It's almost Easter....

Does  it seem that Easter no longer has anything to do with Christ?  It seems that baby rabbits, eggs and baby chickens are what it means today.  We got up early for Easter celebration at church, came home for breakfast and had a family dinner (ham) later and a Easter egg hunt in between.  I remember Easter baskets and egg hunts.   They were to entertain the kids as part of the celebration of the Resurrection, not the celebration of baby rabbits and chickens.  (I also remember Mayday and flower baskets)  Nevertheless I have a couple of graphics to share:

Kinda fun, eh?  These came from a relative in Indiana.

Tue, 3/30

Yesterday was an emotional day. Keeping busy was good. Our dinner and card playing evening with friend left little time for dwelling over Lucy. I missed her this morning though,
We had a nice spring day as far as weather yesterday, false spring, we'll have more winter yet I suppose.
This is 'bridge' day and Pat is playing as a substitute.  She told the club that she no longer wants to commit to the weekly games.  She was just running out of time.

Pat decided to run for alderperson(man, woman) this next election cycle.  She seems to have plenty of support so she has a good chance of getting the office.  We'll see.

Lucy is gone...

Nap time on the couch

Lucy, our JRT who many of you know, was "put down" today.  She passed at about 11 AM central time.  Pat and I attended her at the end.  Lucy had become increasingly ill during the last few months and got to where she was unable to keep food down the last weeks and recently would not eat at all.  She also was blind from cataracts.  This was a very tough day for us. We both loved her very much.  She was 13 yrs. old.  We now have only Canuck who is destined to be a only dog.  We have no plans to replace Lucy.

AHhhhh, Sunday.

It is hovering around 32ºF this morning.  The prognostication by the weather folks is into the High 60's.  We are off to a poor start I'd say.
This was Canuck's bath day.  I get as much of a bath as he does I think.  Canuck is a Welsh Terrier we got as a puppy in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.  Thus his name.  He developed a skin condition that we and the Vet are trying to get a handle on.  He is itchy and has what appear as hot spots or pink splotches.  We have switched foods and give him chloropheniramine tablets and fish oil capsules which seems to help somewhat.  He is very good taking his meds, but less enthusiastic about baths.  He believes the best part of the bath is when it is Over, thank you!  The picture is when he was 120% terrier puppy and we weren't sure he would see his 1st birthday.  He is now about 70% puppy at 16 mos. and there is hope he will see his 2nd birthday in Oct..

More later?

Spring projects, Lucy.

I have purchased an auxiliary fuel tank for the Dodge Ram.  It is a bed tank that feeds the OEM fuel tank.  I have modified the installation to include a electric solenoid valve to turn the fuel feed on and off.  I wanted the fuel to flow into the OEM tank while the truck was not running to simulate a normal fuel fill-up.  I also want it to work off the ignition automatically.  This way the truck computer will not become confused when the OEM tank should have a declining volume and does not.  When the truck operations computer thinks things aren't right it resets itself and looses all the accumulated mileage data.  With this tank installed I'll have a useable fuel capacity of about 80 gallons or a conservative 1000 miles towing the 5th wheel trailer. I speak of this now as it is my ongoing project for the next week or so.
I also have the trailer to de-winterize now also.  The trailer also need a bath and complete inspection for age/winter damage.  That usually is a two day project.

Local theater group last night

Last night was the annual presentation of the local thespians, Northwest Cameo Players.  The play is presented as a dinner theater at the local Moose lodge.  Getting Sarah Married was the play this year and was very enjoyable and funny.  This play has very long solo dialogs and I believe difficult to memorize.  It was a fun evening with friends and good entertainment.
Again it is cold this morning in the high teens.  I want it to warm up long enough to melt the hillocks of snow in the yard.

Catching up...

Tuesday I seemed to be unable to post..  had a problem getting a new document scanner working an spent the day trouble shooting the damn thing.  All is well now and we have sent off all our tax doc's to Greg for processing into a tax return.

Wednesday was a trip to see my doctor in Minot.  3 1/2 hour round trip plus 3 1/2 hours with the Doctor for my infusion.  Happily it will be every 8 weeks now.  Pat goes with me and does some shopping while I'm in the Dr's office and we often stop for our mid day meal (dinner here).  We had Chinese today, it was a very good buffet.  That trip makes a long day!

Today, Thursday; 17ºF @ 0500 (AM) and supposed to get into the high 40's.  That is at least a 57º fluctuation and could be as much as 67º change.  I am looking forward to days with a low of 40º and a High into the 60's.  That day will be spring for me!

