Delivering Papers Post Blizzard

Yesterday we delivered no papers. The wind finally died down about 8:00 last night. The drifts were amazing. Here is what some of the town looked like today.

We usually deliver to that small door.

This tree reminds me of Cousin Itt.

No delivery to this one either.

This is the house the picklets call the ivy house. It was gorgeous.

Who is that masked picklet eating snow?

Every pine tree in town was plastered with snow.

I love how there is grass showing and then 4 foot drifts.

I normally park in this driveway and then walk through the backyard to deliver the paper. Not today.

It was cold, cold, cold out today but it was so pretty.

The picklets had a good time climbing the piles of snow and sliding on the ice. We just finished delivering. It took us over two hours and we still didn't deliver 13 of them. But hopefully by tomorrow everyone will have had their drives and sidewalks plowed and delivery will resume as normal.

Happy Winter!

It's a Blizzard!

Cool and I were up at 3:00 this morning plowing so I could get out and deliver the papers. The papers still haven't been delivered and I don't plan on delivering them anytime real soon. This is what some of my morning looked like.

Right outside my side door.


Looking at the house from the garage.


The Webber.


The van before I cleaned it.


Cool cleaning the sidewalk.


Looking at the driveway from inside the garage. I started cleaning the van and couldn't believe how much snow was on it.


I tell you it looks beautiful outside. The white glistens and looks so crisp. But the 50mph winds, negative wind chills and whipping snow makes going out and enjoying the new fallen snow hard today. The wonders of winter. :)

(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Sledding on Saturday

Friday night it snowed 9". To tell you this was surprising would be an understatement. The forecast, the last time we heard it had said less than an inch of accumulation. 9" is a tad bit more than 1". But it made for a great day!

The kids, who have library fines, had to work off their fine by shoveling the sidewalk in front of the library. Cool, got the snow blower running and cleaned the drive as the kids were gone. About right when they got back the belt on the snow blower shredded so we had to go to town. What a great excuse to go to the sledding hill!

We loaded up and drove the 12 miles to the smallish town north of us. The roads were covered in snow but weren't bad. We stopped at the hardware store where I bought myself a pair of mittens (25% off) but no belt. Then stopped at an auto part store where the normally priced $4.00 belt in our big town was $13.00. The price of convenience I guess.

We then headed to the sledding hill. We were the first ones there! Virgin snow! The kids had fun. Since they were the first ones on the hill they ate their fair share of snow. I know what people say about snow but we live in Iowa. I grew up eating snow, Cool grew up eating snow, the picklets are growing up eating snow. It is a fact of life.

For the longest time we were the only ones there. Cool and I sat in the van, me reading over a unit I plan on using and Cool listening to a program on the radio. The picklets would look in our general direction sometimes but most of the time were oblivious that they had parents much less parents sitting in the van waiting for them.

The parks department has an annual sledding party and Saturday happened to be it. So, while the picklets were sledding, the guys from the P.D. set up hot cocoa and cookies. The picklets (and us too) enjoyed a cup (or two) to warm our bones.

We went for lunch in town and then dropped the picklets back at the hill to sled while Cool and I picked up some groceries in town. The hill was packed! The picklets got another hour or so sledding and then we all enjoyed another cup of cocoa before leaving to head home.I am not sure where the time has gone. It seems like just last year we had to slide down the hill with the picklets because they were too small to go by themselves. Now we can drop them off and leave for an hour. Makes me happy to know they are so trustworthy but sad at the same time.

© 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Wacky Iowa Weather

We are under a flash flood watch, a thunderstorm watch, an ice storm warning and a winter weather advisory at this very moment. Crazy.

Only In Iowa...

...will you see sunflowers and corn growing on the Interstate. What a great site!Happy Trails~~~
© 2008 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Sokol 4 Weeks Later

I mentioned a while back Sokol, the gym where our kids take gymnastics, was flooded out. After doing some initial cleanup, the project was hired out to professionals. They removed the objects we didn't, removed the mold, drywall, and wood that was touched. They also sprayed Serum1000 to remove the harmful bacterias that collected on the structure still left.

Yesterday we visited to see the progress. It is just a shell of a building.

Our gym.

Our clubroom.

One of our hired hand. Notice the full hazmat.

What happens next is anyones guess. Summer gymnastics have been cancelled. Fall gymnastics are looking bleak.

copyright 2008 The Homefront Lines

Being Czech comes with a whole set of responsibilities in itself. Being part of Czech Iowa Royalty really has it's responsibilities. One of them being in every parade possible.

So, we left the campground about 5ish on the 4th and headed to the freedom parade, C in full kroj.She sat on her "thrown" to throw candy at those watching the parade. One downside to being royalty--always the candy thrower, never the candy picker upper. Luckily she had her big bro V and her friend N to help in that regard...
Lacking in candy we weren't.

We honored our flag....saw some cool cars...
some very old cars...

and we can't forget Shadow and Sophia.

We hope your 4th was as fun as ours!

copyright 2008 The Homefront Lines

4th of July Nature Weekend

Some of the glorious nature that surrounded us this weekend.

A toad that C and her friend N found in the woods.

The flood washed up many fish and skeletons. This one is a catfish.

It took every ounce of self control I pocess NOT to bag these babies up for further investigation.

The flood also knocked down several trees. This one was being cut up by the DNR.

J checking out what a riverbed looks like.

A doe eating her breakfast.

Could this be what she was eating?

A vulture flying over the river.

Tadpoles and froglets the girls found in a puddle.

A fawn crossing the road.

Another fawn following along.

It's a tree, it's a bush....

...no it's Gracie in camo!

copyright 2008 The Homefront Lines