The Thursday’s Report.....

He has been returning more times during the day. I can see him coming on the tops of the yard fences.  He then leaps to the to our yard area next to the spruce tree and he takes his same path.

My new globe works great.  I have to use duck tape to make the circle part of the ball to fit more tightly in the hose of the column. I have not decided where I will place it, front yard or back yard. I may have shared this before but I am too lazy to check back on my blog. I am looking forward to sitting it outside in fresh green grass among flowers.

A bad photo shows the new betta that I bought a couple of days ago.  I bought him his own tank rather than putting him with the goldfish. I am going to look for some aquarium plants today that will make him feel like he is in a more natural setting. He of course was hatched in unnatural situations in a tank so he would have a clue what natural means.

Another shot of my one time visit of this woodpecker.  I put out a brand new suet cake for him but he has not returned.  The downey has not returned either. The pattern on the red bellied is such a great one with the rows of black and white feathers.

Our snow really is not going away as he temps stay so cold.  I did notice that the sun beating down on the driveway has reduced a lot of my ice at the top of the incline.  I have lots of ice as that which has melted has gone to the bottom of the drive.  We were out yesterday, taking my wife’s friend to the doctor and there is stuff on the roads that is just never be removed by any blade.  We have to get above freezing to see that thick stuff off of the roads. Walking around in parking lots is such an adventure.

We are headed for groceries today and may stop in at a couple of places in our mall area.  Dressing warmly is a given and warming up the car before we go is a good thing.  Thanks for checking in on my post today.

Middle of the Week.....

This is the first siting of this guy for the winter.  I had forgotten that they do eat seeds.  I don’t know which kind but I had them at the old place at my tray feeders. He will go to the suet and eat but maybe this one doesn’t want to pick the seeds out from the animal fat.

This guy flitted in a few days ago, grabbed a seed, and went to the tree to eat it.  I snapped on shot and fortunately it was a good one as it was the only one I could take before he left.

The sparrows get hungry with the very cold temperatures. They were flying in this morning in flocks like it was a sparrow invasion. The junco birds will share with them but juncos don’t like all the flittering around that the sparrow will do.

We received a coating of ice through the night causing everything to be iced over and very slick.  I think that the sunshine will get rid of it in due time. It was strange freezing rain as it was such a fine mist as it came down.  I went out to check the mail in the late evening and I could feel the moisture on my face. We are taking my wife’s friend to the doctor this afternoon.  I am betting that most of it will be melted off by the sun even though it so very cold. We are at 10 degrees this morning and it won’t warm up more than that.

We did make it to the bank yesterday.  It is at the other end of town which is 6 miles from our home.  We don’t go there very often so we won’t visit the donut place that often then too. They had a special on a dozen donuts so I bought them and froze a lot of them. I take them out a couple at a time then for breakfast coffee treats.

I just saw on Facebook this morning that the traditional glass is going to be altered with chocolate flavoring added to there glaze.  I told my wife that we will just have to buy a box of them with half and half kinds. I didn’t see if our new store has a viewing window where the customers can watch them being cooked and then glazed while they are hot.  The converter machinery is really impressive engineering.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I wish everyone to have a good day.

Tuesday’s Things....

Dipping down into the tray, filling himself up with seed, he has visited here often.  The cold weather doesn’t really stop the squirrel.  Excess snow seems so slow it down but he likes his seed out in the open and not covered with snow.

The junco likes open seed too but they do like to dig in the snow for a buried containers of food.  I have a skillet with seed in it on the patio table.  The snow is about eight inches deep there and they keep shoveling with the shifting of their feet to get down to that seed on the table top. They are funny when they get down so low in the snow that you can see their heads bobbing up and down.

My seed supply is getting low again.  We are headed to the bank today which conveniently sits right next door to Krispy Kreme donuts.  Then we will end up at Wally Mart for browsing. It will be 8 degrees F. out there and that is very cold.  It helps to plan for close parking and also dodging the iced areas.

Our interstate highway I-35 was opened southbound at noon yesterday and northbound was opened around five o’clock. The trucks parked in the lot next to ISU basketball stadium needed to be emptied of trucks so the game could be held that evening.  The later time opening of the northbound lane was dependent also on Minnesota having the ability to let them move on their portion of the highway.  Cars and trucks were abandonedall up and down both parts of the interstate all the way up to the cities.