Just came back from my walk to the Post Office (about .52 miles round trip the way I go) and it was darn cold, 24ºF and the wind chill was probably 5-10º.  I try to walk with Arthur Itus 2-3 miles a week now. A long way from the 3-5 miles a day when we moved here.  My goal is a mile each day.  I hope Arthur Itus will go along with that. LOL!!!

Monday! and do I care?

5:30 AM. 32.4ºF, calm.

I got up this morning @ 5:15 as usual and realized I didn't know what day it was and I really did not care, LOL.  I should have known though because our only grocery store is closed on Sunday and Monday still follows Sunday, doesn't it?  I have found after retirement the name of each day becomes less relevant as I get older.  It is well enough that I survived the previous day to greet the new day and pull on my own pants without anyones assistance.
Pat is HOME!  She is still in bed as I pen this missive but will arise around 7:30 AM.  Soon after leave to do chores at the horse barn where we board our horse.

PAT IS COMIN' HOME!

I GOTTA GET THINGS BACK IN ORDER!  Sorry for the yelling but we (me, and the critters) are getting things put away and generally straightened out, not that things aren't pretty good.  With my recent injury and the disabilities associated with it the efforts are not without pain and discomfort.  
Most of the winters snow is gone except those areas that I the snow blower blew or are protected from the sun.  I am tempted to put the snowblower away but sure as I do I'll need it.  Mother nature is full of surprises in this part of the country.
Pat bought something in Minot and was apparently charged more than she should have.  I think it was about $3.  She had written a check.  Our checks have our home phone number on them.  I got a call from a lady who was desperate to get in contact with Pat because " I owe her money and need to pay her".  I explained Pat was not at home and would not be until Sunday afternoon/evening but she could get her on her cell phone.  The lady sounded much relieved and took the cell # and thanked me very much.  It wasn't until Pat called Sat. evening that I found out what the call was all about.  The lady was the owner of the business and discovered that the item Pat purchased had been miss-marked.  Pat didn't have a clue and was happy with her purchase.   Only in North Dakota!

Another day!

Saturday, 3/20 - 21ºF this AM, now up to 45º @ 2:30 PM.
Just sliced my knuckle on my right pointer finger to the bone about half an hour ago.  Awkward to deal with bandaging and all. It was the middle knuckle.  Decided to kind of splint the finger so I can't move it until I get some healing.  Larry, Pat's brother called as I was finishing the first aid.  I was opening a can of peppers and slipped and the lid got me.  Probably could have a few stitches but I'm not to sure about the local body stitchers, LOL.  I guess I'll have to leave my dirty dishes for Pat when she gets home now that I am mortally wounded, eh?

It snowed lightly off and on yesterday but it was too warm to stick.  The lawns are mostly visible now.  It will be a while before we see any growth though.  The ground is still frozen down to 20" or more!  It becomes amusing to us when we see all the "spring" advertising on TV and we get the seed catalogs too.  Our "spring" may be as early as mid April of as late as mid May for the most part.

Logging in'

Friday 3/19 - 19ºF and very light snow.  Pat is off to Minot for a quilting fair (?).  She will be gone until Sunday afternoon/evening.
My scanner quit Tuesday.  I needed to use it to send tax information to our son Greg who does our taxes.  It is toasted.  So.. we use snail mail!  Ordered a new scanner yesterday and should get it Tuesday via FedX.

DST!?

It is 34ºF this morning.  It got up to 47º yesterday.  Lots of melting snow melt and slush.
I did my chores this AM, feeding and medicating the dogs, then set my watch for DST.  The "Big War" is over.  Why the hell do we continue put ourselves through this nonsense twice each and every year? Did you forget?  I have to get the rest of the clocks in the house today.    How come we have so many?  All in all we have at least 10 counting the cars.  Have I (we) become obsessed with time?  Is it a generational thing?  Our forefathers were lucky to know the hour!  They did fine.  We seem to need to know the time to the minute at least.  Will we live better or longer with this obsession?  Really, does it make any difference if we die on tuesday or on tuesday @ 11:03:51?  Unless tuesday is bridge day of course.
Pat's quilt class went well yesterday.  The ladies were pleased and she was approached to go to Saskatchewan, Ca. to give a class there.  Her fame is now international!

Pat broke glasses!

Well, kinda broke the nosepiece, it was one of those soft nosepieces that came off.  So we made the 70+ mile trip to Williston to get them repaired.  Whilst (I like that word) there,  I had the lenses up dated in my old frames, more $.  Then we went to Applebees for lunch.  As you can see a trip for a $5 nosepiece became much more expensive.  We often tell folks that it is very nice for us to live so remotely from civilized shopping because it saves us enormous amounts of money.  I am addicted to the various salad choices at Applebees and would dine there daily if I was able.  The spinach & grilled shrimp salad is a favorite.

