9 Degrees F.

 We had a good length of time with it snowing. I don't know the exact depth but I blew about five inches or more of snow off my driveway this afternoon. I returned later to get the mail and it is now 9 degrees F. I don't usually used the word wicked but that was wicked cold. In this photo in the afternoon you can see the sun shining on the tips of the neighbor's trees but that is not making it feel warmer.

 This morning a mourning dove was out there on the railing. It had a bit of seed but it just sat and looked around for a long time. When I finally took its picture I couldn't get its head in the right position and it then just left after I took the one shot. 

While I was downstairs feeding the birds inside, I saw outside birds looking for stray seeds. I opened the door and threw out some waste seed from the bird cages. They came back immediately. The shot is through the window but I like what phone camera recorded. 

 

 This is the sun room tree.  I did finish putting up the last tree in the spare room this morning. I had assembled it yesterday and this morning the work of putting on the lights took place. My wife hung around after the lights were on and she helped put on the ornaments. That tree is squeezed in between the wall with window and a bed so it is more of a challenge. Tonight the public will see it lighted. 

 

We went to the church last night to see a Christmas program. We went to that particular one as the next two scheduled days for the program looked too cold or too windy. We were right. It wasn't pleasant to be out last evening but now the temps have dropped severely.  I doubt we will go to church tomorrow morning but we can watch both services on TV streaming.  That will be warmer for sure.

 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Friday's a Normal Winter Day

 

 

 

We had a snowfall that got us to be white again. Another snowfall is predicted with the wind picking up tomorrow. The windchills on Sunday are bone chilling for sure. I assembled the last tree today in our spare room. It is intended for our outdoor viewing from the street. It was a different brand of fake tree and it was harder to assemble but less confusing. No lights are on it yet but maybe tomorrow when we are snowed inside. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Thursday's a Snow Day

 

 I think they are happy ducks or geese. They are all dressed up for Christmas for sure.  I have had them for years and really don't know where they originated from as a gift or a purchase. 

 A mourning dove in the tree looks down on the viewer. My wife has collected lost of birds for our tree. Some are ceramic and others are feathered covered forms. 

 

 Our oldest son was born 50 years ago and he was gifted this cloth elephant from one of my fellow teachers. She was Virginia Strong from Sidney, Iowa and taught fifth grade for years until she was force out because she didn't have a completed teacher's degree. I never really appreciated the stitching on this but the different decorations are fun to see. I like the red heart and the two holly leaves with berries. The pink circle is the rosy cheek color.

 I found one stray box of smaller ornaments that we had to put on the tree today. Every box is marked for which tree and this one got put to the bottom of a pile. The detailing on this one took a lot of time with all the added trees and decorated paint jobs.

 It has started to snow again today. We lost a lot of snow with the the warm winds yesterday and now we are cold again. I had to refill the feeders again and the birds are happy again. Thanks for stopping by tdoay.

 

Middle of the Week

 

 

 

 

It is a big process of lights and then ornaments but it is all worth it. I accidentally  bought some white lights that ended up to be twitter lights. I scattered the line all up and down the tree so it now has some spots of twittering here and there. It is a nice affect even though it was not planned. Buying Christmas lights can be an adventure especially if you don't read the boxes. I bought a couple of sets that look like the old fashion cheap lights and they ended up being battery powered. I liked them too but so that is three sets of lights that I didn't plan for at the time. 

 Our oldest son is 50 years old today. He was born at Grape Community Hospital in the farther most town in southwest corner of Iowa, Hamburg, Iowa. We will call him tonight to wish him well after he gets home from a band concert of one of his sons. We will try to watch the concert if all the tech works out correctly. Andy was an outstanding trumpet player and won the top soloist award at a state jazz band concert. His son now plays that trumpet. 

We had strong winds for ten hours and the temps were warm enough that it melted a lot of our snow. We are headed to the deep freeze again soon.  

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Tuesday's Things

 My wife finished her angel tree today with continual touch ups taking place. It is a shiny wonderful tree.

 

We did do some melting today. There is a lot of snow so it keeps it from melting so quickly. We were up 45 degrees F. and then the wind is going to pick up. We are in a severe weather warning as the wind is suppose to so very strong. They say it will wake us up in the night. I hope my neighbor deflates all of his inflatable decorations so the won't go heading down the street. 

We do have our big tree up now. We took it slow and did have the top already to go so it was put on the stem. We even put the angel on first as it would be easier to reach before all the branches are put on it.  I will have to put the lights on tomorrow. It is a fake tree but it has been such a good one for us for so many years. 

 My wife's village is all up now. She perfects it as time goes by and she does treat it like an art work. Everything is placed in a scene and things do have to make sense. All the smaller houses are in the distance as they would look smaller anyway because they are in the distance. The people are in groups that show them doing village life kind of things. I will share more photos each day as it is fun to photograph. 

 Thanks for stopping by today. 

Monday's Moments

 We had four and a half inches of snow added to our last snow. It was easier to remove. I went out with my shovel and ended up starting up the snow blower to clear the driveway. My new neighbor has a big snow blower and he does the sidewalks because he misses all the sidewalks he use to have at his old place.  We keep getting very cold and then it teases us with a little bit warmer weather.  We will be just at freezing temps today.

