Boot planters.

I love to garden and our potential move has put a damper on my gardening. So I decided to do some planting to spruce up our deck. We had some old boots laying in the woodshed so I decided to take advantage of them and put them to good use. I looked up how to make boots planters and used http://crafting.squidoo.com/how-to-make-boot-planters-flower-pots as a reference point.

To start you need a pair or two or three of old boots.

Old boots from woodshed.

 Next you need to remove the insoles from the boots. After the insoles have been removed you need to take a drill and drill through the soles of the boots to make drain holes. Once that is done start adding dirt to the boots. Make sure you get it all the way down into the toe of the boots.

Adding soil into boot.

Once you have the boot mostly filled insert plant to check the height of the plant in the boot. Water the dirt to help it settle. Check the depth again and place plant in boot. Fill dirt around your plant.  And your boot is done repeat with the other boot.

Below you can see the three pairs of boots that I have made. I added my favorite flowers New Guinea Impatients.

Cowboy boots

Short work boots

Tall work boots

Family fun in the woods.

This afternoon we spent a wonderful family afternoon in the woods.  We finished our errands this morning and headed out for a wonderful dinner to fulfill mom's steak craving. It was delicious and my craving was fulfilled.

After lunch we headed over to our friend's farm to head out into the woods with the 4-wheelers.  It was a great day  to go for a ride. This week we received a couple inches of snow but not enough to make it difficult to go for a ride. My oldest and husband headed off on one, while my youngest and I followed on the other one. We started out ride heading down to the dog, the calves and then by the cows. Both girls love to see the animals, so we had to make a pass by them. Then off to the woods we headed.

The woods for me is a bit of a retreat. It is a place that I feel recharges me and a place that can calm and recenter me. It always has been and it has been a long time since I've had a recharge.

We rode all over the different parts of our friends land over fields, creeks and woods.  It was a beautiful day, not too windy or cold and cloudy enough that we weren't blinded by the sun. We saw a couple of birds and lots of other animal tracks but no other animals.  My youngest was really enjoying the ride. She is little enough  that when she ride in front of me she rests her feet on my calves. She was so happy and excited that she kept bouncing during the ride. I will definitely be looking to see if I have bruises in the morning.

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon enjoying the great outdoors as a family.

Winter wonderland in Wisconsin

Welcome to winter in Wisconsin. The week before last we we're enjoying a nice January thaw and then this last Thursday we enjoyed a snowstorm that dumped about 6inches of wet heavy snow on us.  Once again welcome to Wisconsin, if you don't like the weather wait a little while and it will change.

Since we received a decent amount of snow and actually had a free weekend we decided make a trip to the local sledding hill with a friend who my oldest daughter adores. It was alot of fun but hopefully my youngest isn't old enough to remember it or she probably won't be going sledding again. 

On her first trip down the hill she fell off the tube she was on and went into the snow.  A loud cry was heard. 

A little while later, after she had calmed down, she and I decided to go down together on one of our other sleds. By some force of nature the wet heavy snow that we had gotten on Thursday had changed to light fluffy snow. On our trip down the hill, we managed to get off the paths from previous sleds and ended up looking like two snow men. We were enveloped in a cloud of snow as we sped down the  hill. My little girl got experience her first white wash at the hands of her mama and Mother Nature. When we got to the bottom of the run, I dug out my screaming crying little girl from the pile of snow that surrounded her and my legs. She was covered literally from head to toe in snow. 

Needless  to say that was her last trip for the day. The rest of us enjoyed a few more runs down the hill. Tell me why is it so much fun to fly down the hill but the walk back up seems so much harder and longer as an adult?  It must be the extra baggage of taking kids and a sled back up hill with you. After a wonderful morning of sledding we headed back home to warm up in front of the woodstove with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Below are a few pictures of the farm after the snow storm and the morning before we left for sledding. Enjoy.

A kitty trying to watch us inside.