T.G.I.F.

Yesterday (Thursday)was a nice sunny but bitter cold day, 8 degrees when we woke up and it only got up to the 20’s. About 05:00PM we headed out to I-64 which is only about a mile from the Ranch. to go down to downtown St Louis, We were going to meet our oldest Son Sam Jr. who was in town for some meetings. He was at the Westin Hotel which is on Spruce ST near the Baseball Stadium.

What a great night although we were in rush hour traffic all the way from Chesterfield to downtown. Sam was waiting in the bar for us, We had a couple of cocktails, and then went into the restaurant for a great dinner.

What a great time making up lost time and just talking and reminiscing about when Sam was little.

Donna had a story to tell us. He told me a story last night that we had a very good laugh about. When he was young and came to spend time with us in the summer (he is actually my stepson, but I hate that term, he is son to me) we were both working, I'd cook up a bunch of meals on weekend and put in freezer for him, he was old enough to stay by himself during the day, but wanted to make sure he had a good meal during the day. Turns out after we would leave my Mom would come over and get him and off they'd go. Arcades, movies, lunch anything a kid wanted to do. He said she even made sure Steve Miller band was playing in car since it was his favorite and they'd both just sing along. She'd them take him back to the house before we got home and make him promise not to say anything. The things you find out about your parents . it wasn't that we didn't want them spending time together, I just (wrongly) thought I didn't want impose on my Mom. Now that I am older and a grandmother myself I realize it wouldn't have been an imposition. I have to smile when I think of my Mom rocking out in the car with him to the STM band.

                  Ready to head downtown.

           Rigg’s wanted to go in the worst way.

                       Donna, Sam Jr, & Sam.

Sam showing Dad a feature of his smartphone, Dad is completely overwhelmed.

After dinner we just sat and talked for hours, finally close to 10:00PM we had to say our goodbyes, and Donna & I headed for Dardenne Prairie. Sam will be heading back to NYC today, it was just so nice to see him and that he is doing good.

Other than that things are slow today at the Ranch,it is sunny and about 30 degrees now. Donna has the night shift at the restaurant tonight.

Hope all is well with all our friends, Be safe safe out there. Sam & Donna………

Wednesday Musings.

Well it’s back in the freezer here in Dardenne Prairie, got up to 11 degrees. The high for today is supposed to be in the 20’s. Supposed to stay like this for three or four days with possible snow on Sunday. My oldest Son Sam is flying into St Louis tomorrow so we will be meeting up with him for dinner downtown. He said the hotel he is staying in has a great restaurant.Will be nice to see him, it’s been awhile, but he is always going somewhere on business, He handles Europe, Canada and The far east for his company.

Donna is working the evening shift at Walgreens tonight, she took off tomorrow at the restaurant to see Sam. so she will go back for Friday and Sat nights there.

Looks  like our friends Dennis and Donna are having another cold night in Texas. I hope the Florida crowd has better luck. I know Arizona is nice and warm.

That’s about it for today, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..

Monday Meanderings.

Not a bad day, sunny now and the temperature is around 35. Donna is at Walgreens on the day shift. Haven’t done a thing or left the house all day. Just one of those lazy do nothing days, read about some places I would like to go when the weather warms up.

Rigg’s is enjoying a nice sunny day outside, he stays out about an hour at a time until he gets cold.

Rigg’s is surveying his territory, a true master of his domain.

Rigg’s loves watching for his nemesis, the feral cat, IT is a large black cat and it cuts across the yard in back when it is out foraging for food, If Rigg’s comes out he will chase it out of his yard, Then when the cat returns it will wait outside the limits of Rigg’s run until I let him in, They stare at each other in a standoff.

Since he has never been near another cat just don’t know what he would do if it got to close.

With the weather we have been having we haven’t seen the MO. Grands Adam & Nicky in a while , plus Nicky’s Mom Samantha is working the midnight shift, so Nick wouldn’t see much of her if she did come over.

That’s about it for today, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Saturday/Sunday Notes.

Another sunny weekend, Yesterday (Sat) it was in the60’s and sunny, just a nice spring day, today (Sun) it is still sunny but we will be lucky to get to 35 degrees and for the next week the highs will be in the 30’s and lows in the single digits. Wish that jet stream would head north again.

