Hello, all, and Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope those of you who take part in it had a wonderful day. :-)

This year, today also happens to be the first day of Lent, which we each observe in different ways.  My “fast” will be the same as the last couple of years; I am giving up Facebook for Lent.  I spend way too much time on there!  I’ve already caught myself almost going onto it when I sat at the computer (I removed the shortcut on my phone), just out of habit.  I only went on this morning to post my usual note letting people know that if they wanted to reach me, they’d have to use something other than Facebook for the next while.  And wish people Happy Valentine’s day at the same time.

We’ve never been big on Valentine’s Day.  I suppose I could always be cheesy and say that we don’t need to, because every day is Valentine’s day, but the truth is, we’re just not particularly romantic.  :-D  Very early in our relationship, I told my (future) husband that, while I enjoy things like flowers, I’m more of a kitchen appliance kind of woman. :-D  Since then, it’s expended to things like yarn and tools.  Nothing like a sweet, sweet skein of gorgeous yarn, or a set of calipers, to make my heart go pitter patter!  Still, we basically just wish each other Happy Valentine’s day, then get on with our day.  After almost 30 years of marriage, we’re pretty laid back about such things. :-D

Unfortunately, yesterday was hard on my husband, so he had to deal with the fallout from that, today. :-(

My morning still started out with some aggressive cuddles, though.

Our mama cat was all over me this morning, draping herself over whatever limb she could get at, and trapping me!

Her boy does the same to my daughters.

I honestly don’t know why she likes me so much.  Even when she isn’t cuddling hard, she still tries to be near me all the time.

Not that I mind, except that we haven’t been able to trim her claws for quite a long time.

It was a warm day today – about -7C when I went to feed the outside cats.  Which made it a relatively rare day when all 7 of them were out at the same time.

My daughters were kind enough to lay out a new piece of cardboard for me yesterday, while we were gone for so long.  The first time I laid the cardboard out, the cats weren’t sure about going on it for a while, but this time, I think they were quite happy to have something a bit warmer on their toes!

It was warm enough that I stayed out after putting the deer feed and bird seed out and dug out the ice chipper.  The packed snow was starting to encroach in spots.  One of the areas I cleared was a side section of the concrete steps.  Strangely, the cats loved it.  After I moved on to the sidewalk, I looked back to see Rolando Moon rolling ecstatically on the freshly cleared concrete.  Then Beep Beep and Nasty Crime Boy took turns, all in that same section of step!  I have no idea what was attracting them to that one spot.

Rolando even let me pet her a bit.

A bit.

Meanwhile, my husband was able to call in some prescription refills today.  Being warmer today than it will be for a while, I was going to take advantage of it and install those new headlight bulbs before my daughter and I headed into town.

Now, I’ve changed automotive light bulbs before, but not on this vehicle.  We’ve had it for less than a year.  Our previous van was pretty straightforward.  You could just look at it and figure out how to open things up.

Not so much, this one.  After looking around and not seeing how to open up the casing, we decided to do it later.

I did get out the new gas cap and put it on, leaving the tethered old gas cap in place while I turned on the engine to see if the “check gas cap” alert still came on.

It did.

*sigh*

So it’s likely a faulty sensor.

I put the old gas cap back for now, since I want to make sure I can remove the tether without having to cut it.  I’m sure I can, but just haven’t had the time to fiddle with it.

While we drove to town, my daughter dug out the instruction manual and found the section for replacing the bulbs.  Turns out there was a pin somewhere in there that needs to be pulled out, first.  I never noticed a pin anywhere when I was looking.

She also looked up the “check gas cap” alert.  It says that when it comes on, it means that gas cap is off, so go put it back on.  (*duh!)

The gas cap is on just fine, so that’s not the problem, but it confirmed what I already thought.  I was just hoping for a bit more information for, say, why the alert would continue after ensuring the cap was on.

Once we were back from town, I started working on the headlights while my daughter took our stuff in, then shoveled her way back.  It had started to snow by then, so she shoveled the path to the burn barrel, too.  It was finally a warm, wind free enough day for a burn to be done.  It’s been quite a while since we’ve been able to do one!

While she got her workout in outside, I was able to hang up a light and see what I was doing under the hood, thanks to the 200ft of extension cords from the house to the garage.  (That was so sweet of my brother to buy those for us!)  I found the pin, which was nowhere near where I expected to be, and managed to get it out.  Then I had to loosen a bolt.

To do that, I needed a wrench.

I found a couple of very old tools hanging about, but it turns out there are pretty much no tools left in the garage at all.  There’s lot of other weird stuff, but no tools.

I’m told there used to be lots of tools, not only in the garage, but in the basement of the house, too.

Not sure what happened to them all.

Thankfully, we have our own tool kits.

After much fin-angling, I finally got the casing off and the burnt out bulb out.  That thing did NOT want to come out!  But I got it done.  The second one went much smoother!  Only partly because I knew what I was doing this time. :-D

So we now have new, brighter headlight bulbs.

I’m kinda looking forward to our next night drive after dark, now. :-)

One more thing to tick off the “to do” list.

Later on, after I got supper in the oven and the girls were outside doing the burn, I heard a loud bang.  It seemed like something hit the house!  I even felt the floor shake.  I popped my head outside to look and asked the girls about it, but they heard and saw nothing.

I still don’t know what caused the noise.  Perhaps something in the basement fell?  I don’t know.

Looking out the dining room window, though, I saw this…

A grouse, under the bushes.

Looking at the tracks, I kinda wondered if maybe the grouse flew into the house, fell into the snow, then tucked itself under the bush to recover.

Or it’s just sitting there, taking shelter from the snow.

I’m pretty sure a grouse isn’t big enough to have made that noise, though.  I’m still wondering what it could have been.

Also, my phone camera takes terrible zoomed in shots.  At least I had one decent shot I could drop down.

Interestingly, for all the animals I saw today, including the usual birds and squirrels at the feeding station, I haven’t see a single deer.  It’s possible I just missed them, but my husband said he hadn’t seen any, either.

I won’t be surprised to find the now-buried-in-snow feed is all dug up and eaten by morning, though.

It was good to get a break from the cold, today.  We had a high of -2C by this evening.  By midnight, we’re supposed to his -21C, with a windchill of -32C.

Tomorrow, by 8am, it is supposed to be -25C, with a windchill of -39C.

Talk about a severe drop!

Tomorrow’s high of the day is supposed to be -19C, with a windchill of -28C.  We need to go into town again for doctor’s appointments in that. :-(  That’s the coldest it’s supposed to be over the next few days, at least, but we won’t see temperatures in the single digits again for another week.

I think we’re going to be staying home as much as possible for the next while!

The Re-Farmer