keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[lorihadams]

Hello darlin'! Glad to hear you had a good Christmas and hope you have a great new year as well! Chinese sounds good to me! We never do anything......if the weather holds out I may go hunting but definitely nothing too exciting!

 

[keljonma]

TR wasn't feeling well on NY's eve, so we just hung out at home.

He has been working every day - a real blessing. Today (Monday) all the local schools were supposed to be back in session, but most of the schools in NE Ohio were all closed because of the weather.

We have about 2 1/2 or 3 feet of snow. It comes up to the top of Titan's back!!!! TR has been shoveling paths in the back yard so Titan can go out and go potty! Believe me, Titan is not happy!

I have the ceiling edged with paint and ready to go. I have one wall painted. I have 3 walls in process of removing wallpaper and spackling. Lots of fun.

TR is working a modified 2nd shift tomorrow and Wednesday and has Thursday off work and will be back to 1st shift on Friday. Blah!

He said there were a number of people off work today. A drive that normally takes 15 minutes took him an hour!

We are going to our friends, Ron and Pat's for dinner tonight.

Stay warm!

 

[keljonma]

TR and I helped do prep at Christian Cafe this morning. They are having spaghetti, meatballs, fruit salad, tossed greens salad, fresh fruit, cottage cheese, applesauce, and some other stuff I can't remember. No one seems sure whether we will have our usual full house because of the bad weather. Usually 175 to 190 people are fed during Christian Cafe.

We stopped at the library to check email and will head home for hot lunch and so TR can get some sleep before going to work this afternoon.

Weather reports said we got 30 inches of snow this week-end, 10 inches yesterday and they are predicting anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of snow per day for the next five days.

Last night we had a great time at Ron & Pat's. Wayne and Regina were there too.

I think we're having left over barley/rice/bulgar/portabella casserole for lunch with some spinach/feta/tomato bread.

Stay warm!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

ok, i'm going into hibernation mode.

I hope you keep most of the white mess up there! we're supposed to get 2 inches today and tomorrow, and then 2-4 or 4-6 inches per day Thursday and Friday.

Gah!!!

 

[lorihadams]

Good grief ya'll, I think we are supposed to get some snow here Thursday.....3 feet, whew!

 

[keljonma]

TR has been shoveling paths around the yard for Titan to use so he can go potty. The snow is above Titan's back!

Last night we hit temps near 30 and the snow changed to icy rain. This morning everything is covered in ice....

TR said the roads were very icy and dangerous when he came home from work at 3 a.m.

I prefer the snow to ice actually. Weather forecast is for more snow tonight and tomorrow.

Lori, I hope you don't get the snow we are getting! That would be pretty rough.

Quail, hope the waterers are not freezing often ... that is a sure pain! Luckily The Ladies aren't fond of deep snow ... TR used to shovel an area by the barn door so they could have some grass, if the sun was shining and the wind not too bad. We used to get some timothy/alfalfa hay for them and put it in the barn. They used to have a grand time digging through the hay when they couldn't get outside. And the inisde of the barn smelled wonderful!

On the home front, I am still working on the small bedroom upstairs. It took 3 hours to strip wallpaper from 1/2 of a wall last night. I am only trying to strip one layer of wallpaper - in the past this room was wallpapered and then painted over the wallpaper. Also, I have just finished working on a compilation of recipes; a fun thing for me. TR says he has gained 5 lbs because of recipe testing. He has checked out some library books about eating healthier. Now that we are done with the book, maybe we can get back to a healthier eating pattern again.

Someone at church donated $7500 to purchase a new stove for the church kitchen. Our current church stove is about 30 or 40 years old and is fairly inefficient. We will get a stove similar to what we have now (60" - 10 burner - 2 ovens). Because of my background with commerical use stoves and the fact that I am working in the kitchen on a weekly basis now, I have been asked to do the research for the board of trustees to discuss the options. Any of the money not spent on the stove will be put towards the food ministries. What a wonderful present for some one to give to the church! God is awesome!!

TR is working modified 2nd shift again tonight. So we are off to get some things done before he has to nap, eat and leave.

Stay warm!

 

[BeccaOH]

Always good to hear from you Kel.

I don't mind the snow so much as the ice and deep cold. The chickens are staying in while the turkeys still like to go out some and dig around. We probably have 6 inches on the ground right now and expecting more tomorrow night.

 

[keljonma]

Good to hear from you Becca! How are things at your place? Are those Ladies behaving or have they given up egg laying for the winter?

I would LOVE to have 6 inches of snow! It was up to my hips before the icy snow/sleet stuff started falling night before last. Now it is somewhat compressed - only half way between my knees and hips now. But everything is still getting covered with the ice. We will be here in the library for about an hour and TR will have to scrape off the ice before we can get back home.

 

[keljonma]

TR is off work today! We slept in until 7:30!

We finally finished removing all the wallpaper in the small upstairs bedroom after breakfast this morning. Then while I made mac and cheese for lunch, TR painted the ceiling. I want to get this room done before we tackle another project. It is being painted a green color; not a shade I would have necessarily picked (given to us by a friend), but the color is a nice medium green. We are hoping to make this a usable bedroom. Which means we will have to figure out why the radiator is not heating up. :/

Most likely the next project will be painting the kitchen (I have picked a Banana Cream color for the walls.) or fixing the entry floor. After we get the floor fixed, I would like to paint the entry Morning Sun. The entry walls go up the stairwell to the second floor. At the top of the stairs is a large window and the morning sun shines in lighting up the entire upstairs hall and the stairwell. I want to take advantage of that light with the light paint color. Unfortunately, before we can paint the stairwell and 2nd floor hall, we have to finish the walls there. One wall will probably have to be covered with drywall. The rest just need spackled and patched.

I would like to use Sunflower as the trim color, as it is much darker (but in the same color family) as the Morning Sun, Banana Cream and Afternoon. However, TR is not sure he likes the Sunflower, so I will wait on the trim color for a while. Banana Cream and Morning Sun are old Sherwin Williams colors, in case you were wondering. They were colors I planned to use at the farm after we painted the living room there Afternoon.

TR got some pictures of the lilac bush/tree near the back porch. It bloomed in December, and now the buds are encased in ice. I hope this old plant makes it....

We are missing The Ladies. It seems so strange to not have chicken worries in the winter. (Thank you QA & Becca for taking care of them. ) Instead, we have a flock of wild birds we are feeding this winter. We are filling the bird feeders by the back porch every day. We are feeding blue jays, cardinals, dark-eyed juncos, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatch, sparrows, hairy woodpeckers, and red-headed woodpeckers. This week, with the ice storms, we also got some birds that look like grackles at the feeders. They devoured a suet cake in a day.

This Sunday is 2nd Sunday lunch and I am providing the main entree - turkey and dumplings. I have 16 quarts of turkey stock in my refrigerator ready to go to church Saturday.

The women from church who are on the Relay for Life team have decided to sign up for a local chili cook-off. They are asking me to help with a recipe. So I am going to start collecting a number of them for the group to choose one.

I am also still researching the replacement stove.

I guess I better get a move on... I still have stuff to do.

Stay warm!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

The waterers are freezing...that's for sure. We're rotating out every few hours.