Football and ?

Forrest was already watching television when I came out this morning. He was trying to make sure he could find the University of Washington/Alabama game. I think coverage for it on ESPN started at least three hours ahead of time! Unfortunately, as nearly all the prognosticators had predicted, UW lost their game. I guess it's pretty impressive they made it to the semi-finals and should be given credit for that. I think Forry spent the entire day watching one college football game after another.

Even though the indicator above the front dash shows five bars or full, we ran out of propane yesterday. Instead of small tanks, we have a large tank towards the front of the rig, that runs horizontally across and underneath the chassis. Since the only thing we use propane for are the surface burners on the stove, it lasts a l-o-n-g time. I think we last topped it off over two years ago when we were at Uhlmann's in Chehalis. We have noticed a propane supply truck in the park a time or two, but haven't paid much attention to it. We'll have to chat with the park manager Louie on Monday to find out who to contact about getting a fill-up. In the meantime, I'll have to pay attention to what I can plan for suppers that doesn't require the stovetop.

There was a low overcast sky all day today. It felt like it might snow, but so far we haven't seen any. Although it's being forecast for tonight or tomorrow. It started getting colder the minute the sun went down. I sure hope it doesn't get as cold as they are forecasting. The quail were a little braver today. They showed up about three o'clock and I actually got a few pictures (see my Facebook page). It's sort of funny that they do not go and pick up any of the wheat towards the back between the RV and the shed. Maybe they don't see a quick escape route? It'll be interesting to see if they'll go into that area as they begin to feel more comfortable.

Friday Evening

In one of the blogs I follow, Kathy's Klothesline, Kathy talked about seeing a casket for sale at Walmart and speculated about taking one home. It reminded me of a story my paternal Grandmother told about one of her elders who actually did see a casket he admired at the General Store and did bring it home in his wagon. But, he didn't bring home the flour Granny sent him to the store for in the first place. Evidently, Granny made it quite plain to him that he was to take that casket back - and he was to get his money back for it too!

I was only a young child when I heard this. I remember wandering where he thought he would put it until it was needed? Would they use it to store other stuff in it? Would it be stuck out in the barn? Could somebody else have used it if they needed it first? I was fascinated by the idea of Granny telling a grown man what to do - and that he minded her! Funny what kind of thoughts float around in a little kid's mind.

It was a beautiful day here today. The sun was shining and it was warm outside, almost fifty degrees? The snow has pretty much melted off the block patio. We don't often see them as they are very spooky, but the quail seem to be cleaning up the wheat kernels I've been scattering around. It's a shame they are forecasting terribly cold weather coming. It has been so nice.

Finished!

I have been working since Christmas off and on pretty steadily, on the report about Menno Church that I need to send to our Conference Minister. It's the second major step (the first was a congregational survey) in the process of getting names of a new potential pastor. Glad to finally have it finished, I sent it off to the other members of the Search Committee for review before I send it off to the conference staff.

Since I was so focused on getting the report finished, I did not get anything out of the freezer to defrost for supper. Therefore, I called the Potholes General Store to order pizza, which Forry then drove down and picked up. It might, at most, be a couple of miles over to the store/gas station. It's not something we do often, but it was sure handy tonight - as well as tasty.

We had a skiff of snow last night, just enough to leave an inch or less on the car and patio. It was a mix of overcast and occasional sunshine today. It's not been too bad, but they are predicting nasty cold weather after the weekend.

A Bit of Laundry

Not a lot going on here. We've had no more snow, the sun was out most of the day, it got up to 46 degrees. I worked on a report I've been trying to get done on the computer, and I got another load of laundry done. Forry even hung them up for me...

The reports from the mountains are not good. I understand the Pass was good for a few hours this morning, then there was another jack-knifed semi and the Pass was closed again. So glad that Daughter MM and her family decided to stay home.

Not sure where our multitude of birds has gone. The feeder was only half empty today and we only saw two or three sparrows there at any one time. There were no juncos or finches that we saw at all.

More Snow!

