JANUARY 2022

ARK:  No snow since the 3rd, but its getting colder.  As far as "going somewhere", I have no idea what may be brewing in her mind.  My mobility issues are a concern about where we might go. IF we should go anywhere, I would want to go to England and do some snooping about my family background ... mainly to find where my 12, 11, 10th  Great Grandfathers are buried.  Ratte the keys and Carol is ready to go !!

Stay safe and secure and WARM for all my Foop friends!!  Love, Rick

We have snow about 3 inches of the lovely white stuff.  It's lovely when we don't have to leave the house and we didn't leave the house except to walk to the mailbox.  We are supposed to get a not so lovely storm this Sunday with freezing rain and ice.  Not looking forward to that nightmare.  Our old generator is ready just in case.  Still no word on the Generac installation.  Looking at springtime now.  Darn it.  They can't get the generators.

GRAYMARE:  Praying for peace from Jesus for you as your prepare TL's service.

ELLEN: That was quite a experience for that guy in the kayak.  Bet he never does that again.  Live and learn the hard way.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Pennsylvania Snowplow:

Yep. Wind dropped. Ice over whole lake.

TRUDY:
That's a cute snowplow! LOL.... We actually had our pony, Zippy, pull a homemade snowplow once when we had 10 inches of snow. He pulled it down a 600 foot driveway and cleared us a path big enough for our car. That boy was a wonder.


RICK:
We only got about a half inch of snow this time, but wow, the temps got down to 3 degrees last night. The horses were glad to have on their blankets. We took them off this afternoon when it got up to 35 degrees, and they were happy about that, too. I hope you get over to England and find your great, greats.


GRAYMARE:
I am glad you have hovering friends. How are your horses and dog doing?

ELLEN:
Our temps are going back up tomorrow to 46, and with rain, that should get rid of the rest of our snow. I've had enough now, thanks!


I bought my last rooster a coat. He is old and decrepit and been shivering. So I got him a coat that goes on his back and attached some fleecy material under it. He wasn't too thrilled about having it put on last night, but he was still alive this morning after some pretty cold temps. The coat is actually intended for hens to keep roosters from scratching up their backs, but I didn't tell my rooster that. It's amazing what you can buy on Amazon....

Ice storm in Northeast PA yesterday. What a mess!!!!! Our road is still covered with ice. Only 2 vehicles went down our road yesterday, usually it's a freeway for people who think it's a short cut. No in person church for us, but our church puts the service on line so we can still watch the service. Everyone on the stage were the younger (under 50) choir members. Funny how that worked, the "old" people stayed home and watched on the laptops in their PJ's.

ARK: That was so funny about the coat for your rooster. I'm going to share with my buddy Rick who raises chickens. Yup you can buy almost anything on Amazon.

GRAYMARE: What would we do without friends? They can be a miracle drug when life sends us huge troubles to deal with.

Stay safe & healthy everyone.

We have light fluffy pretty snow this morning. Maybe 2 inches. The horses all looked like they had a covering of powdered sugar on their backs this morning. It showed up really well on Monster as he is the dark bay. They didn't seem to care. The came in an ate their grain and then were ready to go back outside. The weatherman said we would get just enough to make the roads slick. Oh well, spring will be here soon.

Indy, you got more snow than we did, about 40 miles south of you. We got just enough to make a mess. Yeah. It's winter, and will be for at least two more months.

Our snow is almost all gone. The rain and somewhat warmer temps took care of most of it. Mud is the result, of course. It's cold at night, though. My rooster wearing his coat is still kicking and seems to be better. I think he likes his coat now. I should get him a bow tie to go with it. Maybe some spats....


Yesterday Ivan came up to me with blood coming out of one nostril. We think he may have stuck a stick up his nose. It bled for a while, but seems to have stopped.
And then we found Areion with her hock swelled and a scraped place on it. We think she may have hurt it getting up off the ground. We've been cleaning and putting antiseptic on it and it seems better today. She is going to the vet next Tuesday for trims, so I'll have them check it out then....unless it gets worse sooner. Tis the season for weird horsey things to happen.

ARK I do hope you have not just jinxed yourself by saying it's the season for horses to hurt themselves. Those kind of things usually come in threes. I love the idea of your rooster with a bow tie and spats. What color is he? He'll need a top hat and monocle and perhaps a cane to go along with bow tie and spats.

It's a toasty 9 degrees this morning.

Hooray! A neighbor's birthday is today, so we're going to the hotel for supper. This time of year, any excuse will do for a bit of excitement, no matter how small.

Hi all,

Our weather is lovely again and much appreciated. Not much going on other than plans for
T's service. My mind is stuck there until it's over. Many friends call daily which is a blessing.
I talk and talk and talk..............I discovered a relative of a friend lost everything in the fire
outside Boulder. God help them as well as all involved. I'm shocked with what is going on in
America, as are you guys, I'm sure.

Horses are fine and happy, dog is too.

