Unsolicited snowballs and other winter stuff...

I think I am going to approach this article, which is mostly a reflection of these past few days, a little bit  differently this time.  I'm going to break this one down into sections.

First, the "Things I had to do..."
 
Those of you who live in this area are probably pretty tired of this "old fashioned" winter by now.  And I can't really blame you.  If all you do is sit in the house and watch the snow pile up and listen to the winds, that gets real old, real quick.  We had some doozies last couple of nights.  Saturday it deposited several inches of snow and the winds piled it up in drifts 3-4 feet deep in places.  The plows had quite a time getting around that day and there was not much traffic on the roads.  It really didn't let up till Sunday morning, and then only for a couple of hours.  But there was enough of a break on Saturday to get the drive plowed out.  I couldn't get the Jeep in the garage because the drifting was so bad.

So, having accomplished that with the help of my neighbors and their snow blower, I thought I would look around and see what else was just "there" waiting to be discovered.

And then I got a reminder that I had forgotten to do some maintenance this past summer.  I had intended to replace the rubber strip thingie on the bottom of the garage doors.  They were pretty bad and some parts were completely gone, thus when it rained or blew, we would get a little trail of water in the garage.  Not much, but enough to remind me that it needed fixing.  Well, guess what, snow blows through the opening too.

I put this on the list of things to do this summer.  Just hope I don't lose that dang list again.

Second, "Remind me to thank Him for this warm house..."

Sunday night's winds were really fierce.  The gusts were topping the 30 m.p.h. mark when I went to bed, and they really roared all through the night.  I got up at 5 a.m. and went out to the "Pentagon" to sit for a while (mostly because my knee hurt) and just watched the snow blowing and listened to the winds.  It was strange though because the skies were clear and the moon was pretty bright.  With the snow on the ground, you could see for quite a ways.  I knew that it had to be pretty cold out there and should have looked at the weather machine to get a reading but didn't.

But that's when I saw a couple of things in the yard.  Couldn't really tell what they were until morning and then I saw that the winds had completely destroyed two of the bird feeders.  One was wooden and it looked like a bomb had gone off inside it...the pieces were literally torn completely apart.

The other one, the one we liked to call "The Red Roof Inn" was MIA.  All that we could find of it was the roof which was still tied to the tree and two sides.  The main body was not in the yard anywhere.  I would have thought at least it would be over by the fence  or by the shed.  Nope -- it probably went airborne and got blown clear across the field.  It could be over on the neighbor's landing strip or even further for all I know.

The wooden one was made in China.  The Red Roof Inn was made in Ohio.  I guess if someone wanted to try to make a claim for one country's products being superior to another, this wouldn't be the best case study.  I don't think it matters who made it, (except for the one Grandpa Joe made which is now probably 34 years old and still attached to the fence), it probably isn't going to stand up to Shelby County winds very well or very long.

So that means the birds will have to rely on us just putting feed on the ground and the winds and snow not covering it up too quickly.  I wonder if I can claim these on my home owners policy?

Third, "Signs of spring are out there..."

In the middle of all the cold, snow and wind, a beautiful cardinal just showed up one morning.  His bright red colors really stood out against the white.  We also, just this morning, saw two really fat robins out by the seed.  Although they were probably freezing their tail feathers, they were a welcome sight. Golf can't be too far off !!

Fourth, "There's drifting everywhere..."

In order to get out back to explore, I had to either trudge through a snow drift on the deck that was over my knees, or shovel a path to the two exits.  So, I took a few minutes and shoveled the path, figuring it would eventually be more convenient than a boot full of snow each time I went out.

Fifth, "The pond is frozen..."

For a few days now I had been meaning  to get out to the pond and see how thick it was frozen.  Considering we haven't had but one or maybe two days this month much over zero, let alone anywhere out of the teens, I figured it had to be pretty good.  It was just a question of how thick it would be.

This is a 9" deep hole I chopped this morning.  I always like to put one or two holes in the pond during the winter to let some oxygen get into the water.  And with it being totally covered with snow for pretty much all of three weeks, I figured the fish might like a little light. And it gives the birds some water too.

Now that I have determined the pond is sufficiently frozen to hold my weight, I thought I would send out a "howdy" to Quinn and Heath.  Guys, check this out...

I will probably get my skates on and tool around for a bit later on.  But at least, this makes another year that I have been able to get out on the ice.

And last, but not least, "Unsolicited snowballs..."

This is something I have never seen before.  The wind blew so hard last night, that it must have gotten a little bit of snow rolling along and it built up into a snow ball all on its own.  Look at these pictures.  You can see the little trails behind them where the wind had blown them and built them up.  Pretty cool.  Just another one of those things one might not have seen if you had just stayed in the house the whole time.

 Again, I had never seen such a thing.  Guess that just further intensifies the legend of "The Shelby County Winds."  And now you know why I call this "The land of the hundred mile per hour winds."

