Long Day in the Snow

 Mark passed his dreaded man cold on to me and it hit during the middle of the night. Of course since I'm not a man it was only a bit of congestion but still I work a mask this morning when I went over to mom's. Right after breakfast I drove to church to put the Bible studies out for grading and deliver Lukie and Wayne's Christmas cards. Church has a wonderful system. There is a folder for everyone and cards can be put in them instead of mailing them. 

The next stop was the opposite direction but I really needed to get to Middle Grove to check if the horses have enough hay set out. When I drove up they were all spread over the hillside grazing on the bright green grass under the melting snow.

I drove back to where the hay is set out. A lot of the bales were gone but there was still some and it is good hay, so obviously they are enjoying the grass more than the hay.

When I got back to the house Stephanie was on her way bringing Elisabet and Israel out for sledding.

They were taken for a good ride.

Stephanie and Elisabet rode on the way back.

Elisabet had tumbling but Israel was left here and went to work chopping kindling for the fire.

After tumbling Stephanie brought Elisabet and Teddy, one of Israel's friends while Sarah brought her 3 plus 2 more. Those kids spent hours sledding both on our drive and the death trails.

Below is just a short video of some of their rides.

Since I have a cold I stayed home with mom tonight so Joan could go to church. She got back from church to find her house has no heat. They will work on that tomorrow. Now we are all going to bed.

Outdoor Fun

The butterbraid was ready to bake when I got up this morning and that filled the house with the wonderful smell of baking bread. We had the promise this morning that the temperature was supposed to get above freezing. It was still cold when I left for the Berean office. We had a good productive morning other than the office was completely out of Bibles. They were ordered but not delivered and we found out weren't going to be delivered for at least another week. Below are some pictures of our morning. 

Skip had a chaplain contact him direct for more studies so they went right to work folding those and getting them ready to go out. Below our two Shirleys are busing opening the mail. 

As mom couldn't come, Ray was nice enough to come to do mom's job of applying the return address on those number 10 envelopes. We were completely out.

Marvin was trying to find out who was in charge of one of the out of state prisons as we got a Bible returned.

The reason was we were not approved to send them but we KNOW we are.

Sometimes the mail rooms in the prison or jail just make up rules. Once we remind them they usually will let the Bible and studies go through. We had about 30 Bible requests but could not fill them today. The requests were entered, printed and dated, hopefully next week we will be able to send them out. We had plenty of snacks today. Lukie left us 2 dozen donuts and Sharon brought in her home made chex mix. That along with the butter braid made it seem like we were having a Christmas party once we finally finished for the day. I dropped off the mail at the Hanna City post office then hurried home where 4 of our grandchildren were waiting to play. Israel came early and worked for Mark, splitting wood and refilling our porch. We had used all of it that was on the porch during that cold spell.

We are ready for the next one. Sarah's girls had to admire the snowman Israel made while waiting for them to get here.

Then came the sledding fun. They spent HOURS outside today, coming in every couple hours to warm up.

Below is a video of just some of their fun.

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Sarah, Rhoda, Anna, Phil and Nolan were all working at Sarah and Nolan's new house installing trim and the microwave and all kinds of other work. It really warms a parent's heart to see siblings helping each other and working together. I needed to be at mom's by 6:00 pm as Berlica had to be at Bethany for the co-op concert. Three of Rebekah and Brian's children were also in this concert. Riley is in the second row 5th from the right.

Blair is int he front row 3rd from the right. 

Jordern's class was really huge.

He is in the front row 2nd from the right.

Berlica is in Choral and had a solo.

Mom and I enjoyed the concert. I left for home when Joan and Berlica got back and pretty much went straight to bed finishing this the next morning.

Warm UP Coming

 No walk today. Ruth and Fedi left for their cruise, Diane and Mike left for Gulf Shores and this afternoon Rachel and David left for Gulf Shores.  Sarah left to work on their new house so the girls came down here to our house. They went right to work on some crafts. 

Joan took mom to her follow up appointment and they had a good report. Mom got her Pinocchio nose taken off but no stitches out yet on either place. She has to go back next Monday to get the stitches out of her clavicle area and then the following week to the stitches out of the nose graft. The doctor said it is looking great. Joan thinks it looks terrible but it is what it is.  It's just going  to be a big dip for quite a long time. Joan is worried that she will never have quite the normal shaped nose anymore. Mom said she doesn't care, at least the cancer has been removed.

