The Christmas cards are ready to be mailed. Yes, I must admit there is one remaining on my desk, which needs a letter. I suspect we will receive a card or two from folks, who didn't make the final cut for my 2010 Christmas card list. I trust no one will know that, so no one will take offense. Even if they suspect that such is the case, I hope they don't take offense.

We received 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday, which was far less than the 16 to 18 inches that were forecast. Checking the radar on-line during the day seemed to indicate that we were on the northern edge of the storm. Apparently the storm tracked a bit more southernly path across Wisconsin. With what we had already, yesterday's addition has made for a nice snow cover. Today was calm, clear, and sunny with temperatures in the low teens. It was a good day for cleaning up after the storm.

It was also a good day to try out a new recipe--oven baked oatmeal. Now that is a hardy breakfast that one can feel good about sitting down to after a hour and a half of serious snow shoveling and before heading out for another hour of shoveling for a friend and neighbor nursing a bad cold.

Recently, a friend asked if I had ever heard of oven baked oatmeal. This is a friend whom I meet regularly for breakfast at an area restaurant. Lately we have been choosing between the senior special and the oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar, and a side of whole wheat toast. It appears that in his recent travels, he found this item on a breakfast menu one morning, something he had previously never heard of, and yet found to be a breakfast well worth talking about. With a little surfing on the net, I found several recipes for oven baked oatmeal. It appears to be an Amish dish. The lady of the house is out of town for several days, so I took my new found freedom to experiment in the kitchen. If my efforts ended in a disaster, I could remove all evidence, unless, of course, I would have to complete some structural repairs. Aw! The sweet taste of success. When the kids are home for Christmas, they will be served oven bake oatmeal at least one morning for breakfast.

When I called my Mom and told her what I was up to, she chided me on not being economical in my use of the oven, that is, by baking only one thing at a time. I was suppose to mix up a second item to bake, since I had the oven going anyway. My rationale: The oven warmed the kitchen up nicely, so the furnace didn't have to run. I didn't try to explain my experimental stance, the potential for disaster, and the desire to exercise caution. You see, if there were two items in the oven and disaster struck, the resulting disaster would have been compounded. I might even be staying in a motel room, until the insurance adjuster was able to do his job, and the needed repairs had been completed. The joys of cooking are in direct proportion to the risks involved--a lot like stock car racing and downhill skiing.

Yesterday we achieved a goal for the year, that I had given up any hope of achieving. There is now a sixth rank in the sugarbush wood pile. At breakfast Friday morning, one of the partners in the syrup venture suggested we tackle some wood making on Saturday. His rationale was the need for an outside activity this time of the year. His outside farm chores have been completed for the year. The snow, that has accumulated to date, now rules out fieldwork for those who raise small fruits.

As small time syrup makers, we have a goal of six ranks of wood cut and split and stacked next to the sugarhouse come the fall of the year. Our experience has shown that this is a two-year supply. Being one year ahead means that the wood has time to season properly.

Yesterday we cut down a good-sized oak to allow better access to that part of the sugarbush and to reduce the competition with the nearby maples. We cut everything of reasonable size to length, split what was needed, filled the pick-up a couple of times, and completed that final rank.

There were light flurries during much of the day with attempts by the sun to break through with temperatures in the low 20's. I worked stripped to my flannel shirt and still managed to be wet through primarily from perspiration with some help from the snow. The two of us were in the woods by 9:30AM and had the task finished by 1:30PM, when we broke for lunch. We had packed chili with fixings with us, so we could have lunch in the sugarhouse before calling it a day. After lunch we did up the dishes and played one game of cribbage in order to remind ourselves of the need to maintain balance in our lives: hard work, good eating, and playfulness.

When I got home and was putting things away, I realized I had left a pair of wet gloves at the sugarhouse. Late this morning after church services and breakfast, I went back out to retrieve the gloves now frozen in two very unhandlike figures. I didn't drive out to the sugarhouse this morning. I parked at the farm house and walked the quarter mile trail through the woods and past the beeyard. It is convenient to drive out to the sugarhouse when the snow permits, but it makes for a very effective transition to walk that quarter mile.

I hadn't planned to do anything except pick up my gloves, but I found a couple of things to do, so that I hang out for awhile. We hadn't picked up all the brush yesterday, so I gathered that up into a pile, so we don't have to trip over it come spring. I cleaned the snow off the rank of wood that we are currently using in the cook stove and covered it with plastic so we will have wood free of snow to use during the winter.

I hope to visit the sugarbush a few times over the course of the next three months and before the start of the 2011 syrup season. It may only be to start a fire in the cook stove, to sit awhile, and to drink a cup of hot chocolate--time well spent in pursuit of balance.