JANUARY 2022

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.

Can't you go in the side door of the garage and open the door manually? Hope so.

It poured rain last night but today is lovely..........more rain expected tonight. We'll see.

No new news here............just daily chores and patting horses............

No, I can't open it manually. It's locked into the down position by the track bar that came off its mount right above the door. I'm a little afraid that if I try to move it, it will fall on the top of the car.
It's okay. I am well supplied with everything I need, so I don't need to go anywhere for a few days.

Holy cow, ELLEN.............well, someone will get it fixed.............We definitely don't want it to fall
on your car............fortunately you don't have to go anywhere.  Stick tight, watch TV and knit.
Top it off with some latte.

ELLEN: Oh my gosh..you need to call a garage door person so your car doesn't get damaged. We have those ice cleats on our boots they work really well and I have walking sticks with Ice points on them for winter. The sticks have 3 different sets of feet depending on teh ground surface. I love them...

We had more snow yesterday 3 to 4 inches, we were supposed to have flurries...can't trust the weather people, they have NO clue..It was the nice fluffy easy to move snow so it wasn't too bad clearing the ramp and sidewalks. Last week I canceled my church evening meeting cause we were supposed to get snow. NOT a snowflake arrived. GGRRRRRRRRR I am so ready for Spring.

ARK: Be careful walking on tile or bare sidewalks and driveways with the ice cleats. I swear when the horses were alive they loved to watch us ice dance down the hill to the barn with buckets of hot water doing our best Dorothy Hammil ice dance moves. I'm sure they were laughing at us. LOL

Hooray! My garage door is fixed. Nothing was really broken. Several nuts that had gradually worked loose and come off the bolts and let the whole thing get wonky. It took the two guys about 10 minutes to fix it. They were on the way to a bigger job and just stopped by to get mine done.
It wouldn't have taken much for the whole thing to fall on the car.
That door opener is probably about 35 years old and this is the second garage into which it's been installed. It still works very well. I can't complain at all.

ELLEN:
Wow. I am glad your garage door didn't fall on your car! Yikes! And you actually put your car into your garage? I am impressed! Our garage/shop has never seen a car inside of it. It is detached from the house, so the car would actually be further from the house than where we park it. Having it full of "junk" is just a side issue as to why a car can't park in there.....right...... It would be great to push a button and watch the garage door go up, ours is operated manually... and I hate opening it. I feel like I have to be Hercules to get the darn thing opened.


TRUDY:
Sorry about the snow. We still have snow and ice from awhile back, but today it got up to 47 and a lot melted off. The ice has been treacherous. Now the pathways are open to the grass again. I am so over this winter. My ancient rooster is still wearing his chicken coat and seems to be doing pretty well.

GRAYMARE:
Have you had enough rain to break the drought? Hope so.


Poor Kumquat had 5 teeth removed yesterday. Poor kitty is miserable today and I feel like it's my fault. I am trying to keep her healthy and causing her pain doing it. Her teeth had worn down to the gum line and were inflamed. I hope she recovers fast. She is going on 15 years old. A few days ago she was running at warp speed all over the house and the vet said her blood work was great. If she can get past her teeth removal, I hope she sets a record for cat longevity. I have never had a cat live past 16 years old, but keep hearing of cats in their 20s. She's such a good cat.

I just finished reading a book you all might like. It was about a woman's life with having horses starting as an older woman, a true story that just came out this past fall. I really enjoyed it.

Heart Horses: A Woman's Journey
D. L. Parkhurst
Kindle Edition $3.99

No, ARK. We are nowhere near solving the drought problem.........it could rain for days before
we catch up .And if that actually happened many acres would flood as the ground can't
absorb it all..........I don't know what they are going to do about drought in the west...........
or flooding in the southeast, or the tornado belt, or wildfires in the west............and immigrants
and germs.......

It's seriously scary.

I don't live in a bubble, just being realistic...........

I'm so fortunate to live the way I do.  We're all so fortunate.

Yep. The car lives in the garage. About 6 or 7 years ago my wonderful cousins helped me get it cleaned out and the car has been living there since. In weather like we are having now, I am very grateful.
Today and tomorrow are really cold, not getting above 10 degrees. We won't see anything above freezing until next week.
I really don't mind the snow too much, but I really don't like this super cold.

I had one cat that lived to 19, one 18, and one 16. They were outdoor cats and required little more than food.
I hope Kumquat will make a full recovery.

Indy, do you have on your long underwear today? It's -2°.

Poor little Kumquat. I hope she recovers quickly. It doesn't seem like she can be that old. I'm sure I remember you telling us all about her when you first got her. Wasn't she the one that was a little ball of fluff that Donnie found? I'm terrible at keeping track of how old my animals are. At least with the horses I have their registration papers that I can refer to. Sparkle kitty I have no real idea. I know it's less than 18 years because I know she was born after I moved into my current house. She was born in the winter and I was afraid it was too cold for them outside so I brought mama and babies into the house and they lived their first winter in the bathtub. Spring came about the same time they could jump out of the tub and they moved out into the barn. Mama and Sparkles got fixed so they couldn't have any more babies, and the other 2 kittens got new homes. Sparkles stayed in the barn from then until February of 2020. At that point it was again cold and she came back in the house and has been in the house ever since. She has to be at least 10 years old. I guess I could dig through old vet records to find when she was spayed, but that would be too much work. It doesn't matter. She's happy and healthy.

