First Snow, Fence Update, and A Cookie

This is what we awoke to this morning. They say we won't have a lot of accumulation since it's been warm here for the past few weeks. Personally, I think the word 'warm' is a relative term. Warm to me would be in the 70's and 80's. Warm to the weather folks around here is somewhere around 40°. So since it's been in the 40's all week, they don't expect the snow to stay on the ground for too long. This picture was taken about 8:00 this morning and since it is now already almost 11:00 and it hasn't ceased snowing yet, you can imagine the the snow has built up a bit. The grass between the barn and the house is now a carpet of white...not building up much, though. Brrrr, it's chilly out there. The temp is around 36° right now.

Yesterday was the Annual Cookie Day for the Knotwell girls. It started a few years ago when Kay and Theresa decided to get together and make Grandma's Sugar Cookie recipe they remembered from growing up. Then they added Mary to the mix. And last year they asked me to join them. Actually, I think they asked me cause they wanted to use my kitchen cause I have more room. Regardless of the reasons behind their invitation, last year was so much fun, and we made a great team! We decided to do it again this year. Below you see the main counter on the right where Theresa and Mary mixed the dough and rolled it out to place on the baking stones. On the left counter is where we dumped all the cookie cutters and where we staged some of the stones awaiting their time in the oven. You can see the oven in the back there, and a counter on the left of that with another stone staging area.

Here is the cookie cooling and separating station on the table in the morning room. Everyone brings their own tins to take their cookies home in.

Mary, on the right, and Theresa, on the left are getting ready to make up a batch of dough. Kay, barely visible on the left, there, is directing. Kay is the decorator-de-cookies and putter-inner-of the tins. I am the oven-putter-inner and taker-outer and the cookies transferrer-t0-cooling rack.

We made up a total of 40 dozen sugar cookies. Enough for each of us girls and one brother (Tom came over and helped John and our other neighbor work on the fence so we gave him some cookies to take home, too). Just an aside, I don't recommend using Splenda as a substitute for sugar in sugar cookies. The consistency gets weird and they don't taste the same at all! If you are anywhere near Piecefull Harbor in Marshfield, Missouri next year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, be sure to stop in. We might put you to work but we'll pay you with warm sugar cookies!

As far as the fencing goes, they have finished all the wire-stringing and put up the wooden barriers between the slamming posts and the barn on each side. They lost daylight or we'd have gates as well. John calculates they have another 3 hours of work to get the 3 gates done and then they are ready for livestock! Yippee!!!! I'm so darned proud of John for getting this enormous project done! Big hugs, honey!