New years Eve day

Dec, 31, 2008 Okay, I didn't get to see all uor grandkids to day, but it was fun to see them over Christmas break. Not too exciting of a NY eve. It's 11:30 and we're heading to bed. We shipped out 1131 pigs this am. I was at the unit from 6am to 5:30 pm. Moving pigs til 9:45 then high pressure spraying 10 to 5 with as hour lunch break. Missy brought the kiddos and home made pizza for us...Plus ice cream. Tonight M&P went to Troy Johnsons and we put the kids to bed. Missy took some clothes for Ezra and food to Bergmans tonight. I finished another year of reading thru the Bible with my 1 a days.

Dec 29 & 30

I have not quite figured out how to get picture and text in the right place together. The last 2 pictures were added in the previous post and I thought I could change their location...but no...so I just published it and thought "Whatever". This picture is of Luke and Jensens after Phillip got done preaching at Kiron Baptist.

R&R Mon Dec.29 Hopefully Luke and Karen made it to Denver and enjoyed skiing today. I worked at the unit 8-5:30. Mark had a sore body from laying floor in Omaha so Phillip came up to the unit and worked from 10:30- 1 helping pick up each of the 1194 pigs and give them 2 shots. I guess really he only picked up half of the pigs. Denny picked up the other half. Then Denny and I worked at counting and weighing from one to five pigs from each of the 127 litters. Oh, did it take a long time. Bible study was from 6:30- 8:30. EB MJ FJ LS SW



Tues. Dec. 30 Elizabeth called the rec center this am to say there had been a fire at Tracey and Matt Bergman's house on 300th Street. They had just moved things from their house on the hill back to the house by the old church because the heating wasn't keeping up. They lost everything but the clothes on their backs. The fire was discovered at 2 am just when Nathan Balder (Ida County Sherrif Department) was getting off his evening shift. He kept working when he found out that the fire was at Bergmans. They were up at Marens helping move furniture and weren't home. Mike didn't know that when a nieghboor came up his driveway and woke Mike up to tell him about the fire. When Mike drove up the house was full of flames. He noticed that a car was gone but he didn't know til 20 minutes later that Matt and family were at Marens. Quite a scare... quite a loss...but everyone was safe.
I watched E&A at rec center while parents worked out until 11:15. Then Ranae Brookbank and I went thrifting at Sioux City. I met with 2 home school families at 3 pm. We went to 7 thrift/goodwill stores. Home by 6. Missy and Phillip came up later and tryed out my 2 new sets of glasses. 3@ .50 and 5 @ 2.50 Plus a coat for $4 Big ppurchases ...Nice Day

Journal???

Could I keep a journal??? Over many years my mom kept a journal of the activities of each day. My brother Craig got to keep all of them when the possessions of my parents were dispersed during Memorial weekend this year. He is willing to share them with any one. He also got the cedar chest and has chosen to keep them in it. He said last time I saw him that from the journals he learned that Dad went fishing quite a bit.

I don't know how many years she wrote in journals, but there are lots of spiral notebooks filled with mom's familiar handwriting. I'm sure she didn't intentionally record them for posterity or to be printed or anything. They aren't deep revelations of her thoughts...just day to day life.

Could I do that? Do I want to? It definately would help me remember what went on because my memory is fading fast. Mom made references about how she had to catch up on her journal. This was after busy days when she hadn't taken the time to sit down and remember & record what she had done. Luke is just trying to get his mom into the 21st century by making a blog on Dec. 24th. On the 26th I spent 2+ hours high preasure spraying out a gilt room and thinking may be I could do a journal. If I did it on the computer I at least wouldn't have to keep track of notebooks. (I do have a tendency of misplacing things.) Mom was diligent about writing. Could I do that? Should I try? I have tried before. There are about 3 part filled spiral note books that I am kinda interested in looking at every 3 years that I unearth them.

