Winter is definitely a slower time outside at Dogstar Farm.  The milder than normal weather though, has allowed us to start removing the outside sheathing of the chicken house to find out why it is so hard to keep such a small area warm.  One panel removed told the story.  Mice and squirrels had made a home inside the walls, chewing the insulation to pieces.  The bottom half of the wall had no insulation.  It was full of chewed up bits, sunflower seeds and chicken grain.  There were dead mice and live mice in there.  Poor Dennis was so disgusted!  He is not fond of mice, especially dead ones.  Now he is re-insulating, re-installing the sheathing and screening off the soffit, which was the entry point for the rodents.  The whole building must have this done, while also checking the inside wall to ensure there are no ports of entry for mice.  Mice and squirrels will destroy insulation and wiring so it is imperative to keep them out.  Once the walls are insulated and sealed, we will put siding on the outside.  We bought some second-hand vinyl siding a year ago, which is similar to what is on the house.  It will be a marked improvement to the eye-sore that is there now. 

Ever since the lake froze it has been incredibly noisy.  I have never heard it crack, groan and moan like this before.  A certain amount of noise is normal, but last night a loud crack shook the house and awakened us all.  Finn, especially, does not like it.  If he is left outside while we are in the house, he tears at the door stoop in an effort to get in.  The basement door stoop now needs replacing as it is in shreds.  We had to screw a steel plate on the bottom half of the door after he put a hole through the door.  He truly is frightened by the noises and is desperate to get in.  Right now he is curled up beside me, grumbling at every moan and crack of the ice.  It goes on all day and night so for now, Finn stays pretty close to me. 

Today Dennis is off to Burns Lake to mail some letters and packages (yes, I still write letters), get some groceries and paint samples and connect with the college where he will be teaching in a few weeks.  I promised myself I would paint the upstairs this winter.  Thus far, not a drop of paint has left the pail.  So, it is time to get cracking.  It all starts with the sample colours.  That is what I will be doing over the next 6 weeks.  Moving funiture, washing walls, and painting ceilings and walls.  The present pale mint green is a tad outdated and not in keeping with our bolder colours.  The upstairs is a bit dark, especially the stairway, so I may have to go a bit lighter than the bold colours of the main floor.  I will take some pictures so you can see the before and after look. 

Daughter Bernice and grandson Jacob will arrive on Friday for the weekend.  We are looking forward to that.  On Monday I leave for Terrace for a week to mind my granddaughters while daughter Rebecca and her husband Chris go to Williams Lake on a house hunting trip.  They have sold their house in Terrace so time is of the essence.  Exciting times ahead for them!

Well, I have spent nearly an hour trying to upload pictures via Google Chrome.  I can't upload pictures through Explorer anymore, for whatever reason.  I hate Google Chrome.  It keeps opening up in Yahoo, which is hopeless to take me to my bogger site.  I can get to the site, but I cannot get in to update the draft, which I built in Explorer.  At any rate, this may be the end of my blog.  While I am not against improvements in technology (I have an iphone, for Pete's sake!), I am against spending too much time wading through the clutter on the Yahoo and Google Chrome sites in order to just publish a couple of pictures.  I have noticed this with a few sites I use.  The order site for Epicure has "improved" to where now it takes me 3 times as long to put in an order.  Now Blogger won't let me upload pictures from my computer without going through Google Chrome.  So, no pictures today until I take the time to figure it out. 
Bye for now.