Zero Degrees and Snow Cover!

 Well, the mild weather is gone today!  We have several inches of snow on the ground and this morning the outdoor temperature reading was just below zero!  The birds have been at the feeders in flocks.  Then all of a sudden, there wasn't a bird in sight...so we knew there was a hawk nearby.  It's sad to see one of our songbirds taken by a hawk, but the hawk must also eat.  The pictures aren't the best quality since they're taken with my shaky hands through a dirty glass window!  I guess I should be washing windows instead of watching the birds, but that's not going to happen when it's so cold!

We've had bluebirds all winter, so have been putting out dried meal worms for them.  They're here every day, usually just before light. The early bird gets the worm, you know.  They come often throughout the day too, but then they have to share with the chickadees and our Carolina wren. I've not yet been able to get a picture of the wren.  This is the first year we've had a wren stay through the winter. I take that as a sign that the winter will be mild and spring will arrive early.  

We're thankful for the good health and healing we've enjoyed so far.  Dennis had surgery on Wednesday, January 13.  The nerve in his left elbow was being pinched, causing his fingers to be numb.  The surgeon clipped the tethers and added new ones go allow the nerve more space.  It went well, and recovery was without complications.  We went to get the stitches out last Tuesday. 

Lots of bruising but healing well.

We have been enjoying a lot of  'chair' time over the past few days.  With the snow on the ground and the cold temperatures, we're both content to stay inside with our Kindles and enjoy the activities of the birds, squirrels, and whatever else can be viewed from our recliners.  On days like this, going out to get the mail seems like a big trip!  Of course, it is a quarter of a mile, and all uphill ... I've often thought about dragging a sled out to get the mail and then riding it home.  Perhaps today!

Pickleball!

We've been enjoying a lot of mild weather this winter and taking advantage of the opportunities to be outdoors playing pickleball.  Today my fitbit counted up 19,655 steps.  It was mostly sunny and up to 43 degrees.  Tomorrow is predicted to be much colder! 

We started playing with Josh and Kenny, and later Candy joined us. Gariann and Kirk came when they got off work, and played until dark.  We saw a spectacular sunset sky!  Photos courtesy of Dennis.

What A Year! Recap of 2020

 The year 2020 is now history.  Covid, corruption, and chaos!  Even so, we have enjoyed the blessings of our unchanging and ever faithful God.  His Word is true.  He's still God.  My hope is in the Lord. I trust in Him. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds tomorrow!  

We enjoyed a week in Eastern Tennessee riding our motorcycles in the beautiful Smokey Mountains. 

                           

We enjoyed many 'home' projects.  

We attended 'drive in' church, and then 'online' church, and 'wear a mask to church'. But yet, we are thankful that we still had church!  

We were able to participate in a few Cowboy Shooting events, which was a lot of fun!

 

We have often played pickle ball!  In fact, we were able to play yesterday, and hope to play again tomorrow and Thursday. 

Tomorrow would have been Mom and Dad's birthdays. Mom would have been 91 and Dad 93.  I'm so thankful for having had them for parents; for their instruction, example and their love and encouragement. 

I had COVID just after Thanksgiving.  My experience was very mild, but I did have a fever for two weeks and lost my sense of smell.  I'm thankful to have had so little discomfort with it, and no complications!  

Yes, the past year was one we'll not forget, and hope not to repeat, but it was still filled with much for which to be thankful!

Never In My Life!

Today is St. Patrick's Day. It was a special holiday to my mother-in-law, Mildred Annabelle Murphy Schulte.  She's been gone from us for years now, but she's especially on my mind today.  She was so proud of her Irish heritage.   

