Dec 31st - Snow

Yesterday we went to Sunday School and then church. We then came home for the rest of the day. Andy, Kelsey & Lydia came over for an hour or so after they got out of church, and after they had lunch with Andy's folks at McDonalds (a family tradition). They came back later for supper (HOMEMADE NOODLES! and other things). Andy is working today and Kelsey goes in this afternoon for a 3 PM to 3 AM shift. It makes me so angry that they are punished by having to pay so much in taxes so that others (who are to lazy to find and keep a job or who have kids they can't afford to support) can sit around on their butts with their hands out, but I won't go off on that subject, it is for my political blog <grin>.

This morning, around 7:30, when I went out to add wood to the boiler it was just starting to rain/snow. All our snow from the last snowfall had melted. I took this photo an hour later.

I think we have received another inch in the last hour. We are supposed to get as much as 4" by tomorrow, depends on which weather source you look at. It is good to know that we can just sit home, we don't have to get out if we don't want to.

The small church we have been attending in Centertown, maybe three miles from here, is having a New Years Eve get together tonight. We plan on going but will wait and see if we think we can get up our driveway to the road. Getting up the driveway may be our first opportunity to test the "all wheel drive" on our CR-V.

The church is currently searching for an "interim" Pastor. I'm not sure what they mean by "interim", maybe part-time. They certainly aren't large enough to pay a full-time Pastor. Yesterday there were maybe 6 people in the congregation who were more than 5 years younger than Kathy & I. Three of the six appeared to be teenagers who came with a parent or grand-parent. I doubt if there were more than 35 people total.

Yesterday I put up the stove pipe for the wood burner in my shop, it had fallen down during the summer. (Its in pretty ratty shape but I wanted to build a fire in the wood burner and see that it worked before spending any money of stove pipe.) I built a fire in the wood burner and think it will be OK for limited use. I sure wouldn't want to leave much of a fire in it overnight. Doug brought me out an electric power washer to try out. I used it to wash some of the surface dirt of the motorhome, since it was in the low 40's yesterday. I didn't have any soap for it, and it didn't seem to build up much pressure, but it at least knocked off a lot of the road dirt. I need to go online and see if I can find some instructions for the unit. There may be some adjustment that isn't obvious to me.

It is now 10 AM and still snowing. There is now wind, the snow is falling straight down. It is pretty. I don't have anything I have to do. I have to figure out whether I want to "surf the Net" or do something else. I should out and come up with some type of a plan on how to make my shop more usable. Currently I just thinks stacked on every flat surface.

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

Dec 28th - Habitat Day

We went in and volunteered at the Habitat Re-Store again this afternoon. I did not think I did enough last Friday to make it worth bothering to drive to Jeff and back. I had decided that if I weren't busier today I probably would not go back. Today I had no problem keeping busy. The store sold close to $3,000 worth of merchandise, which may be a record.

Kathy left about 2 and went up to Kingdom City to meet Tiffany for lunch. Tiffany was one of the Teen Challenge councilors. She was on her way from Lebanon, IN to Kansas City so they made arrangements to have lunch in Kingdom City, which is right on Tiffany's way to KC.

Not much happened that past few days. Doug and Anthony have their travel trailer stored here for the winter. I checked their relatively new battery and saw that there was ice in the cells. I took it out and put it under a box in the shop. I put a light bulb in the box to heat the battery up to above freezing. The next day I put the charger on it. This morning the charger indicated that the battery was fully charged. I took the charger off and now will wait to see if the charge holds.

The wood I split by hand the other day has lasted during daylight hours for 3 days now. It was nasty wood and I only use it during the day because it doesn't have much heat value.

No plans for tomorrow. Since we haven't seen Lydia for a couple of days we will probably be sure that happens.

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 25th - Christmas in Centertown

Let me know if you can't view the video. I've never inserted a video before. I've got another one I'll try to put in another post if this works.

Dec 25th - Christmas

Christmas day at our house. Doug, Anthony, Kelsey, Andy & Lydia were here for Christmas dinner. Doug and Anthony arrived Sunday evening. They had planned on leaving tomorrow afternoon but they decided to head back this evening. A blizzard warning is in effect for Indy starting a 5 AM tomorrow. They are supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow, with winds gusting to 40 mph.

Before dinner Lydia was just tired out from Christmas activity

 She managed to wake up in time for opening presents.

 She liked the wrapping paper almost as well as her presents.

 Lydia's dinner attire. This was after dinner. Kathy ran some prime rib through the blender and put it on the high chair tray. Lydia loved it, although she is wearing a lot of it. She sent straight from the high chair to the kitchen sink, for a bath.

 Mid afternoon.

Soon after this photo Lydia got down and chose a plastic laundry basket as her favorite toy of the afternoon.

So often I forget to be thankful for my many blessings. Thank you Lord.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 22nd - Amish Grocery

Thursday Lydia got to see snow for the first time.

She wasn't impressed. Right after the photo was taken, with Kelsey, Kathy and I all close to her, she tipped over face forward into the snow, and onto one of the walkway stones. She really didn't like that. So far snow is the only thing I've seen her not want to put in her mouth <grin>.

