Middle of the Week's Worth.....

 The snowbanks are shrinking. We have reached 56° F. temp and that is causing some water to stream down our street gutters. The sun shines bright and it almost looks like a spring day. I know it won't last but it is nice to walk out to get the mail without a coat. 

The backyard is in the shade. It is slower going but it still is putting moisture into the ground.  Any moisture is welcomed. Our drought report now says we are eleven inches low of rain.  Snow doesn't make up much rainfall. 

The last winter storm was hard on my stag decoration.  The snow built up on its back and collapsed its front legs.  It is fixable and I did take the disabled deer down to the  back of the house for storage.  Again I can fix it. 

While walking outside this morning I did see that the new iris rhizomes popping up a little bit.  They are new iris from my neighbor that moved away and I am glad they are doing  so well.  There will be snow again to cover them back up again.  It isn't even February which is our worse winter month of the year.

The hardy geranium in a pot is liking the light from outside.  It makes me think spring even though it is months away.  I know that I have to wait.  Thanks for checking in today.

Tuesday and Beyond....

 A view out to the backyard shows we are melting off some snow.  It isn't a fast thaw but we are staying above freezing night and day. It is said that all that snow only gave to us about two inches of rain.  We are though down to a minus eleven inches in our rainfall. That number has improved. Seeing water trickling down the curbs is a great sight.

The Canada fakes are without snow on their backs after weeks of it coating them.  It is slow going in seeing things melt but after a week of these temps we should look a lot better. 

The inside looks good here and the deck is clearing off a lot of snow. I could use a good rain to wash away all the sunflower seed hulls. The one bloom on the Thanksgiving cactus looks great.

 

I took the cactus to the downstairs window over Christmas to clear up some space for a tree in the one window of the living room. I was glad to see one bud reformed, like a late bud, and it was showing its great color.

 

 

I wanted to share one more shot of the windmills in southern Iowa. What I wanted you to see is the herd of black angus cattle eating in the corn field, looking for fallen corn or stalks that might taste good to them. The farmer does drive around them to plant the crops and the livestock seems to tolerate them and grazes around them.  The do put out a noise. Some counties have voted to ban them from their area as they hear of the stories, negative ones, of what it is like to have them near your living space. It would take some getting use to if you had a dozen or more around you.  We have one at our area college, small one, and it almost decortaive as well as being a power plant. We like viewing it to see what the wind is doing to it.

We are having a quiet day and I am getting some chores done. I was worn out from my trip to the southern Iowa event but was glad I cold go.  My endocrinologist checked me out yesterday and changed around some of my treatments.  I don't call them meds as they don't make me get better, they just balance out the things that my body won't do anymore.   Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's Mentions.....

 Yesterday was a busier than usual day for us. We had a luncheon to attend at noon as a meet and greet of the ministers at a new church we are attending.  Right after that we started on a journey to southern Iowa. I lost a first cousin and the visitation was at Corning, Iowa.  It is quit a change of scenery as it is all rolling hills and a sparse sets of farmhouses spotted along the way. This photo has a mystery item in it to let you know what we saw the farther south we traveled.

Iowa has over 6,000 wind turbines scattered throughout the state.  Texas has more than us but we are the second largest amount.  

When you view the house and barn in this photo you can see how large these turbines are.  The cost at least 1.5 million dollars each. 

They are remarkable to see so many of them scattered up and down the hills. I know the government subsidies the building of them for the sake of environment but also their is a rental fee paid towards the farmer.  It is like the farmers planing windmills for a living rather than corn. 

Here a farmer works around them as he does still raises hay and probably beans on the land around them. 

The land reminds me of my dad's farm from when I was a kid. My dad would squeeze out every possible place to plant on the hills and between the timber.  You can see the farm field here in the foreground that is lined by trees. 