No long underwear today while I'm at work, but I did wear my Carhart's out to feed this morning.

INDYAPP:
 I have a hard time keeping up with the cats' ages, too.  Kumquat was dropped off in our lower field, across the creek from the barn. We could hear her all day and finally drove around to the lower field to see about her.  She let out a yell when Donnie appeared and came bounding over the tall grass to him and leaped up on him.  He had a biscuit from Hardees left in the car and Kumquat tore into it like she was starved to death.  She probably thought she was.  We put her into a puppy cage in the barn that night to keep her safe from horse feet and could hear her yelling in the house.  So we put the cage in the house to keep her safe from our older cats, Niles and Silky, and she screamed her head off.  We gave up and turned her loose in the house.  She slept in  bed in my hair the next few days and became my cat.  She was about 3 months old and we had just moved into the new side of the house, the only way I can keep up with how old she is.  She still has a good set of lungs, the vet commented on her yelling while in the cage.       She is drinking pretty well, but is having a hard time eating even soft food right now.  She will drink a little juice off of canned chicken.   She's such a good cat.

ARK, hopefully Kumquat just ate something that's upset her tummy for a bit............sure rooting
for her to get better.................or has a virus which takes time to get rid of.....probably not though
because both cats should be sick if that were the case. We all hate it when one of our
babies is sick. She's a really pretty cat.

Everyone have a great evening.

AWWWWW Praying little Kumquat. So sad when our furry kids get old and sick and there is nothing we can do for them.

It is cold here this morning 2 degrees. BRRRRRRRRRR I'm going to warm some milk for my barn cats this morning. Such spoiled kitties.

Did anyone hear about the escape monkeys here in PA? It was about 10 miles from our farm. There was a wreck and 3 monkeys escaped. It was wild...they had helicopters and were using thermal imagining to search for them. Finally euthanized the last one. The 100 monkeys were on the truck from a lab in NY to another lab in FL. Have to wonder why such insanity over them? Were they infected with some new disease? We will never know.

My girlfriends are coming out today to celebrate Bev's birthday. Hooray...cake.....

Stay warm.

Ark, maybe you could get some Nutra-Cal to feed her until her mouth heals.

Finally, a little relief from the severe cold. It won't be exactly warm today, but 30° will feel like it.

I have some very sad new to share with you.  Yesterday morning I received a phone call at 6:30 AM, from Joel, George's daughter Melissa had passed away at the nursing rehab center from MS and pneumonia.  What a shock.  Spent the day with Amy & Kevin trying to work out the next steps.  Even though we knew it was coming it was still such a shock to everyone.  Pray for us especially George, he is really taking it hard.  Breaks my heart cause there is nothing I can say or do to help him.

You're right TRUDY, there are no words of comfort for something that sad.  Only God will
eventually give the peace that passes all understanding.  SO sorry for you and George
at this time.  With love, Graymare

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))))))))

MANYGATES, I'm sorry for your family's loss. I can only agree with GRAYMARE.

Graymare said it very well, Trudy. I am so sorry.

TRUDY and GEORGE:
I am so sorry about Melissa. ((((((((big hugs)))))))))

Boy, the predicted storms in the east sound rugged. My friends in RI are already hunkered
down and horses blanketed, barns semi closed for ventilation, lots of hay, heated water buckets.
Snowing like mad but not windy so far. At my age now I'm glad I'm here..

For all those in the storm path, hunker down, stay warm and safe............ELLEN and INDY, are
you getting blasted?

A great evening to all.

No snow here. Just cold. 5° tonight. Tomorrow will be 20°. Sometime around Tuesday, we should get a break from the serious cold.

Thanks everyone for the prayers. It's been a rough couple days here with much more to follow. Thank God for friends to lean on who will send up prayers.

It's 5 degrees here this morning. We had more snow yesterday. 2 to 3 inches. we were supposed to get flurries...Waited until it stopped, Cleaned the driveway and patio looked out the window and it started snowing again...only about 1/2 inch the second time. Crazy weather. I'm starting to feel bad for the weatherman, he can't seem to get it right. Can't tell Mother Nature what to do...time to do what our Amish friends do "look out the window".

Obviously it's fine here but storming like mad in RI................huge wind gusts, particularly
at the ocean........18 degrees.......hope all is. still well.

Yesterday, a cousin and her husband came up for the day. We had a nice lunch at a local place and the conversation wandered into furniture. They are redecorating and remodeling their house. I've been needing to get a new sofa for quite a while. The one I have is 13 years old and has not held up well. So, I suggested that we go furniture shopping.
Off we went to a really nice store in town. We had a really fun time. Cousin's husband can be really funny at times, and between he and the salesman, we had some good laughs. Ultimately, I did choose a new sofa. The floor model is a very dark leather and I'd like a little bit lighter color. They have one in shipment, but who knows how long that will take. It has power recliners on each end that lay down nearly flat. It won't surprise me if I find myself waking up in the morning with the TV still on, having spent the night there after falling asleep.

We've had two really pretty sunny days, but still cold. It's supposed to be about 40° on Wednesday, but snow will come with that.