 I got the snow shoveled away from the sidewalks so I got this wreathe hung. I just leave the hook up all year long. 

 The stuffed animal tree is up and looking really good. My wife assembles it with all the different kids and sizes. 

 Her present project is the angel tree. It looks like this before  the ornaments are added. I will share a shot of the finished work tomorrow. I have yet to start to assemble my tow big trees. I bet I can start on one of them tomorrow. 

 The first tree that is up is showing off at night. I bought some shiny stars for this tree but I lost them. While in the car today I noticed that I hadn't brought in a bag of things that I bougtht yesterday.

 Our grandchildren visited over Thanksgiving. We have new school photos to update the display. The oldest is turning 13 soon. The middle guy is nine and the little girl is 6. The oldest is taller than me already and he is only in 7th grade. The little girl has a wonderful smile but didn't show it for the photographer. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Snow Day

 The unlighted tree has its own beauty with the smaller glass blown ornaments. They don't sell glass blown ones at the stores anymore where I shop. Everything is made from plastic. I don't need any more but if there were a few nice ones I would buy them. 

 The birds were making me feel guilty and I had to go out and fill the feeders again. It snowed mostof the day and they were circling and landing but they couldn't find anything to eat. The are working on my new batch now.

We added more decorations to the main floor this day. My wife's village is all set up and her teddy bear tree is up too. We have had snow all day but it isn't going to be the large amount we had last week.

 

 Thanks for stopping by today.

 

Warmed Up a Bit

 

 We attended  my brother-in-law's funeral yesterday. It took most of our day with visitation before the funeral.  Our temp high was 14 degrees F. and the cemetery visit was beyond cold. The northern winds blew our wind chills down to -4 degrees F.  One can not dress warm enough for that open air ceremony and the tent above did not help. Our pastor read a couple of items and then prayed. We were dismissed from the service. 

Darryl was a victim of alzheimers. His wife had passed a couple of years before him. The family all met afterwards at the pizza hut for a time to visit. We both are still exhausted from the event the next day. I was chilled for the rest of the day. Today we reached 37 degrees F. and some melting of the ice on the roads has taken place. Snow is forecast for Saturday. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Canadian Air Coming....

 A mini car really is small. It is shown next to one of the lego vehicles that my grandson has made. I don't know why he left the one on the dresser but he must have not wanted to take it back downstairs.

 I made a dash trip to the grocery store and picked up birdseed along with two other things. I had run out and they were checking often and leaving disappointed. 

 My wife and I volunteered to created the photo panels for the funeral tomorrow. We had two smaller panels for ours but the one other person supplying photos gave us a whole large pile of them. We ended up doing two larger panels for hers but we didn't use them all. Their would have been two more large panels needed if we were to do them. That really wasn't necessary. Tomorrow is a very tough day for a funeral as the high will be 14 degrees F. It will be a deep freeze situation. 

 Evidence that I haven't put all the toys away since the grand kids were here. I really am not worried about it as it is fun to turn and see the 747 sitting there nest to the chair. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Tuesday

 Snow hangs down off the roof on a cold sunrise view. It is 15 degrees F. and nice and clear. 

 The outdoor tree stays on night and day as I don't want to dig out the snow to pull the plug. I will get it done today. The snow piled on the fake tree looks natural. I have to fix the bend in the top of the tree and move it back to the edge of of balcony. 

 

 The two grandsons were interested in the finding of the mini cars. They were their Uncle Aaron's and this is the first time they took notice of them. The oldest grandson put them all in order in their case, staightend them to make them look better. The one jet showed up placed on the chest of drawers next to the younger grandson's lego vehicles. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Mon.

 The junco returned at the first sign of snow. I really like them as they are gentle birds who have the look of a rounded snowbird. 

 

 We had a small number of them last year but there are more of them here this year. 

 With the cold and the deep snow the sparrows really appreciate free seed There are lots of them out there  and when I run out of seed they just go to the neighbors. 

 

We are still clearing out from our big snowfall. I had to work at the sidewalk to the door to make it safe to walk on as we had some people coming to the house.  I salted it in the iced areas and kept going out and brak up the ice. I did get it clear enough the neither one of the two fell that came for a visit.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Sunday

 Fourteen inches of snow was our final total. It collected well on the fake tree on the deck. The wind has bent up the top of the tree and I have to do some straightening operation on it. 

 The winds whip around the items on the deck and it gives us some good drifts. The patio table doesn't have fourteen inches on it but it is out of the way against the house. 

 Our mini forest includes the two of my neighbor's trees along with my blue spruce. The snow didn't actually stick to the trees so much even though there was a lot of it. 

 We are in for the day as it is cold and there is a lot of snow. We watched church on line this morning. We sent our oldest son off this morning with him heading back to Chicago on bad roads. His trip was better was he got out of Iowa and was in Illinois. He had to use the snow blower when he got home to get things ready for going to work in the morning.  We are home for the next couple of days and will have a funeral on Thursday. We may have to make a food run once in a while but it is best to stay in for a while  Melting will take place on Friday. 

Thanks for stopping by today.