Putting Away Christmas for Another Year

Carol hinted this morning of putting the Nut Crackers away.  I thought that we could wait a couple more days, but then I changed my mind and started to empty the closes where our Christmas decoration are kept.  We have one big tote used for the nut crackers. It is on the bottom and to get it I brought everything out.  Most were empty boxes.  There was a tote waiting in my bedroom. 

I handed the nut crackers to Carol and she put them in the tote.  She placed plastic grocery bags between the layers of nut crackers.  The first tote was full and we filled a smaller tote.  We then brought out the box that had our photos and some statues.  They were placed in three different locations.  On top of the milk safe, the TV,  and a small table near the front door. 

This afternoon I spent time at the nursery.

The Day After Christmas

The power was out a couple of mornings ago.  I adjusted my wake-up light but for some reason it was wrong.  I got up a little late.

We are expecting Robert and Jeanne and their family.  We don't know how many will be here.  We had breakfast and then prepared to dinner for them.  We did potatoes, corn, pies, and a ham. They called around 10:30 and said that they are on their way.   Robert and Jeanne, Sadie, Halley and Jared were here.  After dinner we opened presents.  We had a nice time together.

It's been cold all day. 

Christmas 2015

It is not often that I wake up on Christmas morning and there is a ton on new snow.  I can remember of only two other mornings of Christmas snow.  There have been a bunch of times that there has been snow on the ground, but it has been old snow.  Following are pictures taken from the front door looking north.

 Looking to the northwest

Looking to the northeast

Looking straight north

My light alarm came on this morning at 5:22 which is earlier than what I want to get up.  I laid in bed about twenty minutes more.  After showing and getting dressed which was 6:00.  I then made a mine adjustment.  We will see how it works out in the morning.

We opened our presents.  I gave Carol a mixer.  She gave a temple robe.  We got some nice gifts from our children.  All but Robert called us during the day.  Robert and some of his family are coming tomorrow.

I did some vinegar soaking in the toilet bowel and a hard water spot in the tub.  This evening I removed the soaked paper towels in the toilet and tub. The toilet looks almost new.  The hard water test in the tub was also successful.

We had breakfast and finished up on the loaf of home made bread that we got from AnnaRae.  That is all that I had for breakfast except candy and nuts.  We were gifted with candy and jams and cookies and other good stuff.

Laying in bed this morning and idea on snow plowing came to me.  It is I would hook on to and old tire rim with a chain and drag it through the snow from the house to the greenhouses.  I picked up a light weight chain, wrapped it around the rim, and tied it back on the chain.  It looked like a good idea, the snow was a little to deep for it to work the way that I imaged that it would work.  The snow was nearly eight inches deep. 

I started dragging the rim from house one and ended up at our house.  I then went back a little ways and went to the back of house five.  Then to house two,  I turned to the south and dragged it past four, five and into house six.  traced back toward house three and then left it house one.  Kind of boreing.  I had to stop and rest quite a few times.

I started up the tractor and cleaned our driveway.  After lunch did the Masner's parking area in front of their house.  They were gone so it was much easier to do.  I went to Venez's house, but it was already done.  On the way home cleared the following:  Adamson's, Stephenson's, and Mary Miller.  It took quite awhile to get their cleared.  A man that sometimes stays there wanted me to clean in front of the big truck.  He offered me money and I rejected is offer numerous times and did it any way.

New Christmas Eve

The light comes on about 5:44 am.  It woke me up and I was up a few minutes later, showed, shaved, and said my prayers.  I read from the scriptures last night, therefore, I spent some time this morning trying to connect our TV with the internet.  One major reason was to be able to got to the LDS.org, which is the main church website.  I was unsuccessful in this effort.  I did find a couple of videos produced by members of the church and one that was anti Mormon.  It didn't start out that way, but after watching it awhile it appeared to be so.  I turned it off, and watched the 7:00 news.  Fifteen minutes later the power went off.  It is still dark.  I found a flash light, Carol was up and she found the emergency lamp, and then had her bath.

With the power off, I was concerned about the temperature in the greenhouse.  I grabbed my light and walked to house two.  The temperature was 40 degrees. I checked it several more times during the next two hours.  The lowest that it dropped was 38 degrees.  The temperature outside the front door was 24.5 degrees.  The sun came up around 8:30 and things began to warm up a little. 

