Checking Things Out......

It was a warmer day yesterday and I didn't get out to refill the feeders.  They had scrap seed laying around so it gave them a harder time to find things to eat.  This morning I was distracted and left one of the plastic cups out on top of the feeder while I was filled up other locations.  I looked out and it sat on the top tray and the birds were scared of it.  I could see them casing the joint but they were not going to land on the feeder. I made another trip out to remove it and the juncos are there already to find new seed to eat.

Our warmer temperatures today will make a big dent into melting this snow.  It warmed enough yesterday that the deck wood of the steps soaked in warmth.  All the packed snow on the steps went away and now for the rest of the back yard to do the same.

The spirea will survive what has happened to them as the snow has flattened them down.  Sometimes a branch will break off from the weight but most times it is very flexible.   The snow angel in the foreground should be cleared off today with all the warmth.  Of course warmth means it will be in the high 30 degrees F. I can see snow dropping from trees as i  write this.

I brought in the stoneware platters this morning as I don't think I will need them anymore to feed the birds.  It did work well for feeding birds as they were strong and heavy and the birds cold land on the lip of them. Laying them on top of the snow drifts on the table and feeder tray made the job a lot easier than standing out there trying to clear the snow.

This scene will be less wintery this even after a day of melting. The balsam has grown taller the last couple of years.  It is only about 15 years old and grows near a silver maple.  That has kept it from getting a lot of light and probably moisture too.  The branches above it are dying away so it will start to get a lot bigger in full sunlight. When it gets too big I will have to get a taller step ladder to put on its plastic Christmas balls.

This pair is busy picking up seed from the feeder above.  We still have three males hanging around and only two females.  I know things will be evening out by spring and another female will be around or one of the males will leave the territory. One of the male cardinals is a youngster from one of the batches hatched last summer as he is a lot smaller than the mature males.



I am grateful that you check in on my post each day.  I hope that all, including family members, are able to see a day in our lives here in Woodward, Iowa.  I do think we may need to leave town today to find more and better excitement than just hanging around here.  Take care and thanks again........see you tomorrow.

Friday's Findings..........

The same bench to the left here is now sitting under all of the snow as seen in the above photo.  I wasn't complaining when I shared the photo of no snow but I knew that it  would not last. I didn't take the bench photo in the same way from the end as I didn't have boots on to wade through the drifts to get the same angle. Old slip-on shoes let the snow get in on your socks and up your pant legs.

While sharing the feeder the one bird looks away to check on any danger from invaders.  The birds are really hungry and do keep coming back for more. The bluejays still travel in a group, flock, as they apparently go from feeder to feeder in town. 

 I have a lot of ground feeding by the cardinals, sparrows and juncos.  I had two doves show up but they didn't bother to feed as it seemed too crowded for them.  As long as we stay so covered with snow, the birds will keep hanging around.

The cardinals like to hang out in my Chinese elm tree near by and then feed early evening one more time right before dark.  I can't get a shot of them but they like to sit out there on the tray feeder having no competition from any other birds.

I shared a similar shot on the Photo a Day blog with the pine tree covered with ornaments in the foreground. The ice cycles are from the early first snow that was so wet.  It melted a little but the warmth of the house encouraged more melting.  It is now so cold that no melting has gone of for days.  We are headed for a warm day tomorrow, meaning above freezing, and that will be good.  I took these shots as I was taking a break from shoveling snow.

The road crew person is right handed so he always puts the snow on my side of the street. I will never complain to the city but it is so strange that my side has this 3 foot pile and the next door neighbor across the street has about 8 inches.

It is hard to show how much I had to shovel but it took quite a few shovel fulls to get down to the bottom.  My neighbor was so kind to clear the sidewalk so I though I should connect the sidewalk to the street so one could  cross to the other side. The blue house looks like my house in shape and size but it is the neighbor's across the street. It is a reverse duplicate of my house made by the same bunch of carpenters back in 1903.