On an entirely different line of thought, our world has been turned upside down with the corona virus COVID19.  The first we heard of it was just a little blurb about people in China coming down sick. Just a few weeks later it became a global crisis.  Today, here in the USA we have been restricted to having no gathering in excess of 10 people.  Ten people!  We also have worldwide travel bans, no dining in restaurants, no gym activities, sporting events, churches are holding worship services online, schools across the country have closed, the grocery stores and big stores like Walmart are out of hand soap, paper towels, toilet paper, tissue, and the frozen vegetables are almost all gone.  Aldi's closed their doors.  Never in my life have I witnessed such reaction.  Even the attacks to our nation on 9/11 didn't create such fear.
I completely understand the measures being taken.  It's a desperate attempt to slow, or even stop, the spread of this new virus.  From all I've read and heard, this virus is unlike the typical flu virus in that it is spreading more quickly, and also that it mutates as it goes. Experts are saying that this virus has a greater health threat because it mutates, therefore humans aren't building up antibodies as they do with other viruses.
This virus is a catastrophic and global event, no doubt. Yet, we are not to tremble in fear.  Let's pray, pray, and pray.  And let's be sensible and make wise choices.  Stay home if you're sick!  Stay home if you're susceptible or more at risk than a normal healthy person.  Wash your hands!  Get enough rest.  Drink water.  Wash your hands!  Get fresh air.  Get proper nutrition. Don't touch your face, don't pick your nose, rub your eyes, or suck your thumbs, bite your nails....Keep your hands out of your mouth. Practice good hygiene.  Wash your hands!
And trust God.  He's not caught off guard.  He's made promises, and He is faithful. He keeps His promises.  And He says He is with us always.  There are so many Scriptures that assure us of His constant, unending love and care.  Read them!  Get into His Word and let Him calm your fears, take your burdens, and restore your soul. 

We Are So Blessed!

What a day!
4:20 P.M. - We were sitting in our all season room reading, saying to each other that we'd better be thinking about getting ready to head over to Nancy and Ron's house. We were going to play games there this evening, and figured we could read for another half hour or so.
4:24 P.M. - A thunderous crash! Snap! Sparks flying. What in the world was going on?  It was our utility pole. It snapped off and was laying on the ground, along with the transformer. Wires were pulled off of the house. The cows were going berserk!
4:25 P.M. - Called Alliant emergency number. Do you have an emergency? Yes, I believe it is! She promised to send a crew.
5:00 P.M. - First Alliant truck arrives. The lineman looked over the situation and then went down the road to disconnect the power.  He then proceeded to take the downed transformer off of the broken pole.  I began lighting candles.








5:40 P.M. - Second truck arrives. This one brought a new utility pole. Right behind him came a third truck. They pulled up what remained in the ground and prepared to set a new pole.
6:00 P.M. - New pole on the ground, being 'fitted' for the new transformer.  Sounds like drilling and pounding.
6:05 P.M. - Uh-oh! Need to go to the bathroom! But, no water, no flush, and no washy washy! I believe I'll wait a while.
6:10 P.M. - New pole is in the ground! They're backfilling. Rusty is watching the process, nervously. This is very good progress! I might be able to use the bathroom soon!
6:13 P.M. - They moved the third truck, blocked my view and now I can't see what's going on!
6:15 P.M. - Man in bucket going to the top of the pole. Looks like they're about to hoist up a new transformer.
6:20 P.M. - Really dark out now, but the crew has great work lights!
6:25 P.M. - So thankful that this happened today! Its a fairly warm day, a day that we are home, not in Florida or the Bahamas, not freezing for stock tank waterers, not cold in the house, and not while I was out feeding the cows! The way the cows ran through the gate, if I'd been out there among them I might have been trampled in the stampede! Or electrocuted! Also thankful for this crew of Alliant guys! They're doing a great job.
6:30 P.M. - New transformer going up.
6:45 P.M. - Transformer secured to the new pole. Looks like the big truck that brought the new pole is packing up. I've been playing my guitar, since it's my only non-electrical entertainment system. But, now I'm pretty sure I have blisters on my finger tips!
6:55 P.M. - Not sure what they're doing now. They have the pole set and braced with a new anchor wire. I'm hearing tapping....maybe putting in a new ground rod?
6:57 P.M. - Man in bucket going up again. Looks like they're getting ready to reconnect the wires to the transformer.
7:01 P.M. - Decided to use the outdoor toilet. Now, I'm thirsty! People with electrically dependent water supply systems should always keep a pitcher of water ready for such a time as this!  Sure thankful for all these candles. Heat and light!
7:10 P.M. - The wire going to the shop is about to be reconnected.
7:15 P.M. - They're reattaching the wire that was pulled off the house. What a crew!
7:25 P.M. - The third truck left, apparently to go down the road and restore power. The guys here are connecting the house wire to the transformer. They had to trim off a couple tree branches too. Looks like we're going to have power soon!
7:45 P.M. - Lights are on!