When it was a little lighter I did a job that I kept putting off.  I cleaned the toilet.  There were a lot of yellow hard water stains.  I removed the water from the bowl by pouring water quickly into the bowl. I it was a quick flush without emptying the tank.  Since the tank was full the bowl remained empty.  I soaked paper towels in vinegar, then covered the stains with the towels.  I left them on all day.  I took them off this evening and scrubbed and remaining stains.  the bowel looks like new.  There were a few places high under the rim that I could not see.  They will get another treatment in the morning. 

The photo on left has the paper towels soaked in vinegar.  Photo on the right it the cleaned toilet bowel.

The power came on about nine.  We then drove to Fillmore to gas up the car and get a few groceries.

I worked in the nursery in the late afternoon. 

This morning Carol went to Fillmore to get some groceries to give to a single mother in our town.  While she was gone, I organized our addresses.  There were a bunch of notes of addresses and phone number stuck in our Rolodex.  I put the notes that are no longer needed and combined some others to make it easier to find an address or phone number.

This afternoon I drove to Fillmore to get Carol a Christmas present.  I got her a heavy duty hand held mixer.  The clerk wrapped it for me.  I paid a bill at the Credit Union.

I worked in the greenhouse some.

To Manti and Back

Last Tuesday morning we did not go to the Manti Temple.  The forecast was for a lot of snow.  We decided not to go Monday evening.  Last night was a different story.  The forecast was for rain.  My alarm clock is set to wake me up at 3:26.  I heard it this morning and was up immediately.   Carol was also up by then.  The outdoor temperature at the front door was 37 indicating there was no snow.  When we left it was raining a little.  After picking up the Masners and Carol Gager we headed north.  Our route takes through Scipio, Salina, Gunnison, Sterling, and then to Manti. 

It was raining most of the way and there were  a few spots in the higher areas, that it was lightly snowing.  The snow melted as soon as it hit the highway.

It was raining in Manti I parked the car and I my hair was somewhat wet by the time I made the short walk back to the Temple.  The person who was to be the initiatory coordinator did not come so I was the one who got the job.  The day went really well.

After lunch in the Temple cafeteria, we began the journey home. It rained most of the way home.  As we approached the Scipio Lake the rain began to freeze as it hit the road.  I was more a partially frozen slush.  Carol slowed down to about 40mph.  There were a few cars and trucks that had stopped ahead of us.  One car had rolled over and landed upside.  We slowly passed by them and cautiously went on our way.  Coming toward us was three patrol cars with lights flashing, and ambulance, and several tow trucks.  As we got near Scipio the icy roads were replaced by wetness.  There were trucks off the road on our way to the Scipio summit.  We passed more tow trucks.  We arrived safely home.

Easy Day

Not much done today.  We drove to Fillmore where Carol bought a Christmas present  for me, a wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer.  I thought that she would wrap it and put it under the tree, but instead, she wanted me to install it. 

Most projects where there is some assemble direction say to read the directions first.  I tried to read them first but the instruction were folded numerous times to fit in the small thermometer package and with thin paper with font that was almost impossible to read.  The direction written by a Chinese  person wasn't that familiar with the English language.  Inserting new batteries into the base station was straight forward and easy.  Putting batteries in the outdoor remote sensor was some what difficult because it was hard to open the battery compartment.  Finally got it done, then it needed programming.  There were six button to push in certain order and a certain amount of time.  Got that done after many tries.  I put in the date, the time, and which sensor to use.  I have only one, but I could use two more for two different locations.  One could be in the freezer.  I put the outdoor sensor in a zip lock bag to make it somewhat water proof.

This afternoon, I begun to work for Carol.  She made applesauce cookies and chocolate chip cookies.  I helped by chopping the walnuts, by washing the beater, by retrieving materials from the pantry.  When she finished,  She prepared about ten plates,  We then drove around town to make the deliveries.

New Insurace Policy

Got the chores done this morning.  Tiger, one of our cats, who I feed in the greenhouse was missing.  There have been a couple of times that she was gone, but come back the next day. 

Our car insurance was ready, so we drove to Fillmore.  They had a few questions for us that we answered.  The I picked up my lap top which is now fixed.  I had a tool bar on which prevented me from watching videos.  The tool bar is gone and now I able to watch some.