Around 10:00 am the girls and I drove to Dollar General in Hanna City to pick out prizes for the Sceggel Christmas party and came back with a plenty. They had a good time picking them out. We took them straight to the barn and laid them all out on the tables so they could be wrapped. We decided they needed to each pick one of the magnets and decorate it just to make sure it would be something fun. 

We practiced one of the games and all of us laughed at the results. They thought it was fun so we will be doing that one for sure. I'm not going to write what kind of game as we don't want anyone practicing. We came back to the house to try out the marshmallow game. 

That one was also a fun game. It wasn't just about knocking them off it. The strategy was to line them up then knock one off at a time.

When Sarah got home they used their sleds to take wood up to the apartment for their wood burner. This evening Berlica had her dress rehearsal for the Co-op Christmas concert at Bethany. Joan had a previous appointment so I went over to spend the evening with mom. The lights out on her deck are really pretty gleaming through the snow.

Mike sent the picture below. One of the trail cameras at Middle Grove caught a coyote walking on the ice of the 5 acre lake while a mare was drinking. 

We have never had to worry about the coyotes going after one of the horses. There is plenty of other easier game out there. More than likely it was just thirsty. The horse is drinking at the bubbler which keeps the lake open for drinking. Today it started warming up a little. We had 26 degrees at one point but now it is back in the teens. Quite a change from those below zero temps yesterday. Tomorrow comes the warm up.

Bitter Cold Sunday

 The outside thermometer bottomed out at negative 6 this morning and stayed there until later in the day when it warmed up to at least ONE degree. At least that is what ours was reading. Now at 8:00 pm it is -4. The 7 pounds of hamburger was browned, drained and taco seasoning added then put out on the porch to cool before breakfast. As it was so cold it cooled down very quickly and was just left outside until this afternoon. We have a lot of snow on the ground and on anything left outside. As it was so cold and mom's nose still needed to be protected it was my turn to stay home from church with her. Joan needed to pick up her kids at 9:00 am so I made sure I was there before 9:00. The snow on her deck furniture had an impressive amount of snow cover.

The bird feeder needed to be filled twice as those birds are extra hungry. Mark came over for church. We were able to watch it on-line. Mike Kaisner had the morning message on Jonah and how mad and depressed he was that God was merciful to Nineveh people. To watch that message click HERE. Ruth and Fedi gave lunch and served pulled pork sandwiches along with lots of other goodies. That IT guy that doesn't want to be named sent the picture below of some of the sandwiches.

Those really looked delicious. Mom decided she would like a donut but Joan didn't have any of those. She did have some cinnamon rolls and mom was more than happy with one of those plus one of those big sweet Harry and David pears from Tony and Barb. The afternoon service was the Christmas program. Nancy got to be in this program and she was pretty pleased to be up singing those songs.

Israel and Elisabet sang in the next group. They had a candle song that the entire group really sang out on.

The next group had 3 more of mom's grandchildren, Berlica, Eden and Asher.

Dan and Levi stopped in after church. They needed to dig out Dan's duplex here in Hanna City and also picked up all of their Christmas cards that had been left at the barn after the Meister Christmas party. Spark and Rhonda stopped in next with Nancy. Mark and I left when Joan got back but before going inside grabbed my measuring tape to see how much snow was on the table. It is about 10 inches deep from the Friday and Saturday storm.

Mark had some of the patio shoveled.

I needed to get the peppers and onions washed, cut up then sautéed for the haytacks. The rice was made and the lettuce shredded. All of the food was taken to the barn. I forgot my phone at the house so no pictures of the evening but it was nice. The kids played in the gym or in the game room. The adults visited around the table then moved to the couch to watch a football game. Rhoda took Nancy home. What a blessing that is for all of us here. We used to take turns picking her up each week and then taking her back home. Now either Randy and Kathy or Molly and Gabe bring her to church. She gets to go to mom's after church where she gets to see a lot of family then if Rhoda and Lee come to dinner they take her home as they live that direction. It is a round trip of 50 miles for us so is quite a savings in gas and time. 

Winter Storm

 The winter storm started around 6:30 am and did it ever dump snow and drop the temperature! Milk was left at the barn last week, so last night that was left out on the counter with the top off to help it sour then this morning a big batch of pancakes were made.  I packed up a bag to take to mom's for breakfast. Ruth spent the night with mom as Joan had company. At 8:00 am mom was already eating eggs but Ruth hadn't had breakfast yet so she enjoyed hers with her eggs before leaving for home. She and Fedi were going into Peoria to get all the food ready for church lunch tomorrow. She sent the message not long after that the roads were terrible and everyone should stay home. Not long after that Sarah sent a message that it took her an hour to get from Peoria back to Hanna City. The bird feeder was filled and those birds were waiting for that. As soon as I went back in the house they came flocking for food. 

