LATE WINTER 2018/2019

They do love their Packers up here. Even the Hodag is a Packer backer.

Shortly before Christmas, Barb went caroling with a church group. After they finished caroling, the group stopped for a drink at a local watering hole and Barb called me to join them. She’d told the group that I’m a Bears fan and had been watching the Bears play the Packers. After years of futility, the Bears had finally won that day. As soon as I walked in, this +80 year old woman who had spent the day spreading Christmas cheer, looks at me with a scowl and before I could even introduce myself says “the Bears still stink” (actually what she said was somewhat saltier). Then she gave me a big smile.

One night in January we got an ice storm that was unbelievable. The rain was coming down sideways and it would hit the windows and immediately freeze. It created very cool patterns but it wasn’t a lot of fun driving the next day.

We watched the beginning of the Super Blood Wolf Moon total lunar eclipse. A super moon means the moon appears larger in the sky due to it being at its closest approach to Earth. Native Americans and colonial Europeans called January’s full moon the wolf moon because wolves in the region would howl because they were hungry during the winter. Although the moon is in Earth’s shadow some sunlight still reaches it. Before it gets to the moon, the sunlight passes through Earth’s atmosphere which filters out most of the blue light. This makes the moon appear red to people on earth. So, when you combine all those together, that’s where the Super Blood Wolf Moon comes. from.

This time of year the deer get sort of frosted.

We’ve had an all time record amount of snow this year and we still have a couple weeks before winter normally ends. Just the last 3 weeks in February we got over 50 inches. It got so deep that we even gave up on snowshoeing. You could almost hear this doe thinking “Hmm how do i get around this giant pile of snow?”

Woodpeckers are thick during the winter.

You can tell when a storm’s coming because all the animals start feeding. They must be able to sense a change in barometric pressure.

Snowmy Kromer returned in February. I particularly like the traffic cone for his nose.

This was taken from the south shore of Trout Lake which is one of our favorite spots to watch sunsets.

Gilmore’s pen is made of 6” wide split rail fencing that is about 4’ tall. Look at how much snow is wrapped around the fencing. We have to keep shoveling a path for him to be able to do his business.

Many people get depressed during the winter and I do have to say that when we get long stretches of gray skies it does get to me. It’s not the snow or the cold that’s depressing, it’s the gray skies. But then the clouds break and the sun comes out and everyone lets out a sigh of relief.

The scenery with the snow against the bright blue skies is like living in a Currier and Ives scene.

When the cold sets in there is a battle for the pet beds closest to the wood stove which results in some odd bedfellows,

We call this synchronized sleeping.

Pileated wood peckers are a sure sign of spring and this handsome guy showed up on our feeders last week.

Last weekend we saw trumpeter swans on Little Horsehead Lake. Their migration north is a sure sign that spring is coming sooner rather then later. Recently, our highs during the day have been in the upper 30’s and 40’s. Today it’s supposed to get up to 53. I’d say half of our snow pack is now gone. The next 10 days all the daily highs are supposed to be in the 40’s so the remaining snow should be gone pretty quickly.

Come on spring!