Sprained Ankles and Crutches

Well apparently the universe is telling me to slow down since I went down the front steps the wrong way on my ankle and now get to hobble around on crutches for a while. Definitely not the cool fashion accessory that it was in teenage years.

I haven't got the shopping done for the festive season, I hate handing the job over since I actually like going shopping and finding cool things. Tim is busy with a few small projects and for him that usually means he only wants to focus and work on those and every mundane task around the house or chores needs to take a back seat or in other words, "Not going to happen". This should be interesting the next week or so since he is going to now have to do the grocery shopping, goat feedings, and run laundry up and down the stairs and make some meals plus keep up with his deadlines. I am usually the multi-tasker in the family and don't mind it at all, though the grocery shopping and meal making I would gladly pass on. It's just kind of boring and food preparation is the worst when you have a never ending complaining 9 and a half year old that hates everything and sits for hours (litterly hours) picking at his food and trying to stop gagging with every mouthful.

I'm in the Christmas Craft show called Busy Hands that is upstairs of Books & Company this weekend and I don't really know how the heck I'm going to manage it. My mom is coming to take care of the shop at the barn and Tim was supposed to go to Waterloo with the kids for the extended family xmas dinner with all his aunts and uncles. I'm taking my knitting and some other things to sell along with Tim's concrete sculptures. I think Tim is going to have to do the carrying in of all the stock and setup and then drive to Waterloo and be back in time to take it all down and load it into the van on Sunday. We are trying to figure out if I can manage to do this show on my own while he is away or that maybe he will have to skip it this year.

Too bad this weekend wasn't so busy and of course that I hadn't fallen down some steps and ended up on crutches! So here I sit with my laptop and knitting and watch the kids having a blast outside on their first snow day of this school season. Poor Tim is stuck with all the chores for a while and the kids are already getting annoyed with my requests to help here and there or to get me something. This is only day 1! Hopefully for everyone's sake I'm a fast healer!

All Handmade Show coming up!

Well I'm jumping in with both feet and Tim's feet too! We are going in Vicki's very awesome craft show which has become more and more successful every year. The rules are you can only sell the things that we created ourselves. I'm going to take my hats, Tim's concrete sculpture, and my latest venture... dat dat dat daaaa... all natural scented soy candles!!! We are going into production work to create scented candles that don't dirty the air with nasty chemicals like those paraffin wax ones. I love scented candles and the paraffin ones are now starting to bother me and my asthma. I also want to get creative again and have something that we can sell that is "County made" and then offer the candles at a wholesale level to other stores so we can have a business that will keep us going all year round. The shop is great but it's only open seasonally and it's too quiet for us on the shoulder seasons so we need a business to keep us going financially and fill in those gaps when the shop is quiet. Tim was offered a job back in the city of Toronto that would be for about 14 months and we made the commitment to turn it down. This is very scary since it would have made a very nice financial cushion to see us through for a while. It is really hard on all of us when Tim is gone all week and exhausted on weekends. Not to mention us missing him and him missing out on everything the kids are up to and of course all the drama that happens in a normal school week!

So decision was made to say no and find work here for Tim. He is going out and shopping around his unique style of Graphic Design, and Illustration work and hoping that will bring him some jobs and he is vamping up our website and ads to show that he can do that kind of work. He always takes unique approaches to design and everyone he has worked for and created ads, logos, business cards and such have been thrilled with his concepts and he is an incredibly talented artist. He makes some wickedly funny character drawings and comic style illustrations.

Of course these types of jobs are all found through word of mouth so pass around the word and thanks to the joys of the internet long distance creations are completely possible! Tim is currently working on our very funny family Yule card. He did a caricature of all of us and we printed it on cars to mail out last year. This was last year's version. He managed to add in all our individual quirky bits that makes it so perfect for us. I can't wait to see what this year's will look like, hee hee!

Our Baby Goats Are Here!

We finally went to visit Little Blessings Farm, a short drive from us, where Tricia Daley raises her pygora goats. Pygora goats are a cross breed of a small pygmy goat with an angora goat with the long curly coats that can be spun and turned into mohair yarn.

These two sisters have a pygmy mom and an angora dad and were born this past spring. We will hopefully get their birth date from Tricia soon so we can celebrate it when it comes around.

