Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Wisconsin.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the great State of North Carolina, All!

Wishing you a great day of relaxation, friend/family gathering (or NOT, if you choose), and a day of eating what you like!

Shoe

We had a good Christmas season, yes, the whole time! Hubby did Santa duty from Dec 3 through 23rd. Or son and his wife came out (from town) on the 24th to bring gifts and have some visiting time. Daughter in law had to get back to town early because she was on call for Hospice duty that night. Yesterday we joined our neighbors for Christmas dinner, and the day was topped off with a call from our daughter and family who sang "We wish you a merry Christmas" to us.

Hubby is very pleased with the cider press I got him for Christmas. He will build a table to mount the apple eater part, and anchor the press to something that won't move when pressure is applied to squeeze out the juice. I think I'd better start collecting jugs! We have talked about buying a cider press for years, and I started thinking about it again when we had such a good crop of apples this year.

The weather forecast says we have a good chance of some snow starting tonight. We had the first unwhite Christmas in 18 years! The mountains need a load of snow for next year's irrigation water. Farmers and ranchers have been getting concerned about it already. So far this December is still the driest on record.

Here is a pic of SU and me with the boys and the grands. I guess we all clean up pretty good.

A handsome family - and you look the happiest of all! Which grandchild goes with which son?

The one sitting on the floor with them is their dad. DS#2

They do look like him, but all the men-folk look quite a lot alike. I love the little granddaughter's expression!

Yeah, they all do look like their father. I was there, tho...........really, I was. LOL Nobody can accuse me of consorting with the milkman.

The sun's out this morning so we have had all our rain for the week. However, even though it is now winter, everything is greener than it has been since last March! If it stays relatively warm we should have some grass growth in the pastures - already the clover is up. Our part of the state is still rated as being in exceptional drought - just somewhat less exceptional?

Well, being exceptional is sometimes a good thing, but I think in this instance, not so much. Yeesh.

Here, it's snowing and blowing. There were snow plows in the night, but haven't seen any lately. Stan is off paying up end of the year stuff and I just ordered a new laptop. this should be interesting. Ah, the old days when the software was part of the deal. The only advantage is that the computers are much much cheaper than they were. This computer is 7 years old, I upgraded it's memory to 2 GB last summer. The laptop has a 500GB hard drive and 6GB of RAM. The fact that I have an inkling of what that means is slightly frightening.

Guess I'll get back to work now.

I am fighting with Quicken today. Trying to reconcile my personal checking account. It started out the year with a deficit of $36.00 and somehow I cannot get rid of it. Didn't have that kind of problem when I did the joint account. *sigh*............this first year has been a learning experience, for sure.

Rain here yesterday, only wind here today! I'm okay with that but sure would like a windless day so I can recover the greenhouse soon.

Kathleen, I had computer problems this past week and one day hope to get a newer one (heck, this ones only 12 years old or so!) *grin. Just curious, what kind did you get and did you find a good deal on it? I've been talking to lots of folks about laptops, desktops, brands, etc...all I get is more confused than ever!

Shoe

Yay..................got the problem taken care of and the account is reconciled. Found a couple entries where I had the cents amount transposed, so had to go back and correct them. Whew.........got that monkey off my back.

Got in a pitching mood, so got the wastebasket and sorted through my "office supplies".......threw half of that stuff away and put the rest in what will be henceforth called my "Office Box"..........which in its previous life was a Harley boot box. LOL

Now, off to to see if I do, indeed, really have a counter.

I need to do some bookkeeping too, but the weather has been so nice this week, I can't stay indoors. - Not that the outdoor jobs are so fun: I fixed a leaking pipe, which took a while to unearth but was an easy repair; and re-routed some hot wire that kept grounding on a tree. In addition there were the usual chores and a trip to the feed store and the post office - only to discover that I had left my P.O. box key in the other truck. Tomorrow I hope to plant a few roses that I have had in pots all summer where I could keep them watered through the drought.

Report...............I *do*, indeed, have a counter.

Shoe, I got a Dell. this is a Dell and Stan has a Dell for the farm - no modem in his, he doesn't want the world looking in. It just does the end of the year stuff. They gave me some nice discounts, and a $10 wireless scanner/printer/fax machine as a nice bonus. I know there are people who don't like Dell, but they have always worked well for us. I'd like to keep this one for my photos and writing, which is pretty much what I do with it anyway. The laptop is mostly my daughters idea. We've had to move this up and down stairs a couple of times so I could get to it. This way, I won't have to worry about that.

Anna, I know what you're going through! Having had two family Christmases got most everything cleaned up, but it also left me with buried counters. I did get some of it cleared away this week, but there's still more to do.

It's 12F this morning and I have to go to town - not my favorite thing.

Thanks, Kathleen. I have friends who LOVE their Dells, even the reconditioned ones are recommended.

Have a great day, all....
Shoe

Anyone else use a Mac?