Monday, December 12, 2005
Winter Musings
With the tempatures dipping into the twenties, the frost looks like it had snowed in the morning. It really feels like the season weather wise, nothing like the feet of snow and temps below zero last winter when we where in Ohio. The air here is a crisp, chilly and refreshing thing to enjoy. The sun low on the horizon casts long shadow through out the day and leaves all to early in the afternoon. The chickens need attention in this kind of weather, their watering trough easily freezes up and the livestock trough forms a thick layer of ice that needs to be busted up.
After a suggestinon from another blogger this past year, this is the photo to grace our Christmas/Holiday cards.
This photo was not one of the collection I posted last February, but from the same outing.
Our family recently opened the door for a new addition to the family, I am still not certain she has a name, but my wife calls here Babyboo. She really had the halloween look at the time, the arched back, hair on end, just like one would imagine.
We have been enjoying the company of a lot of birds this winter due to the bird feeders. This past week I pulled out some rendered tallow and made a batch of suet cakes for them. When the red winged blackbirds find the feeders, they tend to push out many of the other birds such as the Oregon Juncos, Chicadees, finches but not the morning doves as they like to clean up under the feeders. For the doves I also throw out some cracked corn in the morning, it's gone by evening.
The wood stove has been keeping us quite warm, I had to put a tub of water on the stove as it tends to dry the air. My wife got some nasel irritations earlier this winter from the dryness. We have never turned on the heat in the 13 years we lived here, the breakers are turned off and will stay that way, but I do need to work on the system to be sure it is functional in the event we move and sell the place some day.
This weekend is our daughters piano recital, this will be the last one with this teacher. She feels God is calling her to Australia. We wish here well and we hope we can find another teacher.
Some of our favorite trails are under feet of snow right now. The wife and I talked about the idea of blowing the dust off the cross country skis and taking a trip into a lake this winter. I am glad we never parted with the skis, some of the things we did got put on hold when the kids arrived, there is no excuse now to pick some of them back up.
The new outdoor item on the list is chlorine dioxide. Our barely used filtration system gave us fits on our last outing and that didn't settle well with me. chlorine dioxide is a 2 part mixture that once mixed and added to water is very effective against pathogens. It claims no chlorine taste and is actually used in municipalities. A source for it can be found here
After a suggestinon from another blogger this past year, this is the photo to grace our Christmas/Holiday cards.
This photo was not one of the collection I posted last February, but from the same outing.
Our family recently opened the door for a new addition to the family, I am still not certain she has a name, but my wife calls here Babyboo. She really had the halloween look at the time, the arched back, hair on end, just like one would imagine.
We have been enjoying the company of a lot of birds this winter due to the bird feeders. This past week I pulled out some rendered tallow and made a batch of suet cakes for them. When the red winged blackbirds find the feeders, they tend to push out many of the other birds such as the Oregon Juncos, Chicadees, finches but not the morning doves as they like to clean up under the feeders. For the doves I also throw out some cracked corn in the morning, it's gone by evening.
The wood stove has been keeping us quite warm, I had to put a tub of water on the stove as it tends to dry the air. My wife got some nasel irritations earlier this winter from the dryness. We have never turned on the heat in the 13 years we lived here, the breakers are turned off and will stay that way, but I do need to work on the system to be sure it is functional in the event we move and sell the place some day.
This weekend is our daughters piano recital, this will be the last one with this teacher. She feels God is calling her to Australia. We wish here well and we hope we can find another teacher.
Some of our favorite trails are under feet of snow right now. The wife and I talked about the idea of blowing the dust off the cross country skis and taking a trip into a lake this winter. I am glad we never parted with the skis, some of the things we did got put on hold when the kids arrived, there is no excuse now to pick some of them back up.
The new outdoor item on the list is chlorine dioxide. Our barely used filtration system gave us fits on our last outing and that didn't settle well with me. chlorine dioxide is a 2 part mixture that once mixed and added to water is very effective against pathogens. It claims no chlorine taste and is actually used in municipalities. A source for it can be found here
# posted by Trail Seeker @ 12:51 PM 