Right now they are super timid and nervous since we brought them home in the dark last night. It was only 6 pm but it was completely black outside. The poor girls stood on the ramp most of the night so I imagine they are pretty tired today. This is the first time they have been separated from their mom and the rest of the herd.
We brought food out this morning and with some coaxing only one would eat from our hands. As soon as we left the pen to get the kids on the bus they started naa-ing out for us to come back. They sound oddly like a child crying right now. The one girl seems to have more of the angora coat with lots of curls and length while the other one is a bit shorter and less curl more like the pygmy's coat.
They need names and we are all a bit stuck so we are giving them some time to get used to the place and for us to get to know them and see their personalities. I kind of like the idea of coming up with something very girly for them. I like the idea that it has something to do with the colour white or the moon and so far Luna is the only thing I can come up with I sort of like.

Names are so tricky at first and then the name seems to just be taken on by the animal and you can't imagine it being any other name. Our cat Baxter, a big black and white boy was named Pixie at the humane society but it seemed so wrong for him. Now he could only be a Baxter or Bax for short and it suits him to a tee. I'm liking the names Cora, Holly, Molly, Lu-lu, and of course the kids don't like those at all and want Frizzy and Fluffy! Short names work better with animals or at least ones that can have a short nickname so you can call them easily.

I really hope these girls are less timid and will be able to be good pets for us to play with, walk and have customers visit. We were spoiled by Coco, Smore and Nana Aggie since they were so easy to have around and had no problem being fussed over and petted. Really they were more like demanding the attention than anything.

I moved 2 cords of wood in our barn a week or more ago on my own so that we can create an indoor pen area for the girls. Goats don't like the rain and with the snow not far away we need to give them a better shelter from the wind and snow. We've got all the things we need to make the pen, Tim just needs some time to nail the thing together. We might even have chickens this spring to live with the goats, we'll see how it goes this winter. I just hope the coyotes don't discover our baby girls. I don't think they could get into the pen but they sure will scare the goats and us! Not to mention once they know they are there they will return over and over to work on the problem of getting into the pen. This year we have a higher number of coyotes in the County and you can hear them most nights and they come pretty close from the sounds of them. Once the river freezes they use that as their main route to move around. Those paw prints are pretty big on those things. Apparently we have hybrid coyotes that have mixed bred with wolves so they can get pretty big. We live very close to McMann Bluff where a few packs live since it is all heavily wooded and a large acreage where they can live undisturbed by people. I need to get one of those crazy horns that they blow at sports games since I don't want to ever own a gun so if the coyotes show up I can run out there making a hell of a wracket so they will be scared off. Or I'll have to start practicing with a slingshot and stones!!

Samhain Gathering

This year my friend Charlene and I decided to go on an adventure to the Womyns Spirit Retreat in Hockley Valley. It was this past weekend and was a gathering of women at the Ecology Retreat Centre there to honour and celebrate Samhain.

There were about 50 women and we all arrived on Friday afternoon and that's about the time the rain started really coming down and then the hydro died up at all the buildings but the dining hall and kitchen, which luckily was on a different circuit. It was actually fine since we had flashlights and there were woodstoves in most of the buildings. There was no heat of course in the bedrooms but I luckily had my old wool poncho along from my younger backpacking days so tucking that over me in my sleeping bag kept me cosy all night. The first ritual of the night was done lite only by candles which of course makes it much more magical.
The next morning was still dark when I got up and headed for the only working bathroom down the path at the dining hall. It was all good though since Linda the cook was up and about and had a pot of water already to go for tea, I was a happy girl. I love mornings of solitude to watch the sun rise. After I finished my tea and I could actually see outside a bit better I headed for the labyrinth to walk as the sun brightened the sky behind all the grey clouds.
Char and I met some very interesting and amazing women and learned alot from the weekend. We each took some workshops in the afternoon, though I think Char regretted the choice to do yoga. Her muscles were not too happy with her after that!
I got to play with beeswax and learn a new way to use it which I am going to totally use for Yule gifts!

We learned a whole bunch of songs and chants from the rituals and I actually have come away remembering a bunch of them! I can never remember tunes to songs but I think we sang them so much and they are fairly simple they finally stuck with me! Yeah! I also came up with lots of ideas for Leah's coming of age ceremony that will probably happen this spring. On Sunday for the last ritual we actually cast the circle using bubbles, it was so fun!

