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