It is Friday and it seems to be a good day.  I am up and at them now and will take it easy most of the day.  I rescued an amaryllis from the basement this morning and gave the bulb a good drink of water.  I won't know for a week if it has any life in it or not.  I trust everyone is surviving the diverse kinds of weather that we are having.  Everyone stay safe and warm. Thanks for coming by today.

Thursday's Here.........

Swinging open the back door I am able to capture this scene.  We still have snow to wade through and Barney really uses the same path each time rather than to run all over the back yard.  We were -19 degrees F.  last night and it is still -8 as I write this.   I need to go out into the drifts and retrieve the garbage bin so I can collect and dispose of things for tomorrow's garbage day.  I also need to go out and shovel out the snow where the sidewalk connects to the street.

The birds land on the birdhouse before they swoop onto the feeder.  Nothing has melted for quite a few days but maybe tomorrow the sun can melt it away with a warmer temp. I should buy the birds a little snow shovel.

  I tried hard not to share birds today but I did find a couple of sculptures to share today.  The green-winged teal was a gift from my wife quite a few years ago.  She would buy me one waterfowl piece each Christmas and she did until the market stopped selling them.  One can see a few of them out there now but it was a huge trend for a few years, along with the wildlife prints.




 This second one that I am sharing is a larger scaled one.  I don't know the name of the bird off hand as I haven't been reviewing their names for a while.  This one was made in Italy, a casting from an artist's carving.  The one above was made in our neighboring country Canada.

On my Photo a Day header I shared this photo.  It is a lot like the accidental shot of a bird standing in air.  This one was a surprise to see as I was just randomly taking shots. The sparrow is just about to land when I caught it in midair.

I have a sort time assignment at school today for 3 and a half hours.  I am helping out as it is hard for them to fill half day opening spots.  I will give my wife a break from having me under foot and I should be home by 3:45.

Excitement in the area last night as rescue people were over across the street and up one house.  We found out today that the younger man who lives there fell and broke his ankle in a few places.  We couldn't call his grandmother about it to find out last night as I think the family didn't want her to worry.  We were very concerned at first when we first saw it out there.  It is very dark  and very cold with so many cars and an ambulance lining the alleyway.  The fire department is so good to turn out when there is a rescue.

The grandmother, our neighbor lady, called just now to tell us what happened and she was surprised we didn't see anything.  It is best to not tell her things as she has a son that is very ill with cancer. I am sure our kids will do that for us too to keep us without worry.  Hey, thank you everyone for stopping by today.  Stay warm, stay off the ice, and drink lots of coffee or tea.  It is going to be winter for a while longer now.  

Belly High on a Border Collie........

It is hard to measure the height of the snow fall as we had wind and it is drifted in the backyard area. Belly high on Barney means it is at least 10 inches but I know their are deeper drifts that he won't go through.  He has made his own paths around in the back area so much that I use them to get to the bird feeder.

Sampling the snow for coldness and texture is important while he is out there. He likes this new corner of fencing as he can see long distances up the street going North. I brushed him on one side this morning and he immediately went out and rolled around in the snow.  I brush a side at a time as he thinks it is to confining to have me make him set still.

The yew shrub is over loaded with snow. Most bushes are being brought down to the ground in our neighborhood.  The burning bushes are laying on the ground and they look damaged.  They aren't though as they do straighten up once it starts to warm up.

The birds have really been dependent on the feeders the past 5 days.  I fill them twice daily so the squirrels won't come out and clear the shelves.   The larger supply for two or three days makes them be pigs.  I see that the squirrels don't like to wade around in the snow so I haven't seem much of them the past two days.

The female cardinal is down in a drift area picking up seed that has been scattered from the above table. I see we have one less female compared to the males out there so some male is going to have to venture off into another territory to find a mate in early spring.

 I call them a platter but they are actually a plate used in the old cafes in Iowa.  They could put the mashed potatoes on one end with gravy and the roast beef or chicken on the other end.  If it seemed too crowded on the plate, they would fill a bowl with the green beans or corn.  It sat on the table next to it and if the cook didn't spread stuff too much they would sit it right on the platter in the middle.  One of these platters was from a Murray Cafe that my grandmother worked at.  I guess she stole it.  The other plate that I have I bought at a yard sale. They are heavy weighted and the food does all run to the middle on them.  I suppose they didn't have to worry about the dish washing person breaking them either in their wash tubs.