After lunch I cut down the Elderberry bush that was growing inside house six.  It was growing over and under and all around the furnace.  If I started the furnace it may start a fire.  So cut them down.  I couldn't find my hand saw that I wanted to use.  I think that it is somewhere buried in the snow.   I got my chainsaw, but it was so cold that I didn't think that it would start.  So I used my electric chainsaw.  I had to use pruners to remove some of the lower branches before I could reach the large main branches which I cut down with the chain saw.  Finally I got the furnace cleaned off.

Early this morning I was a little concerned about the heavy snow on house six.  If the next snow was like the last one, the weight of the snow might bend the bows and cause some serious damage.  I was able to get some of the snow to slide off the roof by using it as a punching bag with gloved hands.  I then braced some of the bows with 2 x 4 by eight feet.

This evening just before it got dark, I removed some of the snow in front of the Masner's home.  Someone else had removed most of the snow.  I finished it off moving the snow which was left by the large grader.

Tonight I went home teaching.  We had some nice visits with our three families. David was not ready when I got there, cut soon he was.

The weather has been cold all day, but house two was very comfortable just from the shining sun.  Outside it was cold.

Home Insurance or House Insurance.

I am changing insurance on our house.  There are quite a few details about the house that the agent needs before they will write an insurance policy.  Size of house, construction details, heating, and has there been an insurance claim in the last five years.

I got thinking about home insurance.  There seems to be quite a difference.  The home is about the people who live in a house.  Is there happiness or contention.  Is there love and warm express between the residence.

How can you get home insurance.  I will list a few. 

• prayer
• scripture study
• dating
• church attendance
• temple attendance
• consideration of spouse, parents to children and children to parents.

Doing all of these things will pay the home insurance premiums. 

Sunshine Today

I watched a couple of videos on making spice cabinets on YouTube this morning.  Wondering what I should do that was a little productive, Flash.  do a little more snow removal.  The tractor started easily.  I cleaned the snow from yesterday off the bucket.  We live on the southwest corner of town and I wanted to remove the snow of a widow who lives on the northeast corner of two.  It took me fifteen minutes to drive there.  On the way there, someone was driving a four wheeler ahead of me.  He was going much faster than me.   When I got there, Ross, my cousin, was there with his four wheel pushing snow.  He had half of the driveway partially cleared.  I told him that I wanted to finish up.  The snow was packed down.  It took quite awhile to get the heavy pack snow off.  I had to put the blade of the bucket down at about 45 degrees.

On the way home I drove by Frank's home.  He was gone but there was a lot of snow with one set of tracks in his driveway.  It took me awhile there.  Some of the snow had turned to ice.

I drove past the church.  The parking lot was clear of snow, but the sidewalks were covered with eight inches of snow.  I worked there for about one half hour.  I can just push snow and there no place to put it.  I drove of the sidewalk on the lawn and there I dumped the snow.

It was time for lunch when I got home.

I worked in the nursery for an hours or so.  Then I waited for two phone calls.  I got one from Stuart Electric about my lap top computer.  I didn't hear it because I was on the tractor.  The other call was about our house insurance.  That call didn't come until four.  I gave information, but it was enough.  The agent drove over here and got additional information about the house and information about our car insurance. 

Snow Day Two

This morning there was about four more inches of snow.  By the  end of the day in some places there was twelve inches.  The light snow fell most of the day, and did not want to shovel it until this afternoon.

I have a difficult time holding the camera still on a warm day.  On this cold day, my hands were cold and shaking.

After lunch I started the tractor and cleared the snow from the driveway and some of the snow just north of our yard.  I saw someone using a shovel to move snow on the north side of Miller's home.  I drove the tractor over there.  Someone had used a large tractor to move snow.  My small tractor can manure and get snow where a large tractor can't.

I drove to Fillmore to:

• get some money from our credit line at Zion's bank and make a deposit at the credit union.
• stop at Stuart Electric and have my lap top fixed.  For a couple of days now it will not play any videos.  To watch a video I have to use my ipad or desk top computer.
• get home owners insurance.  We have insurance from American National.  They dropped us because of the Nursery which is on the same property as our house.   I went to Myer's Insurance to get a new policy.