 

Bahama Cruise

 We left Iowa just ahead of a big winter storm! Boarded the Majesty of the Seas in New Orleans and sailed to the Bahamas.  Our first stop was Key West, FL.  We walked around seeing some of the sights and visiting a few shops. While on board the ship, we learned to play pickleball, saw many excellent theater productions, enjoyed the Majesty of the Seas orchestra, were spectators at the belly flop competition and the sexiest guy contest. Of the six or seven men competing for the sexiest man title, not a single one of them would have got my vote!
Our second stop was Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island.  I'd been there once several years ago, and it hardly looked like the same place. The beaches, and there were several, were lovely. They have really built it up. It now includes a huge water park, fresh water swimming pool, volleyball courts, bean bag games, lawn bowling, ping pong tables outdoors, basketball courts, and several other outdoor games, along with a trolley ride all around the island.  Of course, there was an over abundance of food available as well, and soft serve ice cream all day long. I was pleasantly surprised to find it such a wonderful place. We enjoyed a 'Perfect Day at Coco Cay'.
As we were leaving Coco Cay, there was a major life threatening storm toward Nassau. Our captain chose to skip Nassau for the safety of everyone on board, so we went back to Key West for another day.  While we were there, one couple got married at the justice of peace in Key West.  Later that night, while at sea, there was a Love and Marriage game in the theater. The couple that were married that day participated as the 'newest' married couple.  The had two other couples, one married for 60 years, and the other about 30.  It was pretty entertaining.
We also enjoyed two entertainers from Las Vegas.  Ralph Harris, a comedian, and Tony Tillman, a comedian/singer/dancer were great. Because of the storm they were not able to leave the ship as planned in Nassau, so Tony Tillman did a second show.
We had dinner every evening in the Starlight - a 'formal' dining room.  Lunch and breakfast we opted for the Windjammer most of the time.
It was a great trip. We returned to New Orleans Saturday morning and were among the first to disembark. We were on the road to home by 8 A.M.
No matter where you go, it's always good to get home!

Painting Fun

Recently I enjoyed a painting class at the Lost Canvas. We painted a snowman, and I actually thought mine turned out quite nice. We had a lot of fun doing it, and it gave me a little kick to get my brushes out at home. So today I tried painting a butterfly. It was enjoyable, and while it's not exactly right, it is recognizable, so I'm pleased.

It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day! What a gift that is in the middle of January.  I'm thinking I may enjoy doing more painting this winter!

Birthday Fun!

Today we celebrated this little girl's 5th birthday.  She's such a fun child, with boundless energy and endless imagination. She is, in our opinion at least, exceptional!  Among the many birthday gifts she received was a little girl make up kit.  She painted herself up with lip gloss, eye shadow, rouge, and then gave me a make-over.     I didn't get a picture of her face after her applications, but let me assure you that she was extremely colorful!    I think she did a pretty good job on me...except for the purple third eyebrow.                 

We are very thankful that the 'winter storm' predicted to be so bad pretty much missed us altogether. We ended up with a little bit of freezing rain which turned to snow. Total accumulation of less than one inch.  May it continue to be so until spring!

Celebrating a New Year and New Decade!

We brought the New Year in with our eyes wide open! We were invited to share the evening with friends and we had a great time. When we finally headed home, it was well into the first day of 2020.

The festivities continued with an "Old Fashion Miller Christmas" with lots of food, fun, and fellowship.  I was the winner of the chicken hat dance off! What non-sense! But it was fun.

