Making life a little easier

The friend I bought our ATV from gave me a cover his Dad bought for the ATV several years ago. He never got around to using it so he passed it on to me. It was brand new in the box, but I was a little skeptical about its usefulness.

We had another 2-3 inch snowfall last night so I was able to give it a try this morning while plowing. I have to say, it's actually kind of nice. It really cuts down on the wind and snow while playing and makes the whole process more tolerable. It is a little harder to see what you're doing, and I haven't tried it at night yet, but it seems to be a good addition. Any little things making the winter easier is always appreciated!

First "plowable" snow of the season

Well the weather outside is frightful...






But the fireside's delightful...









And since we have places to go...I'll go plow. Wait a minute! That doesn't sound quite right. Oh well, it's just part of the deal I guess. We got about 3 inches last evening and overnight.



Lily doesn't seem to mind as long as it doesn't interupt her "shows".

Let the fun begin...

We were blessed with our first accumulating snowfall yesterday. Nothing that caused any real inconvenience, but a reminder of what's to come. It was funny, by the afternoon, all the roads had melted except our driveway. Of course!

First flakes...

Well, it's hard to believe, but we saw our first snowflakes yesterday and today. No accumulation, but a sobering sight when you know what's coming in future months.

We've been busy preparing for the winter though. Our wood supplies are in great shape for our wood stove, which is our primary heat source. Propane tank is full as a back-up furnace just in case. The ATV has been into the shop for some repairs and the snow blade for the front of it has had some parts replaced that were bent from last year. The garden has been tilled up and we're adding grass clippings and leaves for next year. All in all, we're as prepared as we can be at this point!

Bountiful garden

We tried our hand at canning some of our homegrown veggies for the first time this weekend. We had just over ten pounds of tomatoes and a ton of cucumbers so we got ambitious. The folks who previously owned our house left some canning supplies behind and we've often thought about giving it a try. What you see in the photo are jars of spaghetti sauce, tomato juice and a bunch of pickles. Some of the "tools of the trade" are also in the photo. It was quite a task, but I think it'll be worth it in the winter.

We also bought a freezer chest for out in the barn. We've been freezing a lot of the zucchini and yellow squash for future use. Some is chopped up into bite size pieces to put into sauces, pasta and other dishes while others are shredded for zucchini bread and other recipes. We've already gone through one round of zucchini bread to eat and share and look forward to more.

There goes the corn...

Well...it's pretty clear that we won't have a sweet corn crop from the garden this year.

By using our trail camera, it's also pretty clear who the culprit is........or is it?

The Taller They Are, The Harder They Fall

Today Jason and I were inside the house and heard an incredible crash. We threw on our boots and jumped on the 4-wheeler to search out the cause. We found this oak along with 4-5 trees it took down with it laying across our ravine. This old tree was around 80 feet tall and 80 inches around.

This week we’ve had heavy storms with lots of rain and high winds but today there was barely a breeze. It fell from its base which was filled with a large colony of ants, we don’t know if the rot or the ants came first.

Along with friends, we’ve camped down in that area many times and I’m so thankful that we weren’t down there when it finally decided to fall. We’re going to leave the main body of the oak across the ravine until next season to dry out. Plus it makes a great bridge!

Maybe it’s true… an ant can move a rubber tree plant.

Red Sky at Night

You can never capture all the spender of a sunset in a photo but of course, I had to try.

We've had a ton of storms going through our area recently. Way too much rain, but it makes for a beautiful evening sky.

Musta been a long night...

We found this little guy taking a snooze in one of our trees one morning. Didn't seem to notice us walking underneath with our dog Jake panting and making noise. We went back a couple hours later and he was gone.

What's all the ruckus?

I found this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker knocking on our gutters this morning. He just shows up every 30 minutes or so and taps out his morse code. He's pretty skiddish but I caught him by holding the camera with one hand around the corner of our balcony. Below is a video from inside the house so you can hear what he sounds like.

New visitors....

The last two weeks we've had the pleasure of having an Oriole visit us. We put some orange halves out and sure enough, he stopped by. We had him visit last year for a couple of weeks before he left for the rest of the season. We're hoping he stays around a bit longer this year.

I also caught a glimpse of an Indigo Bunting at our bird feeder. We've never had these stop by before so hopefully they decide this is a good place to live for the year. Both birds were too quick and cautious for me to photograph them, but here are some photos I found to give you an idea of what we saw.

Tulips in full bloom...

Mayme's tulips are finally in full bloom! It's nice to have some new colors outside.

A couple of favorites return...

A couple of my favorites have finally returned for the season. The Eastern Phoebe pair returned two or three weeks ago and this morning the male Eastern Towhee returned. The Eastern Phoebes eat an amazing amount of insects during the day along with the swallows. We have bats to take care of the bugs at night and we're looking for their return soon.