Anybody know if those Alberta Clippers are 4 engine jobs, thought I heard one fly over the ranch last night, almost sounded like a 4 engine turbo prop Orion. That was when the temperature dropped 30 degrees in an hour.

Donna has the day shift today at Walgreens, My Son and I have to replace the cable on the dog run the one end broke the clip off. It’s tough to find the heavy duty ones for dogs over 100 pounds, not only that, but they are not cheap, about $30. I usually get about a year or more before the cable inside the plastic starts rusting, but this one the snap broke off of the end piece.

Rigg’s is happy now he is outside on his new cable on the run, the run goes from the back of the house above the door  about 200 feet back in the yard to a large tree, I had to put large eyelets into the house and the tree to hold the force of our 100 lb dogs pulling on it. Rigg’s especially when he see’s the feral neighborhood cat. or the woodchucks.

               Sadie dancing in her tutu.

That’s about it for today, I hope all our friends down south are having warm days. Be safe out there. Sa, & Donna………

T.G.I.F.

Along with the mild temps we had yesterday and today it brought with it high winds yesterday afternoon and night. up to 60 mph, you could her it inside like a rumbling noise, This morning when I let Rigg’s out I noticed that back screen door must have been blown open and when it blew shut it bent and broke the edge piece between the two doors,(it’s a double door). So this morning I took it apart and managed to peen the edge back into shape and then make new holes and screw it back together, works better than new.It is in the 50’s today and sunny and is supposed to be the same tomorrow. Then the highs will drop into the 20’s and 30’s again for the week. My Son Sam (the oldest) who lives in New York City will be in St Louis on Thursday for a business meeting so Donna and I will meet him after his meetings for dinner. Wish he could stay longer but he is scheduled to go somewhere else right away. Maybe he can get some vacation soon.

We are still up in the air on a trip for us, I don’t want to go anywhere until it is warm enough for us to sit in a war, pool or ocean. Donna isn’t much for oceans so we may pick a nice resort type campground with suana and pool, and stay there. Memphis  is nice after May 1st weather wise and there is a lot we didn’t see or do the last time we were there.

Plus we have to see what the money situation is like since we are going to the Escapade in May and those are expensive.

Tonight is pizza night, and I think I will order one in, since I didn’t thaw any dough.

That’s about it for today. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Thursday Happenings.

Well it is 02:00PM and 70 degrees here at the ranch, sunny and nice for the last couple of hours, we woke up to a warm rain. Supposed to be a storm front coming in the next hour with rain and it will lower the temp to the middle 50’s . even so a lot better that snow and freezing temps.

Rigg’s is snoring away on his bed, he is happy as a lark and dreaming with his tail and feet going.

Donna I napping too, she has the night shift at the restaurant tonight.

I am just sitting around here in the kitchen, have no plans to leave the house ,so the truck will stay in the garage, just a lazy day here at the ranch.

All the snow is gone and I hope we have seen the last of it for this year, Last year we had one snowfall in March and it was a doozy, sixteen inches, All I can hope is we miss it this year.

That’s about it for today hope all is well with all our friend out there. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna……

Tuesday Thoughts.

What a great day been sunny all day, woke up to 29 degrees, but it has climbed since then,it is now 62 degrees here at the Ranch, a lot of the snow has melted and most of the driveway ice is gone too. Just a wet sloppy mess. hope fully it is supposed to stay above freezing tonight so we won’t have the water that is laying turn to a sheet of ice like it did before. We couldn’t get the truck in the garage as it was a sheet of 2 inch think smooth ice all the way out from the door to the drive. The low is supposed to be 31 tonight and then the next two days in the high 50’s that should dry up some of this stuff.

It was so nice I made a trip to the store and even with just a light flight jacket I was still hot in the sun. Today is Donna’s only day off this week so she is enjoying just laying around like Rigg’s the lop does.Although with the warm weather Rigg’s keeps pestering to go out and then in about 30 minutes he wants in.

Hoping all our friends are having warm weather and sunny skies.

My New Jersey Grand girls got some awards at the annual horse riding banquet. Katie also got her Yellow Belt in martial arts

            Katie with her Yellow Belt.

