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.