Watch it Here

We then watched the Rose Bowl and had hoped to see the Big10 Wisconsin Badgers win, but they couldn't quite pull it off.

With the holidays, parties, feasts, and all the sweet treats offered at each event now behind us, we're ready to get back to our 'normal' hours, activities, and diet!  Someone must have lost a few pounds, because we've found them!

The temperatures have still be very mild and we've accomplished quite a bit on our outdoor projects. One of my favorite recent accomplishments was getting the automatic waterer to work! Now we don't have to water the cows.  Of course, we still check the waterer every day to be sure it's working and we'll feed the cows, but no more filling water tanks, running heaters in the tanks, and draining hoses to prevent freezing. Very nice!

That's just about as exciting as it gets this time.  Happy new year!

Another Year!

It's been just over a year since my last post. I guess since Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and the like have become available and popular, the old blog has gone by the wayside. I miss it, though. It's somewhat therapeutic to write posts for a blog page, so it really doesn't matter if no one reads it. I simply enjoy writing!



We're just two weeks from Christmas 2019!  Our tree is as beautiful as ever. It always looks pretty much the same, but we think it's lovely.  In years past, the grandsons helped put up and decorate the tree on Black Friday, but they've all grown up, so Dennis and I put the Christmas music on and had fun doing the job together.
We've had this same little skinny artificial tree for many years, but this year we learned that the cost of a fresh cut tree is around $75. That was quite a shock to us! We're even more pleased with our little 'fake' tree, because it probably didn't cost that much when we bought it so long ago!

Over this past year, we've enjoyed traveling. The first trip of 2019 was a Caribbean cruise. We boarded in Galveston TX and set sail for Cozumel, Belize, and Roatan. It was a great time. While we were enjoying the warm sunshine, Iowa was covered with snow! I have to say I didn't mind missing out on that!


Our second trip started in March, and we drove to Needles, CA along old route 66.  We took a little over two weeks and spent about six days in Prescott, AZ.  There were lots of things to see along the way. We especially enjoyed Winslow, Seligman, Jerome, Santa Fe, Oak Creek Canyon, Wickenburg Western Museum, Grand Canyon, Tombstone, Elvira Café (Mexico), and visiting with a few of our 'snowbird' friends in Phoenix. We drove west on route 66 - "Get your kicks on Route 66" so when we headed back home, we took Hwy 54 - "See more on 54".  By the time we got back home we'd added 5135 miles to the odometer!

We toured Colorado on our Harley's in July. Travis and Gail, along with TJ and Amy Newberry invited us to join them, and we really enjoyed the scenic ride and the great travel companions. Dennis and I trailered our bikes out to Durango. We spent a few days before and after the ride with our friend Ada in Vallecito. I'll admit I was a bit nervous about riding in the mountains, but so glad we did! It was the best ride ever! We crossed the continental divide eight times, saw some indescribably gorgeous scenery, and had a wonderful time.

Our next big adventure was Niagara Falls! We visited with friends in Indianapolis as we headed east. We also stopped for a couple days to tour the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. That was quite impressive, and we were fortunate to be there on the day that Dr. Ken Ham was there speaking. We enjoyed it very much. We met our friends, David and Sharon, at their place in Ohio. From there, we headed along Lake Erie to Niagara Falls NY.  We stayed at Best Western for three nights. We enjoyed seeing the falls on the Canadian side and the USA side. We also enjoyed seeing many other sights in the area. We enjoyed dinner one evening in Skylon Tower.  After returning to David and Sharon's place in Ohio, Dennis and I headed home the long way, through Michigan UP and then into Wisconsin.  The fall foliage was very pretty.  We stopped for an ice cream treat in St. Louis Michigan.













We've put on a lot of miles this past year, but along with those miles were as many or more smiles. We're extremely thankful that we have the ability to enjoy time together seeing our great country! We are so blessed - blessed beyond measure!  Writing this post has allowed me the joy of reliving those memorable moments and savoring them yet again!