Char and I both want to go again next year and possibly bring along our daughters. Leah has already said she wants to come but she needs to go through her coming of age before she can join the women's circle. She would probably have just as much fun with the younger girls circle though she does get shy with new kids.

It was a beautiful weekend and I really enjoyed it and I didn't mind the loss of hydro or the rain that came and went. The vegetarian food was fabulous and luckily they also had gluten free for those of us that needed it. It was wonderful sharing and learning from all the women that were there and I'm looking forward to next year.

The Winds Howl and the Trees Fall, Again!

Can you see Leah and Quinn behind our newest fallen tree?

The wind very suddenly and abruptly blew through our place and just up the road on Morrison Point this afternoon. 5 trees fell on Morrison Point and I didn't even realize this one fell down until Leah came home from school and was bouncing around in excitement over the destruction!

The roots were yanked right out of the ground and left a very large crater in the shoreline. It ripped off a few limbs of the cedar and pine trees on it's way down as well.

I was busily working in the upstairs of the barn painting the studio room and didn't even notice the tree falling! Of course there was a constant howl of wind and crashing of smaller branches against the tin roof to distract me from the bigger crash of a tree falling.

This is the 3rd tree to fall in 2 years. At this rate we are going to run out of trees and shade very soon! I'm going to go out and buy a nice oak tree I think to replace this one this weekend. In about 60 years it should be at least as tall as this one. Hopefully someone in the future will appreciate the tree like I appreciate the person who planted all our trees that we have today. This tree was a black locust, at least that's what I think it was. It used to bloom large white clusters of flowers just after the lilacs finished blooming and they smelled incredible. I will miss this tree very much.

Published Writings!

I was asked to write a piece on Quinn's summer job as an actor in the Festival Players production of "Schoolhouse" so here is the link to that story. Firsts in Prince Edward County
Quinn had a great time and is already thinking about trying out for another play that is happening this fall. Leah also has the bug and is really keen to show Quinn he isn't the only thespian in the family!
There are other stories here that are fun to read and I've gotten a real kick out of having my story about Quinn being on here. It was harder than I thought to write but I did manage to muddle through.

So I haven't blogged in a while, too insanely busy I guess. The Galloping Goat summer art camp for kids was a success but also exhausting. I also went to Montreal with Tim and my friend Charlene and her guy for 3 days and we had a great time. The gift show was going on so there was alot of shopping involved and the guys were good about it and didn't hover too much!

Now it's the first day of school for Quinn and Leah. Quinn is now at Leah's school since he is starting grade 4 today so he is now officially at the big kid school. Crazy how that time flew. It seems like only a year ago I was desperately wishing for Quinn to finally be in grade 1 and full days at school and "BAM" he is in grade 4 and Leah is in grade 7 and really, really close to high school!! I think time is speeding up!

Milford Fair is coming up next, Saturday Sept. 19th. I'm not prepared, we were supposed to come up with a clever parade entry but so far nothing. I need a creative fun idea. I have had the offer of goats to borrow again but not sure if we are going to do that again or not.

The busy pace never seems to let up and now we have more stock coming since I ordered more merchandise in Montreal. Hopefully we'll have a gorgeous fall with lots of visitors to the barn. It really is the most beautiful time of year.

Horse time

This is Indee, she is this gorgeous painted horse that I met a few months ago and have been lucky enough to ride most weeks. The first time I saw her I was immediately drawn to her and there was something about her that I loved. This isn't a great picture of her here, with her ears back but she is very sweet and gentle and willing to please. The trick is for me, a new rider (I used to ride as a kid) and her being a bit green (this means she hasn't got alot of experience or training in having a rider and the signals that tell her what I want her to do) is to get our signals right and both of us knowing what to do with the information I'm sending her with my legs and hands. I tend to give crossed signals since they are different than the signals that I was taught as a kids when I rode english.
Indee is a trail horse and is happiest on the trail and carrying her big western saddle. I tried riding her tonight with a much smaller english saddle. The western saddle is great for trail riding and very comfy and helps with balancing but when it comes to riding in a ring and using your legs to give signals and doing a rising trot the western saddle gives alot of blisters! Indee and I had our best ride tonight with me giving the right signals and her understanding me better and willing to go along with my directions.