Katie with her horse riding ribbon.

Meghen with her horse riding ribbon.

           Meghen the youngest is still our wild child.

Well that’s about it for now. Please be safe out there. Sam & Donna………

Saturday/Sunday Notes.

Saturday was a cloudy and cold day with a high in the twenties. Donna had the nigh restaurant shift so she left about 03:30PM. Our driveway is still a sheet of ice, but she did okay. getting in and out, walking to the house is another matter and you have to be careful you don’t fall.

Today(Sunday) still cloudy all day but the temp got up into the 30’s and you can see a little more melting. Tuesday it is supposed to be in the 60’s. I took the trash down to the dumper this morning it was still slick as in ice. Hoe in a day or so the drive will be melted.

Today Donna has the day shift at Walgreens, didn’t have much to do here. Rigg’s and Sadie both had a nap on my bed while I watched a train movie.

My Son got the little things corrected on his car and went and got his new license stickers , so he is legal to drive it again. Now my truck might get a rest for awhile again.

Hopefully this week may start a change for warmer weather, especially in the areas south of us that are getting colder than normal weather. Our friends, Steveio & Karen Pfundtler didn’t run out of snow cover until south of Lexington KY, since leaving their Wisconsin home on Friday for their run to Florida.

I hope they find some swimming pool weather wherever they are headed in Florida.

I don’t have a clue no whether we will be making a spring Florida trip or not, with Donna working two jobs now it will not be easy to plan, I am till planning on the Escapade in Indiana in May and the maybe a week or so with our Nephew and Niece in Fort Wayne.

Other than that it looks like the fiver will be doing a lot of sitting here.

That’s about it for today from the Ranch. Hope all is well with all our friends. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Thursday Happenings.

For the first time we are having a warmer day, and it is above freezing, started out this morning at 25 degrees. Now at 02:00PM it is 46 degrees and we are starting a little melting outside. I even got into the spirit of things with a short sleeve shirt.
Helped my Son with his car, it failed the safety inspection, one brake pad had oil in it from a leaking axle seal.It needed new wiper blades, and had a burned out bulb he missed.I changed the wipers for new ones and put a new bulb it, Andy will put the pads on this afternoon and tomorrow he can get it passed, and get his sticker for his license plates that have been expired a couple days.
First he had to wait a week while the machine they use to measure emissions was fixed, it passed that but he was already late on the sticker.
Once that’s renewed we have two years on all the cars, but my truck has to be renewed every year in December because it has an 180000 lb plate.
Other than that nothing much going on, Donna has the night watch at the restaurant tonight, and me and Rigg’s have the home guard.
Hope all is well with everyone in blogland. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna……..

Tuesday Thoughts.

The sun has been out all day and it looks gorgeous out, but the high for today so far is only 20 degrees so we are still in the freezer here at the Ranch.

Yesterday was the same, Donna had the day shift at Walgreens, then was home at 5.

Today she is off all day so we are doing nothing but sitting around in our jammies, and Donna is working her way through a pot of coffee, I am on a water kick, so I have been drinking about 4 glasses of ice water a day, Hopefully it will keep your kidneys flushed out.

The fur babies are both laying around like lops, except Rigg’s will go out and run for a little while, Sadie goes out and in a minute is ready to come back in to cold for her little body.

How about a couple sunset pictures, everybody likes those, best I can do is dig into my archives. Maybe their sunrise pictures.

Must be waiting for the Iranian Navy’s two ships to show up off our coast.

That’s about it for today, hope all is well for all our friends, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…….

Saturday,Sunday Notes.

Saturday was a cloudy day in the 20’s, Donna had the night shift at the Restaurant. Sunday was more of the same with a 30 percent chance of snow. As usual the Ranch is in the 30 percent area and it is snowing now, Rigg’s seems to be the only one happy with it. Like a typical boy.

                   Rigg’s playing in the snow.

                    Okay I’ll come in now.

Donna had the day shift today at Walgreens ,so now while the snow is falling I am waiting for here to get home, the roads are just starting to be covered, and there's no traffic out so she shouldn’t have any trouble with her 4wd Escape.

Our friends Paul and Helen are leaving XPU-PA Mexico and starting the long drive home to Florida. We hope they have a safe and uneventful trip.

