I’m not even going to say “bad blogger, Mokihana”. That just makes me feel bad. It’s just been a wow of a month. But good stuff.

I found out from Sara, who encouraged me to sponsor a child at Compassion International, that I could also become a writing sponsor. There are lots of kids who are sponsored by big corporations and others who never get mail. Sad. So I called Compassion and said that I’d like to sponsor two more girls in Columbia as a writing sponsor, and the wahine I talked to was delighted. She encouraged me to sponsor older girls because they already know how to read and write and would be more likely to write me back.

During this past month I received two more packets of information about my newly sponsored girls. The first one is Nereidy; she’s fifteen years old.

And the second is Jackelin, who’s fourteen.

I’m really excited about this. I plan to write once a month and I feel really good about connecting with two more girls.

The next thing that made my life exciting was Snowmageddon 2014, which began on February 6th. Temps got really cold again.

And before long, we had small kine snow on the lānai.

It was a very dry snow; definitely not snowman snow. But it was pretty and even though I knew we were gonna be stuck at home for a few days, I didn’t care.

Friday morning, the view across the valley was just beautiful.

This is by our front door.

And da front gate.

And even though my kawila was underneath the carport, there was so much wind and it blew the dry snow all over it.

Nolemana had to shovel a path to the wood shed in order to get gas for the generator when the power went out. But his shoveling us out, two tire tracks down the driveway days are pau.

Try look! Two days later, a heat wave!

But the livestock and Pikake had to be fed, so every day Nolemana hiked down the driveway, and then back up again. I asked him to take photos for me, and he took this one when he was coming back up to the house again.

And this is what saw when he first went down.

The livestock and Pikake were all glad to see him.

Freezing rain was predicted and I wanted to get outside before it did, so I put on my Montana snow boots and Nolemana and I walked around at the top of our driveway. By this time there was 8″ of snow on the ground; some of it went right over the top of my boots. But I didn’t care; and I walked around and then did this. Cuz you can take the girl out of Hawaiʻi, but you canʻt take Hawaiʻi out of the girl!

And this! Shaka, yeah?

The snow was pretty, but it wasn’t too long before the ice arrived. It coated everything, making driving conditions treacherous around the entire area. People were strongly urged to stay off the roads.

My bird feeders were alive with lots of birds of all kinds, and I was able to get some pretty stunning shots of them, including one of this Flicker.

And this fluffed up Robin. We kept the birdbath water heated, and the Robins absolutely loved it.

I kept rotating the hummingbird feeders so that the tiny birds were never far from nourishment.

Nolemana took this photo of the pasture. He had to use a walking stick going downhill in the ice. I was so grateful that he worked so hard at keeping our livestock fed and watered.

Here’s Titus; he doesn’t look too happy, does he?

Our neighbors at the bottom of our driveway got out and went sledding down the lower part of the driveway; I was delighted!

Wheeeeeeeee!!

Finally, after being snowed/iced in for six days, the temperature began climbing and the fog rolled in. By this time, I was ready to get out and about again. I didn’t mind getting snowed in, because I got a lot of spinning done. Like this!

Here is is, all skeined up, lying on the ice. “South Pacific”, by Lisa Souza.

But what I really missed was the lack of exercise. I wanted to get back to the gym! Walking fast up and down the hallway didn’t cut it.

I stood outside and took this photo across the valley.

Ricky and Vaquero, the Andalusian gelding who lives next door, kept in constant contact.

And Keola and Noelani curled up together. Before the power came back on, we got the woodstove going, and they loved being near it.

This was Nolemana’s last trek down and up the driveway. At this point he said I could’ve gotten down it, but I’d never be able to get back up again.

The next day temps marched up to 40°, and the rain came. Snow and ice came pouring off the trees, like a snow waterfall. That lasted for a couple of days, and then, Snowmageddon was pau. But I sure enjoyed it while it was here. There was no pressure to get anywhere; I just got to snuggle in with my kitties and fiber and Nolemana. I think we should have a time like this at least once a year.