Female Gambel's Quail

It's been a grey but fairly 'warm' week so far, the forecasted snow and frost didn't really happen, although it got terrible windy again.
We'd already tightened up the awnings over the slides last time it blew like this, but now we even anchored down the wooden slat we use to keep the material from flapping, to stop it from slamming up and down on the slide roof. 
We spent a long, sleepless night wide awake because of it! 

                                                                                                

Hard to see but there's a rope leading from the plank on top of the awning, down to the belly of the RV.

At the job site we braced the porta-toilet, since it blew over during the last storm. And that is nas-ty!

    
Even the guys are sometimes struggling to keep upright when a particular strong gust barrels through the canyon!
Talking about the job .. the first phase of the foundation-footing is finished! Yeah!



After the forms were in, a whole bunch of steel was put into place ..

Looks like this house is not going anywhere soon! (You'd think?)

Soon thereafter the cement was delivered!

       

There was a small window between upcoming snow and frost, so James seized the moment!

Ta-da, done and curing ..

Just in time, because take a look at this forecast:

You think it might snow?

Brrrr, I'm gonna run down to Riggins today to do some major grocery-shopping, and than I'm gonna hole up and might go into hibernation! I'm a bear, am I not?
Well, I might do some puzzling, I finally just finished 'Santa's Workshop':

 

It was a bear (ha, see what I did there?), but I got it done! 
But of course I'm a glutton for punishment, so I've already started the next one, 'New Year's party' .. which looks equally difficult:

We'll see how it goes, it looks like I'm going to have enough time on my hands! 
Time to do some more baking perhaps? 
I made one of James' favorites, a pineapple upside-down cake, but he's eating his way through it like there's no tomorrow .. and than what ?!
I'll probably make a batch of brownies, always a winner.

                                         

Merl's having nothing of this cold and windy weather and is already hibernating ..

He sleeps an awful lot, but he eats fine and his blood sugars are fairly stable, so life is good ..

                                        

                                     A little weird every now and than, but good!

And so life goes on as usual in this bright and shiny new year of 2020 ..  a little weird but mostly good!