Closing down for now as we all hit the middle of the week.  I have to cut a mat for one of my wife's pastel drawings and it gets mailed out to somewhere in New York. It should be a good day and I wish all of you to have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Getting Started on a Cold Day...........

One can see that it is a slow start for me this morning as I am hitting the strawberry pop already this morning.  I am trying to drink a lot more water but the half can of pop leftover from yesterday looked good.  I bought a bunch of pop for a work crew for down on the farm and I have lots of strawberry pop leftover.  It really does look more inviting than a glass of water.

I spend a lot of time in the window editing photos and downloading them with the weather looking like this.  I removed the window box planter that had geraniums in it so I could see out better while sitting down. Sitting here gives me a few different jobs to do while photos are downloading.  I dead head the flowers from the violets and I discovered they were ready for water again this morning.  The poinsettia did not get transplanted into dirt so you can see I am going to lose it soon.  Top notch garden people say never to leave a sick plant among your display as it brings it down and looks shabby.  I will take it to the bird room once I am through blogging.Also the third thing I do is watch for birds attacking the feeders with camera in hand. 

I tried for a better shot but this is the best that I could get.  The snow is very reflective and the back lighting really made it hard to get a clear photo of this goldfinch.  I see in some areas of Iowa the photos of their goldfinches show a lot more yellow.  I don't understand why it varies. 

I belong to a facebook group that are all Iowa photographers who post the views of the state through their photos.  It gives me a chance to see old barns and rundown buildings in Iowa as well as the streets of many towns that I have never heard of before the blog.  The group is getting a little irritated with the weather as they are now digging up last summer shots of flowers and butterflies.  I guess they have no rules so post whatever they want.  It seems strange seeing things out of season during a blizzard.

I am never going to be able to show all the shots I have taken the past few days.  I have decided to show some of the ones that I enjoy most.  It is like a National Geographic photographer who takes 300 shots and then picks the perfect one to share. I didn't take 300 shots but I bet I get 30 a day put on the camera.  It is too much editing so I am now hitting the delete button a lot more now.

These pushy birds do put out strange antics as with this one.  I guess he is looking down to see if he can find the perfect seed.

I keep these two old lawn chairs over by the fence year round.  I move them around so Barney doesn't create a totally dried dusty area along the fence.  If I move them around then the grass can still live in the area and he won't roll in the dirt. When he does that he brings it into the house.  I am sure that the neighbors haven't a clue what I am doing with these chairs and think I am just a crazy old man. I usually do take pictures of them in the winter loaded down as they are like modern sculptures in my yard. This is where they were sitting at the end of the fall season.

 This is a shot of button that I shared on my Photo a Day blog.  He insists on help to make that first step.  We would never leave him standing there waiting so we go out and lift him up to that first step and he finishes the other two steps on his own. It has been a long three day, maybe four if you count Saturday, weekend.  We are leaving the house this afternoon for a few things to buy and just to get out of the house.  Our high to day will be around 23 degrees F. That will seem warm to us.  I spent time outside clearing the snow off the car and it is driveable now.  I didn't want to drive around with a 10 inch snow drift on top of the  roof of the car. I hope everyone is good out there and thanks.............for stopping by today.

P.S.  I did find the photo of the car and I did get it out of that snowdrift.

Monday is Shoveling Day........

Looking out this morning into our backyard area I could see more snow had built up on the evergreen trees. The sun is just starting to come up helping to give some special lighting effects. We were warmer yesterday at below freezing but today we have dropped into the big freeze.  It was -6.8 F when we first got up and it dropped to -10 F by the time breakfast was finished.  We will warm up to 15 degrees F.  as the sun will help to raise the temps a little bit.

Looking to the west we have another view of our snow covered world.  The snow is stuck to the southeastern side of the trees as the Arctic air swirled around the place in that direction. 

