Tuesday's Things............

The cold weather brought back birds to feed at the feeder.  No female in sight but this male is picking through the millet to find sunflower seeds. We were at -1.5 degrees F. this morning.  The arctic air is back.  The light snow on the ground doesn't keep the birds from feeding off of the ground.  They can still hit the bushes and trees.  When it is so cold though they do like easy pickings at the feed trough.

This shows the amount of snow that we had two days ago out near the garden shed.  I have a new pitchfork with out a handle to add to my antique tool collection.  It belonged to my wife's grandfather back when loose hay was the way to harvest it. It came from the barn where two generations of farmers kept their tools.  Next to that is a device that was used to harness horses to pull machinery.   That piece won't be mine as it is in temporary storage at my place for my brother in law.  He seems to be wanting to keep all the horse things that went with the older generation farming.

One tine on the fork is a little bent out of alignment but I think I can correct that.  Behind it is a homemade bird feeder that was probably picked up at an auction.  I found that in the same barn.  It needs work but looks like something I could place on top of my feeder.

I placed the plastic balls on the tree outside and I am not sure that it was a successful look.  I didn't get anybody even noticing it and I am sure if I had put lights on it that it would have looked better. Maybe lights next year or I can just let the snow decorate it and I wills stay inside.  It is a balsam pine and has grown to be to big to put light on it.  I had to use the step ladder to get to the top of it.

If it gets a heavy snow it might make it look better.  It is a weak idea I think.

While playing with my new camera I picked up another shot of the train and tree.  I suppose the whole place will have to be undecorated but we won't start until after New Years. The winter village will stay up the longest as it was one of the last things that we displayed.

I have always joked with our postmaster about how the mail arrives in Maine and then it is shipped by dog sled.  I now know that is what happens.  I just checked the post office tracking number to see if it ever got there. It has not arrived yet.  It was mailed out on the19th of December.  It arrived in Maine on the 21st of December.  It sat in the warehouse somewhere for 8 days and now on the 9th day it will be delivered today. The package had two articles of clothing and and a gift card inside. I know my son and his wife will be surprised to get it now.

Not much going on around here today.  We went to a bookstore yesterday and returned a present at a store.  We are home for most of the day except to go to a pharmacy this afternoon about 10 miles away from home.  It is too cold to be out for very long. Oh yes we will get a flu shot which only covers 40% of the flu that it out there.

 On that note, we had a friend of a friends who lost their 13 year old daughter this week. She entered the hospital 7 days ago with more than just flu.  I would very much believe she caught the virus that was brought in from Central America with the 40 to 50,000 children.  I don't know the name of it as it is a political issue and we are not suppose to talk about it. It might make the leader of the country look bad.  The virus closed down her lungs and they were trying to feed oxygen into her heart through a tube to her heart. The virus weakened her and the bacterial infections developed with it.  Her body just shut down.

I know that I love children very much and it is a difficult time but I think it is a crime that we can't tell anyone what is out there. It is known that it did not show up into this country ever, until this year. The children who came to the open border were scattered in every state of the union. I did see the white painted school buses, unmarked, this summer that were bringing in people to our neighboring town. There would be many people from south of the border already there who would take care of them.  The government won't publish the number of deaths that this mysterious virus has caused so far. A national health figure reported it months ago that it was from Central America and then they buried the report to keep it quiet. I could believe she got a reprimand. The state of Iowa news agencies will not report the death of this young girl nor have they done so with any others.  It is a sad condition of what this nation has become.

Got to go for now as my soap box is weakening from all the excess weight that I have gained. I will be back tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by today.