We had a good three inches of fresh snow on the ground this morning. Not a lot compared to the mountains or to Spokane, but enough for us! The sun was shining when we got up; then the fog crept in; then the sun came again; then it clouded over! Almost any weather you wanted.

Daughter Mary Mae and Scott finally paid attention to the weather and the forecasts and decided that they weren't going to try coming over the Pass tomorrow. Scott's mother and Dorv will be leaving for their annual anti-SAD (Seasonal Affective Disease) trip to Hawaii on the 5th. And they did want to see them before they were gone for the next couple of months. I was quite relieved that they made the decision not to come, as much as we'd like to see them and our Grandkids. This winter weather is nothing to be blasé about.

I spent most of the afternoon working on the computer as well as doing a load of laundry. My laundry took quite a while to dry, so it must be time to go through the cleaning cycle again. Lint and stuff builds up in the washer/dryer combos and you need to flush them out every once in a while. Fortunately, the Splendide cleaning protocol has been widely circulated in RV circles on the internet.

Cleaning

We packed up the little Christmas tree, the stockings and the rest of the Christmas decorations. That's one thing about living in a tiny space - clutter is not good. Putting the Christmas box away in its basement bay was a very good feeling! It's always fun to decorate, but even nicer to put it all away.

With everything cleared away, it was time to vacuum. Not that it needed it or anything like that!

The quail have discovered the wheat! Brother Pat had brought me over two five gallon buckets of wheat bits. I had scattered some over the patio area, but it hadn't been touched. Yesterday, when I went out to fill the bird feeder, I noticed the wheat was gone. So I scattered some more. It was still there this morning, but long about dusk, here came the quail! There were twenty to thirty of them, pecking up the wheat I had scattered and cleaning up the seed that had fallen from the feeder.

They are such fun to watch! They are pretty flighty, the slightest noise sends them flying off to the nearest bush. They are very thorough, searching the area to make sure they haven't left a single kernel behind.

A Lazy Christmas Day

Once again, we had a sunny day. It wasn't as warm as yesterday - only 40 degrees - and the temperature immediately dropped when the sun went down.

We planned to go to church, but didn't get our act together. All of a sudden we realized we should have left a half hour earlier! So we ended up just staying home.

We read and watched TV, talked on the telephone with all three of our children and Granddaughter Kyra and generally just spent a very lazy day.

Christmas Eve

It was gorgeous this morning. It had not snowed anymore during the night. The sun was shining and it was warm! The thermometer outside on the shed actually read 52 degrees! Forry saw that temperature on our inside/outside thermometer and wasn't sure it was correct. But it was!
Unfortunately, that much warmth will probably melt much of our snow cover which has been protecting the winter wheat during the cold weather of the last week or so.

We left Desert Sun and headed to my Brother Pat and Sister-in-law Cindy's home in Moses Lake. All four of their children were home with their spouses - or girl friend in Nephew Nick's case.  In addition, there were the seven grandchildren. What a lovely household of family!

I had to chuckle. They had decided that the kids could each open one present every hour. Great Nephew Case had a new watch and he kept trying to convince Uncle Nick it was time, but Nick was holding him to the exact minute!

Patrick was prepping a huge rib roast for the barbecue when we arrived. They seared it  in a 500 degree oven, then took it outside to roast while we watched the Seahawk game. We snacked on crab cocktails, bruschetta and various cheeses, crackers and libations during the game. Cindy made twice baked potatoes, Nephew Jared fixed green beans, his wife Becky made Gorgonzola sauce. All to serve with the perfect roast. It was so good, lovely pink center with a crispy crust.

After dinner, Niece Becky got out the cards and eight of us played a few hands of group solitaire. It gets pretty wild with everyone playing on the cards that are placed out in the center! (One of the safeguards we have learned over the years is to have everyone remove their rings first!)

More Snow?

When I got up this morning, there were large fat flakes of snow lazily drifting down from the sky. They soon stopped, then started up again an hour or so later. That seemed to be the pattern all day.