We're Expanding

Jason is playing with his new toy here, burning off the weeds and grass before I add compost and till up the soil. We expanded the garden on the East side of the house and decided to have only one vegetable garden this year. We had two separate gardens last year and that didn't work very well. I was always hauling the hose from one end of the yard to the other. We're staying organic and I'm going to try successive planting for the first time. Don't really know what I'm doing, I just read a few books and make the rest up as I go.

How is that we had snow on the ground only a couple of weeks ago and I already feel so far behind in getting stuff in the garden?

Home Sweet Home

I cleaned out and hung up all of our bird houses in the back yard yesterday, 12 in all, and not a moment to soon. Jason told me today that a couple of Blue Birds were flying to each one looking inside, checking out the construction and of course location, location, location.

After about an hour of looking they finally settled on a house near the veggie garden. The male made sure to announce their decision from every branch close by. I hope they like mosquitos.

Ahhh.....mud

There is nothin' that says spring better than "mud". This is Jake after a full day of helping me in the garden. While I dug out last years leaves, dead flowers and plants Jake dug a gazillion holes in the back yard looking for moles. He has a great technique of sneaking up on them; he carefully listens to the ground and then stares at it for about 5 minutes, all the while he inches closer to the hole one gentle stealth step at a time. Just when the time is right he pounces and starts digging. Sometimes he knows the mole is long gone and looks for another mound to survey but most of the time he digs and digs and digs until his mouth is full of mud and he out of breath.

Today's score: Jake 15 holes - Moles 0

Another visitor...

We had another new visitor to our bird feeder today. We've heard Pheasants from a distance, but this is the first one we've seen up close at our house.

UFO's

Jake and I took a hike up the ridge and I heard something I hadn't heard in a long time, the honk and song of one lone sandhill crane. We normally hear this sound every morning and evening in the spring, summer and fall as the cranes rev up for flight from the pond across the road. We also heard the geese come back last week. I'm sure they're wondering if they're early with all the snow on the ground and temps in the single didgets at night.

oh deer

He's back, and he has a family. The guy in the middle is the same one I thought was a female a couple of weeks ago, it's pretty obvious now that he's not, sorry dude. We decided to keep feeding them until some of this snow melts and food is easier to find.

Last weekend the temps got up to 30 degrees so Jason and I took advantage and shoveled snow and chipped ice off the upper and lower roofs. Hopefully that's it for this winter. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Today's the day

Well...today was the day when we finally got a glimpse of spring. Each spring, one of the first changes we notice is the song of the Tufted Titmouse. This small bird visits our bird feeder during the winter months once in awhile, but is strangely mute. Each spring and summer we have a single pair hanging around our woods. This morning we heard its song for the first time in a long time. I know this seems like a small token, but after such a long and hard winter it was encouraging to notice something new indicating that winter won't last forever! -Jason

hard workin' man

This is the reason Jason and I don't belong to a gym. We get all the workout, or maybe it's wearout, we need. This is Jason scraping ice and snow off the roof on Sunday night. Those pine branches are usually above our heads, not laying on the ground.

The doe was back this afternoon for a snack. I brought Jake to the window to see what he thought. I had to keep reminding him not to bark at her. I think he's indimidated by her because tonight while I was outside shoveling he stayed close to my side.

Snow and Ice and Wind...oh my!!

This is Jason, not be confused with the Abominable Snowman, as he took a brake from plowing the driveway. We had a storm last night that covered everything in a glaze of ice. I took a walk to see if we had any downed trees, only branches so far. The ice stopped around 11am and turned into large flakes of snow, I think we've gotten around 5 or 6 inches so far and they are predicting up to 13". The poor trees are just dragging their limbs with all the weight.

Doe at the Window

This girl has been coming to our bird feeder multiple times a day for the last week. Our feeder is located 10 feet from the front of the house. She seems just smitten to have us look at her through the window while she enjoys the corn Jason put out for her. We've had a lot of deer close to the house lately, we figure with all the snow on the ground they're looking for food. We'll probably kick ourselves this summer when they're in the garden helping themselve to the buffet but...oh well...she's cute.

7 to 10 more inches of snow coming on Sunday, wonder where we're going to put it?

Most Snow Ever

Today Wisconsin broke it's record for the most snowfall ever, I think we're somewhere around 80+ inches since December! Jason, Jake and I celebrated by working from home, plowing the driveway and going on a couple snowshoe walks.

Needless to say it's been a long winter I remember thinking when we first moved out here that we would never make it, probably because the people we bought the house from were taking bets that we wouldn't (thanks Sean and Vicki). Well, this is our 3rd winter and we're still here, and we still love it.