WINTER WONDERLAND

[NorthernWinos]

Nice shot of the albino suqirrel...where was that??? I see some states have town claiming to be the capital of Albino Squirrels....Up here we have an occasional black squirrel, which is a mutation of the grey squirrels.


Out wild weasels turn white in the winter and are then called Ermine..they are trapped in the winter and made into expensive fur pieces. Some rabbits also turn white in the winter as well as some other wild animals...mainly for camouflage protection from predators in the winter...we like when the weasels are in our outside buildings...they kill a lot of mice.

 

[rgecaprock]

NW,
That picture was taken last week when I was in Va. Hope she thrives...the other squirrels were picking on her constantly butif "Angelica" hangs around my sister will make sure she is fed.


Ramona

 

[bovinewines]

OMG Ramona!!!! Congratulations! What a great picture....its rumoured they are good luck! Hopefully that means he's going to bring you more wine awards in 2008!!!!!!!

 

[grapeman]

Nice looking squirrel Ramona, it's a beauty.


We got 5 inches of wet snow last night and it is in the 30's, but that is changing rapidly. The wind has started up swaying the big trees around. Going to plummet here. Low tonight below zero, high tomorrow 18. I may need to throw a blanket over the wines in the garage tonight. Then like Masta they are saying possibly a good size snow storm this coming Sunday.

 

[jobe05]

Ramona you were in Va again last week???????

It was a busy week but I would have tryed to make the time if I had known you were there.

Next time lets plan ahead to meet and I'll Come up!

Edited by: jobe05

 

[swillologist]

Here is our winter wonderland. This is what it looked like Monday morning.

This is what it looked like Tuesday afternoon.

We were lucky though. We were only out of power for about 3 hours. As NW would say "Life is good!"

 

[grapeman]

You were lucky to be spare the wrath of the ice. I lived through it in 1998. We had freezing rain for three days accumulating 2 inches of ice, so the limbs were 4 inches thick plus the limbs themselves. After one day the power went out. It was a good thing that it was only about 30 degrees and didn't get colder for a week or so. We were without power for 10 days, some folks a lot more. Quite a few folks died of carbon monoxide poisoning- almost including me. I tried to keep our pipes from freezing by running portable gas heaters a few hours at a time. I stayed home for a few days to watch the heaters and sent the rest of the family to my Mom's place where they got power back after a couple days. I woke up one morning very sluggish and throwing up. I got outside and regained my faculties. I left home and didn't go back to stay. We got water which wasn't available without power by driving a tractor 3 miles to a spring and filled milk jugs and garbage cans.


It sounded like we lived in a war zone. We have large pines all around and they were constantly breaking, not just limbs but whole trees. About 1/2 to 2/3 of the trees up to two feet across snapped in half -halfway up the trunk. All the trees within about 50 miles were snapped like that. After it thawed it literally looked like the area had been nuked or at least bombed. I could go on and on about it- it was like living in Hell. It took a couple weeks for the ice to melt and then it got cold. Almost 10 years later now, the trees that were left mostly recovered but the lumber value is mostly gone.


I feel the pain everyone in the midwest is going through. Good Luck!Edited by: appleman

 

[NorthernWinos]

Gee...that sounds like the news...Those homes that were on the news tonight looked like a tornado had gone through...all the trees are broken and down on homes and cars....People withoutelectricity in the winter is not good....Hope there are no more deaths....and, that everyone can return to their homes soon.


Guess we shouldn't complain about the cold....However...tonight we are having a wind storm as well as snow...It's howling like crazy out there....warm and cozy in here and the power is on...Life is Good!!!!

 

[grapeman]

Gee...that sounds like the news...Those homes that were on the news tonight looked like a tornado had gone through...all the trees are broken and down on homes and cars....People withoutelectricity in the winter is not good....Hope there are no more deaths....and, that everyone can return to their homes soon.


Guess we shouldn't complain about the cold....However...tonight we are having a wind storm as well as snow...It's howling like crazy out there....warm and cozy in here and the power is on...Life is Good!!!!

NW- at the time it happened it was the news. It affected the whole region of the Northeast including Quebec. We were in the middle of the worst of it. I don't want to ever go through it again and wish all the best to those who are now experiencing similar situations. You can still find news postings on the storm- just Google Ice storm 98 and you will get a lot of hits from all over the northeast.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We had a friend driving a semi out there at that time...he got stranded out there for awhile.