The FedEx guy stopped by in the early afternoon with a package. He said the roads were bare and dry -"actually, they are very good until you get to people's yards or driveways." So we decided to go ahead and go to Ephrata to spend some time with Vic. It had been almost a week since we had seen him. In the meantime, he had been discharged from the rehab unit and had been moved to the nursing home wing of the facility.

I told Forry to grab his cane as it might be a long walk to the new room and it was! We'll have to figure out if there's a shorter way to access the Nursing Home portion rather than going through the rehab area...

We took advantage of our trip into town to get gas and stock up on groceries. That may have been a mistake. Safeway was terribly, terribly crowded. It was hard to move around in the aisles. I guess everyone had the same idea.

We passed through a few more snow showers before we made it home. However, it doesn't seem to be sticking. We'll see what the night brings.

Potluck+

Last month, Sun Desert RV Park bought a turkey for the monthly park potluck. There weren't a lot of people here (including us!) and evidently there was a lot left over. So for this month's potluck, Pat used the leftover turkey to make a large kettle of soup. She also made a pot of split pea and ham soup. Everyone else filled in with the rest of the meal. This is the first we've been here for the potluck. I had signed up for dessert, so took a plate of Christmas cookies. (Yes, the ones Sister Sherry and I made after Thanksgiving that I stuck in the freezer and hid!)

Pat was already hard at work making soup this morning when I went over to the clubhouse for the weekly coffee gathering. One of ladies was upset this morning because "someone had let some air out of all four of the tires on her car!" The other ladies tried to explain to her that tire pressure is lower when it was cold, but she wasn't buying it. Seems she has a new car that gives a readout of tire pressure on each of the four wheels... "No, she knew who had done it, but she was a Christian and would forgive them!" Never a dull moment.

We were back home and watching television when we heard a siren and saw lots of lights down the hill where there are a bunch of mobile homes. We thought it was probably an ambulance. Then the lights and noise came on up the hill and turned into the RV park. Turned out to be a flat bed truck with Santa Claus escorted by a couple of police cars, all playing Christmas music. Every time they'd turn a corner, they'd blow the siren. They wound their way around the park, then went on their merry way.

Warm? Today

It was another very (comparatively speaking) warm day. The snow is gradually disappearing. The grass has funny melted spots all over where the sun had hit the leaves that were blown there by yesterday's winds.

We weren't up very early and much to his delight, we were actually awakened by Brother Pat inviting us to come join his family on Christmas Eve. He did say we should bring our ear plugs as all the Grandkids would be there...

Today was laundry and homemade chicken soup. We thought about going to visit our friend Vic in Ephrata, but today is the day he was supposed to be transferred to the Nursing Home wing. We thought tomorrow might be a better day to go.

For the first time in a while, we Skyped with Granddaughter Havela and little Kahlyn. It is sad that Illinois is so far away at this time of year. (Not that it's not a long way away the rest of the time, but it seems so much further at Christmas time!)

The Big Thaw

I could hear raindrops on the roof when we went to bed last night. It didn't last long, but when we got up this morning there was a glistening sheet of ice over everything. But it was warm! And everything was thawed. The toilet flushed, the hot water flowed and the fan on the furnace was running! By ten o'clock there was water dripping down the front windshield from the melting snow on the roof. Then the gusty winds came.

Forry was outside emptying the tanks and had to dodge flying chunks of snow. Many of the willow trees have not previously shed all of their leaves, but today's wind gusts did them in.  There were oodles of little leaves skittering across the top of the snow. The roads which had been compacted snow turned into sheets of ice. It was not a good day to even think about going anywhere.

We took advantage of the warmer temperature and the thawed pipes to take showers and run the dishwasher. Maintenance Man Mike came along again and scattered deicer on our patio and on Zola's across the way. The bird feeder was again emptied and the wind picked it up and tossed it along with the holiday swag sent by the Andrews family.  Fortunately, sunset saw the end of the wind gusts.

We're supposed to have a couple of days of decent weather without more snow before it gets cold again.

