Taking Advantage of Warmer Weather

January 8th - Tuesday -  Beautiful Sunny Day - Started off at 10 degrees and reached 42 degrees.

Today was the day that Lou meets with his retired buddies from Schweitzers and I thought it was a good time to start a fire in the garage and do a good cleaning.  Lou's workbench has accumulated several projects to be completed, bits and pieces of this and that, so a lot of time was spent in sorting before the cleaning could start.

Once Lou's workbench was cleaned off it was time to move on to the craft area, where we had sorta dumped all of the outside Christmas decorations.  I got them all picked up and packed away for another year.  Now the windows have all been washed inside and out.  The carpet has been swept, the other side of the garage has been swept and mopped, curtains washed, ironed and all looks clean and smells fresh
.

I split wood late this afternoon and filled the wood box back up ready for the next day we need a fire.  I have to admit, it really felt good to split wood and carry in wood.  That used to be a task that I did each and every evening.  Something that I enjoyed doing.  A task that I could do outside in the cool evening where there were no telephones just the sweet outside and the sound of the owls and once in a while the sounds of the fox.  Great memories.  Tonight I put a clean car into a clean garage.  Great feeling.

More Winter

Doves eating from feeder with Chickadees

Matthew enjoying the snow

Is there anything prettier than snow?

January 7th Monday

Just have to share some of the pictures of the snow with my family in the south.  I just can't seem to get enough of it.   Some of my family here think I am a little "crazy", but I do enjoy the snow, especially if the wind isn't blowing.  When Matthew and I were out in the snow, we could hear an owl hooting over in the woods and it reminds me of the many times I would go to the garage to put wood on the fire and I would hear the owls and the fox in the woods, they were good memories.  On moon light nights, I would be able to see the fox in the field at night.

My plans for today are to build a fire and get the garage nice and warm to get my outside Christmas decorations put away, with the exceptions of the snowman, soon will be time to decorate for Valentine's Day.  If we don't go to Florida I am going to enjoy the holidays here with outside decorating like I used to do.  I have several projects that I would like to accomplish.

New Electric Pole

On January 2nd the guys from Wellsboro Electric Company stopped by to tell us they were going to shovel off part of our front yard because the next day they were going to replace our electric pole.  We thought perhaps that was going to happen sometime in the near future, as the gas company had been along several weeks ago and put up yellow flag indicating where the gas lines were.

On the 3rd of January the Electric Company arrived a little after 8:00 am and laid down sheets of plywood on the yard,where they had shoveled the snow from, and drove their trucks down into the yard and left the new post and began the work on disconnecting the wires from the old pole, digging the six foot deep hole for the new pole, implanting the new pole and connecting the wires to the new pole.  This all took four hours to complete.  We were amazed at the precision this task was completed in. They kept us very well informed, in fact it did not take them as long as they anticipated. A portion of the old pole is still there, as the local television cable company has to remove their cable as does the telephone company, then the rest of the pole can be removed.

Enjoying Winter in Pennsylvania

January 5th - Saturday - A beautiful day in Northern Pennsylvania.

As you can see we have snow, in fact we have received a total of 20 inches.  I have to admit that I have enjoyed shoveling the snow.  Lou caught cold right after Christmas and was in bed when the snow arrived, so Steve and little Matthew came down and helped me shovel.  Steve used the snow blower and Matthew had a ball running around in the paths that we shoveled out for him.

The snow has brought the birds out in full force and it brought the Red Polls out of the woods in little flocks and we have really enjoyed them.  Just a few came at first, and now we have a large flock of them.  The good thing about them is, they will eat off the ground like the doves, so nothing goes to waste.  We also have our regular birds that come every year.  By not going to Florida we are really enjoying them this year.

Junco

Red Breasted Nuthatch

Tufted Titmouse

Mourning  Doves

Black Capped  Chickadees

Red Poll