Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Think Spring!
Greetings everyone on this first day of March and of course that means SPRING! Well, I can think about it can’t I? It doesn’t look much like spring. It doesn’t feel much like spring. Although the temp did get up to 11 degrees F. today. And that did feel quite mild. I was able to stand outside for quite a while taking pictures of my birds and my fingers didn’t actually freeze for a change. That part was nice.
It really was nice. And the sun was shining most of the time. It almost felt like spring. Almost. Sigh.
Spring arrives…
This month anyway. Sort of. At least spring arrives on the calendar. Not necessarily in reality. The last 2 years there was snow on the ground until the end of April. Sigh. But the worst is behind us. Normally. Although we can get a lot of snow in March. It’s usually the snowiest month of the winter. I hope not this year. Even with all the snow we have had there is only about 24 to 30 inches on the ground right now. That’s not so bad. Good thing about snow, it settles under it’s own weight.
Right now I like to settle under the blankets and hope it’s all a bad dream. But I keep waking up to reality. Sigh.
But…
I thought I would share some spring pics of birds today. The featured image at the top is a white-throated sparrow. I just love their spring song. This is one of my favorite birds.
Speaking of birds…
One time I was participating in an owl survey. Yes, I know. I’m a bit crazy. Okay, I’m quite crazy. Fine. I’m just crazy. But it was fun. In order to do a proper owl survey, however, means going out after dark. Not too many owls like to be out during the day. There are some, but not many. I got to be quite good at imitating their different calls, and they would come in very close to me at times. Made things a lot easier. This wasn’t something to be done in town however. Makes people uneasy. Me included. So it’s off to some country roads where not many people are located.
Problems…
Like to follow me. One night I was down this one little used stretch of highway and there was a nice spot to pull off the road, so I did. Turned off the car. And the lights. And amazingly another car comes up behind me. Great. I mean, it’s 1 am. Who would be out this late? The car lights stay on. A spotlight comes on. Oh, police. That did make me feel a little better. I turned my interior lights on so they could see me okay. One officer approached me. Another came around the other side, about 20 feet away. With his gun drawn. What’s this? The first officer shines his rather bright flashlight in my face. Then asks me what I’m doing. I told him. I don’t think he quite believed me. I showed him my ID for the survey, plus my personal ID. He called his partner over. Then they suggested I not stay there. Apparently they were looking for someone that was considered armed and dangerous. That’s nice. I left before they did and headed back home. Enough for one night. Besides, I had been out for 2 hours already anyway.
Short today…
Due to technical problems. That means me this time. Having one of those rough kind of days again. It happens. Rough, as in way too much pain.
Please check out my other pages if you want, new things being added all the time. Muffin seems to be taking a break again. But she will have something new soon.
So for now, good bye until Monday, I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
© 2019 Steve McLeod
Winter Just Keeps Going. I Don’t.
Hello everyone on this winter Wednesday! Just one more day to go. And then it’s March. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything however. Winter is still here. And the cold weather is going to stick around for a while yet it seems. Sigh. But, it will be one more month gone. This winter has been a long one. And it has worn me out. The pile of snow from my pathway has grown to be 7 feet deep. I can’t even get the snow up that high anymore. So I spent some time cutting it down a bit and pushing more of it over the hill out back. So now, when more snow comes I can…I can…stay in bed and pull the blankets over my head and dream of summer. Again. Sigh.
However…
Today was a bit milder. Actually got up to 5F. Okay, that’s not exactly mild.
But it is better than the -25F of yesterday. And it will be that cold again in a couple of days. So I decided to get back outside and spend some time with my birds. I was out there for about 20 minutes. Nearly froze. Took half an hour for my fingers to return to normal. And did they pain. Again. Seems like I am doing that a lot this winter. But I did get some nice pics. Why do I keep taking pics of the same birds?
Because I’m crazy. Really, no two pics are ever the same. And I want to get pics from every angle so the whole bird can be seen. Can’t do that with one photo.
Muffin…
Was a bit wacky this afternoon. She wanted to play. I was a bit tired for playing. So we played. For quite a while. She was flying around here. And right up on shelves where she never goes. Fast. Without knocking anything down. A couple things did move around a bit. But nothing fell. Muffin has never yet broken anything with her wild antics. But she sure enjoys herself. I didn’t have to move quite so fast. Which was good. Because I couldn’t anyway. I did manage to whack my knee against the table. And kick a bookcase. Slap my hand against the counter. And go head first into another shelf unit. All in all it wasn’t such a bad time. Usually I hurt myself much worse. Oh right, hit my elbow too. That still hurts. So does my hand. Muffin finally landed in front of the window and watched the birds for a while before heading to her chair and a nap. It was my chair. Hers now. I won’t argue. I’m low on bandages.
I’m no cook…
So I have usually existed on fast type foods. You know, something that comes in a can or a box. Quick and easy. I never could, and still can’t, understand the concept of spending an hour or more cooking a meal that can be eaten in less than 10 minutes and then spend half an hour washing dishes. Sigh. Things change. Now I have Celiac. Now all those nice quick and easy things I can’t eat. And food costs 7 times as much as before. No exaggeration there by the way. I mean, 2 lbs of flour for $7. A loaf of bread for $9.69. I never thought I would ever pay that much for just a plain loaf of bread. Anyway. I still can’t cook. But now I need to. Which is crazy. I mean, a small roast costs $24. I cook it. Okay, now, I have sharp knives. I like sharp knives. Much easier to work with. I had a very hard time cutting that roast. Even harder time trying to chew it. Finally gave up that idea and just swallowed it. I said, forget it. I put it out for the ravens. They eat anything. Raven landed on it. They have big mean beaks. He stood on that roast and pounded away at it. And pounded. He finally got a piece off and flew away. He didn’t come back. Even the ravens wouldn’t eat it. That’s bad.
I’m tired…
Or did you guess that already? Haven’t been sleeping well for about a week and a half.
Makes it hard to think. I think. Since it’s normally hard for me to think it’s hard to tell if it’s hard to think or if I just think it’s hard to think when it’s really just normally hard to think and not really hard to think. I think. Sigh.
So much for mid week. I hope you will all be back Friday for…wait, can’t tell you just yet. Anyway, bye for now and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
© 2019 Steve McLeod
Steve`s Country 