Chilly Monday

It was very cold again this morning. While our AquaHot furnace is firing well, the fan does not seem to be working anymore. It was quite chilly indoors when we got home from our road trip last night. Since we have an electric mattress pad, we kept nicely warm during the night, but I had several layers of clothes on today.

The birds emptied the feeder by mid-morning, but so far they aren't too interested in the new wheat bits. The squirrels seem to sort of come and go.

I finished up the cards to family members today and we made a quick trip into the post office to send them off by Priority Mail. I purposely took along a pen to address the Priority Mail envelopes, but wouldn't you know, it was out of ink! I went back to the car and we scrounged and found another under the seat. Which meant I had to get in line again (they don't have one of those automated machines at the Moses Lake post office). But they had all of the counters staffed with friendly folks and the line moved quickly.

We stopped by Chris Conner's shop on the way home to see if he had any ideas about the furnace fan. He's coming out to take a look tomorrow afternoon...

Road Trip

We have a friend we haven't seen for over a year and a half. This friend holds an Eggnog Party at her place up on Tiger Pass every December. She makes real Eggnog from scratch with eggs and cream and good stuff like that. Everyone that comes brings a plate of goodies, savory or sweet. Since a lot of people show up, it's quite a spread.

We haven't attended an Eggnog Party since we started full time RVing almost ten years ago. We've been in places like California and Florida and Arizona instead of in snowy Washington. So this year, we decided we would make the trek. Since there was no SS today, we left right after church.

It took us longer to drive north through Spokane than it took to get there from Menno. From Spokane we continued north on 395 through Deer Park, Springdale, Valley and Chewelah. We took the old Aden highway cutoff to Highway 12, then another six and a half miles to Mary's drive. It's a. one-way narrow road up the mountain to her place. You just hope you don't meet anyone coming down when you're going up! (Though Mary told me the guy going down has the right-of-way..)

We were late enough that there was a parking place right by the house. The house was still packed. I would guess there close to a hundred people there! Mary's Eggnog is fabulous, especially the bowl "with!"  The dining room table was covered with savory items  I took my plate of cookies to the sideboard where they joined an array of other sweet things.

I thought perhaps the Eggnog Parties would have tapered off a bit in the years while we were gone. But there is a whole new generation of folks enjoying this annual gathering. I sure didn't know very many people, but got some great hugs from Mary and the few I knew. We met a couple of the neighbors and were very intrigued by how much and how far you can see now from the balcony. (They had a violent wind shear come through the area that took down several truckloads of trees.)

We stayed for about an hour, then started the long trek back home (with a nice bottle of 'nog in hand). We saw a handful of deer as we drove back down towards Colville. There was a light snow falling, the mountains were beautiful. It got dark as we drove and we enjoyed the lights in Colville and the display in the Chewelah City Park. It's been a very good day!

FROZEN!

It was COLD this morning! I don't know what the temperature was earlier, but it was 5 degrees at ten o'clock and we were frozen! No cold water, no hot water, no water in the toilet! It was cold!

Forry kicked the heater in the bays up to high, but we never did get thawed out today. Fortunately, we have half a tank of water in our fresh water tank (We try to keep that much water for use in emergencies even though we are hooked up to park water. You never know when a park's water is going to be shut off because a pipe sprang a leak or someone ran over a hydrant.) that we could use. I washed my hair this afternoon and took a sponge bath in icy cold water!

This evening we went to a birthday dinner at Menno to celebrate our friend Katharine's 70th birthday. Held in the new Fellowship Hall, we had a wonderful roast beef dinner, shrimp cocktails and three kinds of cake. Diane and her crew prepared another feast. There were an interesting combination of people there from various parts of Kay's life - church family, school teacher, trustee, and family!

Friday Visitor

I spotted a head going alongside the RV window this morning towards the back of the patio. Then as I  watched it came back the other way and I realized it was my Brother Pat. He had brought a couple of five gallon buckets of wheat bits for my bird feeder! Then he brought in two large zip lock bags of beans for the non-snowbirds inside. I'm going to have to hunt for that ham hock that I think is somewhere in the freezer...