I'm having a yummy dinner brought in by daughter............she had a covid test today as she seems
to have a cold. Hope not, for sure.

Back tomorrow................

Graymare, how is your daughter's cold? Is she better?

We have a short reprieve from the cold. It was 40° today and will be above freezing tomorrow. THEN. The bottom drops out again.

We had a short reprieve from the cold weather also, but getting ready for a killer Noreasterner Sunday night. 8 to 10 inches...winter in PA...I'm sure the grocery store will be crazy the next couple of days. Why are people not prepared in the winter???? I swear we could live here for a month with the food we have stored up.

My girlfriends were out yesterday for coffee and fellowship. We even had a toast to the new year & continuing coffee club meetings. Of course, we used sparkling grape/apple juice, so no DUI's. George even joined in and made the toast. In fact, it was his idea. He likes the coffee club as much as we do. I made a Angel food Cake with strawberries for our snack. YUMMMMMM A fun catch up chat was enjoyed by all.

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay safe & healthy.

Trudy, according to the weather maps, that storm is going to circle around me to the south and then back north to you. This morning, the sky is gray and heavy and it looks like it something could be falling out of it anytime.

I'm just a little bit jealous of one of my neighbors who is happily relaxing in their motorhome in Naples, Florida at 70°.
Their pet pig is the rock star of the campground. People always want to stop and see her and take pictures. That makes the pig want to show off and be petted. So, taking her outside to do her business takes about 20 minutes instead of the usual 2.
Munchie is very smart and has easily learned to go up and down a ramp in and out of the motorhome. She really thinks she is a dog. She walks up to people with her tail wagging, just like a dog. She will sniff at shoes, and untie shoe laces.
I don't really want a pet pig, but this one is kinda cute.

ELLEN:
I am jealous of your neighbor in Naples, too! Their pig sounds cute. How much does it weigh, do you think?

We are in the path of the storm. Did you know it has a name? Izzy. At least it has a cute name. We've spent the past two days getting groceries and feed, getting in extra firewood, putting hay within easy reach in the barn, and building wind barriers in front of the barn to keep the potential snow out of the front stalls. They say we may have up to 15 inches of snow, but I am hoping that they are once again wrong. The 30mph wind is why we put up barriers, it is coming up from the south and can get into our south facing barn. Daisy is in her stall, and Daisy hates being in her stall. She has the best room in the barn and does not appreciate it one bit. With the barrier up, having 3 horses in a confined area is asking for trouble. She is the dominant horse who would push the other two out into the snow if she wanted. Ivan and Areion get along fine together. Everyone should be nice and snug. We'll put their blankets on in the morning when the wind kicks in.

I have a chicken stew cooked up in case we lose power. I think we are ready as we can be.....so Izzy can bypass us now and we'll be happy anyway.


We went to Kroger's yesterday and they had NO produce. I have never seen that before. Almost no fruits or veggies. Plenty of paper products, though. We went to WalMart this morning and they did have fruits and veggies, so it must be a Kroger shipping problem. We went to Tractor Supply and they didn't have most of the feed I normally feed my horses. Luckily, I have plenty for now. I needed chicken feed and they did have that. Walmart had very little cat or dog food. I hope these problems are ironed out soon.

Ark, Munchie is probably at least 80 pounds. They control what she eats rather closely so she doesn't get too big. She is a little less than knee high.
The tornado that went through that area this morning just barely missed them. They saw it going past about 5 miles away. Everybody in the RV park went to a storm shelter. They were allowed to take the dog, but not the pig. As it turned out, they were fine with no damage at all. Munchie was completely unaffected by the whole thing. LOL Apparently, there were some areas not too far away that were all but flattened.

Well the dreaded Nor-easterner was a big FLOP, we may have 2" and the temperature is 35. They scared the little old ladies into dashing to the stores for nothing. Mad TP buying at the grocery store again. Not me, I still have my Covid scare stockpile in the back room. My friend went to the store for TP...she said the store was butt cheek to butt cheek...silly girl...I told her I would have brought her some TP to church.

ArK: I read that the Kroger employees are on strike. That explains the empty fruit & veggies area.

ELLEN: Love the piggie story, those little guys can be a hoot for sure. The piggie is probably better behaved than some dogs are. Glad the tornado missed your friends.

We went to another Veteran's Memorial Service on Saturday. WOW it was amazing. The Honor Guard was something to see. That's 7 Veteran friends lost in one year. So sad...

Indy, how's your weather today? It's slick here. Just enough snow to stick to the roads. A friend was going to come over from Ft. Wayne today; she got as far as a mile this side of I-69 and ran into a huge traffic jam because some kind of accident had both ways blocked. We decided that tomorrow was soon enough, and she went back home.

Weather here has been a non-event. The 2 inches we had is all gone. There is a winter weather warning for just west of me for tonight and tomorrow. Co-worker mentioned up to 15 inches of lake-effect snow expected. I REALLY hope it stays over there.

