Tractor happiness

The tractor has been down for a month. Our friend Brian came over and re-wired it while K2 re-installed a repaired flat tire.

Brian installed a "kill" switch to keep the battery from draining, and traced out all the many wires. This model originally had two 6 volt batteries, but a previous owner converted it to a single 12 volt, but left a mess of wires. The lights didn't work and battery would drain down to zilch power. 

Very happy to be able to start up and go to work with our own equipment, instead of having to ask a neighbor to come move big bales of hay to cattle out in pastures.

K2 cleaned the work bench and floor, and re-organized the grain bins in far corner. He and I love a clean barn/shop!

K2 admiring his handiwork - a clean work bench and organized tool rack. The only tool I need to replace is a pair of cheap chinese made needle nosed pliers the boy's broke (using it improperly).

You can see the dog's sleeping area in the lower right hand part of photo. They have a carpet under two heat lamps which they love when the temperature drops to freezing or below.

Christmas Afternoon

The boys wanted to go to the Church and play basketball.

What goes up does not necessarily come down...

Don't see this often. K7 got the ball stuck on top of the goal.

Not everyone was playing ball. Some of us were taking advantage of the high speed internet.

Finally, the Missionaries show up an hour late, but the ensuing session of "Knockout" was long and intense. Everyone worked up a sweat while having a lot of fun.

Something else you don't see often - an empty Walmart parking lot. I was happy to see them closed down from 8:00 P.M. Christmas eve until 5:00 A.M. the day after Christmas.

Christmas gift giving

11:30 A.M. After a family prayer, we finally begin. K2 was the master of ceremonies, passing out one gift at a time. He wrote the numbers 1 thru 9 on separate napkins and then had all of us draw napkins to see in which order he would distribute the presents.

K7 liked the pajama pants Mom made for him, and the scraft and gloves that KT knitted for him.

There was lots of chocolate.

A good time was had by all.

Christmas Morning

10:30 A.M. and no one opening presents yet. What's wrong with this?

11:00 A.M. and the young folks are more interested in watching episodes of Studio C on the internet. Prime example of what's wrong when there are no little kids in the house anymore.

Time to take charge, round everyone up, and start ripping paper. 

Christmas Eve

We had a great gathering of family and friends at the Wanch to enjoy good company and S's fabulous turkey feast.

Twas the weekend before Christmas, and a Scout merit badge could be had

The St Robert Stake offers a merit badge class the 3rd Saturday of each month. I drove K8 and three other Scouts from our Troop the hour and a half trip to attend this month's class - Family Life, an Eagle required MB. There were four Scouts from another Troop there as well. Afterward, we stopped at the Ft Leonard Wood Army base exchange so I could do some last minute Christmas shopping.

Odds and ends

K2 repaired the leaf guards that came off with the heavy load of snow on the roof.

Denali helped him after she finished shoveling rock into the greenhouse. 

I had fun burning brush (and an old love seat that Danny and KT not taking with them when they move next month).

Shopping

I took K3 and K8 to the big city to do a little Christmas shopping. We had fun watching Wiley trying on glasses.

Does this count as a photo bomb pic?

Greenhouse rocks...

The rock arrived soon after the snow melted. Had a nice size pile. Now what? Remember the old saying - How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

Or one shovel and bucket load at a time. K7 and his cousin Denali were the first to attack it, and...

....were soon joined by K6, aka Mr Muscles.

K7 felt some rain drops..."Does this mean we can stop now?" No, keep working. Oh, K8 finally showed up. Time to get hands out of pockets and get to work.

K6 demonstrating the proper way to lift a load.

Once they got the floor covered, they made a pathway to the door, then started filling the cinder blocks under the greenhouse. "Hey, K8 still has his hands in his pocket."

Not for long - start shoveling. K8's dog, Daisy, must have had a hard night because she is sleeping on the job site.

The remaining rock will probably be used to make a walkway border around the outside of the greenhouse to prevent weeds.

Now all we need is to wrap the plastic walls and install the wood burning stove, and start planting lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, peppers and carrots...and maybe a banana tree?

Baa, humbug!

Just wrapped up our fourth play of the year with last night's final show of "The Christmas Carol, a Musical". Here is KT as the lamp-lighter (and Ghost of Christmas Past), Ebenezer Scrooge (way out of character by smiling), K7 as young Ebenezer (as well as 3 other roles), and Maddie who is dressed for her part as the Exchange cleaning lady, but shined as the young Emily.

Forrest, KT, K7, and Maddie

K8 worked back stage running the fog machine. Hannah played the cello in the live orchestra, and spent many hours at the theater building props with her Mom the Director.

K2 made it home in time to see the final two nights. Here he's chatting with Kyleigh (in the Santa hat) who played violin in the orchestra.

Elaine, Forrest, and Tess - three of the brighter "lights" in our cast.

"Well young Ebenezer, is now a bad time to ask you about how firm is your goal of blindly seeking gold vs sacrificing marriage to Emily"?

First thaw of our early winter begins

Sun rise on Dec 14th. Today's temperature will finally be above freezing for the first time in a week. This sheet of ice on the road will melt.

The ice on our driveway started to melt.

See these icicles? They're not long for this world. Ditto for the snow in pastures.

Our cows will enjoy having grass again.

The pond has been frozen over.

This picture is here because I was so excited to see a bald eagle land in the big sycamore tree on the right. It is the black spot about half way up, on the left fork, above the water. I watched it for about 10 minutes, before it flew away across our pasture. Wish I had a telephoto lens.

Later in the day, the snow is receding and grass is re-appearing.