We had a good visit. Forry and Pat checked out the bourbon balls Sister Sherry and I made after Thanksgiving. I've had them in the refrigerator aging. They were pretty strong when we made them (they've got a good dose of Jack Daniels in them), but the fellows said they have aged nicely.

There was a great deal of activity at the bird feeder this morning. Not only did the squirrel I've been chasing away show up (he hangs from the top of the feeder and eats), but his cousin came as well. The first one chased the new arrival away and we didn't see either of them after that.

I took advantage of the thawed tanks and did three loads of laundry this afternoon, working at filling them back up again. The UPS driver dropped off my order of another set of long johns from Costco, so between them and the clean laundry, I'm in pretty good shape to face the horrid temperatures they predicting for the next few days.

More Snow

It started to snow last night just about the time I got back from town (went into Moses Lake for Bible Study which ended up canceled) about six thirty. It snowed about an inch, then stopped. We thought that was it as it was still quiet when we went to bed. But, when we got up this morning, there was at least another three inches on the ground!

I was sure glad I had gotten a pair of snow boots when I walked over to the clubhouse for the weekly ladies' coffee klatch. I was the first one there this morning, so I rummaged around, found the coffee can in the refrigerator, made a pot of coffee and put the water on for tea.

Forry put one of our electric heaters out in one of the bays. By noon, we had hot water. Mid-afternoon he was able to drain the black tank and an hour or so later the grey tank followed suit. So now I can take a shower again, run the dishwasher and do some laundry! I think we've figured what all we have to do to exist in this nasty weather... We'd better have, as it is forecast to get even colder!

Chatted with Sister Roxy on the phone this morning to wish her Happy Birthday! She said they had gotten enough snow in Lacey to dust the bushes. We had a nice talk until she suddenly decided she'd better hurry and get dressed or she'd be late for her Zumba class! The year she was born, our Dad told us she was our Christmas present...

Another Chilly Day

I'm counting the days until the Winter Solstice. I can't wait until I can starting watching the days become longer! Even if it's only by a minute a day, there's something very psychological about it and I always feel better when I can read it in the newspaper every day.

It was cold today! We were once again without hot water this morning - that I can do without! From the looks of the tracks in the snow along the back of Auntie Violet, the deer we've seen have been exploring around the park. We've only seen them once here, but a couple of times we've seen bunches  of them crossing the road.

We watched the Pentatonix Christmas Show tonight. It was really a pleasure to watch. I bought their Christmas album just to get their rendition of Cohen's Hallelujah. They are a talented group.

FINALLY - A Stay-at-Home Day!

I made it very plain last night that I was not going to leave the RV today, and I didn't! I did open the door when John, one of the park maintenance guys, knocked. John announced, if it was all right with us, that he was here to scrape the ice and snow off of our patio and put down de-icer. I had swept a path in the snow out to the car, but that was all. The first snow actually melted off the patio, but it was colder now. This last snow stuck and every place we'd walked, getting bird feed etc,, turned to ice. John shoveled off the snow, scraped off the icy spots, then spread de-icer of some kind. When he finished with ours, we saw him go down the road and do the same thing at Zola's place. It's interesting that the maintenance crew is out doing this at all the occupied sites. I wonder if it's a liability issue? It's very nice whatever the reason!

Forry went out to drain our almost full tanks and discovered that the drain hose was frozen. He thinks we lost the electric unit in the AquaHot during the night as we had no hot water this morning. He switched the system over to use diesel instead of electricity and we soon had hot water again. One thing I quickly noticed - the AquaHot diesel system is much warmer then the electric version. It's much warmer in the RV even though it's colder outside.

I did finish our Christmas cards this afternoon. I finally got very frustrated with SendOutCards' website's ability to send the cards in one batch (in spite of multiple emails and discussions with their "help"staff), and sent them in batches of six to ten. Not real happy with the picture we used, but at least that task is done.