Indee is actually for sale and I am in love with her but don't really know that much about keeping a horse and certainly can't afford the cost and the upkeep but everytime I ride Indee I can't help but dream and wish. If we had more land, a bigger barn, steady income... the list goes on. I even told Tim I would sell my motorcycle in a second if I could own Indee. I have wanted a horse since I was a very little girl and was always horse crazy and read every horse fiction book I could get my hands on.

Indee will be at the stables where Leah and I ride for the rest of June and then she is heading back home since she didn't sell. I keep thinking that maybe I could make a deal with the owner to pay for her board for a year and then get to ride her whenever I want, so at least it would feel like I own her.

I love my cat Baxter and have a strong attachment to him, but our dog Belle I never connected with the same way. I had a dog from a puppy when I was 13 and I had an incredibly strong connection with him and was devastated when he passed at 16 yrs old. Now I seem to have made this connection with a horse from the moment I saw her and she seems to feel the same. She comes to me when I call her and when Leah tried riding her she couldn't get her to follow her directions and Indee wouldn't do anything but try to follow me into the stables. I've even had dreams about her. It's a bit ridiculous I know, I feel all the same obsession I had when I was a child and just wanted to be with the horses all the time.

At least I have a few more rides to enjoy with Indee and maybe in the future I'll find a way to actually own her. You never know and if it is meant to be everything will fall into place.

Mother's Day

Here it is Mother's Day tomorrow and I'm working, as usual. Good thing I love being out in the shop visiting with all the people that wander in!

I was a good girl and invited my mom for dinner and she is contemplating coming but hates the drive. It's only 45 mins of country driving but she always seems to stress about the distance. It's not that far! It's not like there is a highway or too much traffic. It's really pretty and you get to look at all the trees, cows, sheep and occasional horse as you drive, not to mention the good music you can listen to on the radio. I like driving, especially alone, as in no children chattering in the back seat. I play the music I like, flip through the stations as I want, sing at the top of my lungs if I feel like it, even occasionally do some seated dance moves and drumming on the steering wheel.
It's funny when I lived in the downtown core of Toronto she seemed to stress less about that drive from Belleville. Of course when she came to Toronto she always stayed a few days and we would usually run around the city on the subway and visit our favourite spots for lunch and a bit of shopping.

It's all about your mind set, if you keep stressing over something you dislike but still have to do, you will end up really stressed and hating it even more. My mom always says to me "Don't you just hate putting out all that stuff (as in our garden items for the Galloping Goat) everyday and bringing it back in every night?" I don't really think about it actually is what I usually say, if I did I would make myself nuts! In actual fact, yes I find it a pain in the butt dragging all the stuff in and out of the barn everyday! But I sure as heck don't want to hash it over and whine about it when I still need to do it. I intentionally don't think about it, I stay in the house until the last possible minute doing the usual morning stuff and then dash out to start the process. So far after all this time I've managed to do pretty good with doing this annoying chore and not thinking about it before hand. I guess it helps playing around with setting it up a bit differently just to distract myself mostly!

The tricky part happens when it rains,like it did today, what a downpour! Luckily I left it all out and then the rain went away and the wind picked up and dried out all of the flags and tags just in time to put it all away again!

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to all the Mom's out there and hope you all get flowers and breakfast in bed!

Hording Cat

Continuing with the theme of a very odd little cat, our dear Smudge, this is a shot of some of the things that Smudge has absconded with from various parts of the house and left the kids wondering what happened to that thing!

Since Smudge is deaf he doesn't realize the racket he makes when he starts whacking these objects around. It always seems to happen around 5 am or so and it's always me chasing him through the house trying to grab the item he is knocking around and banging off of everything so we can go back to sleep. I swear since Smudge has come into our home I haven't managed to get a full night sleep more than 1 or 2 nights in a row! It's like when the kids were babies again!

All these items somehow seem to migrate together and end up under our kitchen stove which is gas, I might mention, so the sight of a lighter wedged under it bothers me a fair amount!

