Changing weather and animal update

 Jessica and I started planting the garden this morning. We put in onions, Salad Bowl lettuce, spinach, Romaine lettuce and snow peas. The spinach and Romaine are sharing a row.

Meet Pork Chop, our future ham sandwich. I got him about 2 weeks ago and he lives with Brent's pig in Frenchburg. It's about 20 minutes from here.

 You would never believe these two were litter mates, but Brent's pig had a head start on the protein rich diet he feeds them. Pork Chop is catching up, but still has a bunch of growing to do. He should be ready around November or so.

Playing in the snow

 Since this is probably the last snow for the year, I wanted to get out and play in it.

 The wheeler slides very well and it is a lot of fun. Heather took the pictures for me, but didn't want a turn. She said she was too cold after feeding the bunnies and horse.

All of this will be gone by the end of the week, so let's play!

Another alternator

The alternator in Heather's truck quit again. More accurately, the regulator went bad, but it's the same result. I took it off and went back to the parts store. I had replaced it about 13 months ago, and it had a 12 month warranty. The new one has a lifetime warranty.

All bolted up and ready to go. I took it for a short test drive and made sure it was all working right again. It all checked out.

Quick change

From one extreme to the other, in just a couple of days. Snow and cold to...

warm and sunny a few days later. Heather and I had to get some more hay to make it to the real springtime. She had enough for the rabbits, but not enough for Bailey, the rescue horse. This load should last until the grass starts to grow.

New and improved things

 I rebuilt the grill a couple of days ago. The handle took the most time because it had to be fabricated from scratch. Not difficult, but time consuming to cut and fit everything together.

 CharBroil sent the wrong cooking grate. This one is too narrow. They have the right one already on the way and should be here next week. The heat tent supports were also replaced and the hinges rebuilt.

 The tub was replaced with a shower stall today. This time, we had a good contractor.

From the old tub to the new shower stall. I still have to find some different door for it. The ones we picked out aren't going to work with this unit. I'll be exchanging them tomorrow for what we need to complete the shower. It's still functional with a shower curtain, so we can use it.

Overdue Christmas update

 This was from our trip to the range over Thanksgiving. We were just having some fun after the work Allen did on the kitchen. I didn't get any pictures of our range trip right after Christmas with Bill. The camera was one of the things I forgot to bring. I'll try to remember better next time.

 This is the work. Nothing really difficult, but a lot of detail work, with all the cutting and fitting.

 And on to Christmas morning. Everyone was here for the holiday, and that is important.

A new breadmaker made Lynne happy. They are getting hard to find, it seems.

Allen's upgrade to our kitchen

 Allen wanted something to do while he was here over Thanksgiving, so we came up with a project. Remove the old breakfast bar and replace it with more counter space and cabinets. He got the breakfast bar torn out the first day.

Then came all the cutting and fitting - the countertop was cut off and a new cabinet brought in and modified so it could do what we needed it for.

Mostly storage space for the kitchen appliances and the flat bakeware. Cookie sheets and the like will now be stored on the top shelf of the new cabinet.

While he was putting it all together, Lynne got him to add a couple of spice racks to replace the wire baskets that we were using. He did a fine job!