On the road

Seriously, it seems as though we've been on the road all day long, and we never got any farther from home than Cliff's brother's farm at Higginsville.  
We had already planned to take Bonnie-the-Jersey-cow to spend time with Cliff's brother's bull.   Phil is out of state just now, and his pickup has been borrowed by a grandson.  So we borrowed granddaughter Monica's pickup to transport the cow.  
Monica spent last night at our house.  I mentioned on Facebook that I was making biscuits and gravy today, and ended up with over seventy comments on that status update.  Many people from across the country invited themselves to my house.  It was pretty funny, actually.  
This morning I made a double batch of baking powder biscuits and stretched the gravy so there would be enough for my daughter and son-in-law and Cliff's sister next door.  
That's how we started our day.  Then we headed to Cliff's brother's farm to get the livestock trailer.  

Monica did a great job of driving us there, although once Cliff hooked us up to the trailer, she wanted him to drive.  Back home, we loaded up Bonnie and Max.  I really felt bad about hauling them around with the temperatures so frigid, but the timing (we hope) is right for her to feel romantic at some point in the next few days.  Back to Phil's farm where we unloaded the pair.  Phil's bull seemed eager to meet his new girl friend, even though she was not yet in a romantic mood.  The bull, along with most of the herd, followed Bonnie all over the pasture, with poor Max trailing behind wondering what was going on.  
Home again, and Cliff's sister had fixed pizza for everybody.  Good stuff.  Then I came to the house and collapsed in my chair, because it felt like I had been on the road all day long.  Oh wait.. I had!  

For the next week, Jody and Babe are alone on the place.  At least they have each other.  
I wanted to go to a music show this evening, but it was in the same town to which we've already traveled twice today.  It's a show put on by relatives of the twins next door.  There was a very talented guest scheduled that I really wanted to see, but I don't want to leave home again.  It's cold outside.

It's even too cold to suit the dog

It's ten degrees, with a strong wing blowing.  In other words, totally miserable.  
I went in the bedroom to get my clothes for the day, and Sadie got out of her bed and shook like she always does, just to make sure there's plenty of her super-fine dog hair in every corner of the room.  I asked her if she wanted to potty, and she went to the door.  
I hadn't even gotten the door closed before she did her "bark-bark" to signal that she wanted back in.

I looked through the ice-glazed glass of the storm door, and there she stood:  wanting in without doing what she had been sent out there to do.  It had been fourteen hours since her last trip outside, for pete's sake.  So I commanded her sternly, "Go potty!"

I must say, she completed the mission in record time, and was quickly back at the door saying, "Bark-bark!"

This cabin fever is obviously getting to me; I've resorted to sharing pictures of my dog peeing.  How could I have sunk so low?
Actually, I need to back away from the computer; there's a flurry going on at another blog, and I can't stay away from the comment section there.  The blog entry isn't interesting at all, but the comments?  Wow!  (Sorry, I won't link to it; I'm keeping my nose clean.)

An old-fashioned winter?

When I was a child growing up in Taylor County, Iowa, I remember lots of snow and cold weather; I walked to my one-room school back then (no, I didn't walk uphill both ways), but if the weather was severe, my mom drove me the mile or two. The above picture, by the way, is of Skinner School, and that's my first teacher. I'm the mopey-looking girl near the back of the right-hand row.

We visited some of my dad's kinfolk in 1959, and my cousins and I built a snow-fort.

Even after we moved to Kansas City, I recall heavy snows that closed the schools for days at a time. Maybe it's just selective memory, but it sure seems to me like we got a lot more snow back then.

These days, I go into winter thinking I want lots of snow; by mid-January I realize it wouldn't bother me to never see another snowflake... even if we've had nothing but flurries up to that point.

Yesterday evening I watched the Fox 4 meteorologists (weather-guessers) discuss what they think will happen this winter: They all expect more snow than usual, not to mention below-zero temperatures.

I guess I'm ready. Of course, let's remember that these folks do well to accurately predict next week's weather; I'm not so sure I'll trust them on an entire winter's forecast.

Heading south!

Above is the weekend forecast for my home town.

This is the forecast for Mission, Texas, where I'll be spending Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon.

YES!