Tuesday, January 01, 2019

8th Day of Christmas - Amazon "Prime" Comes Through

Amazon Prime in Alaska means the things ordered weeks before Christmas will be shipped early on the 26th and 27th and arrive on the 1st of January. It doesn't matter for most of what we've ordered. We'll not have our immediate family gift exchange until Epiphany, actually thinking the weekend after.

I did hope this little cup would arrive before the Christmas Adam Tea. Isn't it darling. It's PLASTIC. I bought one to keep here for Bella to have tea at Granna's house. I will get another for her sister and future grand girls.....I ordered one to give her for Christmas, along with a book. They arrived and we'll take them over soon.


The boys' Christmas gifts also arrived. Since Benny lives in the house....we went to their apartment and delivered his gifts.

It makes me happy that Benny has a reading corner and loves books. He headed off with his book and we had to call him back to open the "real" present. 

We got him a couple of little tractors. What we wanted to purchase said it wasn't good for children under 3 years old....maybe we'll rebel next year. LOL  He liked these. Here, he discovers the back moves back and forth on one of them. 


Krista and Alex headed out for their one on one time fairly early in the day.  She sent a photo!

I processed ham stock, asked a question on Facebook and with the help of my friends came up with a plan. I processed 15 pints of beans in the ham stock.

Alex led the way in getting all the kids outside to move the mounds of snow that had slid into our parking spot.
Alex, Krista, Stacia, Nolan

Nolan has two days off....I'm hoping he rests. He's looking run down with the many hours and the cold he was fighting.

Krista took Michael and I out for dinner. It was fun to spend time alone with her sharing our heart and hearing hers.  We stopped by Walmart before heading home. I LOVE Christmas shopping after Christmas.  We stocked up on wrapping paper (some of which will be used this year)....  $.20 - .60 a roll. We picked up 12 little stockings and 12 mantle hangars at 75% off....next year I will just have stockings for all at our home. No need for them to bring them here to be filled. I also picked up a few yard signs which will work the whole winter at 75% off. Michael got all new lights for our house at 75% off. He won't be able to install them until spring....so we limp along with new strands dying after each storm. LOL  Our plan was to leave the lights up until the last dog reached Nome (from the Iditarod), instead we'll see how many are left by that time.

They rounded the night out with snowboard kids. 

We forgot another day of scavenger hunts. Ugh.....the days are full. 

Winter Chickens

The girls (16 hens) complain loudly and insistently when it's too cold for them to go outside. They seem to think  *I* control the weather and should be able to remedy the situation.
Bit windy....I can almost feel her cringing...up on her tip toes

 I shovel out about 1/2 of the chicken yard and put shavings down so it's warmer for them to be out and about. I hope to have 1/2 the run covered and be able to put up a wind break before next winter. We've had no frostbite yet, really cold weather is predicted for this weekend.

We have had "cold." It warmed up for several days. The warmth and the rain caused all the snow to rush off our metal roof. Not a bit of snow left on the roof.  A good share of the snow landed in big mounds in the chicken yard.

So much came down at once on the fence it broke the ties holding the link to the posts. 

When it warms up, I clean off the "poop shelf" under their roosts, and change out all the shavings in the coop. I put the shavings down in the yard, after it's all shoveled. I knew I had some work cut out for me with all the snow in the yard.....the warmth meant the frozen poop on the shelf could also be dealt with.

I opened the chicken door for them to get some air and come visit while I worked. They were not impressed.  They did, however, give us 15 eggs.

There was so MUCH snow, I couldn't make much headway. Michael came out to shovel a spot. clean the coop, the poop shelf and make the gals more comfortable. He spread shavings and they were happy to enjoy the warmth.

I worked on canning.  Together, we get it done! We're settling into a winter rhythm.