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in spring, summer and fall will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter....

Hooah

Boy is it cold...

I am old enough to go into the old "Back when I was young, it was really cold, and the snow was at least 2 feet deep all the time, and we had to walk uphill to school both ways..." stories, but not sure anyone would believe them or even care. 

When I got up this morning, it was zero degrees on the weather machine and it has gone up to a rip-roaring 2 degrees at 11:00.  The wind chill has been fluctuating between -32 and -25.  The daggone wind is really blowing, even bad for this area.  The snow plow went up the road at about 9:00.  I was taking the neighbor boy to school (schools were on a 2-hour delay)  and when I came back, you could hardly tell it had even been there.  The drifts were already back.

When it is this cold, I try to keep the bird feeders full.  Today, I noticed that the birds were really hunkered down.  Some of them didn't even take off like they always do when I go out to fill the feeders.  Must have really been cold.  Anyway, here are some pictures  I thought were interesting.

These doves sit out here in the sun because it is on the back side of the house, out of the wind.

The pond has been pretty much iced over for a while.  I will have to go out and cut a couple of holes in it so the trapped air has a chance to get out.  I don't think it will be much good for ice skating, because of the rough places.  But I will try it anyhow -- I have skated on this pond almost every year (except when I was gone in the Army).

The feeders in the side yard get emptied about every other day.  But that's OK. 

So, that is about it from here.  I am still working on my studies of Morse Code.  I have all the code down pretty well, and am working on building my transmitting and receiving skills and speed.  I have the 5 w.p.m. down pretty well now, but that won't cut it when it comes time to get on the HF bands and try my hand at making CW contacts.  But I am coming along.  I told my brother-in-law the other day that I am counting this as a third language.  So now I speak English, pig-Latin, and Morse Code.  That's pretty good, right?

I wonder why birds always stay in the same general place ... and then I ask myself that same question.

Hooah

Doing our part to feed the birds...

15 m.p.h. winds usually don't even phase the birds around here, but when they are tied in with a winter temperature of -2 degrees, that usually equates to a wind chill of about -15 degrees or so.  So even the birds are probably shivering under those feathers.

One of the things that we can do here is to make sure they get the opportunity to eat and keep up their energy.  In order to do that, I have made several of my homebrew feeders.  I saw these at the Columbus Zoo in one of the nature areas and thought this would work here.  Besides, it's also cheap and gives me something to do with all those water bottles that would normally just get recycled.  Check this out.

 

These are really easy to make.  Cut a little slice in opposite ends of the bottom of the bottle and push a stick thru there which will serve as a perch.(click on the picture and you can blow it up to see them better).   Just above that, cut a little triangle in the bottle (it works best if the triangle base is on top as this allows a wider area for the bird to eat and less of the seed will fall out on the ground).  Then fill them with wild bird seed and hang them on a tree.  It normally will take a little while (maybe as long as a month) for the birds to overcome any fear of them, but when they do it is interesting to watch.  We have these hanging just outside our pentagon windows.  The birds do their part by eventually overcoming their fear of something new and eating while we watch them.  

With all of these hanging in the tree, it kinda looks like some huge cocoons hanging out there, like some alien bird or bee left them there.

Of course, we also have the more conventional feeders for birds who can't overcome their inhibitions, who can't live on the wild side.  The first one is a store bought feeder hanging from a limb on "Colonel Oak." (far right).  And there is also the sunflower seed container (green thing in the center of the picture).  And there is also the feeder which my dad made for us many, many years ago.  We had this when we lived in Troy and brought it here in '96. It's been hanging on the fence ever since then.

Every year, the bottom of this one sags a bit and requires some maintenance in the spring, but it is still hanging in there.

And, last but not least, is the newest feeder -- what we like to call "The Red Roof Inn."  Unlike the bottles and the other feeders, this one requires little maintenance.  Just a piece of duct tape to hold the roof closed in the winds.

We tried to put the suet cakes in the side , but they sat there all winter and were never eaten.  Don't think the birds cared for them at all.  There is also a pretty generous amount that falls or is thrown out of this one to the ground below.  That works out just fine for the morning doves as they have a really hard time perching on the narrow edges of any of the other feeders.

So that is the way we wake up here in the winter at Bailey's Harbor on McCartyville Road -- a cup of coffee or juice, the binoculars, and our friends the birds.

If one were to visit this area for the first time, one thing would quickly stand out  ... there are lots of farming fields everywhere around, and that means there is no room for trees.  There are plots of woods scattered here and there to serve as wind breaks, but they are generally a long ways from our houses and it makes it hard to watch and hear the birds.  We have planted quite a few trees here and really enjoy watching the birds all year 'round.  They give us song and color for most of the year, all at no charge.  So the least we can do for them is to give them food when they are shivering. 

 A bird does not sing because it has an answer.  It sings because it has a song. 

Hooah