Smudge loves those small rubber bouncing balls the best and loves to rip around after them and leap in the air when you bounce them. I had no idea we even owned that many! Along with half of an easter egg and a gold foil chocolate, a t-lite a tiny toy penguin and the most odd a small plastic grey cat that looks an awful lot like Smudge, weird! Lip gloss tube, a door jam, a few clickits, a piece of quartz stone, a medival shield from playmobil soldiers, a pistashio, half of a plastic holder from a kinder surprise egg and 9 rubber balls. After picking up all of this stuff I gave a ball back to Smudge, 10 mins later it's missing so Tim give him another and as I write this it's gone under the stove!! I can't reach it without a coat hanger so Smudge is now lying by my feet starring at the stove hoping it will spit his ball back out. I think I'll leave it until morning so I can go to bed without interuption of my sleep. Who am I kidding, he will just find something else to knock around and make lots of noise with! Arrgh!

Smudge, aka Hockey Cat on Ice!

Smudge is definitely the oddest cat I've ever lived with and there have been a few over the years. We had the perfect conditions on the river for skating and a bit of hockey. It had rained buckets and then flash froze on top of the already thick ice on the river so no snow removal and no flooding, just perfect skating ice as far as you could see.

So we run out there one evening before dinner and start hitting the tennis ball around and skating back and forth and the dog comes out but won't go near the ice since it is super slippery. Our older cat Baxter checks us out from the shore and then wanders off. Not Smudge, he is out on the ice and following us around and then starts chasing across the ice everytime someone shoots the ball! It's a good thing he has claws because he went skidding a few times but managed to recover fairly quickly. It must have been so crazy cold on his paws! His tail was puffed up to twice it's size so I imagine he was pretty chilly but he would not leave the ice until we did. Crazy cat!

Awesome New Technology

So it all started when the dryer didn't turn off and it ended up running all evening and all night until I happened to wander downstairs the next morning and heard it going. I seriously can't imagine what that is going to cost me in electricity! The clothes were boiling hot and I feel pretty lucky it didn't start a fire.

After that we started setting timers so it would remind us to go down and turn it off when we used it but we also noticed that the heat on the one session wasn't really hot. It was taking close to 2 hours to dry things. We bought a drying rack which then only took 1 day or 2 to dry everything. We also started checking out dryers and costs and going online to see which dryers had more problems than others. I noticed that of course if you bought the washer with the dryer you could save a bit more money.

The washer we were currently using was an old coin operated, top loading machine. You actually didn't need any quarters but you did have to slide the coin slot in to turn the machine on. There were only 2 settings, warm or cold wash, both were basically cold. There was no spin cycle or rinse cycle, just on or off if the lid was up. In doing my research I found out that this ancient machine was using approx. 40 gallons of water per load! We are on a well and we have water shortages in the dry months, August to November. When I checked out water usage on front loading machines and they only use 12 gallons I started working on Tim that we needed to replace both machines. He balked at the cash outlay for both machines but while I was working on him the washing machine started acting up and wouldn't turn on. I swear I didn't do anything to it! I think I must have hurt it's feelings when I was talking about sending it the way of the scrap heap.

When Tim started to agree with me about getting the new machines, that was it for the washing machine, it refused to start. Laundry began to pile up rapidly while I frantically did more research into which machines people had found to be disasters and which were fabulous. Then of course there was the price checking all over town for the best deal.

I ended up at Future Shop and picked up the brand LG and got the stacking set with free delivery, which of course wouldn't deliver for another week! There was laundry everywhere in our house. The kids were not happy since they actually were stuck wearing all those clothes that had been previously buried at the bottom of their drawers that weren't quite cool enough to be seen in.

Finally the machines showed up all shiny and new, which is a first for me, I've never bought brand new machines before! Tim and I managed to stack them after Tim hooked everything up and then spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get a normal cycle out of the machines according to the manual. They really make these things very complicated, seriously how many people out there actually use more than 2 different cycles when they do their wash?

The machines have digital displays and pretty sounding bells and chimes for when they are finished. They so far haven't shaken themselves across the floor or anything. The clothes have turned out nice and clean and we leave the door of the washer open when not in use so it doesn't get smelly. The dryer has truly amazed us though, it actually drys clothes completely in 41 minutes!! It might have something to do with the washing machines ability to spin the clothes almost completely dry but still 41 minutes! Wahoo! I should have bought these machines 2 yrs ago when we moved in and saved us a bundle in water and energy! Tim and I, as of now, are still trying to race each other to get to the machines first to put the laundry in because of the novelty of the machines. I'm letting him win mostly since I know it won't last but it's fun for now making him think he is winning. Hee hee

Children and Their Funny Food Issues

My daughter, Leah is now 11 yrs old and is getting really fussy with eating meat. Of course giving it up means headaches for me and trying to get protein in other ways. There is no way she will eat tufu and she can't stand beans or legumes so other than cheese and dairy not alot of choices. She will eat fish happily but finding good fresh fish is a bit of a challenge not to mention the cost of it. I personally love fish and seafood but we just can't afford to have it more than once a week and the frozen stuff is just kind of lousy!

