Winter inWest Virginia!

Well, here is the latest "new item" that we have eaten.  Perhaps it is not new to some of you, but it was to us...pickled eggs!  Actually, it wasn't really bad.  Actually tasted pretty good.   ---   The people here are very resourceful and bottle just about everything...have even been given bottled bacon and every other type of meat imaginable. Venison is served quite regularly and many people kill deer (which are everywhere) year round to feed their families.

This is an interesting concept...an outside wood burning stove.  Quite a few people have this outside building where they burn wood...have to stoke it morning and night.  Then there are pipes under ground that carry hot water to the house to run through radiators for heat and to have hot water for bathing, dishes, etc.  They say the heat is warmer, moist and makes you feel better.  One drawback is that if it gets too cold...in teens, then this method of heating is not adequate and additional heat sources need to be used.  There are trees everywhere so if you have a log splitter (Elder McBean helped priesthood split someone's logs and said really works great!) you have unlimited wood!

Yes, it is winter.  This picture is a result of a little warmer temperatures that intermixed with below freezing...hence the large icicles that form from the momentary warmth.  They are everywhere...all along the windy, 2 lane roads that we travel daily.  We put about 3000 miles per month on our car visiting members and investigators.

 

 Here are some of the white-tailed deer that we see so often.  Usually running up the side of the mountain or scurrying across the road before I can grab a camera.  Finally we were able to slow enough to grab a shot before they saw us and ran.  They are so pretty but are an essential food here in the mountains. 

Just more shots of winter and the windy roads we travel.

We are now in the middle of ANOTHER winter blizzard.  They just keep coming!
The scene is looking out the kitchen window, across our small back yard at the neighbor's pool and yard.  YUP!!! It is cold...more so than is usual we were told.  So this morning church was cancelled!  :(

Here we are in front of our comfy home in the recent snow.  Yes...at least a foot deep!

In the fall I had pictures of the Elk River from the swinging bridge...just a block from our house.  What was once shallow and inviting now appears cold, harsh with huge sections of ice floating slowly south.

The swinging bridge is covered in ice and snow.  When I went on it to take the photo above it creaked in an unfriendly, dangerous way and I was quickly off!