Forry spent some time outside doing some more winterizing stuff while I worked on the Congregational Description that the Search Committee helped flesh out last night. It is a complicated multi-page document that I really want to get finished up this week.

Another Busy Day...

Ugh! This getting up early and getting going is getting old.

Forry had another appointment with the dentist this morning to get a filling in one of his back molars. While he was at the dentist, I managed to get some shopping done - mainly for some cards and stocking stuffers.

After Forry was finished up, (plus a hug from Niece Becky!) we headed for Ephrata for a visit with our friend Vic. The roads were clear until we got into town, then they were a bit slushy yet. Vic was in pretty good spirits, still pleased that his Daughter Pam had been able to "borrow" a wheelchair van to take him to Walt's Memorial Service last Saturday. We visited for a bit, then PT came to take him for therapy.

Back to Moses Lake with a stop at Safeway for breakfast sandwiches and one at Lowes for another sack of birdseed. Then over to Denny's for an early supper. While we were there, we got a phone call from our friend Colleen who had just finished a ten day stint of vending at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. It was so good to talk with her - except that they were at Eagle View in Arizona! Jealous!

Next stop was out at Menno for a meeting of the Pastoral Search Committee. This was a working meeting to fill out the questionnaire about the congregation that we need to send into the PNMC office. Members of the committee had done the information gathering on various portions of the questionnaire. Now I need to get it all written up...

Farewells

It was another early morning day.  Since church starts at ten AM, we have to leave a bit after eight-thirty, especially when we are not sure about the condition of the roads. They definitely were better this morning than yesterday, but still not fast. However, we did arrive in plenty of time.

After church this morning, a farewell celebration was held for Pastor Matthew and his family. Diane and her catering crew prepared a porkloin dinner for the congregation plus several families that were friends of Matthew and Shawna. There was a nice turnout and it was interesting to hear people's comments about the Yoder's years at Menno. They will be leaving towards the end the month for their new home in Ohio.

We arrive back home just in time to watch the sad second half of the Seahawks/Packers game. Green Bay certainly took Seattle to the cleaners this afternoon!

Another Busy Day

We were up and going early this morning, but the roads were so bad that we made it to church just as the Memorial Service for Walt Reimer was starting. Walt was born in 1920 and with his wife Clara, was one of the treasured elders of our Menno congregation. There was a soup luncheon served after the service in the new Fellowship Hall so we had a chance to visit with many of the family members that were present. Although the occasion was sad, it was a joy to visit with many of these cherished souls.

The roads were a bit better on the way back home. They had had a chance to melt off a bit and we met a few snowplows. It probably snowed another good inch. inch and a half during the night. You could tell by all of the bird tracks that the little guys had been busy at the feeder. There were also tracks from the rabbit that lives under the RV across the road.

It wasn/t as cold last night as it was on Thursday, but the temperature tonight has been really dropping. We stopped at Safeway in Moses Lake to get gas and the wind made it feel much much colder.

A Snowy Day at Home

There was about another inch of snow on the ground this morning and we had intermittent snow showers throughout the day. The bird feeder had lots of customers - there were 20-25 little birds flying between the feeder and the trees. But, this nasty little guy has found the feeder as well! We yell at him and chase him away every time we see him, but...

The birds scatter quite a bit of feed unto the ground, but then they seem to go right after it, so it's not being wasted.

This is one of the little Oregon Juncos. He's puffed up almost to twice his size to keep himself warm in this nasty cold weather.

We hunkered down  in the house pretty much all day. Forry did go out to sweep a path to the shed and to the car and swept the car off. He also brought the sack of bird feed inside so I could refill the feeder. In this cold, they're emptying it almost every day.

I did get three loads of laundry done. I dry the underwear, but hang the rest of it on our rack. It seems to help keep the shrinkage down.

We ate the second crab for dinner tonight. I think it was even better than the one we had last night!

Another Trip to the Dentist and CRAB!

