Preparations, bathroom remodel, Christmas mostly on Saturday, Travel to Honduras, Maggie and crew

It has been an interesting Christmas break. With the weather becoming brutally cold, I had to take extra precautions to protect against waterlines freezing in the 9° overnight temperatures. Unfortunately, I did not have the barn lot well house sufficiently warm and ended up having to replace two valves in the well house, which left us without water available at the coop for several days. That meant that I had to haul water from the well house at the house to all the animals and birds for those days – twice per day. It was a chore, but we managed. It certainly made us aware f the amount of water required in all the various areas where we have waterers placed.

For two days we put out only small amounts of water because everything not immediately drunk by the animals the container serviced, froze within a couple hours. Most mornings I got by with only twenty gallons – four five-gallon buckets – of water to be hauled. In the evening, there was a little less water required. My shoulders are still aching from the efforts. The two spigots on the front of the house froze even though they were covered with protective wraps. Each had to be carefully thawed to keep them from bursting. On the bright side, we never lost power and we managed to keep a fire going in the fireplace for several days. That added a special warmth to the house as well as providing a nice Christmassy ambience.  

Meanwhile, Norman has been remodeling the hall bath. He chose the absolute coldest day of the year to remove the cabinets – which had to be hauled out of the house via the front door while the cold poured into the house from the 40 mph winds blowing against that side of the house. Even Grandpa had to scoot his chair closer to the fire from the chill those winds brought. As of today, Norman is gaining ground on the remodel. The painting will be done today. The flooring will be laid today. The new toilet will be set today. Perhaps even the vanity and cabinets will be placed today. Everything should be completed tomorrow. Keeping the bathroom minimally usable for Grandma and Grandpa has been a priority – especially for nighttime use, and that was well managed.

Prior to the deep freeze hitting us, I took some time to ensure all the vehicles had sufficient antifreeze in the radiator systems. I found several of the vehicles low on fluid, so it was well worth the effort since I seemed to be behind on my maintenance routines. I was more concerned about the tractor than any of our cars or trucks, but that system was ready for the cold. Just in case, I moved the tractor out of the north winds (which reached 50 mph at times) and parked it behind the well house through the brunt of the storm. Mama’s vehicle, which normally sits inside the garage, had to be parked in the driveway since the garage is being used for staging for the bathroom remodel. Mama is anxious to get her garage back, but the short-term loss is well worth the trade-off.

We celebrated Christmas mostly on Saturday. That is when we had our big Christmas meal anyway. We did not exchange gifts until Sunday afternoon. For the majority of the time we were in Christmas mode, Grandpa was not feeling well. He spent a good amount of those days in bed and when he felt up to some activity, he tended the fire we kept burning for several days. Our gift exchange was brief, but it was fun. We did not buy a lot of gifts for each other. Focusing instead on little meaningful tokens of love and appreciation – favoring practical items that met a need.

Over the holiday break, Mama and I finally got our tickets to Honduras. I spent over an hour on the phone with a representative from American Airlines. We defaulted to that carrier because we had a balance of over $700 each from a cancelled travel in last July. We required help from a representative at American Airlines to apply that balance to our Honduras trip. Fortunately, with most of the cost already on our account, we needed only an additional $200 per ticket to purchase the tickets. So, that is done, and the trip is on the books. I will schedule the time off at work and make all needed arrangements to have classes covered in my absence.

Over the Christmas break Maggie managed to contract pneumonia while Cathryn still battled some type of viral infection – which she had had for a couple weeks prior. I am not sure if Walter had any serious symptoms for Maggie to deal with, but suffice it to say, they have had a challenging Christmas time. Hopefully, they will all recover soon and be back to a healthy, noisy, busy household.

Chase shared videos of Owen and Gailyn opening gifts that we sent to them and Brittany Facetimed with us as the girls opening their gifts. In all the Christmas packages I included a small, very bright flashlight for each of the grandchildren. Turns out those flashlights were a huge hit. I think that in each household where the flashlights were energized, the parents had to take possession of the flashlights in order to get things settled down. As we were assembling the packages, Mama was less than enthusiastic about the inclusion of the tiny flashlights, but it turned out to be a good addition. At least from the grandchildren’s perspective.

All in all, it was a god Christmas.