Spring in the Valley

Spring has for sure arrived ---------- which means the wind is blowing & blowing. It has been blowing off & on for about a week now. But it has blown without stopping for the last 36 hours. I'm really tired of the wind.

Last week I decided we needed to get the hay in the hay shed. The last of it was covered with an extremely long tarp that had been pulled back & over & around. So Friday I had Willie get out & help me remove the tarp & move hay. Such fun. Between Friday morning & Saturday morning we moved 70 bales of hay. Luckily I used the pickup. Unluckily the battery was dead on the pickup. Luckily I know how to use the battery charger & got it working again. Luckily also the tarp was tied down to the back of the stack of hay pretty well. We left the tarp out Friday afternoon & night. Saturday morning we moved the tarp into the garage. Someday soon, when the wind stops blowing we will get it folded up. That is a challenge in & of itself to start with. Then moving it back in will be the next challenge...........but we did it last year, so it will happen this year.

The paw prints in the snow I do believe belong to a cat. A cat ran out of the hay barn last Friday morning..............so I think we now have a cat, we just don't see much of it. I'm leaving out a little cat food every day, but not much. I still want the mice caught if at all possible.

One more snake in the house last week. It was trying to climb up the side part of the new blinds that is attached to the frame of the window. I've had some problems with the side part & the white plastic come off the glue that is stuck to the magnetic strip. So this snake is trying to climb up the glued magnetic strip!!! What fun that was pulling the snake off the glue............ at least maybe he has learned something & will not return!!

I'm off to bed, the wind is now blowing at 36 mph from the south west. It is a balmy 48 degrees outside (nice, really nice for 10:30 at night). But be aware that there is still 2 feet of snow on the north side of the house.............it's about 2 feet high, by 4 feet wide by the length of the house. I'm hoping it will melt before May!!!

Paw prints in the snow

Well it was interesting when I went out on Saturday to feed the animals & start shoveling snow. There were paw prints in various places. I saw them around the barn, in the front area, near the hay stack...........but I couldn't tell what kind of prints they were. The debate was between a fox, a skunk, a cat or a dog. They were not big enough for a dog & there are no loose small dogs in the area. I haven't seen a cat around here for about a month. The skunk & fox I have seen in the last week.....................so I'm thinking a fox.

Wish I knew. I saw the fox this morning. so pretty. I know that there will be baby foxes sometime soon this Spring & hope they do ok.

My special son

Well, I wanted to give a quick update on my new son. I do not like to post a lot of specifics sometimes because you just never know who is reading, etc. But I will say his name is Chinsinsi. We have been "catching up" on so many things. Plus because he was only 6 or so when I first started being his sponsor there were things that I didn't tell him about me, or perhaps I told him & he forgot. It has been a long time. Plus there were so many years that we were not in touch.

It has been a wonderful time of getting to know him & his family again. I'm continually praising God for his goodness and am so thankful for being able to be in touch with him again.

Spring Snow

Well here it is almost Spring...................The snow was entirely melted off of the back yard & most of the field this morning. About 11 am the snow started, the wind blew & the snow hasn't quit. Luckily the wind has!! In some spots I have about 30 inches of snow & in other spots only about 1 inch. We'll see what we end up with by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is my fiber meeting in the afternoon, so we'll see how many people are able to make it out.

The cap was blown off the top of the pipe coming up from my wood stove pipe this afternoon............ so I need to get that fixed tomorrow or Monday. Such fun. An well, another day another adventure.

Amazing Happenings

Way back in about 1985 my first husband John, & I decided to sponsor a little boy through our churches missionary effort. He was a pastor's son in Africa through the Nazarene Missionary sponsorship program. When Dennis died in 1987 I chose to continue to sponsor this young man. He was 7 years old then. I continued through his high school experience. I cannot remember for sure the last time I heard from him, but I think the sponsorship continued until around 18 & then I received a letter later. We wrote letters back & forth all through his schooling. All communication was through the World Mission office & that was the only way to reach him.

This morning I received a major surprise. I had a facebook message asking me to accept this young man as a friend!! What a shock. He found me. I've also found where he tried to reach me via Skype. It was a "thrilling morning" to be able to respond to him via facebook & say "YES" I am your friend & I am who you are looking for. It was wonderful to hear back from him.

I have found another "son" of mine. He is married & has a son himself. He is a pastor & is also working at one of the theological colleges in Africa. I am so thrilled by all of this. Technology has truly changed the world in a very short time. God is good.

Spring & Snakes

Well, all week I have been trying to catch up. Still not there-----------but I can smell Spring in the air. This week is the Sand Hill Crane Festival. I do enjoy it so much. The cranes have been flying overhead for a couple of weeks now.

On the negative side I have once again found snakes in the house...........or perhaps the same snake twice, I don't know. Luckily (praise God) they are water snakes BUT I still do NOT like finding snakes in the house. They were both about 2 feet long. The first one I threw in the mud out the back door. About 2 hours later I found the second one...........they were both up on the landing one in the bathroom & one in the hallway outside the bathroom. The second one hit the snowbank next to the mud. Perhaps he or she got the correct idea that I do NOT like snakes in the house. We'll see. I still have a hole in the wall where the water pipes froze behind the drier. I have a man coming next week to hopefully fix it. I'm wondering if that is where they came in. I hope so because if I get it fixed then they will not appear again!! We'll see.

Snow

It's days like this that Dennis is foremost on my mind. FOURTEEN INCHES, yes that is 14 inches of snow since yesterday at noon. Dennis would have loved it. He loved the snow & he especially LOVED being able to move the snow.........clean up the driveway.........work on the road out front........go over to Freda's & do her yard. He would get the ATV out with the plow on it & off he would go. He loved every minute of it. Well, today he would have loved even more because he would have had to have used the TRACTOR with the BUCKET on it.

There is toooooooo much snow to even try & use the ATV. I got the battery charged up & off I went. Well, I ended up getting the ATV stuck at least 3 times. Luckily I was able to get it out each time. Personally I prefer to look at the snow from inside the house!! I like to keep the fire going & watch................but not today.

Willie & I have plowed out by hand with the snow shovels all the way to the girls shed & then both the other sheds where the boys are. In fact it was most interesting when I was shoveling to the girls. Cinnabun finally started out to meet me. She walked almost halfway to the gate through the snow plowing her own path. I guess they were most anxious for me to get there & feed them!!!