We just finished a most pleasant walk, the children were all smiles and the animals were giddy.  Amazing how a person really appreciates 24 degree weather after weeks of frigid weather.

Andrew is encouraging us to work through our squash, so tonight for supper we had pork chops, hubbard squash, garden potatoes, and Montevideo apples we got on our latest trip. The apples were past prime but really tasty peeled, fried in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  God is such an amazing provider.

Enjoying the morning 🌄 as we pick out poultry we’re ordering for this spring/summer.

With the bright sun the noon chores were brisk, but bearable.  We all appreciate our routine and the fresh air.  With -16 windchill, we weren’t out very long and now it’s time to enjoy a good book.

It has been cold these last few days, windchills dropping us in to forecasted -40 below.  I guess this is supposed to keep the riff raff out… although I’m always tempted to look at Hawaii real estate when it gets this cold, just not sure how to move a herd of cattle that close to the equator 🤔.  I admit we’re due for these temperatures.  This is the coldest it has been all winter.  Everything takes a little bit longer, the fountains need to be checked to make sure they’re not frozen over even though they have heaters in sometimes they just can’t keep up.  Even the machinery kind of creaks and groans on days this cold.  Grandpa always make sure to put extra straw down for the animals to lay down on.

We had wonderful company this late afternoon and Great Grandma Gietzen was blessed to spend the afternoon with her daughter.

We spent the last month daydreaming about what seeds and produce we want in our garden, now it’s time to order and plant our seedlings!

I just attended a funeral for a very gentle soul. He was a bulldoggin’ cowboy who outworked Andrew and I the last time we worked calves. It was a beautiful Catholic funeral and I pray he is basking in Christ’s Glory.  If I pass away in the winter I hope the day is as beautiful as today. As I left the farm it seemed as if I was in a storybook, the Frost was so thick and as the sun touched it, it looked like the world was covered in diamonds.

The frost is so beautiful this morning.

We had a wonderful evening of comradery and discussion of a classic.  So blessed to call these beautiful ladies, friends.  Wholeheartedly appreciating this book club and the wonderful husband and children that make it possible for me to host the meetings.