Looks like you and Joan and all in the North East are going to get hammered today...Good Luck.


Wind is still howling here and it's snowing...Temperatures are going to drop all day....Guess they call this blizzard conditions....


Going to pitch some yeast, wrap Christmas gifts and get the last of the cards sent off....Life is Good!

 

[rgecaprock]

Beautiful pictures, Swil. I love winter!!!


and Jobe, Next time I go to Va. we will make a date!!!. This trip was kind of quickly planned but definitely next year.


Ramona

 

[corn field]

Here in south central Iowa we got hamered. There is about 1" of ice on every thing. A lot of tree limbs down as well as trees. We were without power for 36 hours. Kept wowm by using a fish fryer off and on as not to buld up too much carbon monoxide. Cooked on it was actualy fun in a weard way, at least the grand kids had a good time. The 13 year old grand son is out now earning Christmas money cutting up limbs and cleaning up yards. So all is well that ends well. Thank goodness nuthing ferminting just bulk ageing. I will be cutting up a deer today for jerky,the kids love it.

 

[Jack on Rainy]

I love this thread! Great picts and fun conversation!
We have winter here too. Beautiful snow fall this morning. Our avian residents are having a little difficulty getting down to the seed on the feeder as the snow keeps covering it up. But we are still getting a few. Looks like shoveling is needed this afternoon.....

Good evening to stay home and fool around with wines in progress. One to rack tonight, two to taste for oak, and maybe a taste of one being bottle aged (bottled a few 375s just for that purpose).
Edited by: Jack on Rainy

 

[NorthernWinos]

Jack...are those Pine Gross Beaks??? Or, another Gross Beak. We have many Pine Gross Beaks this winter and among them is a female Cardinal...unusual to have those up here....Jim kept seeing gone when he was on his deer stand last month and now she is here. Wish I had a camera that could zoom out to the feeder.


I see you have a heated waterer for them...We sure need one of those.

 

[Jack on Rainy]

Jack...are those Pine Gross Beaks??? Or, another
Gross Beak. We have many Pine Gross Beaks this winter and among
them is a female Cardinal...unusual to have those up here....Jim kept
seeing gone when he was on his deer stand last month and now she is
here. Wish I had a camera that could zoom out to the feeder.


I see you have a heated waterer for them...We sure need one of those.

Those are Evening Grosbeaks. Pine are less common here and the
Rosebreasted are rare but seen in the area. We haven't ever sighted any
at our feeder. Cardinals are rare here although they do occur.



The waterer really helps bring them in although we have been
short of small birds this winter. Seems I brushed out the view of
the lake a little too vigorously

. No Siskens, or Red Polls yet and only a couple of Goldfinches this winter.

No Purple finches have been around the last couple of years either.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We had very strong winds since yesterday...the temperature has dropped from 26*F this morning to -5*F now as the sun sets...


We had a nice fluffy layer of snow and the winds really whipped it up all day...

Blew it into drifts...and crated nice patterns in the banks...

The roses are tucked under a nice snow bank...they will winter over this year...

The bird bath is getting shorter...

Later in the afternoon the sun came out...along with the sundogs...

Did venture out into the howling winds...had to cut up a whole frozen salmon on the bandsaw...[will flip a coin to see who grills it later] Also had to find some boxes to box up and wrap some Christmas gifts...


Now, it's time for 'night-things'.


Life is Good!!!

 

[Wade E]

We have just under 10" from this storm and its still coming down pretty good right now.

 

[masta]

Awesome pics NW and life is good!
We have just turned back to snow from sleet so the total snowfall will be lower than north of us. Hoping it stops soon so I can get out and clean up the driveway with snowblower.

 

[grapeman]

Beautiful pictures NW. I love the last few of the sunset!


We only got about 5 inches again today. There is about 14 inches on the ground now. Waiting for Saturday night/Sunday to see what the next storm will bring- they keep mentioning feet of snow coming.......

The temps were opposite for us NW -5 last night and +25 by sunset. Very dry snow.

 

[Angell Wine]

Get ready for some northern lights, big storm coming today and tomorrow.