A cold Sunday in January (VIDEOS)

I haven't gotten around to glancing at the thermometers we have around our properties, but I know it's cold out! I also haven't caught up to what churches have cancelled their worship services. West Lake Johanna Lutheran is one of them, however, so here I am late in the morning sitting in my home office instead of being out in Gilchrist Township at my usual spot in the church balcony.

Here's a video featuring last week's service on January 7 at West Lake Johanna:


The lessons, Holy Gospel and sermon start at about the 9:30 mark in the video. Barry Bouwman provided the reading of the lessons.

Recently, the forecast called for a high of 9 below zero today for the Bonanza Valley area. Currently at our house, the two humidifiers we have running on the main level are not keeping up. I just saw that the humidity rate is down to 23 percent. Generally we keep it between 30 and 40 percent to stay comfortable and to maximize our personal health. Dry air is the enemy of humans in the winter time! This is common knowledge...although in today's world, we are seeing less and less common knowledge existing in society.

We keep our home's furnace thermostat set to keep the house between 65 and 66 degrees most of the time. With bitter cold temperatures, we turn that down to 64-65 degrees to save wear-and-tear on our natural gas furnace, which was installed in 2016. You can't be in our house for extended periods of time without wearing slippers on your feet. You have to have long sleeves. Walking around in a T-shirt in the winter is not part of our lifestyle. If you sit and watch TV, you're likely doing so under a blanket. We do this mostly to save money. It also builds character, in my opinion! I do not recommend these furnace settings if you have very young children, babies or are elderly.

How warm do you keep your house in the winter?

Weather update: as of 11:13 this morning, the temperature outside is 11 below zero. We're supposed to get "up" to 7 below zero as a high today. If you look at the extended forecast, we aren't going to get what I call "appreciable warmth" until January 21! On that day, they have a high of 21 degrees in the forecast.

*Here's a video from the end of last Tuesday's triangular, during which the Jaguars won two matches:


In the latest Guillotine poll, the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team climbed one spot to No. 2 in Class 1A. They are in the midst of a very special season. If you're up for some light traveling this coming week, I encourage you to cheer them on next Tuesday or Friday...on Tuesday, January 16, the Jaguars compete in a quadrangular in Eden Valley starting at 5 p.m. Three days later, on Friday, January 19, they travel south to New London-Spicer for a tournament that starts at 3:30 p.m.

*Here's the last 3 minutes or so of the Eden Valley-Watkins game on January 5:


The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team is slowly moving above .500 and has an 8-6 overall record with about 5 weeks left in the regular season. They host Maple Lake on Tuesday, January 16 in their next game. That marks the beginning of a three-game homestand that also has Royalton coming to town on January 19 and then Paynesville Area on January 23.

On Friday, an 80-year old man drove his truck onto Mille Lacs Lake near Isle and died. His body was found floating at the hole where his truck went through, as he was wearing a flotation device. I don't know what good that is if you go in the lake, because unless you're pulled out immediately, you're going to die. If nothing else, it allows your body to be quickly recovered. The ice in that location was only 6 inches thick. The ice needs to be 13 to 17 inches thick to support most cars and trucks! Good grief. I hope no one in our area is driving a car or truck out on a lake right now.

Let's shift gears a little bit to some college basketball news updates...

Here's a video from December 29 in Brainerd featuring Tiyana Schwinghammer and her college basketball team...


I haven't caught up yet with how our local college basketball players have been doing lately. The last I was able to was a couple weeks ago. I will be able to do that today and update this blog post.

Tiyana Schwinghammer's Northland Pioneers women's basketball team of Thief River Falls has gone 2-1 so far in January after they beat then No. 4-ranked Riverland College 73-49 in that game on December 29. On January 3, the Pioneers lost 94-50 to North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton. They've won two straight since then with a 96-32 win over Vermilion Community College on January 6 and then 75-64 over Rainy River College last night at Thief River Falls. During the win over Vermilion, Schwinghammer recorded her sixth double-double of her freshman season with 15 points and 15 rebounds. In last night's win over Rainy River, Schwinghammer earned her seventh double-double of her career with 17 points and 13 rebounds as her team improved to 12-4 overall and 2-0 in the Minnesota Community Athletic College's North Division.

In the latest NJCAA Division III national rankings, the Northland Technical and Community College Pioneers women's basketball team is ranked No. 3. It is their first top-15 ranking during the 2023-24 season.

Schwinghammer's former Jaguar teammate Abby Berge is having an outstanding season as a true freshman at Minnesota State University-Moorhead, where her NCAA Division II Dragons women's basketball team has climbed to 6-4 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. In last night's 75-42 win over the University of Sioux Falls, Berge had 10 points and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes of reserve action. She made 6 of 7 shots at the free throw line. On Friday against visiting Southwest Minnesota State University of Marshall, the Dragons lost 74-61 after a rough first half. Berge had a monster game off the bench, though, with 26 minutes of action during which she earned a double-double of 15 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. This was her second double-double of her college career.

MSU-Moorhead's women's basketball team currently has a 6-9 overall record, but they are 3-1 so far in January.

Monday, January 15 update: it is damn cold outside! I walked to my office once today, and the walk back home was pure hell. The northwest wind was raw. I had almost my entire face covered, but the wind ripped straight through my scarf and head coverings. I hope we all make wise decisions as we venture outside and do our traveling today and the rest of this week!