I drove my brother to Chicago yesterday and was very happy that we did not have any bad weather. There wasn't any snow in Chicago either. It sounds as if that will change with the front that is coming. The consult with the Dr. was not very encouraging. The first hurdle he will have to get over is to quit smoking. They will not even consider the surgery if he is not tobacco free for at least 6 weeks first. No smoking, not patches, no pills. Then, there is a good chance that the surgery will only improve his situation, not fix it. At the same time, if her doesn't have the surgery there is a very good probability that he will eventually have difficulties swallowing and even breathing. So needless to say he has a lot on his mind.

We had to leave his house by 6:00 a.m. to make his appointment which meant me feeding the horses ultra early. I had to wake the guys up for breakfast. If Monster were a person, he would be the old guy coming into the room with bedhead hair, blurry-eyed, and asking for coffee. This morning I think they expected me to come early again and when I came out to feed at my regular time, they all gave me what-for for being late.

Indy, did you notice how fast the temperature dropped today? Like a rock. It's gonna be cold again.

BRRRR cold this morning. At least the wind died down. Fortunately the big snow stayed to the west and we only got about an inch of the fluffy stuff. Just enough to cover the grass again. Don't need a shovel to clear the walks, need a broom.
Beautiful full moon reflecting it's light on the snow this morning when I fed.

Indy, we didn't even get that much snow.  There was just enough to say it snowed.  Even though it's still only 20° there has been enough sun to melt it.  The lake ice is the only place with snow on it.
There is an ice fisherman across the lake, and I saw several on another lake. I just can't make that seem like a good time.

ELLEN:
I have to agree. Sitting on a sheet of ice waiting on a fish to bite is not my idea of a good time. To each his own, I guess. I like my ice in tea, personally.


Our snow from last week has melted just enough to refreeze into ice. It is treacherous getting to the barn and back. Once down there, it isn't too bad. Donnie and I look like Tim Conway in his old man character, creeping along. We both have a hiking stick to help with balance. We are considerably below average in temps, it hasn't gotten above freezing long enough to melt the former snow/now ice, and last night it was 7 degrees. That should be illegal. The horses and donkey are all in blankets. I don't think I used blankets last year more than two days. It won't get warm enough to take them off this year. Thank goodness for electric water buckets.

So Donnie and I are having our annual delusions of being snowbirds during the winter. Not going to happen as long as we have as many animals as we have, but the delusion helps get us thru the winter. We have decided to not restock with new chickens after this batch of hens go to chicken heaven. They will probably live to be 35. My old rooster is hanging in there while wearing his winter coat. I need to get a photo of him.

INDYAPP:
The surgeon who did Donnie's knee a couple of years ago refuses to do surgery on people who smoke. I guess it improves the odds for surviving. Thankfully Donnie doesn't smoke and didn't have that issue to deal with, but he did have to lose 20 pounds. He did. I struggle with losing an ounce and he just decides to lose weight and does. I hope your brother decides to give up smoking and have the surgery to improve his life. It's hard.
We had to cancel Daisy and Areion's trip to get their feet trimmed last week because of snow and ice. We are rescheduled for next Thursday. I hope it warms up enough to get rid of that ice! Ivan needs his feet done, too, but I haven't asked Donnie to do it in such cold weather.

TRUDY:
I love your group, they sound like great friends! Cheers to them and George!

GRAYMARE:
How are you doing? I think I heard your weather was pretty good lately. Do horses in AZ ever wear blankets? I actually bought my dog one this year, he had a skin issue in the fall and wasn't growing much of a winter coat. He seems better now, but I think he likes his coat. He looks very dashing in it!

BEECH:
We are in season 19 of Midsomer Murders. They still manage to fool us most of the time with a twist at the end and we rarely guess the right murderer.

Ark, have you seen the cleats you can put on over your shoes that will give you more traction on the ice?  My neighbor has some and they help him a lot. Like these.
https://www.amazon.com/Yaktrax-Traction-Cleats-Walking-Medium/dp/B0094GO9DA/ref=sr_1_5?adgrpid=1344703954366413&hvadid=84044170125879&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=100041&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-84044814295586%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=28184_14484720&keywords=ice+cleats&qid=1642877164&s=apparel&sr=1-5

ELLEN:
Thanks! We actually have one set of those. I had Donnie use them since his boots have less traction than mine. I need to order another set. I got his on sale at Tractor Supply years ago during a spring sale and we had never used them. He says they work pretty well on the ice now. They don't work too well on tile floor though!

Thanks for the link!

Snow.  3 inches.
Can't go anyplace anyway.  The garage door opener is broken with the car inside.

Yep. Travis is a happy camper. He started by playing the snow shoveling a neighbor's driveway. Then he rode around on the 4-wheeler. The next thing was to take the ice auger and check the thickness of the ice. Finally, he got out one of the snowmobiles and took all three girls for rides. I'm sure he was grinning the whole time.