Jan 22nd - Still in Missouri

We have been enjoying our time with Lydia. She will soon be here this morning and I figured I had better post this now, because I would get a LOT of help with the keyboard once she is here.

My new phone arrived early, a Huawei Ascend Mate 2, and the guy at Best Buy got it connected in a matter of minutes. So far I really like the phone.

We had lunch with Kelsey and Lydia the day Kelsey left for Washington DC, to participate in the March for Life. She made it to DC safely and is scheduled to return on Saturday.

I had breakfast with 3 guys from Centertown Baptist Church yesterday, a couple of them have been meeting regularly on Wednesday mornings while I have been gone. I thoroughly enjoy meeting with them and discussing how we as Christians should act and view current events. Kathy is having lunch today with a lady from the church.

Lots of wildlife here while we have been here. We have seen turkeys up close to the house a couple of times and had 5 deer grazing out behind the shed. There are 2 of the 5 in the photo below.

We can hardly keep the squirrels off the back deck. They stay right there, pigging out on bird seed, even when you walk up to the patio doors. You have to open the door before they even take notice.

The weather is cooling off here, but it is still very mild for January. I'm pleased with the performance of our new heating system. The heat pump keeps the house at 68-69 degrees (the thermostat setting) until the outside temperatures dip down into the mid/low 20's. While we were gone we left the thermostat set on 50. Our electric bill for last month was less than $70. I checked the propane tank on Dec 1st and it read 77% full. I checked it yesterday and it is 72% full. If the thermostat was at 69 or 70, as it would have been if we had been here, we would have used a lot more electricity/propane but so far it looks like things are working well.

Today I'm taking my log splitter to a place to have them work on the engine. It won't start because there is no spark. I'm sick spending an hour working on it for every 2 hours I use it.

Have a great day. May God bless you and yours.