Be Careful Where You Stick Your Hands

As a former resident of the state of Florida, I feel that I can speak with some authority about this.

When working around culverts, rocks or whatever, us Minnesotans give very little thought about sticking our hands into non visually checked areas.

Imagine what these Florida Power and Light folks thought when they discovered this!


As if an 18 foot gator wasn't bad enough....How about these forked tongued devils?


The pucker factor must have been off the charts.

Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

The House Of Soup

Besides Minnesota "hotdish", soup rates right up there for the perfect winter meal.

Of late we have been making various kinds of soup and freezing it.

You can always tell the severity of the Minnesota winter by the amount of soup we make.

This past weekend Sue made white chili.


White chili is made with chicken, onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes, white beans, garbanzo beans, green chilies, cheddar cheese and a host of other ingredients.

This was a new recipe so she only made a 22 cup batch. Now that is withstood our taste test, we will make it by the drum next time.

It is so handy to have this stuff all prepared and ready to go instead of coming home from work and wondering what to have for supper.

Right now we have regular chili, white chili, beef vegetable and clam chowder prepared and ready to consume at a moments notice.

We ran out of room in the 35 cubic foot freezer to store it in so we have an oil tanker parked out back with most of the holds full.


Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

The Kids Are In New York

As many of you know, our youngest son Andy and his signifigant other, Sarah, live in Seattle, WA.
Being big supporters of change, they took some time off from their busy schedules with intentions to go to the other Washington for the inaguration.
At the last minute they had a change of plans after thinking about the millions of people they would have to share space with to see the big event.
Saturday they were in Philidelphia and were a block away from the Obama train. That was as close as they could get.
After that they hopped a train to New York city and at last report, Sunday, they were in Brooklyn having breakfast

Andy does some work with another recording engineer in NY and will spend a little time mastering a CD project he just completed in Seattle.
Knowing Andy and Sarah, they will have a great time in the Big Apple.
Hopefully Sarah will send me some pictures to post when they catch their breath.

Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

My Brother

My brother, Paul, lives in a suburb of Des Moines and at times can be quite a character. We all shake our heads and wonder where he comes up with some of this stuff.
I just received a picture of him from my niece's husband David. Good going David....nice jab at your father in law! I don't think David has any room to talk and Paul will make sure he fires off a round in David's direction.

My Brother:


And he is a grandfather? He looks more like the weird uncle that no one wants to talk about!

Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

It is Above Zero!

We are blessed....The sub zero temps are gone for now.

Today the mercury traveled North all the way to +5! This weekend's weather forecast is calling for highs in the 20's.

Here in Minnesota that really means something.

Cold Weather behavior:

60 above zero: Floridians turn on the heat. Minnesotans plant gardens.

50 above zero: Californians shiver uncontrollably. People are
sunbathing in Duluth.

40 above zero: Import cars won't start. Minnesotans drive with the
sunroof open.

32 above zero: Distilled water freezes. The water in Bemidji gets thicker.

20 above zero: New Minnesotans don long johns, parkas and wool hats &
mittens. Seasoned Minnesotans throw on a flannel shirt.

15 above zero: New York landlords finally turn on the heat. People
in Minnesota have one last cookout before it gets cold.

Zero: People in Miami all die. Minnesotans close the windows.

10 below zero: Californians fly away to Mexico. Minnesotans dig
their winter coats out of storage.

25 below zero: Hollywood disintegrates. Girl Scouts in Minnesota
still selling cookies door to door.

40 below zero: Washington, D.C. finally runs out of hot air. People
in Minnesota let their dogs sleep indoors.

100 below zero: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Minnesotans get
upset because the Mini-Van won't start.

460 below zero: ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin
scale). People in Minnesota can be heard to say, "Cold 'nuff fer ya?"

500 below zero: Hell freezes over. Minnesota public schools open 2
hours late.

My dear loyal readers...It is in a way sad...but true.

Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

A "Two Dog" Night

In my last blog I talked about the bitter cold we were experiencing.

Our beloved girls, Lucy and Betty had to bundle up before venturing out into the bitter blast.

At 6pm it was already -18 degrees on it's way down to -25 with windchills of -50.

The girls made it back inside safely after their brief trip outside.

Click on the pictures for a larger view





As we say here in Minnesota...It's a bit chilly out there.

> WINTER Poem
>
> It's winter in Minnesota
> And the gentle breezes blow
> Seventy miles an hour
> At thirty-five below.
>
> Oh, how I love Minnesota
> When the snow's up to your butt
> You take a breath of winter
> And your nose gets frozen shut.
>
> Yes, the weather here is wonderful
> So I guess I'll hang around
> I could never leave Minnesota
> I'm frozen to the ground!


Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

Please....Make It Stop!

Enough is enough!

We have had a real winter this year as opposed to the "fake" ones of recent years.

It has been just nuts....cold, wind and snow. In moderation it would not be so bad.

Here is the latest weather forecast:

Forecast for Mankato:

Updated: 12:04 PM CST on January 14, 2009
Wind chill warning in effect until 12 PM CST Thursday...
Rest of Today
Sunny. Patchy blowing and drifting snow. Highs around 5 below. Northwest winds 15 to 20 mph. Wind chill readings 25 below to 35 below zero.

Tonight
Colder...clear. Lows around 25 below. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Wind chill readings 35 below to 45 below zero.
Thursday
Sunny. Highs 5 below to 10 below zero. West winds 5 to 10 mph.

Thursday Night
Mostly clear. Lows around 20 below. Southwest winds around 5 mph.


It is getting so cold that certain body parts are disappearing. That worries me!

But, being the hardy (some call it foolish) Minnesotans that we are, we complain about it for a few seconds then move on.

I guess it is finally time to break out the winter coat and gloves and toss them in the back of the truck just in case we stall out somewhere in the middle of the boonies.

Tune in again real soon for another chilling edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"