First it was a Cooper's Hawk.  Someone found it and it couldn't
fly, so they called Tyler to come get it.

Then a Turkey Vulture joined the Hawk.  They were both in what
Tyler and Jenn call the dungeon under their rental home.  Feeding
the two birds was a bit time consuming.  The vulture had a hole
in it's wing.  He was being called Gonzo.

The hawk was let go after several days, but Gonzo was still being
cared for.

Then a Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl came to join Gonzo.  He
only stayed in the dungeon overnight though.  In the morning he
was brought to Fernnook and released.  He happily flew off into
a nearby thicket.

He must have just been stunned the night before.

Gonzo should be released soon.  Apparantely 2 weeks is the limit
before a bird will begin to lose muscle tone in their wings.

Life is always so interesting in Fernnook.

Last night we played the Dictionary Game.  It is one of our favorites.
The game-that is.  Well the dictionary is too.  You can tell that the
one I got as a gift from Tyler many years ago is well used, and I
will add, it is also well loved.

I look forward to the grandies being old enough to read and write
because I think it will be a blast to play the game with them.  Their
fertile imaginations should shine.

The word I chose, when it was my turn to have the dictionary was
"mingy" which means mean and stingy.  I just love that word and
can't wait to use it in conversation.

The other words were: silurid (a catfish with anal and caudal fins fused),
hicjacet (an inscription on a gravestone), mittimus (a writ to put someone in
jail), ulu (a knife used by Eskimos), and vernissage (a type of italian tile).

So, what do you think of this sentence that uses all the words.  It wasn't
made up by me, but by someone who shall not be named.

It was a mingy, vernissage hicjacet showing a silurid being cut by a ulu
while someone was being served a mittimus.  Put that in your pipe and
smoke it.

Oh, Jennifer won.  She so often does!

Two weeks ago we had an appointment with a butcher in Ironton for
two cows.  There was weather moving into our area, and it was
quite cold.  Kent and I had moved the cows a few days before.
That required moving lots of cattle panels and rebuilding the pen
by the loading shoot. 

The day they were due at the butcher, Kent and Tyler had them
loaded and took off at sunrise.  They drove north and when they
had about an hour left to travel they hit ice.  They ended up stuck
on a two-lane road on one side of a hill and partly across both lanes.
The oncoming traffic could not see them until they topped the hill.
It was quite a dangerous situation. 

In God's providence a deputy showed up soon and was able to put
her car at the top of the hill with lights on to warn the oncoming
18 wheelers and cars.

Then with careful maneuvering the guys were able to turn the truck
and trailer around and head back home.

We then made an appointment with a butcher that is closer to home. 
That appointment was today.  Finally the two cows are gone.  Kent
will have a lot less work now.  Feeding out cows is exhausting!

But, we'll forget all the hard work when the hamburgers and steaks
are sizzling on the grill!  And we'll do it all again. 

Though she isn't exactly a kid, Hattie said something quite
humorous the other day.  She was be-bopping around the house
and suddenly looked at me and said, "If I wasn't me, I'd want to
be my best friend!" 

Then when Kathleen found out that I was going to be riding in
her van for the first half of a trip to Georgia to visit Natalie's
family and that Grandma Joan would be in the van for the
second half, she said, "That is a great idea!  Then I can talk the
whole way, and the trip will seem short to me!"

There has been such a lot going on up and down the gravel that I
hardly know where to start.

The other day Tyler came into the house.  He had been in what
Papa calls the "Millyard" cutting lumber for the feeding shelter
he and Kent are building behind the shed.

He was tickled about what was going on up and down the gravel
that day.  He said (and I am sure this is a paraphrase), "Papa's dryer
is messed up, so he has Dennis Meyers coming to look at it later.
Jim has a repairman coming out to check on Jenny's satellite.  And,
Jenny called Papa yesterday because there was a lake in her yard
from a broken pipe, so Pa has Carl Proehl coming out to look at
it.  And, on top of that, Jenny didn't get the message that Carl is
coming out so she drove to town to try to find a plumber.  And,
Uncle Jim just drove to town to look for her to stop her getting
another plumber, since one is already coming out.  There sure is a
lot of coming and going today on the gravel!"

The sawmill had been out of commission for awhile because of a
messed up motor something or other.  Everyone is tickled pink that
it is up and running again.

At Fernnook Lodge, that is the house Mike and Deb are building,
the big news is that the cabinets are partly there.  A few months
late, but this is Ripley County.

I think that from now on I will refer to Mike and Deb's house as
The Lodge, Dad's house as The Big House, and our home as
The Farmhouse.

Then when people want to know where we are eating I can say,
"Well, dinner tonight is at The Big House...or The Lodge...or
The Farmhouse."

Sounds so comfy and warm and friendly and all.

The other day I was gone, and when I got home Kent took me over
to the side of the shed and showed me something and asked me to
guess what it was.

I had not a clue.  It looked like a huge spider, but it was all catawampus.
Turns out it was the chimney brush.  Kent was cleaning the flue while
the fire was going and dropped the brush down the chimney.  Then
he had to scramble down to put out the fire so he could take apart
the bottom of the flue to retrieve the melted, spidery looking brush.
Neither one of us are sure why he did it when the fire was going. 

We had some really cold weather during the end of December and
beginning of January.  The pond froze over enough for us to slide
around on it.  The granddies loved it.  We saw a turtle, some predatious
diving beetles, a salamander, and a walking stick all under the ice
moving about in the water.

There was a grand game of ice hockey to boot.

Then Tyler had Elsie and Kathleen help him to drag his Christmas
Tree out onto the pond to create fish habitat when the ice melts.

Cold as it was here, it's been much colder in Montana where
Trenten and Anne are.  Derrill and Becky spent three weeks
there starting Christmas Day.  During the first 10 days of their
visit the mercury didn't even hit zero for a high.

That's cold.  Here's hoping for a chinook wind for the Farmers
and some spring peepering for us!