The Christmas angels were boxed and carried to the storeroom yesterday.  This allowed the ceramic pieces to be brought out and displayed.  That meaning also that the ceramic birds are back out of storage again.  We were late getting the angels down but we did get it done. I  couldn’t find the main boxes for the two largest Jim Shore pieces.  I will take the year to find where they were placed behind something in the storeroom.

I have come to the conclusion that this tray feeder is not going to help to bring in the cardinals and bluejays.  My blue spruce does shelter a lot of birds but nothing like I had with the larger silver maples at the old place. I have decided to let my red twig shrubs stay large when the recover from my timing them back. I have one new tree planted and maybe in a few years I can get more tree spaces for my birds.



Another winter day and maybe another day closer to spring.  I hope all of you out there are staying safe and warm.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday’s Mentions.......

The cold air is making patterns in the clouds. North of us is a lot of snow on the ground and the winds are still blowing. I didn’t know what to expect this morning as I looked out but this is a new variety of kinds of cloud formations for me.

I have the sidewalks and driveway shoveled but they are not clear.  The day before when it rained in the night, it cause us to have layers of rough ice on the sidewalks. It also messed with the snow in the streets. When they piled the street snow in my driveway it was filled with large ice cubes of snow and ice.  The snowblower would not touch that. I had to pull out the old fashion tool called a shovel, to lift that out of there.  This morning I found myself ice sliding down the drive as I took out the garbage.

The red twig dogwood shrubs are really turned red in color right now.  I don’t understand why all seven of them are not red but I am guessing that they may be a couple of varieties planted in that row against the fence.

My wife looked at this last night while she was downstairs and said that looked like an artist work pile.  It is the pile of mat board, backing, and the print in a roll, ready for me to cut it and assemble it.

I picked up a new sculpture to place among the plants.  It is a roughly made thing, cast out of a cement kind of material.  It will keep the rabbit company over there in the area of the plants.

I shared this on my photo blog of the wind blowing the feathers of the junco.  We had strong winds all day yesterday.  It was blowing our new four inch snow around while just north of us ten miles or so it was blowing the ten inches of snow.   North of us 20 miles or so, the I-35 highway was closed.  They shut it down all the way to Minnesota. They had to spend most of the day going in and rescue all the stranded motorists. We were fortunate that we were on the border line and received less snow that most of the rest of the state. I think if we bundle up to stay warm that we really could get out today.  We have a bright, shiny day today with a
3 degree F. temperature. I thank you for stopping by the post today.

The Weather Report.....Whiteout.

The rain storms in the afternoon on Saturday mad it look like this on our window. We warmed up enough to have rain, then we had sleet, and then it snowed in the late evening.  The winds now blow at a peak of 55 mph. We had less snow than those north of us but four inches is enough to blow and make whiteout conditions.

The deck did get some melting yesterday afternoon and there are now icicles hanging underneath the deck. The snow in the night did fill this back in and the wind is shifting snow.

The drift is back and my footprints are filled in again this morning.  I need to mess up the fresh snow and walk out to put more seed in the feeder.

A shot down the street shows the storm was brewing last evening.  The fog added to the number of different kinds of weather that we have had now. This morning we actually have sunshine and lots of wind.

Our neighbor has three garage openings so his house is mostly roof from the front.  The snow that was still on the roof last evening will be blowing around today.

The water bowls that Barney used have now been taken to the basement.  I ate oatmeal as a kid in one of those bowls.  I have collected the different ones at garage sales.  Barney was getting less mobile  and it was easier to have bowls sitting around the areas in which he was laying. We used them for food bowls too when one or two were in the dishwasher. I will find an empty cupboard downstairs now to store them.

Being snowed in again today will give us a truly day of rest.  I may have to do the snow blowing later today so my two guys up the street can walk to school tomorrow without wading in snow.  They are young enough though that they flit through deep snow without a problem.  Everyone take care today. Thanks for stopping in at my posting today.

Saturday Stuff.....

Our first grandson, AJ, turns six today.  Time just flies by with grandkids.  He is a lego professor so we sent him one more Lego gift for today.

His birth was a little early.  He was a modern baby with modern dad, as I casually opened my e-mail and there was the announcement of his birth. Cell phones can get the word out immediately. AJ is a pretty neat kid who rides the bus to kindergarten everyday.  He lives in the suburbs of Chicago.

We are at 33 degrees F. and snow is slowly melting.  The blizzard is coming but may miss us this evening.  We didn’t really have a big rainstorm in which they had predicted. Our mound of snow on the deck has shrunk down now about four inches lower. I guess I could have shoveled off the deck but I guess I thought nature could do its thing.

The Friday Street Report.......