On Sunday the outside looked like this as one never saw the sun until late in the afternoon. The kind of light we had yesterday was more like night compared to the bright day we are now having.

I accidentally took a movie of this view yesterday and once I figure out how to edit it and share it I will.  The camera did a good job of catching the wind blowing the birch back and forth in the breezes.

The blob in the photo is another bluejay flying in or out of the scene. At one time there were actually six of them at the same time.  Two were in the standing feeder while these were hanging around the seed tray on the table. The snow has covered things so much that there isn't much of a way for them to get berries off of the bushes.  Also I had three male cardinals out there at one time and two female ones.  I went out three times yesterday to refill the trays and I will need to go out again soon this morning.

This guy has a prized seed that he will take off to a tree to break open. I don't know what kind of see that it is but there are some of them mixed in with the sunflower seed.

With it this snowy the birds tend to be tolerant of each other a little more than normal.  I do have a shot where the sparrows are waiting in a circle around the table feeder waiting for two bluejays to leave.

We are safe and warm inside today again as the roads are being cleared in which for people to travel.  Yesterday was a nontravel day as many who were out ended up in ditches.  The interstates were a great mess of cars and trucks in all ditches and medians.  Schools were canceled in the rural areas today but the big time larger schools had regular hours.  Gravel roads in the country may be cleared by tomorrow for the rural schools to be open. 

I have taken a lot of photos and it is hard to delete them but I have so many duplicates that I just trash the similar ones.  I shared a lot of shots on my Photo a Day blog even though I set that up as one photo per day.  I guess pictures can tell more about what is happening that the feeble few words I can muster.  I hope everyone is doing well out there and thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday Snowday..........

We did get our predicted snow last night.  In fact it is still snowing and the wind is going to turn the 10 inches into a blizzard.  I knew we were not through with winter and here is the proof.

 The first view that I see at the top of the stairs in the morning is this one showing everything coated with snow. The foreground is the roof of the house and I can estimate how much snow we have by seeing what has piled up here.  We have 10 inches right now and it is suppose to keep snowing. The wind is picking up and it will create blizzard conditions.  We are snowed in today and I bet tomorrow we will also stay inside. Our temperatures are to drop to -1 degree F. tonight from a now 29 degrees F. 

The birds are looking for food and you can see their feet prints in the edge of the snow on the feeder.  I went out right after breakfast and cleared a lot of the snow.  I put seed a couple of old cafeware plates and laid them on top of everything.

You can see in the photo that the birds were really happy about that.  I will have to refill things again this afternoon.

One of the first birds in at the feeder was this bluejay, standing in shadow.  He flies in quickly and every bird scatters.

Once the bluejay took off I had a crowd at the feeder. It doesn't look like I did a very good job of clearing the feeder but I was using my bare hand to do it.  It got too cold to finish the job.

There were two males cardinals out there but the one was a smaller one.  The larger guy here tried to keep him away as I suppose territorial rights are already beginning.  It is nice to see a new young male had survived the summer.

The downy woodpeckers were in and out at the suet before I was out to clear any snow. You can see a portion of some bird at the back suet feeder. 

I took a lot of photos of the female cardinal as I used the new camera to take these shots. It is harder to get shots through the window with the new one but I did discover that I can do it.  You can see the snow flying in the air as the bird is getting seed from off of the webbing of a lawn chair.

The seed landing in the snow on the patio seemed good for all of the birds and the cardinal decided to join in with them.  I took many photos inside and outside today and had to just not share everything.  I see new shots that I need to take and haven't yet. 

Being snowed in makes it a good day as resting and relaxing will be on the agenda.  I am not a football fan so I doubt that will be happening around on our set.  I am a football fanatic when I tune into the last two minutes of a game and I watch the teams frantically scramble to win a game. All the time before that I just don't care to see.  We bought a new movie a few days ago and will probably be watching that once or twice today.  I hope all of you are staying safe out there.  It really is a normal winter and we will just have to persevere.  Thank you stopping by today.  Stay warm.