Leah loves sushi along with Tim and I, Quinn of course hates it! It's always the restaurant of choice with Quinn complaining the whole time. He usually manages to eat plain rice and miso soup and occasionally they'll have those deep fried chicken wings so he does survive.

Food is always such an issue in our house and a fight most times. Quinn will spend hours, yes, seriously hours! at the dinner table nibbling like a mouse only slower! At least a mouse has enough sense to eat quickly before getting stomped on! Unless the meal is completely highly processed and of the fast food variety with no veggies or fruit in sight, Quinn will fight us to the bitter end to avoid eating anything healthy. This pic at the sushi restaurant just so completely sums up Quinn at all dinner tables. Fists up ready to fight it out with us and a mask on so a fork couldn't possibly enter his mouth with the poison that I feed my family. What a monkey!

Leah on the other hand eats more like a 30 yr old with lots of veggies, though there are few fruits she will eat. She hates processed foods, exactly the opposite of Quinn of course. She actually hates all donuts and even the timbits at Tim Hortons, seriously, isn't that nuts?

My kids don't even like bananas, they actually agree on that amazingly. What kid doesn't like bananas?? Peanut and butter and banana sandwiches rock! Oh how I miss loaves of soft white bread with that delicious crispy outside crust. The smell just about brings me to my knees. Being gluten-free is tough. I love going into bakeries and just standing there and breathing in that glorious smell! Luckily I'm not celiac so on occasion I do indulge and not always, but sometimes I pay for it later with all those nasty reactions that remind me to stay away!

Can't you just smell that bread when you close your eyes! Can you tell it's lunch time while I'm writing this?!!

Winter Projects

Isn't it funny how after christmas is done all that sparkly, snowy wonderland becomes annoying and a big cold pain in the butt!!! It's snowing, again, the driveway is filling with snow, again. I need to haul wood from the barn to the house, again! I need to drag the 1969 snowblower out of the barn and spend an hour blowing out the driveway, again!

Tim had surgery a week ago on his leg and is now hobbling around only slightly better than he was 3 days ago. The doctor wasn't kidding that he would need 2 weeks off! So that means I get to shovel, snowblow, haul wood, drag the garbage and manage the lighting of the woodstove all by myself. This is fine when he is away, I can handle all of this without any great issue but it's the overseeing of my darling husband while doing these chores I could do without! He has been a wee bit cranky from the pain and bored so being under this much scrutiny is a bit trying at times.

I have been cutting and laying ceramic tiles around our woodstove in the livingroom. I left a border of 6" around the 13" tiles to play with mosiacing that area. I've been collecting up bits of floor tiles at our Habitat for Humanity store in Belleville (The Restore) for months. I spent a day in my studio smashing them all to small bits so I could puzzle piece them back together in a random way for my fancy border. I spent 2 days messing around and coming up with a look I liked and then started gluing down the bits. After 2 full days I only had a small section done, about 3 feet, Tim didn't like it. Thought the pattern wasn't very good and the spaces too large and ... blah, blah, blah. Then he told me I needed to leave more space between the wood floor edge and the tiles. So I said nothing just picked up a hammer and scrapper and removed the 3 feet of glued down mosiacs. I was not too happy. I had asked how much space to leave ages ago and he had said a 1/4" but now he thinks he'll need 1", grr.
So my livingroom is a mess, of containers of broken tiles for mosaics and drop clothes under them and buckets of glue. Now the fun has been taken out of the project and I don't want to do it... sigh. I think I'll just wait until he is now longer living on the couch in the livingroom recooperating. That way I can play in peace without all the "help" and "suggestions" I wish it was not so cold out so I could go for a walk and revel in the tranquility of the great outdoors. It's even a bit too cold for this Canadian girl. I mean when you are already wearing your longjohns under your jeans and then ski pants over that and your thighs and butt are still going numb it means you need to stay near the woodstove! I hope that groundhog has good news in a week and a half!