When we get out of bed earlier these shadows actually stretch most of the length of the whole yard. This shot must have been taken around 8:30 yesterday morning.

I went outside yesterday and just took random shots.  Nothing artistic about the views but they are candid camera shots of everyday winter around the house. This shot is one of the beginning a drift that I discovered between the garage and the neighbor’s house.

The tilted shots shows the drift that was formed by the wind between the two buildings. It stretches all the way down the hill.  I have never seen this on this property before this year. We had strong winds two snowstorms ago and I am  sure that is when it  was created.

Looking down the street you can see the white of the winter.  The raised flower bed is complete covered with snow. At the bottom of the hill is the city line behind those houses. The coal mining town of Saylorville is behind those houses.

The raised flowerbed is under all of this.  The sedum didn’t get trimmed back but the aster that sat next to it was succumbed by all the snow and it pressed down from the weight.

The driveway was full of ice and I shoveled most of it off with the evening sun warming the cement.  It looks like I should shovel around the fire hydrant to  reveal it some more.

The view down the street from the fire hydrant shows that the city never did get the edge of the streets cleared. We are having another sunny day for most of the day.  Freezing rain and snow is to start this evening.  That front is coming to us from Flagstafff, Arizona.  They were hit with record breaking snows in the mountains of that state and it is moving eastward.

We remain safe and warm on our hill.  We are going to venture out today before the weather turns on us.  I am anxious for spring to start but our March weather can get to be bad also.  It will depend on how the fronts continue to move around. The earth is titling back so spring can not be unscheduled.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Stay safe and warm where ever you are.

Winter Contines.......

The predicted snow was driven out of the area with a band of dry air from the south.  By late afternoon we had sky that look like this.

Looking westward we had this view of the sun setting among this cloudy collection. I quit looking at the west as it seemed like we had too many thick clouds.

My squirrel, Big Bird, was busy emptying the feeder out onto the ground for all of the birds, rabbits and himself could eat seed easier on the ground. I don’t fill is so often because of this very antic that he does.

A junco is standing on the snow mound that covers the patio table.  They know there is seed underneath that mound but they can’t shuffle that much off with their feet.

The knock out roses didn’t get their fall timing but that is ok.  The photo shows how much snow that we received from two different storms.  Today we have warmed up a little but not enough to cause drastic melting. Maybe tomorrow we will lose some of it at 33 degrees F. or warmer.

It hasn’t been two weeks yet since we lost Barney.  We will miss him for a long time.  It is funny the things we do everyday which always included him. When I had my noon coffee and evening coffee I would have a cracker or cookie. Barney always gave me the look as to say where is my share.  He always got a broken off piece everytime.  He could be asleep and still wouldn’t miss out on that small handout.  We checked in on the old house today and had to wade through snow to get inside.  It too is another memory that we will be working through as we hopefully get it on the market in a couple of months. We have nothing in the house now that reminds us of our living there and finishing it up will be a relief for us.

The snow doesn’t look deep but one would be wading through it if it were walked on.  The snow at the old place was just as heavy and wading through it reminded me of being a kid and we would trudge through it just for fun.  I looked forward today at getting my wet pant legs dried off and the cold wet socks dried out too.   Thank you for stopping by today.

Middle of the Week.....

I moved the new feeder back out into the open yesterday.  I knew there was a lot of snow but it was a shock to step into ankle deep snow.  I returned in the same footprints that I had made to get seed.  I guess I had shoveled a path last time when it was placed out there initially.  The feeder itself really isn’t bringing in any fancy birds.  At the old place there would be blue and red birds chickadees and doves.

The predictions have proven to be false.  I think we may have gained two inches of snow and the light snow we are getting this morning is too light to be measurable. The stick in the drift on the deck gained a half inch in its depth. If the wind starts up as they predict may cause us some problems.

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Some slight melting took place yesterday on the south sides of things.  It was no heat wave.  I noticed that the south sides of the blue spruce had formed some icicles on the branches. I don’t think I have seen that before on that tree.  Older houses in towns without eaves troughs had real problems with too many icicles. Newspeople were warning people that they could get hurt while they were trying to removed them from the edge of their roofs.

I will go snow blow the sidewalks in a little while.  I don’t think it will be much work but I will try to get it done before kids get out of school.  They had two hour delay today, which didn’t seem to be a necessary call and the storm didn’t hit us. We won’t go out today though as we got our groceries yesterday. We are good for food supply for quite a while.  I appreciate your stopping by today.  Take care.......