Cramping my Style

 We've had a sudden elevation in temperature.  In one day it rose over 20 degrees.   No need to dress like this for a sojourn to the animal sheds:

 It is now hovering just above freezing.  In January.  That means that our driveway and local parking lots  have turned into curling rinks.  Time to take measures.  Like putting on crampons to walk around the yard.  Normal boots, no matter how good the soles are won't ensure a vertical stance.  Not on Ice lubricated with melt water.

We got these several years ago and the are the cat's meow for this weather.  They are vibram soles studded with replaceable screw in studs that mount on the soles of our boots with velcro straps.  We got them from Lee Valley a Canadian supplier of high quality woodworking and gardening tools, with a no questions asked return policy.

The increase in temperature means no more wood fires required in the green house.  A day of sun, even partial sun, keeps the green house toasty all through the night.  I am going to have to install automatic ventilation soon.  We've been losing seedling due to a combination of overheating and probably having the air too dry.

Fortunately just before this thaw I managed to get all of the driveway's snow banks pushed back.  It was getting so I didn't have enough room to plow the snow off the road, which was getting narrower and narrower.  Now you can land a 747 on it.  And when all that snow starts to melt it will melt off the road or into the ditches and keep the gravel driveway from washing away.  I still have a mountain of snow to move from around the yard - enough that it has me lusting after a snow bucket for the job.  I have a normal dirt bucket but it doesn't hold near as much snow and will probably take several days to shift the white stuff.

I cleared a path to the pen for the piggies and they took some took some tentative steps out into the weird white stuff.  After about an hour we came back and noticed their snouts all scrubbed pink and clean from rooting in the frozen ground.

All the roofs have shed their snow loads.  In the case of the animal shed a welcome site.  The roof doesn't instil a great deal of confidence in me and I always breathe a sigh of relief when the metal releases the snow.

Jo-Anne went with me to shovel out the path and grounds to Chief Joseph's sweat lodge.  Hope to be having one soon - a relaxing respite in the winter.

My Mac has been having some problems lately.  Key's sticking, that kind of thing.  Not sure what the cause of it is..

This weeks projects include the ventilation for the green house and getting the local library's network switched over to new computers - a job I thought would be fairly easy but soon realized all the computers have different sets of hardware and require keeping the network running while I transition from Windows XP to Window 7 machines.  

Sometimes I just feel like sitting back with my lap dog and watching some mindless T.V.

Hope your tongue isn't hanging out all week!

Comments

Yeoman said…
Great photos!
Art Blomquist said…
That's my Sweeties doing. The consumate photo clicker. Thank God for digital cameras!
There, you're back. I can rest now
Wendy said…
My daughter says she likes your "lap dog." We also giggled at the cat laying on the "mouse"(pad). Silly kitty ;).
Art Blomquist said…
Wendy, everyone should have a lap dog... or at least a lap warming kitty kat.
Art Blomquist said…
Wendy, everyone should have a lap dog... or at least a lap warming kitty kat.

Popular posts from this blog

How Much Wood

We've Sprung a Leak

I'm Back!