First Real Winter Snow

The forecast yesterday was for a big snowstorm to come through Utah today.  It started snow some early this morning, I think that it was about 3:30.   A light comes on every morning at 5:44.  I don't have to have an alarm wake me up, and it usually wakes me up as soon as it comes on.  When it came on I chose to stay in bed just a few more minutes.   I must have gone back to sleep because in was a little after six when I climbed out of bed. 

I showered, pulled of the sheets to be washed, and read a chapter from the Book of Mormon,  Carol was up by now and began the laundry.  Tiger, our cat, lives in one of the greenhouses.  I take her food out in the morning and again in the evening.  That I did and she was there waiting for her breakfast.  I let the chickens out so they could get a drink from the dish the has water running in it night and day.  I usually through out hen scratch to them each morning but there was too much snow.  I fed them their mash in a large rubber dish in the hen house.

It snowed all day.  This morning there was about four inches of snow.  This is when I took the picture.

and by night there was about eight inches.  

After lunch, I worked for Carol.  She is in the Cub Scouts and every two years she has to be trained. She was trained on line and is now certified to work with the scouts.  It took about fifteen minutes to get her and account.  She took the training and now has a Youth Protection Training certificate.

This afternoon I put air in the tractor tires, attached the shovel to the tractor, and began the task of pushing the snow off the driveway and a walking area through the back yard.  Carol had made vegetable soup, with potatoes, left over roast from Sunday, carrots, celery and some leaks that I dug from the garden.  They were covered with snow on top of the leaves to protect the from freezing.  It was very good..

Looked out the door just now and there is another inch of snow.

Outside Lights are Pretty Much Finished.

worked on making address labels.

spent several hours trying to fix the out door lights.  I could not fix them.

decorated some trees

shrubs

Icicle lights on the house.

More Decorations

This morning I paid some bills.  One morning chore is to feed the cats.  I took the cat food to house five where Tiger lives.  She is usually waiting.  I called for her and could hear her whining but couldn't see her.  I looked up and she was sitting on the header above the west door. She couldn't get down.  I stood on a cement block and was able to reach her and take her down.  She didn't want to let loose of the two by fours she was sitting on. 

I was working in the house while Carol went visiting teaching.   When she got back we had some lunch and then to Fillmore for a few more gifts and cash at the bank.

A couple of days ago be bought a bunch of gifts that we will be giving our children and grand children.   Most however, are getting money and a small gift.  This afternoon Carol wrapped the gifts and prepared Christmas card for family members.  She took one of them to the post office.

Later this afternoon I began working on the outdoor lights.  I got a string of icicle lights east of the driveway and another set east of the front sidewalk. 

Mowed the Lawn for the Last Time, I Think

Today is eighth day of December.  It is probably redundant to put the date at the beginning of this posting.  We were at the Manti Temple today is which we are every Tuesday Morning.  We leave home around 4:15 this morning, instead of eating at the cafeteria and getting an ice cream cone on the way home, we came straight home arriving around 1:30 this after noon. 

I had a little snack and then mowed the lawn for the last time.  There was no grass to mow, but a lot of leaves.  The mower needed air in one of the front tires.  I usually don't leave the compressor plugged in all the time.  The front left tire was a little soft.  The compressor was turned on and in a few minutes the pressure was high enough to shut off.  After pumping up the tire, I mowed up all the leaves. I had to dump twice.

Being quite a warm day for December I began to put out more outdoor lights.  Yesterday I bought two stings of colored lights and two multicolored net lights.  It was a big job to get the lights out of the box and pull them apart to look more like a net.  I plugged the in two nets and the lights all worked.  I stretched them apart to make them as large as I could.  There are two yew shrubs.  One on each side of the porch where I put them.

I am making a line of icicle light along the north side of the front lawns.  I put the pipes in a couple of days ago.  The ground was frozen and it was hard to drive the three foot conduit pipe into the frozen ground.  It has been so warm the last couple of days the ground has thawed out.  The conduit which was once tight are now loose.  There it took ten pieces of pipe about four feet apart to cross grass west of the side walk.

Above is photo how the conduit holds the icicle light above the ground.


I took them all out, stretched a wire from one side to the next to make them all straight.  I then pounded them in the ground again.

To keep the wire lined up on top of the pipes I cut short pieces of wood and made a notch in them somewhat like a notch on the end of an arrow.  Last year I cut some forked tree branches and made a crotch.  I stuck the handle in the pipe.  The notch made this year works a lot better.

