Winter wildlife

Driving in to town this afternoon we saw a big flock of turkeys feeding out in a field and then the next field over was a herd of about 25 deer. But the best sight was a bald eagle flying along the Grand River carrying a stick in its claws. This is the third bald eagle we have seen since moving here. We have lots of bluejays and some little round bird. My bird book is still packed and I have NO IDEA where it is at.

Plumbing is done in the laundry room and I am putting a finish on the floor. LaVern will now plumb the bathroom. Next room will be the 16x36 kitchen!! Still don't know what I am going to do with that huge kitchen!

We went to an Amish auction near Kirksville, MO this past Tuesday. They had a propane refrigerator AND a wood cook stove listed. We bid on them but didn't get either purchased. I probably should have bought the Standardbred gelding. He was 11 years old, sound and TRAFFIC SAFE!! HA HA I am thinking that traffic safe is probably priceless! He was a nice looking horse but just didn't appear to be as quiet a horse as I would like to find. I'm guessing that is the breed. I'll just keep looking. Not ready for animals yet anyway. Too much snow!

We have lots of snow. Ditches are full as well as the fields. Going to the auction there had been frost that morning so everything was frosted and white. It was just beautiful!! The sky was pink and then the bright orange sun rising. It just doesn't get better than that.

We are driving to Lenexa, KS this Saturday. Down Kansas City way. I am going to a hook-in and LaVern plans on hitting the Lowes, Home Depots and Menards. I wonder if he will be done by the time the show is over!

Will buy a throw away camera and try to get some pictures to post. Our camera still hasn't showed up yet. Take joy.

LaVern & Carolyn at McDonalds

Here we are eating out at McDonalds

The remodel continues

Two upstair bedrooms done, main level bedroom done (we slept in the kitchen while that was happening) both the bathroom and laundry room are about half finished. The ceilings and walls are completed but now the hard part..........plumbing. Not hard really, just something LaVern does NOT enjoy doing. He still is reading, researching, asking questions and basically missing some sleep while figuring out how he wants to handle the hot water system. Meanwhile, today we went to Lenox, IA and ordered a 250 gal propane tank and propane! ha ha Actually we had planned on using some propane for my kitchen stove (in the summer) and occasionally for the gas dryer( don't anticipate using it much). But between the time when he gets the water system set up and running we will heat water just when we need it with a propane water heater. "The plan" is to heat water with solar, wood and wind. We havent had much sun lately but have had some wind so the wind charger is still in the works but not until this summer. I think we are heading to the kitchen to start on it next after the bathroom.
We received about 6 inches of snow this past Friday and then another 6 yesterday. We are still able to get out and around okay. '
Chores this morning included the compost pile, hauling in a week's worth of firewood, dishes and then LaVern cut up some scrap lumber and pine for the hot fires when we need them.
We had dinner yesterday with some new friends. They live on 120 acres east of Redding, an Amish community. It was snowing steadily but still the kids all bundled up and went down to the pond. Must have been down there two hours ice skating! We three girls went out also and trekked through the snow in the woods. The fresh air and snow was wonderful. I was tempted to flop down and make a snow angel but didn't want to shock my two new friends. We don't know each other well yet. I didn't know what they would think of a 60 year old woman making snow angels!! Just takin joy!!

Happy Valentine's Day

A couple weeks ago I knew that Valentine's Day was getting close. Lots of ads on the radio, TV, newspaper suggesting diamonds for that special Valentine. This morning, over coffee, LaVern mentioned that he wanted to go to town today. He said he had to get his sweetheart flowers and candy! This is a common joke between us as I just can't see spending hard earn dollars on candy and flowers. I promptly replied, "What happened to getting diamonds?" He then told me he had already given me the diamond. Upon seeing the questioning look on my face he stated (with love in his eyes).....this house......it's a diamond in the rough!! What a sweetheart!!

Love hugs and kisses to all the Valentines out there!

Daylighter

I recently read an article by a specialist in the medical field that said we should all be daylighters. If we all did this we would be much healthier and save alot of energy consumption. Okay. What is a daylighter? Daylighting means you sleep with the sun. LaVern already does this so he must be very healthy! We are to get up with the sun and go to bed shortly after it sets. That means hibernating like the animals in the winter and putting in long days in the summer. I'm all for that but my sleep clock is NOT. Some people have difficulty with that also but tell of meditating during those "awake" periods during the long winter sleep months. It makes sense actually. When electricity came available everything changed. Night became day and then a day was three eight hour shifts!! Once again something that "worked" back in the "old days" was better and people were healthier. Now we depend on machines for exercise and drugs to keep us going. hmmm No wonder our health care is a mess. My thoughts for the day. Go to bed early tonight and I'll see you at sunrise.