My cousin was 69 years old and suffered from thyroid problems all of her life.  She was able to still marry and have three boys who are all grown men now. She lost her husband a few years ago. She actually had a great grand daughter.  Jeanette was younger than me and lived most of her life in small Iowa towns.  The last place she lived was Corning, which was a town built on those hills.  The main street is at a thirty degree angle with the world and the buildings are built on the level. Their sidewalks lean downhill out front of them.  It is an old town where Johnny Carson was born. The funeral home is in an old four square house with the whole main floor cleared to have a funeral parlors like the past.  This is the second first cousin that I have lost in the past two years.  They were actually nine days apart in age.  

We are resting up today after my visit to my endocrinologist at a morning appointment, downtown Des Moines. It is Monday and thanks for stopping by today.

Random Remaining Shots....

 

 

 

 

 

A Friday Check In.........

 I was out on a walk around the property yesterday morning.  I was glad to see the sight of my staircase and that was melting away. I could actually walk up the stairs without problems.

Everything is on hold as far as the flower boxes are concerned.  I have a brother in Arizona starting tomatoe seeds.  Nothing like that will happen here for a lot of months.

I had to smile when I saw this sight of sidewalk paths.  The kids that clear the one just above us decided to just clear a ingle path between their sidewalk and their neighbors.  I gues people with their dogs can walk though it.

This is the view out of my front door. The snow was so high that I just did a single path to the door. The caucus elections are over so the campaigners aren't at the door anymore and the packages can be deliverer with this path. That their is a clear sidewalk with no snow or ice is a great thing. 

A summer memory is the gift of chicken wire from my neighbor who was moving away.  I sort of just tooke them and left them lay out there. I may unroll them and put them into one big roll. 

A colorful photo is a good one to end with today.  The red-twig is looking good at this time.  We made it out today and ran some errands and pancakes.  It is going to be around 36°F. for most of the day.  It is considered mild weather compared to our negative temps that we had for a few weeks. No sight of the sun but we are sort of melting slowly.  It isn't going away as fast as I would like it to but it will go away. Thanks for checking in today.

Rain and Melting Snow.....

 I went for a walk this morning. In some cases it was a cleared grass yard.  In other areas I had to plow through with ten inches of snow drift still on the ground.  It is raining right now and that has to help a little to get rid of the snow. 

I really missed seeing my stairs that I had build this past summer. It had a drift of snow over the bottom of it.

These stairs were such a great improvement over my railroad ties steps. You can see the wind blew through the two houses helping to melt away snow. The grass really is green under the snow.

Walking along the fence was easy.  It has melted away along it and the wind seemed to bounce off it causing a lante. 

Along the back of the yard the snow was still deep. I had to wade, not fall down, as I walked along the area. I did find where there are s couple of rabbits living under the old blue spruce. We don't see them but they are leaving lots of tracks and trails towards the trees and the bird feeders. 

My journey along the property, front and back, has given me many photos. I will share another batch tomorrow.  It is 35°F. right now and is raining nicely.  I went to get the mail with my winter coat hood up so I would get a wet head.  It is so great to see water rushing down the gutters both from rain and melting snow. When you are behind 18 inches of moisture it is so welcomed.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Winter Weather.....

 The junco does like to eat from the ground. It is a lone bird out ther which means he gets his choice from all that is out there.

Starlings do come in to eat here causing the sparrows to scatter. The junco is peaceful and will eat with the sparrows but there is a lot of seed on the ground below. My wife saw a cardinal at the ground feeder yesterday. 

Our temps are hovering around 34 or 35°F.  Ir ia melting but is is slow going.  I cleared an area for a delivery person out at my drive way and there is water running down the gutter.  That is great to see. It was so wet that it is heavy shoveling. I decided to go ahead and scoop out a path to the feeders.  It wasn't too hard even though that drift is a big one. 

 

Inside the angel fish and guppies are having a tropical winter. The angel fish are trained enough to come to the glass and look at me to let me know more food falling from the sky w ould be great.

The bully even glares at me with those eyes wishing for blood worm food.  He is called a golden marble angel with all the different colors on him. He is so similar to a zebra one but he has that great color on him. 