I hooked the icicle lights on.  It looks pretty good.  It is starting to get dark.  I will do more tomorrow.

Outdoor Lights

Today is the day to get the outdoor lights up and working.  After Christmas last year I stored  each set of lights in plastic grocery bags and small plastic garbage bags in several totes.  The extension cords are in one tote.  The lights were in two other totes. I had to move a lot of things to get back to where the totes were.  After moving things around I got the three totes into the house.   I put the tote with the strings of lights and some netted lights in the front room by the outside door.    I put them all on the floor and began to plug in each strand to check them out.  Most of them did not work or had only one strand that works.  There are two strands that had some single lights that were brunt out.  I spent over an hour replacing the burned out bulbs. 

There are two square pillars on the front porch.  I placed a netted on the east pillar and began wrapping the two strands on the east pillar.  Back in the house I found another netted lights.  I plugged it in and all of the lights came on.   I then removed the strands from the east pillar and replaced them with the netted strand.  It took a while.

We have a long white rope and two short ropes which one is red and the other is green.  Carol wanted them on the front.  They don't bend around a square post.  After some thinking decided to have the long white one start in the middle on the roof of porch between the two pillars.  How was I to use the green and red ones.  I decided to put the green and red start in the middle as I did the white one.  I could not keep the together.  I then taped the middle of the four lights together with clear packing tape.  I tape all the ropes together starting at the middle and right and the left until the red and green ropes were taped to the white rope.  I drilled a hole in the middle of the roof of the porch between the two posts.  I screwed in and eye bolt into the hole which I then used tie wire to hold the rope up.  I then attached them two a wire that was there from last year.  A few more adjustments and it worked just like I planned.  Turned the lights on and it looks pretty good.  As it got dark it looks even better.

The picture is pretty fuzzy.  It was hard for me to hold the camera still when it is so dark.

Servicing Our Car

We haven't had our car serviced for quite a long time.  Last night after many tries, I was able to make and online appointment.  The problems was the phone number.  Asked:  what is your phone number?  Answer: We don't recognize that number.  Asked: Do you have an other phone number?  Answer:  What is you car license number"  Answer:  We don't recognize that number.  After putting the numeral "1" in front of the phone number, I finally got on the right track and then was able to enter some car concerns and select a time.

There were about seven cars lined up a head of us.  Our thoughts were that it will take us a long time before were get out of there.  It wasn't long before they took our car away.  We waited for a little over an hour when the told us that they finished  They changed the oil and filter, the air filter, and replace the sparkplugs and wires.

We ate lunch at in and out.  We walked in and surprise, there were no one ahead of us.  Before we had finished our lunch the line reached the door.  We were there about ten minutes to twelve.  The customers that came in looked as if they left the high school for lunch.  We both had a cheese burger and we shared fries and Pepsi.  I ate mine and half of Carol's.  Their burgers have always tasted good.

We stopped at Toys R us.  We walked through the store several time before we picked up some toys for our great grandson and two grand daughters. They have birthdays and also have Christmas a head of us.  We looked for the simple wooden blocks like the ones that our kids played with.  Almost everything in the store was plastic.  So we bought three plastic toys.  Carol paid for them with a check.  It appeared to us that the clerk did not know how to process a check.  She run it through the check reading machine right side up and top of the check first.  Then she turned the check from end to end.   The she turned the check upside down and sent through two more times.  That may not be the exact way, but finally the registrar printed a receipt.

Our next stop was Sam's Club where bought cat food and toilet tissue and garbage bags.  When we walked in there were a small flock of ducks there waiting for some handouts.  Carol bought some lettuce and bread to feed the ducks when we came out.  We left the store and someone a head of us were feeding them bread.  Carol first through out lettuce.  The ducks walked over the top of it.  Our ducks we had loved lettuce.  Carol then broke the bread into pieces.  The seguls swept in and began their feast on the bread.  The ducks began their afternoon lunch.  I was dropping bread between my feet and they came close enough where I could reach down and touch them. 

We also filled up with gas at $1.939 per gallon.  We have bought gas that cheap for a long time. 

We always stop at the Red Barn on the way home.  Today was no exceptions.  We drove up and there were no cars.  Few cars came in after us.  I had a small bowl of hard ice cream.  Carol had a soft ice cream cone. 

We got home a little after four.