The days are getting longer and the daily high temp is getting above the freezing level more often.  But (always a 'but',eh ?.) the weather folks are saying snow is in our forecast this coming week.
Pat's quilting business is booming.  She has 5-6 quilts on hand and several coming to quilt.  She is spending today at the fabric store teaching a quilt making class.

OOhh, when is spring??

I spent some time running the snow blower this morning to get rid of the stiff on the driveway.  This stuff fell for most of the night and was the sloppy wet snow that we rarely see here.  The thermometer id hovering around 32º +- , so things are sloppy and wet at best.  Don't get me wrong, I really like winter.  It is the transitions that seem to get to me.

Just 'stuff'

It is 31ºF this morning.  The ground is 30º down to 19", there won't be any digging around here for a while!  We are expecting snow during the next 2 days, as much as 3" according to the weather folks.  We all know how good they are, especially here in the corner of the state.  The batting average is well below 50%.
The weather will probably keep us really close to home the next few days.

WE HAVE A PICTURE!!!!!

Our 1st great grand daughter:

 Jayla Brianne Risenbery, 

7:51 p.m.

Friday, February 26, 2010 

20 inches

6 pounds, 10 ounces

Crystal, Brians daughter, who lives in Oregon, has provided us with a lovely great grand daughter.  We are just tickled!
http://www.newbabynews.net/hospitals/mmc1/public/tmpl.pl?babyID=h1-8945

Mom and baby are scheduled to come and visit us the 1st of April.  WE are very excited.

nascar race today

I am watching a screen with the green 99 Carl Edwards in still. No race!!! This is most upsetting. It has warmed up considerably, +40 degrees and the big melt is on. The picture is Pat's business card I designed.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

Rambling....

29ºF and falling.... Lets see.  We do NOT have any chain restaurants in this corner of N. Dakota. Pat and I met our friends Bill and Judy Joyce for dinner at the Smugglers last night.  They have a prime rib buffet for about $16 per person.  It is actually very good prime rib.  The Smugglers got the name during the prohibition days when transporting canadian whiskey was frowned upon.   Many local persons participated in this activity during the winter when farming was slow.  They met at the bar to do business and enjoy their ill gotten goods.  We went to Joyce's farm and visited over coffee for a time before going home.  I know winter is getting to me when while passing the mower in the garage, I patted it and had endearing thoughts of mowing grass.  I know I'll regret that in a couple of months or so.

Training

Training:

Bruce thinks he has me trained to use this thing. Little does he know that I will only remember how to do it as long as it takes for me finish this message. Besides. We all know that the computer hates me and changes everything just to confuse me. Give me several weeks and I might (I say might) be able to remember how to do this. Must be hard to married to a dimwit. Everyone knows that the hardest thing for me to remember is my own name. Password is second. So....I wrote those things on a post-it, just don't remember where I put the darn post-it!

Just thinking...

You know, this kind of stuff is just ignored by the GREENIES. It appears that nuclear to electricity is the way to go. Then what happens when we become dependent on a single power source?

“Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley study.

In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that:

* corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;

* switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and

* wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.

In terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel production, the study found that:

* soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, and

* sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050705231841.htm

Vet, Weather and Pat

We took Canuck, our welsh terrier, to the vet again for his itching yesterday.  Vet doesn't seem to have a real clue.  We have eliminated all the obvious stuff. He keeps Rx'ing stuff for the symptoms and not trying to get to the root of the problem.
The weather is starting to "warm-up" (yah sure).  Lots of ice this AM (16ºF).  Icicles hanging off the eves.  Spring can't be too far away, eh?  I'm just itching to do yard work!

Pat is really busy with commissions for quilting on her long arm machine and is giving quilting classes at the fabric store.  Has a 'backup' of 5 quilting jobs now.  Keeps her in "beer money" LOL.

Our trees and flag

You may not know that Pat has a horse that is kept in a barn close to town. This barn has mostly race horses. Pat performs various chores at the barn in exchange for the our use the facility. The owners have become good friends over the years. She usually meets the owner of the race horses when she goes to the barn in the morning. This was the case this AM. They found one of the race horses dead in the stall. He had been sickly since he was acquired this last year at the track. Death was not expected!

Moving a dead horse out of a stall is a serious logistical problem as you can imagine, especially a frozen horse. So, we will get a late start to Williston this AM.

Todays activities

Today we are taking 'Canuck' our welsh terrier to the vet in Williston. A 150 mile round trip. He is afflicted with severe itching and the only thing that has worked is prednisone. Not a long term option. Poor guy is really miserable.

The weather is cold, about 18ºF and trying to get to about 35ºF. The warmest day in months!

A stop at Walmart is in order too. We need some groceries that are not available here in Crosby.