Watch snow melt isn't so fun but that seems to be the process for us to get rid of it.  It might rain soon but for now we are just foggy.  I will venture out for meds and some groceries later on today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday'for all Day.....

 

Larger than life photo of violets puts out lots of good color on a winter day. The light for violets is good but the outside temps would kill them immediately. 

 

 

Loose millet is the seed of chouice for the sparrows.  The new feeder does well with me adjusting the opening for them to get to the food faster.  We are warm enought that I see water dripping off of the roof of the wooden birdfeeder.  It is a good sight.

 

 

I watch snow melting on roofs of our neighbors.  One can see houses that are better insulated by ho whe snow melts off.  I sometimes think that it may have the variable of a room that might be kept warmer than others keep them.  Notivr yhr lean to roof has no melting going on while the kids playhouse has more of a slope and its snow is thinned. The thing that confuses me is the foreground shed has now snow on its roof and it is made of plastic.  I suppose shingles have more texture so it keeps the snow in  place easier. 

My wife's collection of angels are now all boxed up and put into the storage room.  I took a shot of this one before we boxed it as I liked the smile on it.  Who ever painted it did a great job of giving the face expression. 

We are slowly melting today.  I can see my drifts on the deck are settling and there are some dry spaces on the concrete walks.  We are just staying just above freezing which means it will be slow melting.  I guess we are to have the same temps for the most part of the week.  We can now get out even though our side roads have some snow problems. It seems to be a quiet Tuesday with some more Christmas decorations being taken down.  We take a it slow and easy and things get put away methodically. 

Thanjs for stopping by today.

Monday Mentions.....

 

The morning sun is up there but it isn't going to make a beg dent in the snow.  We did warm up to above freezing but it isn't doing much today to the bulk of the snow. 

 

 

We are going to venture out today. It actually will be slick as the snow has some water mixed in from the melting.  I didn't fall down going after the mail but I did take precautions and paid attention to my footing. 

Years ago one of my students brought in one of these and sold it to me. Her grandma was painting the small old fashion coke bottles and I bought one to help out here grandma. It has been so long ago that I don't remember the student.  I did have thirty five years worth of students and the early on years are not real clear in my mind.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday's Shot.....

 

 

 

 

It is 18° F. as I write this.  I did venture out to put seed in the ground feeder and it still feels very cold.  We are promised above freezing temps in the near future.  With as much snow that there is on the ground I don't think it will be melting in gang busters.  I hope we do get above freezing weather for a lot of days next week. Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday's Stuff....

Looking out our downstairs bedroom window winter colors shine back at me.  We have that new layer of four inch snow that makes a clean smooth blanket over the back yard. It was -14°F. this morning and I could feel the cold off of the windows as I looked out.

 

 The birds are scratching in the snow to get the fallen seed from above.  I haven't filled the feeder for a couple of days and there still must be some there as they keep feeding. 

The snow buildup on the top of the feeder testifies the seventeen inches of snow in the last two storms. I had to go out this morning and dig out snow along the street so I could snow blow it out.  The mailbox needed to be accessed better. The street crew left me a buildup that kept the mailman from driving up close to the box. I had to use a heavy sand space to gouge out the packed frozen snow along the curb. The snow blower did pick it up and sent it out of the way. 

The mantle is bare as the Christmas decorations are gone. The things we display there normally are yet to be dug out from the dresser and be replaced.  The grandkids photos are usually on the mantel.  We got updated photos over the Thanksgiving break.

I am very tired of the cold and the snow.  It is winter but the warm up that is coming will be welcomed by me. we are voluntarily staying home as it is too cold to go any place even though we are close to most things.  February is usually our worse winter month but maybe that will be different this year.  My new neighbor and I stood outside in our winter warmth clothes and had a good chat.  He is from the Denver area and this winter doesn't seem to be much different for him here. 

Thanks for stopping by today.