Winter Came Early this Year

I haven't been here writing much lately, because nothing much has been happening.  Winter came early for us this year.   Both the snow and the cold.  We've had snow on the ground since a little before Halloween, and we've had temps in the single digits already.   Tonight we are supposed to get another inch or so of snow and the overnight low will be below zero.   And more snow is also predicted for Friday - it just keeps accumulating.    Even the lake is frozen and snow covered already:

Two Squaw Lake is already iced over and snow covered.  This is about a month earlier than usual.

Even our driveway is covered in snow:

Our snow covered driveway.   Harold has the tractor tire chains laid out (see bottom left of photo) to put on his tractor/loader this afternoon.

A person can't do much outside - except hunt and cut wood, that is!  This is the big "deer hunting time" here in Minnesota.   We allow neighborhood hunters access to our land for hunting purposes, and they stop by to visit and tell stories of their successes or lack thereof.   The coffee pot stays busy, the cookie jar needs filling and we entertain a lot at this time.  I keep plenty of cocoa and hot cider mix on hand, too, to warm up cold hunters.  Another round of folks are due to come up this weekend, so we'll be busy again entertaining hunters and friends.  Harold doesn't hunt, but we usually get a generous amount of deer meat given to us.  There's way too many deer around here, and so I don't mind when the hunters thin out the herd.   There will be less critters to eat up my gardens next spring!
    
The cookie jar was empty again, so today I made Snickerdoodles, one of my favorite cookies.   Just about everyone loves these buttery tasty cookies.   I always make a double batch because a single recipe is usually gone within the hour when guests come over for coffee!  All winter long, we Minnesotans drink lots of black coffee and eat plenty of goodies and solve the world's problems from inside our warm kitchens.

A batch of Snickerdoodle cookies cooling.

Pretty soon instead of cookies I will be making a good sized batch of Lefsa, that delicious Norwegian specialty made from mashed potatoes.

So that's what has been happening here lately - lots of talk, lots of coffee, lots of talking about the weather and deer.   Does life get any better?  Or easier?