It was cold last night! It wasn't easy to climb out of our nice warm bed this morning (we have a heated mattress pad with dual controls), but I dutifully got up, washed my face, got dressed and headed over to the clubhouse to have coffee with the park ladies. It was definitely a brisk walk.

The birds had the feeder completely empty this morning! I refilled it when I came back from coffee. They were quickly back to work on re-emptying it. There must have been twenty plus little birds flitting in and out - finches, juncos and sparrows.

I had an appointment at two with Niece Becky to do some deep cleaning on two of my back molars. I don't know why those two were particularly bad, but Becky earned her paycheck by the time she finished with them.

On Becky's recommendation, we went from the dentist's office over to North40 and found me a pair of snow boots. It's snowing again tonight, so my purchase was timely. But here's one of my pet peeves. If the boots/shoes say they should be treated with water repellent before being worn, why don't they treat them before you buy them?! I dutifully bought a can of the spray stuff and will treat them tomorrow - provided I can step outside to do it! I don't want that spray stuff in a closed up house.

We stopped at Safeway to buy much needed groceries. When I came around the back to the meat counter, I was delighted to see the case full of beautiful Dungeness crab! The butcher said they had just gotten their first shipment of the season. $5.99/lb. I had him clean two. I picked up a loaf of crusty bread and we had crab for dinner tonight! After eating nothing but snow crab in Arizona the last few winters, it was an absolute delight to feast on Dungeness. And we have enough for crab and Gruyere omelets in the morning!

A Very Busy Day

After taking our antibiotics (a necessity after our back and joint surgeries), we headed for Moses Lake and our appointments at the dentist. Our Niece Becky is the dental hygienist at the dentist we use, so it gives us a chance to visit for an hour while we get our teeth cleaned.

From the dentist' office, we headed for Ephrata to visit our friend Vic at Columbia Basin Hospital Rehab. He looks and seems to feel ever so much better than when we saw him last Saturday. We had a pretty short visit as he was scheduled for a trip to the jacuzzi. The roads were all clear until we got to Ephrata. They got about three inches of snow and it looks like none of it was plowed nor did any of it melt. The roads in town were all slick.

We got back to Moses Lake with time to have a quick dinner at Denny's before it was time to go over to Monroe House where the Menno ladies meet on Wednesday evenings for Bible Study. We were going to stop and get groceries, but since I have to go back to the dentist tomorrow afternoon, we'll wait and do it then.

Getting COLD!

Well, in spite of the forecast for more, we woke up this morning to the same amount of snow we had when we went to bed. The sun was out. It was so bright it actually hurt your eyes. I was outside trying to get a picture of Auntie Violet in the snow. There weren't any human tracks in the yard, but you could see the tracks from one of the little rabbits who live in the park and lots of bird tracks. The birds were working hard at the bird feeder, knocking snow off the top as they flew in and out.

By late afternoon, the snow had melted off the patio blocks. Then the temperature started to drop as the sun went down. Forry went outside and brushed and scraped the last of the snow off Toad II. It had partially melted and was now freezing hard.

This arctic front the forecasters have been talking about for two days may finally be here.

I spent a good share of the day working on Christmas cards and doing the end of the year bookwork for the ranch. It's always a pain to finish things up as since I only do it once a year, as I can never remember quite how to do it. I have to fight with my laptop computer as well - I sure wish I had never upgraded to Windows 10!

SNOW!

Yep, there's a good inch of snow out there on the ground! It started about two o'clock this afternoon and kept it up for almost three hours. It didn't look like it was going to stick for a while, but then it did. When it started, the maintenance guys were out there pounding four foot stakes in along the edge of the roads, then spray painting the top 6-7 inches orange. I assume they put the stakes in to guide snow plowing, but I surely hope they don't think it's going to get that deep!

We've been dithering a bit about our outdoor Christmas decorations. We've used luminarias the last three years at Eagle View in Arizona. They fit very well in our desert home. Somehow, it doesn't seem like such a good thing here. I don't think we're going to put them out. Today we hung our icicle lights on the front of the coach along with our JOY sign. The icicles are about a foot long and hang in two loops from the mirrors.