By the way, those of you who have been here know how our driveway goes steeply down and then steeply back up. Mid-day Thursday it took 4 tries to get Kelsey's front wheel drive car out onto the road after the 2-3" of snow. She didn't have any problems on Friday. Depending on how much snow we get it should be an interesting winter. The neighbors at the top of the driveway have told us several times that we could leave one of our cars up at their place. They said the previous owners did that when much snow or ice was forecast. I think they then drove their skid steer up to their car.

Yesterday Kathy and I volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store from noon until 5. Kathy has volunteered there several other times but it was the first time I have even been in the store. I was impressed by all the "stuff" they have. They sold over $2,500 worth of stuff on Friday, but I guess is was really slow on Thursday. Most of the money goes to build Habitat houses in the area. I think they said they have built eight houses in the area. Kathy was one of the "salespersons" and I helped the other old farts receive things being donated, and load the things that were sold. There were maybe 10 volunteers working while we were there. One impressive item is that they have a couple of guys who check out all donated used appliances. The used appliances are then sold with a 30 day warranty.

Today we stopped in Russellville to pick up Kelsey and Lydia and we all went to the Amish grocery store located about 15 miles west of Russellville. Every time I have been there the place has been really busy, and it was again today.

After we returned home I think I'm finally finished with winterizing the motor home, PTL!

Last nights low was 17, maybe the coldest night so far. Our wood fired boiler seemed to do just fine. It warmed up to 51 during the day. Most of our snow is gone. Monday through Thursday the highs are supposed to be below freezing, with lows as low as 13. That should give the boiler a decent work out, and give us a better idea about how much wood it will use when it really gets cold.

Andy, our grandson (in-law), gets back from Sacramento, CA tonight. Kelsey, Lydia and Elaine (Andy's Mom) are picking him up in Kansas City at 10:30. He has been out there learning how to repair hail damaged vehicles. It is great that he is looking for ways to expand his skills/knowledge.

Doug and Anthony are supposed to be here, from Indianapolis, by supper time tomorrow. They are staying until Wednesday.

I had a pleasant surprise this evening. My phone rang and it was a call from Bruce Tremaine, one of the guys I worked with when we volunteered at Logan Valley Christian Retreat (Ellington, MO) during October 2011. He called to wish us a Merry Christmas and to check on how we were doing.  I certainly enjoyed working with him, and learning from him, he is a real carpenter.

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 20th - First Snow

The weather today was not supposed to be bad. I had procrastinated about getting the RV winterized, knowing that I didn't have to do it until today. For several days the low for tonight has been forecast to be 20 degrees. I wanted to get it done before it got that cold.

 Last night when I looked at the weather the forecast was for rain today. Not great for doing the winterizing, but not to bad. During the night we had a thunderstorm go through. We only got a little rain, and some some pretty good wind. This morning was something of a shock.

Looking out over the upstairs patio doors.

 Looking out the lower level patio doors.

 This was the scene on my way back to the house from the RV, about noon.

 My fingers were numb, my feet were wet, and I was cold. Temperature was 31 with wind gusts reported to be as high as 51 mph, wind chill 16 degrees. The combination of  cold and wind is the worst I have experienced in almost two years, since the winter of 2010 while still living in Indiana. It is going to take a little time for these old bones to get used to the cold again.

Coming in to the house and getting to see three generations of noodle makers made it all worthwhile. (Actually I think Kathy was doing the noodle making while Kelsey and Lydia were watching. Lydia was enjoying playing in the flour.)

I didn't actually get the RV winterizing finished. I ran out of RV antifreeze. (I pumped the first gallon into the water tank I was draining because I forgot to turn off a bypass valve.) I'm comfortable that I have everything protected except the washer, the ice maker and the drain traps. I have a light bulb on behind the refrigerator. It will protect the ice maker. I left the heat on in the RV so the washer and traps are okay. I will pick up some more antifreeze tomorrow when we go to Jefferson City. I have to do a little research on the Internet to re-learn how to winterize the washer and the ice maker. If I remember correctly the washer is easy enough, but the ice maker is a pain.

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

Dec 17th - Home

I made it home a little before 4 this afternoon. Things look a little different. It is strange to see the house when you turn off the highway, with the leaves mostly gone; but things aren't a lot different.

The load of gravel that I ordered last week is here. I can finish levelling the RV pad tomorrow.  I still may want to get a load of "clean" rock to top the area so that the gravel doesn't splash up on the sides of the RV when it rains.

I unhooked the car from the motor home down at the small grocery on the corner, and drove the car home. Lydia had just started a nap so we waited until she woke up before going back for the motor home. By the time we got it back it was sunset. I only unloaded a little more than what I need for tonight. I needed time to play with Lydia. I was whispering in her ear and she when I would quit she would lean her head over against my lips for me to keep doing it.

Roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy and asparagus for supper. WOW, a home cooked meal. It tasted great. Lydia was fond of the mashed potatoes.

After supper she was busy playing.

 

 

Right now she is having a tough time going to sleep. She does not like to go to sleep.

 

I enjoyed my time at Messiah's Ranch, but it is good to be home.

 

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.