Use Google? Read this and act now to protect your privacy

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/why-you-might-want-to-delete-your-google-browser-history-before-next-week/

Poor man's fish tank...

How does a poor lad fill this giant fish bowl?

That's right, get your fishing pole and head for the pond. K8 used his Christmas money from Grandma to buy fishing gear, and when Dan went out today with his cast net to get some Bluegill for the aquarium, K8 thought he would help.

Let me tell you about the big one that almost came close to my hook, I think it was a Black Crappie.

Let's build an apartment

Deja vu! It feels like old times while building our home back in 2010 and living in the basement while K2 frames another master piece.

Not your typical law school student as he spends his vacation building an apartment for KT and Dan. Got delayed by snow storm, but he accomplished a lot when the snow melted. He has walls framed for the mechanical room, the full bathroom, storage hallway, and the apartment and its closet. He has to return to school and books today, so Dan will finish up the ceiling work, after which we can have the plumber and electrician come do their part before K2 comes back next month on another school break to help insulate and drywall. We have oak flooring left over from our construction of the house which we will use here.

Snow is only temporary.

This was our corral early last Tuesday morning. Cold and still a few inches of snow left from Monday's storm.

Same corral later in the day is a sea of mud as the temperature rose to 50.

Blue skies over our full parking lot.

Washing machine saga

Do not buy this particular Kenmore brand washer, which is manufactured by Whirlpool. It is cheap, light-weight, and prone to frequent malfunctions. How do I know? I speak from experience having owned 2 of them in the past 8 months. Bought the first one in May 2011 to replace our old reliable Kenmore work horse that died after 10-15 years. Since I grew up trusting the Kenmore brand from Sears, I bought a new one. Little did I know that the simple, reliable mechanical type washers of my youth have all been replaced with new fangled electronic circuitry machines with delicate electronic sensors. 

The new washer lasted less than 2 months and stopped functioning in July. Sears replaced it with an identical model, which then required 2 major repairs itself at great inconvenience to us. While awaiting the latest repair this week, with dirty laundry piling up rapidly, both K2 and Mom spent hours on the phone with multiple Sears employees around the Nation seeking a better solution - which we finally got! If we would bring the "lemon" to the Big City and pay a little more money, we could upgrade to a much better machine. That is exactly what I did yesterday.   

While in the Big City, K8 and I had a few neat experiences. First, while waiting at a traffic light, we saw a bunch of heads and arms pop out of a car across the big, busy intersection, and start waving at us. It was the Allen kids from our Church. Then, after lunch, K8 and I stopped at Barnes and Noble book store and bumped into another Church family from our small town.

Finally got home with the new washer and hooked it up. It is a Kenmore Elite manufactured by LG, which is one of the top brands our repair tech recommended we get. And it was on sale for 40% off! Yes, it was a GOOD DAY.

A Chocolate a Day May Keep Cancer Away, and Lower Chance of Stroke

Finally! Vindication for a life-long addiction fondness for CHOCOLATE!

Check out the two articles at the links below:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/a-chocolate-a-day-may-keep-cancer-away-190601.html

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/chocolate-lovers-stroke-29677.html

Snow Day #2

After 2 hours of morning animal chores, with school cancelled for 2nd day in a row, K7 finds ways to relax and have fun.

More snow boarding before it all melts.

Yes, he is wearing shorts.

Happy animals

Because of this week's snow, we are feeding hay to the animals morning and evening. K7 likes using the wheel barrow, but K6 and I just lug them from the barn out to the shed. We still need to put a strong gate on the front of hay storage portion of shed - as you can see behind K7 in this pic, the bull can pull the wire cattle panel open. That's why we aren't storing hay in there yet.

Heidi is happy.

Percy, Mutt and Cork are also happy.

Take the "Faith" poll

Glen Beck has an interesting poll on the topic of religion at his news web site called, The Blaze. Find it at the web address below, and take it:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/blaze-readers-tell-us-about-your-faith/

Gotta eat

Gee, what should we fix for supper on such a wintery day?

This bevy of birds (lots of Cardinals) is eating grain left over from this morning's feeding of cattle.

Meanwhile, in the warm house, Mom spent hours making a special meal.

What could it be?

Homemade (and low fat) chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice and corn pudding. Yummy.

Let it Snow!

We awoke early this morning to a winter wonderland. I spent 3 hours feeding grain and hay to our cows and sheep, and rigging our floating electric de-icers in water troughs. It has been such a mild winter, we were lolled into complacency. Afterward, the boys spent the day playing.

All the cows and sheep were comfortable in the new loafing shed that Marshall and boys built. Yes, that is our dairy cow, Darlin, out in the snow for a very short period before returning to her own warm and dry shed behind the barn.

Dan has a job at a big dairy, and fortunately has 4-wheel drive in his truck, or he would not have made it today. When he returned from work this morning, he introduced the boys to the sport of snow boarding. Here, K8 is calling out. "Hey, wait for me!"

K6 coming down the hill...

...he's really flying...

...he's crashing! That's the way to eat a snow cone. 

Mr Trend-Setter is ready for more. 1970's snow pants still come in handy.

K6 and Dan.

K7 has his own colorful look.

K8 used a small skate board without wheels for a ride. KT took all of these action shots.

The dogs had to watch from a distance.

Look at the roof's ridge line - as the day warmed up slightly, the snow started to melt and slide downward. A very cool day.

Hay boys

Friday afternoon, 10 February. K6 and Marshall loaded the truck with hay from our secret hay storage site. The temperature was in the 30's and its a mile from home (oops! not so secret location any more). K6 is rarely this camera shy.

He came out of his cocoon fast enough when I asked him if he wanted to drive home. Later that night, he, Marshall, and Dan camped on the hill side above the farm. It was 9 degrees this morning - burrrrr! But they didn't get to sleep in late this morning because we had a woodcut with the Scouts from 9:30 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. It was 30-some degrees when we got home this afternoon. Chilly weekend.

Blind taste test.

I occasionally go into the "Big" city and shop at Sam's Club, and on even more rare occasions, I have been known to buy a box of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins. This week, I was shocked that, after many years, Sam's has changed muffin brands! How could they? I asked the Bakery manager what was going on? She said she didn't know, the new brand just arrived this week. I told her I wouldn't take the chance on buying the new brand after eating Otis' for many years. She gave me a package to take home and try! Wow! Thank you. Got home and pulled out my last Otis Spunkmeyer Chocolate muffin from it's secret hiding place, and called the boys in for a Blind Taste Test.  

K7 chewed away.

K8 munched away.

After eating samples from each brand, they voted.

They decided that the new brand, Cloverhill Bakery of Chicago, tasted better. I was about to call the Sam's Club bakery manager to give her the good news, but realized there was a flaw in our test - The Cloverhill brand was fresh baked, but Otis had been stashed away for a few weeks. Oh darn! We are going to have to do another test...