WHY I AM GOING TO KENYA (again) #2

“We had ten below this morning.”

Those of you who do not live in a northern climate are probably saying, “What in the world are you talking about?”

What I meant was that our thermometer read 10° below zero this morning. And for those of you who do not live in the northern US, that is 10° below in Fahrenheit, the temperature scale that we have stubbornly stuck with in the US while the rest of the world has converted to the Celsius scale.

That in itself is a topic we could explore. I will resist for the moment, but I will tell you one thing, Fahrenheit is much harder to spell. I have to look it up every time I write it. I cannot even get close enough for spell-checker to give me a suggested correction.

I'm not lyin'

“We had ten below this morning.”

In Wisconsin, it is perfectly acceptable to begin a conversation in this way when you meet someone during a winter day. Of course, it is a little dangerous too, since the other person will inevitably say that they had 12 below.

Like my grampa used to say, “The first liar doesn’t have a chance.”

In almost any other year, if you are in Wisconsin or the U.P, you could also begin a conversation by saying, “Waddabout dem Packers?” or maybe if you are from the U.P, you would say “Waddaboot dem Packers hey?” But this year it is a touchy subject, so I would advise against that one.

“What does all this have to do with Kenya?” you might rightly be asking.

I admit that I did stray a bit from the subject, but what it has to do
with it is that Vivian is not coming to Kenya with me and she will be left to tend house and do the chores for the animals. Up to this point, our winter here has been unusually mild, but now the cold has come.

I have done everything that I can think of to make everything secure for her while I am gone, and besides that, we are very thankful that our oldest son Jesse and family live only three miles away, so they are also here to help. I could not go if Jesse's were not close.

But as far as things at home and as I noted in yesterday’s post, the cows have enough hay for the entire time. I also have a pretty good watering system for them that does not freeze. The alpacas are hers, so she regularly does the chores for them anyway.

Our farm just as the sun in peaking over the trees at 10 below

Nevertheless, the cold snap we are currently in is a concern of mine for my sweetie. She assures me that she will be fine, and I actually believe all will be well—but it is my prayer.

Time to get ready for church. More tomorrow.