I think my desk is in the coldest corner of the house.  It’s definitely the furthest from the furnace, and I think the square of floor under my desk is influenced more by the outside temperature on the other side of the wall than by the heated air blowing down from above.  A slab foundation, hardwood floors, and forced air heat from the ceiling just aren’t a good combination for warm feet.  Any concrete floor that I ever pour for myself, even for a chicken house, is going to have pipes for radiant heat.  That would feel really good right now.

It’s been so cold lately that I hooked a heat lamp up in the chicken house.  It keeps it about 40-50 degrees during the day, and I don’t have to keep replacing their frozen water every couple hours.  I don’t think the chickens really mind the cold that much, but I feel bad for them being trapped inside.  Chickens don’t like walking in the snow at all, so they hop out for a few minutes and go back in and scratch around in their bedding instead.  I’ll be glad when it warms up enough to melt the snow, so they can get some real fresh air and sunshine.

I settled on Monday at 6:30pm for the new beginner’s Latin class, since that was the night the most people could make it.  I’ve got my first lesson pretty well outlined, and I’m looking forward to it.  If this class goes well, I might offer a daily class for homeschoolers (or anyone else) at some point, but first things first.

I didn’t blog yesterday because I was out of town on important business.  A lady in St. Louis donated her piano to St. Rose, so a few of us went down there and brought it back, along with some chairs and other things we were given.  There’s just no easy way to move a baby grand piano without specialized equipment.  It didn’t seem too heavy when it was standing up and we could all get around it and lift from waist height.  But we had to put it on its side and take the legs off to get it through the doors, and then we could barely get it off the ground to inch it along.  We managed to get it back here and reassembled without any major damage or injuries, so it’ll probably be tuned and ready for our St. Patrick’s Day dinner.  I hear there will be a lot of entertainment like last year.

Before that gets here, we’ve got two other dinners planned, which will go to fund the last of the work on the pipe organ.  The first one is two Sundays from now, January 24th, from 11:00 to 2:30.  We’ll be serving pulled-pork sandwiches, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, desserts, and drinks.  There will also be two raffles—a 50/50, and one with several prizes: an overnight stay at Stoney Creek Inn and some gift baskets.  Hopefully the weather will be a little better, and we’ll have a good turnout.