I also took our little Christmas tree out of the storage box. I had put it in a large two gallon plastic bag hoping to protect it. It looked a bit bedraggled anyway, but soon fluffed back up with a little TLC. I'm  not sure how we're going to light it up... Presently it's in the front window, but I may move it over to the top of our new little fireplace heater.

Church Today

I'm still not sure what happened. We were up plenty early and dressed and ready to go to Menno, but we were almost late! We walked in with one minute to spare - and Forry without his hearing aids..

In Adult Sunday School this morning, we watched a video of one of Ted and Lee's early shows, the one about the Angel Gabriel telling Mary the news; Mary's interaction with Joseph; and Zachariah and Elizabeth. Hilariously funny, but very thought provoking videos. They were especially poignant to watch, knowing of Lee's tragic death a few years back.

We stopped on the way home for both gas and coffee. Forry had a peppermint mocha while I had a peppermint latte. There was a cold wind blowing, so it was nice to have warm drinks after gassing the car.

We'll have to be switching the tv channels back and forth as we want to watch both the Seahawks game and the fourth night of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

Another Trip to Ephrata

We hadn't been to Ephrata to visit our friend Vic since Monday, so we were quite anxious to see how he was doing today. We understand that they had a good Care Conference last Wednesday and are thinking he probably needs another three weeks of therapy. Vic was asleep in his chair when we arrived, but quickly woke to visit when we arrived. We met a few more of the staff today. All that we've met seem to be both kind and competent.

It's been several years since Moses Lake has been our main "market town," so we feel like we're rediscovering it. I was hungry for steak tonight, so we went to the Porterhouse, which I remembered as being quite good. We were a bit disappointed. We split a rib steak which was only so-so. The baked potato could have baked a little longer. Our soup arrived before our drinks and was only lukewarm. The waitress asked us if we were ready for the check before we had even eaten half of our steak...

Tonight is night three of the National Finals Rodeo - so much fun to watch!

It's Friday!

We have been a bit concerned about keeping warm in our motorhome this winter. We were pretty sure that the two little electric heaters we used in Arizona and Florida and Texas to take the edge off would not be enough. Just for fun, we've been looking at the electric heaters that mimic fireplaces. The first one we considered - and almost ordered - turned out to have some scary reviews about melting plastic parts. We found another one that we eventually ordered. It's about 20 inches tall and has quite an active looking flame. I posted a picture on Facebook earlier this evening so you can take a look.

We talked briefly this morning about going into town to visit Vic, but are still feeling a bit "traveled out," so quickly vetoed that idea. Forry got outside long enough to take the garbage out to the cans on the edge of the park and get the mail. He did get the Christmas box out of the bay, so maybe we'll get some Christmas decorations up in the next few days. Our luminaries have plastic water bottles in the base as weights. We have sat outside and filled them in the past. I don't think we'll be doing that here.

We're again watching the broadcast of the National Finals Rodeo from Las Vegas. It's Night Two. We're be rooting for the Grandma barrel racer from Cheney who won the go-round last night.

Coffee and ?

I was moving sort of slow this morning when Forry reminded me it was Thursday morning. The ladies in the park meet on Thursday mornings for coffee and a bit of "discussion." I quickly got dressed, grabbed my mug of coffee and a container of cookies and walked over to the clubhouse. I shared the peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses that Sister Sherry and I had made last week with the ladies that were there. Sounds like only seven people were here for Thanksgiving dinner. Since they had bought a pretty large turkey, the leftovers were frozen for turkey soup at the December potluck later this month.

We're watching the first night of the 10 day National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas tonight. Pamela Capper, the little grandmother from Cheney who took four horses with her, won the first go-round in barrel racing tonight. Our friends, Dennis and Colleen have their Recycled Spoon jewelry booth here for the show. Here's hoping that they have lots of good sales. The only problem is they never get to watch the rodeo events...