Dennis Japan and Sandy's Surgery

I am waiting to hear back about and from both of them. Dennis on how things in Japan are with all the news of more problems and Sandy about her surgery. 
My brother Tim hopefully will get back to me today sometime. On top of things he had to go out of town for a couple of days.

It is snowing hard here today, it started out at 34 degrees and rain, went to sleet and now has been snowing for 4 hours. The temperatures are dropping not raising as they said they would be.

Birds are singing

We got another 2 inches last night but it has melted off today and the other snow that was already on the ground is starting to melt. Slowly each day it isn't as deep as it was the day before.

The birds have been around now about a week, It sure seems strange to hear them out there.

Dave is back safe and sound from western Oregon where he had a meeting on Thursday, he had driven over there on Wednesday.
Then on Friday it was off to Spokane for the day for him.
This morning he had a 7AM meeting at Church, so he has had a very busy late night week.

I have been watching Kaylee quite a bit, she is growing like a weed.

Recipe for coleslaw dressing.(When I was growing up this was used for cucumbers, lettuce you name it.)

Mom's Salad Dressing, double as needed.
1 cup miracle whip
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar(or to taste)
salt and pepper.
Mix well

Plus I recommended this Sour Dough Cookery Book.

I have had mine since the 70's and it is very good with great easy
to follow recipes for all kinds of things to make with sour dough.

Cousins in Japan

I have been able to contact my cousin in Japan and he and family are fine. My first cousin Dennis and part of the family are just north of Tokyo.  Such a relief.
One of my brothers in IL was able to talk with him in the last couple of days and reconnect after many many years.  
My brother Tim and his wife are the ones fighting her brain cancer. 
Sandy goes in for more surgery the 18th of March this coming Friday.
They are trying to make their finances stretch but it is getting harder and harder and he has had to sell his tools, equipment for working on cars and the classic cars he was trying to fix up.
They are trying to hang on as best they can.
Some more wells were tested in there area and they found more of the chemical in the wells.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2010/09/21/brain-cancer-tumors-for-31-residents-of-same-town/ 

It warmed up enough here that it rained most of the night (mid 30's). If this keeps up we should lose our snow this week or most of it. Some of the snow drifts are still quite deep.
But I bet it is a skating rink out there as it is in the 20's outside right now.

5 foot drift in front of the barn, Lizzie's domain.

The old deserted farm next door.

The front side of this house is gone.

Long Day and hay getting

Dave has been up since a bit after 6 AM and me at 6:30. Dave had a 7:30 AM meeting in Lewiston at 7:30.
I had some computer work to do as far as collecting hints and recipes for another Food Storage Coordinator. She needed some ideas.
I had worked on it for an hour last night and took me another 2 hours this morning to get it finished and sent off for her use.
Also started on something else for Dave and looked up phone numbers and addresses for people that had hay and straw for sale.
Dave got home around 10 AM and Kathy and Kaylee had gotten up shortly before then. I had to tell Kathy she needed to get Kaylee her breakfast because we would have to take Kaylee with us as Kathy would leave for work around 12:30 she had the afternoon and evening shift.
Got ourselves ready to go after doing chores, Dave hooking up the trailer (he dug it out of a snow drift yesterday) and me getting little Kaylee dressed and away we went.
We purchased hay, straw  and some sweet feed for the cow.
Also stopped at Costco for a few things and got lunch there.
We got home at 4:00, I Changed Kaylee and got her down for a quick nap while Dave started unloading the hay and straw. 
Big black clouds were starting to roll in and just started to sprinkle as we were finishing.

Oh by the way teach me to check better, the calf is a heifer lol.

What fence?

A friend loaned us the cd pack of the book The Undaunted by Gerald Lund. A great story. This is the book.

Yum cake

This was a family recipe passed down from my mother, we love this one.


Tomato Soup Spice Cake
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
Cream together, add
 2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix, add
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 can tomato soup, dump int a bowl and add 
1 teaspoon baking soda, stir well, add to other ingredients and mix, then add
2 cups flour
Mix well and pour in a greased cake pan, bake 350 degrees for 30 to 40 min depending on your oven. Frost with a vanilla butter cream icing.

Warm front

We had 13 new inches of snow on Sunday and then yesterday it warmed up to 40 degrees and ended up with over 3 feet of wet cold snow and very slippery out there.
Kathy was headed to work yesterday morning, we had her park her car at the road shop 2 1/2 miles away in Anatone by the state highway.
So anyway she gets in the 4 wheel drive 3/4 ton truck to go to her car, gets part way up the first part of the driveway and the truck slides side ways and she ends up in a snow drift that's to the hood of the truck.
She and I start digging and finally get the snow dug away and get the truck straightened out and she gets on her way.
Took me a few hours to recuperate I tell ya.

I got a batch of marscapone cheese started and some neufchatel later in the day.
I buy the tartaric acid and etc from Leeners.
http://www.leeners.com/cheese-recipes.html

 A part under the joystick of the tractor broke the other day in the heavy snow, we took it in to get a replacement and they said those never breaks, lol we beg to differ.
So they ordered a new one and who knows when it will be in.
Dave went out to snow blow last night but the snow was to wet and heavy and all it did is shear a pin on it right away so he came back in.
There were inspectors in all day and work he said and he didn't get a thing done at work he needed to. 


Here is what it normally does when it works.

Warm front