Well, I could at least give it a try. It wouldn't be the first time I started and didn't complete something. And if I don't attempt it I'll never know...so here goes... Dear Lord if this is a worthwhile thing for me please help me do it for your glory.

Remember & Record Monday December 22, 2008 Worked at the unit. Denny, Missy, Anabel and I went into IG to get a weight check on AF about 2:30. Plus groceries,and stuff at Bomgaars. AF had gained 8 ounces putting her on the charts...at about 4%. When we got home Matt and Becky and family were there. Cavatini for supper. Luke left Burlington with Karen and picked up Mandy at the Omaha Airport about 7:30. Home about 10:30 Nice to have everyone here. Earlier this week we got the vet's message that we do indeed have prrrs going through our herd. We have had about 30-40 aborts and 10 sow deaths.

R&R Tuesday Dec.23 When I got up a little before 7 Haley followed me into the kitchen and so we went to the unit to feed sows. Then home for casserole and to the rec center. I watched kids in the pool and big kids played BB. Home for reubens. Opened gifts after naps by all of us. GGpa and GGma came over and we had marinated grilled tenderloin and party potatoes.

R&R Wed. Dec. 24 Denny fixed bacon and eggs in my new skillet from Mandy while I fed at the unit. We all ate in the sun room. D&F went to the hog unit and the family played out side in the snow. M&B M&P organized and packed to head to other side of the family. For lunch we had Missy's Mexican lasagna. After naps we all went out to the chicken coop to take a family picture. Then on the road again for 8 of them. LMD&F went to Christmas eve service.

R&R Thur. Dec. 25. Merry Christmas! D&F worked at the unit 8-12. We left to take Mandy to the airport at 1:30. We let her off at 3:30 and back home by 5:30. Luke oped to sleep. That night we played 31, Sequence and watched a net flick on the computer. Mad Money

R&R Friday Dec. 26 Worked at the unit from about 9 to 5. Main job was about 2+ hours of spraying where I thought I might be okay to do a blog/journal. I had called Paulsruds earlier and yes we could have some of their barn boards. At 5:30 in the fog Luke and I took Denny's pickup to get the boards. Denny had said that it might be fun to work on the south wall of the coop with Luke. We had some leftovers and went to work until about 9:30 pm when Dallas Schumacher came to get Luke and take him to town to see friends.

R&R Sat. Dec. 26 I went to the unit early and then met my sisters Gail and Nancy in Carroll . We shopped and went to get a sales bill for the Brownsville motor home notarized. We ate Chinese and shopped a little more. I got home about 3:30. M&P had just gotten home. Luke had a turkey from American Ordnance that he marinated in a brine over night and he put in on to roast at 500* for 30 minutes and 320* for 3 hours. Denny got back from unit about 7:30 and we ate with Jensens. Wild rice, corn, and Luke made gravy. Luke and I watched Netflicks.

Sunday Dec. 27 Quick feeding at the unit so Evan and I could go to get donuts at 8:30 before SS. Today they had the SS children's Christmas program that was postponed last week because of weather. Evan was in the second row and so he couldn't be seen very well. Part way through teacher Kim moved him up to the front row...but he migrated back to his first spot. After the program LE&F went to Kiron where Phillip was preaching. GGpa took us out to eat at Cronks in Denison. When we got home Luke tried to move us into the 21st century by hooking up the web cam that Mandy had given us for Christmas. Luke had all his stuff ready to go into Karen's car. They left about 4 pm to drive to Denver. They plan to visit Mandy and ski at least one day. I started this blog about 7. It is now about 9. There is no way I will be able to find 2 hours in my day to type a blog. Guess It takes me a while to R&R. Plus I may have to learn to type faster. It was the lowest grade I got in school. Well.. Enough said.

My family in a chicken coop

Luke is trying to teach me how to produce a blog site. The first picture published is one we took this afternoon before Matt and Becky left to visit other parents in Kingsley. Here is the gang in the chicken coop that we paneled with barn board . It is about 30 feet behind our back door. Thanks Luke!!