), cream of cauliflower soup, several types of bread, and a lightly curried pasta. It was all amazing! It was also pretty cool as we ran into the couple from the pony ride farm--we're practically locals, apparently!

We zipped over to school to pick up the littles and put 10$ worth of gas in the car, which didn't even move the gauge--at 2.39 a litre, it really wouldn't!

We got back to the farm and left the three youngest (the one with the broken arm had another day off school today) up in the house while we went down to the barn to watch Friends, eat cookies, and clean tack for a couple of hours. It was a pleasant way to spend the day, tucked up in the office with the kittens and the snow coming down outside.

At 3:30ish, we drove oldest to soccer, in one of the most beautiful complexes! You go into a team building with the changerooms and everything, and then take a tunnel into an indoor, full-sized rubber-based turf. It is amazing! There were tons of kids training and the level of play seemed really good, nice fast soccer. I SO wanted to get out there!

We couldn't stay too long, though, as we had cows to do, so we headed home, fed the three we'd left behind (only here could a 9-y-old with a broken arm take care of the 6 and 4 year olds!) and then went down to start chores. When T came down, she brought youngest with her, and while we waited for T to do the hay (the cows get fed with hay she delivers by tractor) we had a great time climbing around on the round bales with youngest and Loppa, the collie mum. Youngest jumped on her pony, Osk, and lounged around and stood on her back, all while Osk was loose in a stall with 6 other ponies trying to eat her supper. Remarkable. I want to vault on her little 4-beat canter so badly! Chores took ages today, but they were fun since we got to play and I got to feed the calf. It would normally be old enough to 'graduate' to the sheep and calf pen where it would have an automatic milker, but it is a birthday present for a neighbour tomorrow, and we're trying to keep it clean.

We got back to the house around 8 to discover B singing and BBQing in the snow, which seemed somehow exactly what B would do, and had a great dinner. We checked in with Toryn via skype, who was sunbathing and also BBQing, but without the snow, and I'm heading to bed soon. No idea what is in store tomorrow during the day, but T is trying to organise a night out for Cecilia and me tomorrow--two neighbouring farms have girls staying with them right now, one from Switzerland and one from Denmark, and the four of us are meant to meet up in the evening.

xx
D