On Monday February 2, 2026, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. We can only hope that Phil is wrong, like our weather men and women are 90% of the time. 
Monday 2/2 - Groundhog Day. I hadn't slept well because I had several things on my mind concerning issues that needed attention. Also, it felt like the bed was rocking all night, post ship movement. I got up at 3am and the house temperature was 55°. What the heck?
Mama Styx enjoying the warm sunshine and Montia watching her play with the catnip roll.
I got the space heater going in my office, turned on the fireplace in the living room, and bundled up in a blanket with gloves and my hoodie. Once Joe was up and businesses were open, he called the heat guys who had been out to replace the defrosting unit three days ago. 
Fairly quickly, a repairman was out. Luckily it was just the thermostat that had gone bad. Within an hour he had it replaced and the house was heating back up. 
I had not planned to go to the ranch nor did I want to, because I was frozen. I stayed busy at my computer starting my Cruz blog. Wow did I have a lot to do, with eight cruising days to account for.
I went with Joe to get groceries and pick up Maggie. We sat with Patty for a bit, to get debriefed about the whole week. Holy cow did she have a time of it. Oh, and I forgot to mention, she had gotten locked in the upper feed room. The wind had slammed the door shut and the slide bolt latch must have wiggled into the hole into a slightly closed position which held the door shut. Patty called Debra for help, but ended up finally 'busting' her way out. You can see where the bolt scraped the wood when she freed herself.
After lunch, Joe and I rode out to the Ranch together. He to collect rent and board money and we both wanted to check into some issues.
Everything was basically under control at the ranch, but there was work that needed to be done. I switched the string holding the safety clip on the feed room door, tying it to the door handle, so it's not in the way of keeping the bolt open. And if wanted, people can put the safety clip on (seen in this second photo) when you have the latch in the open position.
I never did bring myself to go to the gym, there really wasn't time, and I didn't have the motivation. Back from the ranch, I took a nice long, hot shower and put on clean pajamas. I was overwhelmed with the amount of blogging to do and really didn't get much accomplished.
Tuesday 2/3 - I was still struggling with getting acclimated to the cold temperature and the feeling that the house was rocking.
I spent four hours out at the ranch. I help Joe put shavings in the upper sheds, after first getting them cleared of the pile-up of manure.
We could not get much of the shavings out of the trailer because they were frozen solid under the top six inches.
Then Joe nearly got stuck with the truck a couple of
times. We really need four-wheel-drive pulling a heavy trailer in muddy
conditions. 
I hardly got anything accomplished on my blog and was feeling frustrated by needing to get more work done on it. After dark, I’m too tired to computerize. Also, I have been reading my James Patterson book that has gotten exciting as I get closer to the end of it, so have been distracted by that.
Wednesday 2/4 - Our electricity went out for a bit at 8am. Joe had gotten a notification that it would be off for an hour, but he forgot to tell me. Well, It didn't help my blogging progress or my mood. However, I did, finally, completely unpack my suitcase. And once the power was back on, I got two loads of laundry done.
Joe went to the ranch to remove the hay bale feeder and break up the frozen ball of hay with the tractor, hoping the horses would eat it. They investigated, but didn't really dig in.
I went to the ranch to give Amiga a Previcox and to check on our supply of feed and supplements.
When feeding yesterday, Rico was pushing Cash around and being a 'butt.' Well today I caught Cash pulling Rico's tale and nipping him in the rear end. I thought it good that Cash was 'getting back' at Rico.
I had noticed that tire marks showed that traffic had been turning right out of our drive, and wondered why anyone would be going in that direction, to the dead end. Hum?
I ended the day here at my computer, blogging, scrolling on Facebook, and reading e-mails.
Carol sent this photo and reported that her three bottle lambs were doing fairly well.
Fatigue hit me early and I went to bed to read.
Thursday 2/5 - We had gotten some freezing flurries overnight so schools and businesses were on a delayed opening. I still had my early morning dr's. appt. for a wellness evaluation. I left here at 7:30.
Next door from the doctor's office, I had to wait 15 minutes because the gym had a delayed opening.
I saw Shadow sunning in the front bed when I pulled in at noon, so took food down to his feeding station. I discovered that the door to our crawl space was wide open. What? When and how did this happen?
Friday 2/6 - It was a very cold, gloomy morning. I had worked on the blog most of the afternoon yesterday, and thought I could finish it today, so stayed focus and kept at it.
The cats kept me company. They tried to find sunshine, but the mostly cloudy conditions made it tough.
I took brakes from my desk, getting snacks and meals, doing more laundry, and neatening up the house a little bit.
Before bedtime my concentration and memory were waning, so I decided to go read in bed and finish the blog post in the morning.
Saturday 2/7 - It had warmed some, but was still way too cold for my liking. I had gotten spoiled by the Caribbean sun.
It has taken awhile for wildlife to return to our yard on a regular basis, since they did not get fed while we were gone. I enjoyed seeing this group down back, and the birds at my feeders.
I finished and posted the cruise bog and started on my next blog, telling of Patty's adventure/struggles during the week we were gone. I got in a good gym workout. Oh, and I had only gained two pounds on the cruise. I think they are going to be stubborn about coming off though.
Joe and I watched a good, although kind of long movie.
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