'Twas the night before first day...

 Well, the good news is that we did not get the dreadful amounts of snow called for. So. It was cold, and it did snow, but not even enough to warrant getting the shovel out. 

Tim went to Grand Valley, where the new house is, and where the kittens are, and where he is hunting. He turned up the heat a bit inside the house, and he turned the heat on for the kittens out in the garage, because it was cold today and supposed to get even colder tonight. He shot his gun in preparation for first day. He's quite excited about this. 

I stayed home and made a half batch of bread. I'm trying to find a new recipe that I like, and that always involves a bit of trial and error. I also made a batch of soup. I had some partial bags of different beans from last winter and wanted to use them up. I used some of the ham left over from Thanksgiving. so I tossed that in the crock pot, chopped of onion, celery, and carrot, added some garlic and thyme, and just let those beans simmer all day while I played with bread dough. 

The soup turned out great, and it hit the spot on this cold day. The bread was better than the bread that I made Wednesday, but not great. 'Needs Improvement' as the old report cards would say. 

I did get my hair cut, and what a relief that was. My locks would never be called luxurious, not by any means. What it WOULD be called is straggly and shaggy, and with no shape. So having it shorter, and styled, means that I can wash it, blow dry it, and style it, and have the comfort of knowing that it will look half way decent for a few hours. 

Tim has been busy, busy, busy. This is the night before first day. He sharpened his field knives. He charged up his electric socks. This year, we added an heated vest for him as well, because he has noticed that he feels the cold a lot more keenly than he did years ago. It is supposed to be in the 20s tomorrow, and if there is any wind at all, he'll be miserable up in his tree stand. He has tried out the vest, and is much pleased with it. He can slip his hands inside his coat if he needs to warm his hands. 

His things are laid out, and he is in bed already, because he plans on being up and in the woods by 5:30. This means he will have to leave the house no later than 5. 

Since I have no such plans, I held up my part of the deal. I made two tunafish sandwiches on wheat bread, sliced some cheddar cheese for him. I added a box of coconut breakfast bars and he bought two bags of funsize candy bars to toss in. He also has a container of soup and a roll to take along, so that if he gets his deer, he can warm up in the house with a hot bowl of something before skinning it in the garage...which does now have heat, so I guess he'll be okay. 

I did tell him to call me if he got something, and I could drive down, but he told me that there was nothing really for me to do. He's able to drag out his own deer this year, unlike last year, when he needed me to come drag it for him because he was fresh out of surgery.