The LOWS are A-Coming

 The smell of fresh brewed coffee at 5:00 am is a good reason to jump out of bed. That first cup of the day is something that I really look forward to. I'm not addicted or anything, yeah right. Coffee is one luxury I refuse to deny myself.  We met at mom's again to work out this weeks schedule. I'm so thankful for Ruth and Joan, both are putting in long hours. I'll be taking mom to the Taste of Madrigal put on by the Co-op Thursday evening. Joan has to be at the fellowship hall early. Mark asked if I would feed the cat today and on the way back took the picture of 2 of the weanlings taking naps up against the hay.

Missy and the 4th weanling were in the shelter eating off the new bale.

Today for our breakfast I looked up a recipe for potato pancakes. We had left over mashed potatoes from Sunday's meal and I remembered mom making them when we were young. The recipe I found looked about the same as what mom use to make.

I didn't like them then and found I don't like them now either. That was a waste of time plus it made extra dishes. They are in the fridge I'll have to find out if anyone else wants to try them. After breakfast and after the dishes were done it was time to start on the barn. The clean sheets were taken over and the beds made. The bathrooms all restocked and the floors done. I wasn't going to clean the game room as it was such a mess and it is just family coming on Sunday but finally just decided to organize it. The ping pong table was missing the brace that holds the net. That missing brace was found on the foosball table the bag game had the bags scattered all over and after cleaning we are still missing one of the blue bags. The new connect 4 game is missing at least 1 green as there ended up with an extra yellow. The basketball game was repaired and is missing one of the basketballs. I started cleaning the gym in hopes of finding the lost bean bag but ran out of time. Mark worked for 2 and a half hours on mom's heat. He thought he could get the heat pump working but wasn't able to. A part is ordered but could be while before it comes in. He got it going on emergency heat. We have record smashing lows predicted tonight and tomorrow. We picked up Berlica and Mackenson for church. Tim Roecker had the message on 1st Chronicles 29 and Galatians 6 . Click HERE to listen to that message. We went to Culvers for a late dinner. 

Winter Weather

 I overslept this morning not waking until almost 6:30 am. Thankfully that still gave me enough time to bake the now risen butterbraid and had it baked and iced before going over to mom's house. Kristin's car was stuck on the dam and Joan's van was already started and warming up. I guess Joan had quite a time rescuing people yesterday that continued this morning. Ruth was with mom waiting for Rachel's husband David to come install the brand new dishwasher. The 3 inches of new snow on top of the old snow left everything white and clean but a little dangerous. Some of the roads were not well cleared off on the way to the Berean office this morning. Skip was already there and was shoveling paths for the volunteers. 

Both Shirley's arrived along with Marvin making us a total of 5 this morning.

We didn't have a lot of studies come in and only 17 Bible requests. 

Below is a short video of getting the Bibles stuffed and ready for mailing.

Looking out the window of the Berean office there were 3 fat birds resting on a wire.

I believe they are doves.

We enjoyed the butterbraid then loaded the car and left. My first stop was to Meisters to drop off some studies for Amanda's mom for grading. The next stop was to the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles and studies going out today. When I finally made it home Mark was out working on plowing the drives. The post office let me know that no mail would be delivered until the road in front of the mail boxes was cleared. There was about 3 feet to clear so I started shoveling until Mark got the skid steer down to finish the job while I slowed traffic. It didn't take very long so hopefully we will get our mail tomorrow.  Mark switched out the bucket for the bale spear and we got a new bale in for Evan. The old dead heads of the flowers were topped with the new snow. 

There was a downy pecking away at one of the stems.

There were also large sharp ice cycles hanging from the roof.

I was able to get all the sheets and towels washed from the barn.

Tomorrow I will go over to make the beds and clean up the barn but today I just didn't want to go back outside. Instead the laundry here was finished and some split pea soup made for supper. Ham and bacon were chopped up and added to the pea soup and it was tasty and filling. The heat pump had frozen up. Mark brought buckets to the house, I filled them with hot water from the tub faucet then he hauled them over to melt the ice off of the heat pump. It took 4 buckets to get it working.

We kept the wood burner burning during the day but Mark wanted the heat pump working so we burn less propane during the night. The winter weather is starting VERY early this year. 

More Snow

 I went out this morning to walk over to mom's when I heard a stallion screaming. Valiant was in his paddock so I knew it must be Evan. Sure enough Missy was out and over bothering him. She came running to me and I clipped a lead rope on her but was searching for the 4 weanlings believing they must be out also as they share a paddock with her. They weren't in sight but Mark was. He had the golf cart and came driving down from the barn. I realized then that the gate to the shelter had come off the hinge but all 4 weanlings were still in the paddock. Missy was put away and Mark helped get the gate back on. When I arrived at mom's she was still in bed. She has a cold and was coughing during the night so wanted to sleep in. Diane joined us on speaker phone and Ruth, Joan, Diane and I visited in mom's room until after 8:00 am. Ruth was excited to share that she is going to be a grandmother again in June. Matt and Anni are expecting. Right after breakfast I left with Mark's car for Sam's club then Aldi. We were really out of groceries after the last 4 days plus I needed to restock paper plates and plastic ware at the barn. As soon as I got home and the groceries were put away Mark and I went up to hook the truck up to the 2 horse trailer as Joan needed it at noon. We had to shovel a drift away from the front of the trailer first then once it was hooked up it needed to be cleaned out.

Joan took it to Calvary Baptist to pick up the props for the Taste of Madrigal. When she arrived there was a car parked in the area she usually parks the trailer so she went the other direction and the trailer hit the beam. Just so you know Joan is a very careful driver and has taken this trailer many times to transport the Co-op props and this is the first time she has had an accident. 

She couldn't find the current insurance card but when she called I couldn't find it here at the house either. I was able to call our insurance agent and they emailed the current card. Mike went to Middle Grove to check on the herd and sent back the video below:

It started snowing again this afternoon and by 4:00 pm we had a couple more inches. We will probably end up with 3 by the time it stops tonight. The snow was beautiful, light and fluffy and gleaming like diamonds.

Above is as the flakes were landing on the golf cart with each individual snow flake different. Below is near the South barn door.

I was collecting the sheets and towels from the guests over the weekend. All of the laundry was brought to the house but not started. I'll have to do that tomorrow. 

I took a butter braid out and am letting that rise. It will be baked tomorrow morning for the Berean volunteers. 

Nolan tried to get his work truck back here since Mark had put down sand yesterday on the drives but with the 3 inches of new snow he got stuck again. This time Mike pulled him out then drove him to Meisters to pick up the 2011 truck which has 4 wheel drive. It isn't pretty but at least he will be able to get up and down our drive and go to work.