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It has been a bit cold here. Yes, I know it is winter, but I still don't like it. We had 3 to 4 inches of snow on the 30th of December (a Thursday) and it was Sunday afternoon before I could get my Geo up over the hump and home. Several children came to visit, and it was interesting to note which cars could navigate our driveway in the snow. Generally speaking, the four wheel drive types had little difficulty. Zeke and Mylinda's car has front wheel drive with a "limited slip" feature (what ever that is), and it also performed surprisingly well. The tires on my Geo have reasonably good tread, but must be designed for dry pavement. I could have been driving slick racing tires for all the traction I could manage.

I played around some more with my motorized bike, riding it to the church and out to the Hi-Jinks Ranch. I still haven't come to a conclusion as to whether I like it. There is no doubt that it allows me to do things that I could not otherwise do and that pushing the envelope on that capability is something I am really looking forward to, but... the machine is really no longer a bike. Various and sundry people who visited rode it, and their reactions varied. I continue to wrestle with the problem, and hope to be able to form a definitive conclusion shortly after I finish designing, manufacturing, and installing a second clutch (the projected completion date for that project being some time in 2015). Meanwhile, my lightest and most technologically advanced bicycle languishes in the grip of this oil spewing tyrant...

We have a couple of feet of external water pipe near the washer. When temperatures in the lower 20's are forecasted, I put a light bulb underneath a blanket to keep the liquids liquid. This time around, the pipes froze (at least to the point where no water would pass through), but they didn't rupture. One of these years I'll get around to insulating them properly (Hey, it's on my "To-Do" list).

AJ talked me into going shooting with him. He has a very nice rifle, and (when he aims using his left eye) he is reasonably accurate with it. Being a lever action, it can be use either right or left handed.

Symantha even came for a short visit. This is a truly horrible photo, but it is the only one of her that I have, so it will have to do to document her visit.

Depending on the situation, cell phones can be wonderful or horrible things and, as you know, it is with mixed emotions that I have embraced them. This caricature captures some of my ambivalence. If it were available, I think this is what I would carry...

It is always fun having family come. Things get hectic and chaotic, but that might be part of the allure. That and the food...

With Nathen and family moving into a house in Benson, Barbara volunteered to keep their older boys. The idea was that this might allow them to arrange their belongings without help from junior family members who have not yet learned to reliably distinguish between randomness and order. (AJ and Brittney ended up keeping Kyle and Rachel while Ethen stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.) One of the projects that Barbara undertook while Ethen was here, was to carve some pumpkins left-over from Halloween. I don't know their origin, but Barbara has a set of tools designed specifically for pumpkin carving, and enough skill to produce these exemplars. The photography was delayed past the point of optimal visual impact, but you get the idea....

Ah, to be young again and enjoy knowing and telling secrets...

Sometimes it is informative to attempt to view the world through someone else's eyes. I attempted to project how Ethan sees mealtime, and this is what I got... (Actually, that image may be tainted by my own preferences).

Barbara, with the help of Joyce McRae, picked and processed some prickly pear apples. That activity, harvesting the deserts bounty, is one I have always found to be inviting. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a use for the final product.

As always, Barbara enjoyed the grandchildren visiting.

And even I have to admit that those little rug-rats and house-apes are kind of cute...

One of the show and tell activities Barbara did with the grandkids was an attempt to sprout some seed that she had procured for that purpose. I thought this made an interesting visual image, but the germination rate was not high enough to allow the final product to be consumed. I guess we need to get some chickens... Or (says Barbara) just use one type of seeds or beans when you're sprouting seeds and legumes. This container was the example of what came in a food-storage packet that had 5 different types of seeds and beans combined so) mung beans, alfalfa seeds, radish seeds, who knows how old they actually are.

I came down with my bi-annual cold on Dec 23. That was horrible timing and I can't help but wonder how many of the visitors to our house took that unwanted guest with them upon leaving. On the other hand, given the fact is that the immune system in humans is not fully functional for the first 10 years of their lives, any gathering of children has the potential to distribute maladies.

Barbara bought me a spot welder for Christmas (That's my story and I sticking to it!) and I am really looking forward to trying it out. I ended up with the model that requires 220 volt (as opposed to the standard 110 volts of house current) and I'm having slight difficulty getting the wiring in place (the main problem is finding enough unencumbered hours of daylight). Hopefully, this coming weekend will see its implementation. I think I have decided to elongate the shed such that it covers the complete foundation. To this point I have procured what I hope is sufficient angle iron to build another set of joists and the sheet metal to cover them. I guess some people just don't learn quickly. If that weren't bad enough, Barbara wants to protect her new (used) Mercedes with a carport, so a second project has inserted itself. What I need is a six week long vacation, or at the very least, the return of the long days of summer...

I found this buried in the shed. It represents the fruits of food storage, when the material isn't rotated. This is stuff my mother gave to me before she moved to Taylor (I guess she figured it was too old to eat and I had been known to raise animals). I suspect is that some of it is more than a half century old (but I would bet that the wheat would still have a germination rate of above 50%). Anyone want to raise a pig? And as an addendum, do any of you kids recognize this as being the camper shell we built for that yellow (then painted lime green) International pickup we used to drive?

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