2/7/10 Look at that nice bunch of party-ers!! 6 great grandparents 4 grand parents, a great aunt and uncle, an uncle and a first cousin (once removed) ...plus 2 parents and a sibling. Today we went to church and some of SS. At home I made soup, Denny rested, then tried to move snow. He said the bobcat and tractor are not working right. Stayed home to watch Super bowl and work on stuff. 
2/6/10 After getting up early and working at the unit. Then studying the weather forecast and driving to the closest hard surface road, we decided to head to Parkersburg. Howard and Anabel rode along with us to the 2 year Anabel's birthday party. We got there about noon with 2 salads and 2 cakes. What a nice birthday girl!...and the party was really nice too. Great soup, veggies, cheese crackers. Good to see and visit with all 17 of the family. We got home about 7 pm. Long day for Denny with driving stress. I had a niced long [phone visit with Molly S. tonight.
2/5/10 107 sows have had babies. In a way that is surprising. Last July the plan was that the unit would be emptied now. After 2 months with no farrowing, we now have another 4 groups of sows bred to have babies. One with 147 sows, one with 130, one 110, and one with 66. We'll have to see. God knows the future, I just need to be faithful with what I can do. Four months ago Mark said he would try to put groups of sows back together. Today he fixed the broken pipe in the wash rack so I could spray down the hall after we moved gilts to the B&G building. Yesterday he hurt his bad shoulder while he was moving animals by himself. He said luckily he doesn't work this weekend so he can stay home and ice it. Hope that will help. It would be tough to put an injured employee in the mix. I started the fire in the coop and we ate spaghetti out there tonight. 
HAPPY TWO YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY ANABEL!!! You are a real gift to us. Hope your day was great. I got a pet carrier out of an outside shed when I was at the folks for coffee. Howard has a kitten that he likes and Anabel has a kitten that likes her. He is going to get both treated at the vet. He gets a notion and just goes with it. I went to Bible study at Susan's this afternoon. It was good to catch up with Sue, Ginny, and Brenda. I've missed them. Please keep Teresa in your prayers. Her cancer treatments are rough. My heart just aches for my brave family and friends that are battling or have battled in many different areas of their lives. This song keeps running thru my head. "May all who come behind us find us faithful. May the footprints that we leave, lead them to believe and the lives we live inspire them to obey." Thanks for the many lives I have been blessed to be a part of. Thanks for your faithfulness and gratefulness in all situations. Your lives are an inspiration to me. 
2/3/10 The last 2 mornings when I leave the folks after coffee and head up to the unit to work there has been a deer in the road. Monday morning it was standing right in the middle of the intersection of 300th and Orchard. It's outline was to the left and the Angus bull outline on the "Johnson Brother Purebred Angus since 1904" sign was on the right. I wish I would have had my camera. I worked on getting a couple meals freezer ready to go to Paulsruds. It was a good Awana tonight. It has been a long time since I was there. The kids still like to play games, if you can believe that. While we were in Brownsville there was an American Days meal. See the gals in red. Fried chicken, potatoe Salad, baked beans and brownies. Jean came the next day.
2/2/10 Pretty soon she will be two. I went for coffee with Howard and Anabel before heading to the unit. The feed truck was there and I didn't want to park in its way. Most of the regular parking places are taken by snow drifts. I went in to Ida Grove about 4 pm and got some groceries. Denny stopped at the unit on the way home from the bank and did a walk thru. This afternoon Malcolms came to access the damage to the microwave and washing machine that went out during the ice storm. Last week the folks took the computers down to Denison to get them fixed. The power surges took them out, too. It may be a while until there are more pictures on the blog. I put these pictures in blog sight drafts from Jan 14 to Feb. 2. I need to go and recheck the Moms before heading to bed. We've been praying for Jenny H. as she had surgury at Mayo today.
2/1/10 I went to coffee at the folks before going back to the old grind. The computers are fixed, but I don't have access to the pictures, so here goes with the same old, same old. Not the best day at the unit. I have to check my attitude ... no longer on vacation ... Sows are back having babies. Thankful to be back raising piggees, but I could use your prayers. I have so much to be grateful for. Why do I have the desire to complain?
