Thoughts December 27

I am feeling a bit better. 

Far Guy is recouping slowly.  He is a tad impatient with his recovery, sometimes he gets real frustrated with his health.

Yesterday we ventured out to do the recycling and take the garbage to the dump.  It had snowed. Roads were slippery.  On our way back we were slowing for a stop sign, another vehicle was coming from the west travelling too fast and attempted a right turn…he missed us by inches and went into the ditch. Far Guy said “He is not gonna make it!”  We waited to see if he was okay…he was…but couldn’t get enough traction to drive out of the ditch.  Luckily for the driver some of our neighbors stopped by to help out.  One is driving the car and the other is pushing. 

Minnesota Nice to help someone out of the ditch.

I am not sure what happened next, traffic was starting to back up so we left not wanting to cause another near accident.  I think our neighbor either pulled this kid out of the ditch or called a wrecker…either way we were all lucky.  Far Guy said “Our guardian angels were looking out for us.”

Earlier this week our Granddaughter Madison (Maddie)was in a car accident.  Her beau was driving… rounded a corner couldn’t stop and hit a number of trees.  Luckily they had their seat belts on and the air bags deployed.  Maddie was checked out in the ER …she has some soreness from her seat belt across her ribs and upper body.  Her car was totalled.  They are lucky kids.  I hound them relentlessly about seat belts.  Every time Maddie takes a selfie in a vehicle…I say “Put your seat belt on. I don’t care if the car is parked…if you are in it put on your seat belt.”  We are thankful that she is okay.

We had a quiet afternoon at home. I watched some crazy movie on Netflix that I promptly slept through.  Alaska Guy joined us for a late afternoon visit and supper.  He and Far Guy had a good visit.

Chance is catching up on his sleep too.  He is in a funk…he misses Miney and Little Elvis something fierce.

 

Snow and Bird Report

Our snow is almost gone.  There are just a few drifts left.  It is dry at the snow stick.  We will have a snow stick contest IF we ever get a bunch more snow.   I have some new woodcarvings in the works for some winners or maybe it will just be a drawing.

Spent birdseed has been removed shovel by shovel.  A few a day….wouldn’t want to rush anything.  The stacking plastic chairs made it to the patio.  More doggy dew was dispatched to the woods.  A coyote was on the east side of the house…he left a hair filled deposit.  Might explain why the Border Collie was nervous a few days.

More birds were photographed.  The Redpoll numbers have decreased…some must have went North.

Redpoll just hanging around.

A White Breasted Nuthatch and a Pine Siskin sharing while a Redpoll waits her turn!

The Pine Siskins arrived with the warm temperatures.  We also had an immature Red Bellied Woodpecker…and his belly did have a few feather areas that were red.  We were just sitting outside for a bit that day so I didn’t get a photo.

This is an older Red Bellied Woodpecker…he never did cooperate with me to see if he had a red belly or not.   He has some beautiful tail feathers.

Our resident birds stay all year round the Nuthatches, Chickadees and Woodpeckers.  The others come and go as the weather changes.

My other baby brother called me one day he and she who sees Robins first saw a Robin.  They didn’t get a photo so it doesn’t count besides that they were in Missouri.

Spring at Shell Lake

We finally went for our after supper drive.  Chance was thrilled.  Daylight Saving time is good for something.  We had 51 F or 10 C eh! yesterday. 

Yesterday we drove over to Shell Lake, all the back woods dirt roads we usually travel are a muddy mess.

There are patches of water on the ice.  All the fish-houses had to be off of the lake on March 10.

There is water going over the dam.  That weedy brown patch in the distance is a wild rice bed.

Shell River coming out of the lake.  Winter took its toll.

It isn’t often that you see a deer carcass in the river.

Here at home we have an inch of water at the Snow stick.

We did odd jobs outside.  Picking up some doggy dew and sticks and raking up excess birdseed off the lawn.  Spring stuff! 

Bead Garden Ornament

Jen showed me a Garden Ornament on Pinterest.  For $40.00 I decided I could make several myself.

Will it work…maybe… the prototype is never perfect.  It must be tweaked.

 

I finally had enough beads strung on the wire to give it a whirl.  That big old nut just keeps the wires in one spot after they have been strung.  I enlisted Far Guys help and off to the woodshop we went, the sun was out so it was warm in there.

We found a green plastic stabby stick…highly technical.  Far Guy drilled a hole in the center and then we safety wired the  bead thingy fine sculpture together and stuck it down the center of the stick.

For now it is in a snow bank.  It is not perfect.

It needs more legs/arms whatever and some could be shorter.  I should have spent more time taking the kinks out of the wire. ( I can always fix that.)  I used 20 gauge Galvanized Steel Wire.  The beads are from garage sales and a few from Ben Franklin. I used 3mm crimping beads, they were a little large but they worked.

This one will stay in the yard and weather in the cold…I will make another.

Here is the snowstick.  We now have five inches of snow.

I am counting on the warm temperatures next week to melt it all in a few days.

sNOw report

We don’t have much snow.  The snowstick shows four inches. A pitiful amount for us.

I took this photo late in the day yesterday February 25, 2015.

It is brutally cold.  The wind chills are between –25 F and –45 F recently.  No fun. We might not have much snow but what we have in cold makes up for it.   Many people have frozen waterlines and sewers.  Thankfully we have been spared…so far.

We have been staying home only going out with Chance and to feed the birds.

The deer have been coming in to eat the corn that we keep spread out for the rabbits and squirrels.

I am crocheting and doing some beadwork….working on another new bead design I thought up in the middle of the night.  Since finishing up winter cleaning the kitchen I haven’t started any other huge cleaning projects. 

Snow and Sparkly Things

There are four inches of snow at the snow stick.  So we must have got a whopping two inches in that last snowfall.

The white snows helps clean up things a bit.

These are my Cousin Todd’s trees.  The sky was blue and the temperatures were cool but we went for a ride anyway.

The Mother and Daughter bracelets arrived at their destination safely.

They sent me a thank you photo!  These are Peyote Even Stitch Bracelets made with Japanese Delica Beads.  I am experimenting with some different patterns.  I like this pattern very much.