Shopping - Big & Small

We are going to Ft. Dodge today for an eye appointment and Christmas shopping - all day. :( While we're gone the roof trusses are going up!

The other night Bill and I were discussing the possibility that he and Tim (and me and Bette Jo!) might be getting a new combine (John Deere) before the end of the year! I can't remember all the details about the bean head and this and that and all the pros and cons but did ask if he was going to get one of the new corn heads that chops the stalks at the same time you're combining - because that would mean I'm out of a Fall job already! He said not yet but not to worry - there are plenty of opportunities for advancement for me with my farming career from ripping to combining to driving the grain cart after Pam retires! (please Pam, don't retire for many years!) They're looking at a used one with new bean head. He tells me that a new combine ready to go would be about $325,000, used about $250,000. I'll keep you posted but I know there has been a lot of calculating going on, looking on the John Deere web site & brochures, phone calls and e mails to the banker!

We have a house!

Bill had a fire call at 5:50 am - propane tank on fire at a hog confinement building. He and another guy were the ones that turned the valves off on the burning tank. :(

Work started on the house at 7:30. Much nicer, warmer day for them to work today. Bill and I just walked through it and I took pictures of course! I'll post them small but you can click on them to see them full screen. Today they've put up the garage walls and are going to be working on interior walls. I'm going to West Bend this afternoon to look at flooring. Greg says some of it is taking longer to get in than usual so we need to get decisions made on that.
This is the great room (bigger window) facing west/front - faces the road.
This is the office with a west/front facing bigger window and smaller south window.

This is the master bedroom with a large east window (back of the house) and a north window.
This is the door to the screened porch and large window - both in the eating area to the right of the kitchen and on the east side/back of the house. The smaller window on the left will be over the kitchen sink (looks out to the back yard & fields).
Bill is in the screened porch. The doorway looks big. They are all 36". This one will be mostly glass to let more light in and see out from the eating area and Great Room.

We have walls!

What a difference a day can make! The framer/roofer/concrete guy, Mark, brought his trailer with tools first thing this morning. Bill started hauling snow out of the way, the builder came and the 2 trucks with the walls got here at 11:30. The trucks were unloaded and gone by 12:15! By about 5:15 they had all of the outer walls in place! They hope to have it under roof by Sun. It sure was a cold day to work. Greg, the main man, is the one up in the corner hammering. He doesn't like having his picture taken.

White Everywhere

Algona got 8" of snow and Humboldt 4" so we are somewhere in between there. Everything outside is white and, if like last year, will be now until Spring! In Indiana we would have warmer temps. off and on that would melt the snow so it wasn't white all winter there. I remember talking to Tim about vehicle colors last year and he said that he doesn't like white vehicles because they can't be seen very well in the winter. Now I know why! My Pilot is white which is good in the summer - the dust doesn't show on it (we live on a gravel road).

The new header photo is from last winter. It's our driveway and trees on a day that the frost was sticking to the trees and really pretty.

The walls for our house were supposed to arrive today but with the weather, they're now coming tomorrow around noon. They will be on 2 semis coming from Minnesota. They say that building the walls off site saves about a week in framing time, and we've heard that they can have the walls up and under roof in maybe 3 days! We hope so! More snow is expected in a few days! Bill is having to keep the snow off of the "floor" of the house. The wind blew enough last night that there wasn't much on it today luckily.

Bill is getting the snow blower on one of the tractors and is putting a loader on another. I'm working on our Christmas cards this afternoon. Can't post a picture since many of you are getting one!

SNOW !

We have lots of snow coming down since it got dark. Before that, we had freezing rain. We're supposed to get around 5" of blowing snow. Here when the snow blows, it really drifts quick and high. I rescheduled an appointment I had in Humboldt at 9:00 tomorrow and an eye dr. apptmt. in Ft. Dodge. We were also going to do our Christmas shopping. Will hope Fri. works now.

I've been doing laundry and all things that need power today in case the power goes out which tends to happen a lot here. Bill says many of the lines around here are "very old" (being nice here). We did buy a generator late last winter that will run our furnace, refrigerator, the well, a few lights and TV so we can get by pretty well if we have to do that. We have about 15 gal. of gas on hand to run it.

After church and the Christmas Tea at the library yesterday, we had our Hometown Christmas which was quite a bigger event this year. There were 30 vendors set up in the old school gym (more on the school another time), we had Santa & Mrs. Claus there, a living nativity scene with a local couple and their baby, the Horse & Pony Club/Rodeo group had homemade chicken noodle soup, chili and potato bacon soup meals and sold out - before I got ours - but that was good for them. Peggy and I sing with the Community Choir and we had received a call from John asking if we would like to sing/carol at this event. There were about 7 of us and we sang Christmas carols for maybe 30 min. It was fun.

Full Day of Christmas

Bill and I were scheduled to help another couple serve refreshments after church today so yesterday I spent several hours baking caramel brownies (thought of you Marie), sugar cookies, made peanut butter fudge and hot spice tea. The other couple brought lots of pumpkin bread. It all went over well and all was consumed!

An interesting thing about the fudge was that it had 8 oz. of Velveeta in it! (ewww!) I was curious how that would taste so had to try it. It was good! I found the recipe in an article in the Oct./Nov. Country Woman magazine. In the article, there was a lady that always brought great fudge to the office potlucks but would never divulge the recipe. Finally at the potluck for her retirement she brought 2 pans of fudge - and a copy of the recipe for everyone. She had thought that everyone else could cook and bake better than she could so enjoyed having one thing she could make that everyone loved.

Peanut Butter Fudge

1/2 c. butter + 1 teaspoon
1 c. chunky peanut butter
1 package 8 oz. Velveeta, cubed
1 package (2 lbs.) confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 t. vanilla

(for choc. fudge, replace peanut butter with 1/3 c. cocoa - nuts optional)

1. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil or parchment paper and grease with 1 t. butter.
2. In a large heavy saucepan, combine the peanut butter, cheese and stick of butter. Cook and stir over medium heat until melted. Remove from the heat. Gradually stir in confectioner's sugar and vanilla until blended (mixture will be thick - I used my hands at the end).
3. Spread into prepared pan. Chill for 2 hours or until firm.
4. Lift from pan with foil or parchment paper, discard foil or paper. Cut fudge into 1" squares. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator. Makes 3 pounds.

This afternoon at the library's Christmas Tea I was in a cute, short skit called Mrs. Magi with Bill's mom and 3 others. Had more attend than last year Peggy said.

Now I'm going to our Hometown Christmas. Will write about that tomorrow.