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...