More Snow & Cold

It was 12 and sunny here most of the day. Now it's 7. We got 4" of snow during the night but no wind so no drifts. Bill did move snow though.

Bill and I picked up, swept and cleaned up with the shop vac in the new house. No workers today. Then he left for the farm office (which is in his mom's house) to do bookwork. I did laundry and was on the phone and computer way too much.

Glenn invited me to join Facebook so I did. Thought it would be good to see what the deal is with that since we've heard so much about it. It's so funny to me to see how many "older" people are on it and seems like many are joining about now. I bet we'll be hearing soon that Facebook seems to have become a thing for all ages. I'm thinking the kids aren't going to like that! So today for a while I was seeing what else I should do with getting that set up. Anyway, wanna be my Friend? :)

Shutters!

They put the first 2 sets of shutters on today! They look good! The pictures aren't real good since it wasn't sunny today but our siding is a bright white and the shutters are burgundy. The east & north sides are done and 2/3 of the south side. The weather is not looking good for next week so good thing this much is done. Mark has had some college guys helping but they have to go back soon.



This is the north side - a master bed. and master bath window & the 2 garage glass block windows. This side faces the grove.







South side.






East side (guest room window).

Amy & Peggy's Birthday

Tonight we went to Lomita's in Humboldt for Amy's birthday and had a good time with several others. Lomita's is Amy & Glenn's favorite restaurant. The servers sang a very long birthday song to her and brought her fried ice cream. On our way home it was sleeting.

Today was also Peggy's birthday so we invited her over for lunch.

It was 4 this morning but the wind was just right so Bill lit the pile of 22 pine trees.







We had hoped for a big inferno but there was too much green so it burned hot in the middle and smoked.

There was a lot of action on the house today: siding, some plumbing and the heating guys were there. I took samples back to West Bend and Algona and dropped off a deposit so our flooring can be ordered. Also stopped to pick something up for a stamping customer.

Siding!

Today started out windy and 12 degrees. Bill was up and gone early to go to an all day crop insurance class in Ft. Dodge with 2 others from here. I'm getting all the books of light fixtures, hardware, faucets, house plans, countertop & flooring samples etc. gathered up because I'm meeting with Angie, the painter/decorator after lunch.

I just went to the grocery - for more drinking water for one thing - and noticed someone who was in the grocery had left their car running while in the store! The other day on a really cold day, SEVERAL cars were left running! I'm still not used to that! :) It always makes me smile. I can go in now and not lock the car doors but I still can't leave it unlocked with the KEYS IN IT like most people do! I'm Miss Security and people here think I'm crazy (except Glenn!). Bill says guys have been known to need to "borrow" trucks once in a while - but they always bring them back! He doesn't really care if they'd keep his! (it's about a 1987)

I'm getting ready to bake a pie. Last year in Mar., the town had a benefit auction for our neighbor who has breast cancer. I donated a pie a month for a year! Our Mayor and her husband paid $165 for that. After this pie, I only have 2 more. Next time I believe I'd only do a pie a month for 6 months!!

We have siding on half of the south side of our house so far. They're going to be glad when the outside work is done! I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Diane's Salon

This afternoon I went for a cut and color. I'm very lucky that my niece, Diane, has her own salon, Di's Hyway Style Salon, in Pocahontas. It's in Glenn's Dunkerly Ag & Truck building. Her salon is cute and cozy.

She would charge me for just the products that she uses but her regular price is HALF of what I paid in Indiana!! So I pay that and I'm thrilled!

You should've seen her a year ago when she was giving me "my new look" (shorter hair). She was having so much fun! Since then I've let her highlight, make my hair different colors (all brunette) and style it kind of crazy. It's kind of fun!
Something else different here is that people don't make their hair appointments very far ahead - and sometimes just "walk in" - especially the men! It's kind of nice to be able to go in the week you decide your hair is just not right anymore!

Groves

Groves are new to me. People living in the country here all have one to block the north and/or west wind. This is a fairly new one to the north of a house and is about 5 rows of trees. People usually plant a mix of evergreens, leafy trees, and bushes/shrubs for best blocking of the wind and snow. Ours is very old and scraggly so Bill is thinking about whether we will add to ours or start over.


This is the north side of Peggy's grove. She had a row (closest to the house) of 22 pine trees with canker disease so one of Bill's winter projects was getting them cut down.










Tim is up in the loader putting a line around the tree. That's Dave on the ground. Some they could just make a cut and push them down with the loader. Then they just hooked on to them and pulled the whole tree to the burn pile.







This shows the stumps down the line. They hope the next row of trees will now fill out better.





This is the pile of the first 14 trees. It's gonna be a big fire when they light all 22! Hope to get a picture of that!