Of course I needed to get a few closer pictures of the male cardinals.

Bill and Bethany's family came over to say good-by to grandma before driving back to Bluffton. They needed to drive home as their Christmas program is tomorrow but we sure hated to see them head out into the storm. Diane arrived around 1:00 pm so I left. I had a little work to do in the barn but in the end the guests that were supposed to come today had to reschedule. Mark was glad to turn the heat off to save propane. He keeps it set on 55 degrees when it isn't being used. The building is well insulated and usually the furnace never turns on but today I'm sure it will. It is already down to 6 degrees and by the time we awake tomorrow morning predicted to be -9. When I got back from mom's Mark had the wood burner going with plenty of wood brought inside.

Around 2:00 pm He went out to plow with the skid steer.

He just got the main drive from the road to mom's house when the skid steer quit.

While he was doing that Evan was moved into the middle paddock then I started shoveling in front of the garage. The snow was so thick by this time it wasn't an easy job. Of course I had to take a few breaks to get pictures.

We both came inside at the same time and were so glad for the warmth of the wood burner. Thankfully there is very little wind. The horses are all doing well. They could be in their shelters but instead they have a nice thick blanket of snow on their backs. Which means their coat is so well insulated that their body heat isn't melting the snow on their backs. Mike sent the picture below taken this morning just as the storm started.

Rachel sent the picture below of 3 of her grandchildren.

Everything seemed so black and white today it was nice to see some color! 

Snow Day

 We awoke to 4 to 5 inches of fresh fluffy snow covering the patio and the tables on the patio. The patio light was turned on, which casts a yellow light at 5:00 am to check out the snow. Below is a picture taken then.

Just after 6:00 am while it was still quite dark I saw the lights coming down the drive of a big truck with flashing lights. Unbelievable it was the brand new dumpster getting delivered. With all of this snow Mark was sure that would be delayed. Once it was light outside I stepped out on the porch to get a couple snow pictures from our front yard. 

Diane and I got to mom's at 7:30 am but on the way stopped to take a picture of the new blue dumpster. This one even has a lid.

We are all rejoicing of this gift. Not only does it have a lid it is about half price of what we have been paying. Anyone out this way interested in learning about this new company ask Rachel, she found them. They are based out of Bloomington but are willing to come here. So thankful we live in America where capitalism works.  GFL kept raising the price, closed the dump to competitors but that opened the door for other companies to step in and provide not only more reasonable service but hopefully more dependable as they just delivered AFTER a snow storm driving on a snow covered driveway!. In the past if the drive had snow on it our other company would not come and then the next week had the nerve to charge us extra as the dumpster would be extra full. When we reached mom's Berlica and Mackenson were hard at work shoveling.

Joan spent the morning cooking. She had a breakfast casserole, a lunch made and even dinner cooked for all of her company. Diane, Berlica and Mackenson helped carry everything to her van so she could drive it over to her house. Bill and Bethany's family were here for the Meister Christmas. I stayed with mom until Rachel arrived nine. We enjoyed watching the birds while looking at the snow on the deck.

Sarah arrived to borrow the golf cart so she could borrow the sleds from Joan's house. School was cancelled for her girls and they spent the morning sledding.

Rhoda's also had a snow day and she sent the 2 pictures below.

When Rachel arrived I went to the barn to start cleaning. We have guests coming in tomorrow and the fridge needed to be cleaned, the dishes needed to be put away and all of the garbage hauled to the dumpster. Sarah arrived to help with that job. Mark plowed the drives with the skid steer then drove in to Hanna City to buy more diesel fuel. The game room was organized and another blue bean bag for the bag game is missing. Now there are only 2 blue and 4 red plus another red and white that doesn't match. The game really needs 8 bags, 4 blue and 4 red so when I got home ordered another set. Bill and Bethany brought Joshua, William, Daisy and Anni to the sledding hill to join Zion, Eden and River. They all had such a great time. 

It was a gray day most of the day but at one point the sky brightened a bit. I took one picture before the sky darkened again.

Crazy but the weather report for tomorrow is another round of snow starting at 7:00 am and dropping 3 to 6 inches. It is supposed to stop around noon and the company aren't coming until later afternoon so hopefully Mark can get the barn drives and parking area dug out in time. The temperatures are going to be dropping drastically. We will need to stock up on wood and more than likely burn both of the wood burners tomorrow.