One of those nights I don’t have a clue what to do about supper. Sometimes on Sunday Donna stops and picks something up, so I will wait and see.

Hope all is well with all our fellow bloggers out there, Be safe. Sam & Donna…..

T.G.I.F.

Woke up to a temp of –6 degrees,that was at 05:00AM. Now at 09:45AM it is till –6 degrees. Luckily there is no wind so that is what we stand at.They are predicting a high of 23 for today, we will see.The altimeter setting is 30.5 n.(barometer) and the field elevation here at the Ranch is 210feet.

The furnace is back to barely keeping up with the cold, but it’s kept it right at 68 inside temp so were not complaining. we burn wood to raise it from there. Luckily we should have enough to get us through until the end of the month and by then we shouldn’t need to light the fireplace. But I will have to restock with a couple cords this summer. We started out with about a cord and a half, some of it was chopping's from here on the property as my son took down a couple of dead trees. Right now if you have to pay for it you will give about $90 a cord if you can find it. I am hoping for some free stuff if Andy and his friends take down some trees this summer.Of course you still have to give the guys something for there labor.

Took some dough out of the freezer and it is defrosting so by about 04:00PM it should be ready to be rolled into a pizza crust and then the ingredients added for a homemade pizza. Donna has the restaurant tonight, so I will have to fend for myself. Pizza and beer sound good even though it’s still early.

That’s about it for today, Hope all is well with all our friends out there. Be safe. Sam & Donna………..

Thursday Happenings.

Were still in the deep freeze here in Dardenne Prairie, When I got up at 05:00AM it was 2 degrees,so far it has climbed to 10 at noon.

My Son lit a nice roaring fire in the fireplace and then Rigg’s and Sadie staked out their spots.

Donna is working the restaurant to night, so I have decided to make spaghetti with sazzizza (Italian Sausage) links in it.

The snow is still with us since it’s been so cold none of it melted.We have a 30% chance for more Saturday and 40% chance for some on Monday. Seems like it never ends, with the wind today even at 10 degrees it is minus 2 wind chill.

That’s about it from the Ranch today, all we can do is wait for some warm weather to get here. looks like that won’t happen for at least a couple of weeks.

Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…….

Tuesday Thoughts.

It has been a snowy day all day today, It was supposed to start at noon, but at 08:00AM it started we got a couple inches, then it stopped and then it started again at noon and we have about 6 inches on the ground now, of course the big boy Rigg’s is besides himself with all that snow to eat and push around and throw up in the air. Poor Sadie is going to need her pee spot cleared again.

                    When it first started this morning.
Just got word that My Son Tim and his girlfriend in New Jersey have bought a 5 acre place in New Jersey, so it looks like here will be a Weeb Ranch East. They are both avid outdoors people and hunters and enjoy all outdoor sports, from sledding to the beach in summer. I’ll have to have him put a stone pad in so we can visit with the fiver.

                      A little bit of Happy hour.
My New Jersey Granddaughter Katie had a piano recital, she is so smart and growing up fast.
                                           Katie’s piano recital.
Not much else going on, just watching the snow fall, Donna is off today so she is making Fettuccine Polo for supper. Hope all is well with all our friends, be safe out there. Sam & Donna……..

Sunday Notes.

Woke up to a very light dusting of snow, and single digit cold temps. The high today is supposed to be 20 degrees.

Donna has the day shift at Walgreens today so Rigg’s and I will watch some movies, since I don’t have to go out it will probably be a lay around in your jammies day.

Looks like the Texas temps have com up a little bit, Donna &Den said it was in the 70’s Goose Island State Park, looks like a great place to stay.

As I have said before,February and March is a crapshoot for weather here in MO. IT could to Spring anytime around the end of February, and yet you could get a freak snowstorm in March, generally here in Dardenne Prairie everything is greening up on April 1st. Which also happens to be my birthday.

I am probably one of the few who has no interest in the Super Bowl, Don’t watch it or care.My Son on the other hand will be having a Super Bowl party with friends and watch the game with them.

Well I guess that’s about it for today, Donna said she would surprise me with supper tonight, so I am looking forward to her coming home. Everyone be safe out there. Sam & Donna………